About The Brookings Doha Center
Based in Qatar, the Brookings Doha Center is an initiative of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and undertakes independent, policy-oriented research on socioeconomic and geopolitical issues facing Muslim-majority states and communities, including relations with the United States.
Research and programming is guided by the Brookings Doha Center International Advisory Council chaired by H.E. Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al Thani and co-chaired by Brookings President Strobe Talbott. Members include: Madeleine Albright, Samuel Berger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Edward Djerejian, Wajahat Habibullah, Musa Hitam, Pervez Hoodhboy, Rima Khalaf Hunaidi, Nemir Kirdar, Rami Khouri, Atta-ur-Rahman, Ismail Serageldin and Fareed Zakaria. Salman Shaikh serves as the director of the Brookings Doha Center.
The center was formally inaugurated by H.E. Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani, prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of the State of Qatar, on February 17, 2008. Others present included Carlos Pascual, former vice president and director of the Brookings Foreign Policy Program, Martin Indyk, founding director of the Saban Center at Brookings and current vice president and director of the Brookings Foreign Policy program, and Hady Amr, founding director of the Brookings Doha Center.
In pursuing its mission, the Brookings Doha Center undertakes research and programming that engages key elements of business, government, civil society, the media and academia on key public policy issues in the following three core areas: (i) Democratization, political reform and public policy; (ii) Emerging powers in the Middle East; (iii) Conflict and peace processes in the region.
Open to a broad range of views, the Brookings Doha Center is a hub for Brookings scholarship in the region. The center's research and programming agenda includes mutually reinforcing endeavors, including: convening ongoing public policy discussions with diverse political, business and thought leaders from the region and the United States; hosting visiting fellows drawn from significant ranks of the academic and policy communities to write analysis papers; and engaging the media to broadly share Brookings analysis with the public. The Brookings Doha Center also contributes to the conceptualization and organization of the annual U.S.-Islamic World Forum, which brings together key leaders in the fields of politics, business, media, academia and civil society, for much needed dialogue. In undertaking this work, the Brookings Doha Center upholds The Brookings Institution’s core values of quality, independence and impact.
Brookings Doha Center Staff
Hind Abdallah, Administrative Assistant
Courtney Freer, Research Assistant
Nadine Masri, Budget & Administration Manager
Samuel Plumbly, Research Assistant
Kais Sharif, Programs Manager
Jessica Sobrino, Communications Coordinator
Brookings Doha Center Experts
Salman Shaikh is director of the Brookings Doha Center and a fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy. Shaikh has held numerous posts of significance, both in the international system and the Middle East. In particular, he worked with the United Nations for nearly a decade, primarily on Middle East policy, as the special assistant of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and political adviser to the UN Secretary General’s Personal Representative for Lebanon during the 2006 war. He also served as the director for Policy and Research in the Office of Her Highness, Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, the Consort of the Emir of Qatar, where he lead a team of research analysts dedicated to advising on policy options and the initiatives of Her Highness.
Ibrahim Sharqieh is a fellow in Foreign Policy at Brookings and deputy director of the Brookings Doha Center. Sharqieh previously served as senior project director at the Academy for Educational Development (AED), where he managed international development projects in several Arab countries, including Yemen and Qatar. He also served as an academic advisor to the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Washington, D.C. and taught International Conflict Resolution at The George Washington, George Mason, and Catholic universities. Sharqieh received his Ph.D. from George Mason University in Conflict Analysis and Resolution in 2006.
Shadi Hamid is director of research for the Brookings Doha Center and a fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings. His research focuses on democratization and the role of Islamist movements in the Arab world. Prior to joining Brookings, Hamid was director of research at the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) and a Hewlett fellow at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development & the Rule of Law. He has conducted extensive research on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Jordan, most recently as a resident fellow at the American Center for Oriental Research in Amman. He has also served as a program specialist on public diplomacy at the U.S. State Department and a Legislative Fellow at the Office of Senator Dianne Feinstein. Hamid received his B.S. and M.A. from Georgetown University and his Ph.D. in political science from Oxford University.