Salman Shaikh Named Fellow and Director of the Brookings Doha Center

Ibrahim Sharqieh to Serve as Deputy Director, Shadi Hamid as Director of Research

Salman Shaikh, an expert on mediation and conflict resolution issues facing the Middle East and South Asia, has joined the Brookings Institution as a fellow and director of the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar, Brookings President Strobe Talbott announced today.

“We are fortunate to have Salman Shaikh assuming the leadership of the Brookings Doha Center at this critical time for the Gulf region and the broader Middle East,” said Talbott. “Salman has focused on the region’s most challenging issues during his career with the United Nations and other international agencies. He brings a wealth of experience to Brookings.”

Over the past nine years, Shaikh has worked for the United Nations, primarily on Middle East policy, serving as the special assistant to the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and as political adviser to the U.N. 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.

Shaikh earned a B.A. from Loughborough University and a master’s from Kent at Canterbury University. He replaces Hady Amr as director of the center, part of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings. 

Ibrahim Sharqieh has joined the Brookings Doha Center as a fellow and deputy director. He most recently served as senior project director at the Academy for Educational Development (AED), managing a long-term USAID development project in Yemen, as well as a U.S. Department of State Middle East civic education project. Sharqieh has also taught international conflict resolution at George Washington University, George Mason University, and the Catholic University of America. He received his Ph.D. in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University and his B.A. and M.A. from Birzeit University in Palestine. 

Shadi Hamid will continue his role as director of research at the Brookings Doha Center. An expert on Islamic movements and democratization in the Middle East, Hamid will continue his research on democratic reform and promotion, as well as overseeing the center’s visiting fellowship program, enabling the center to dramatically expand its research portfolio. Prior to joining Brookings, he was director of research at the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) and a Hewlett fellow at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. He received his Ph.D. from Oxford University and his B.S. and M.A. from Georgetown University.

“I am confident that the new ‘triumvirate’ at the Brookings Doha Center will build on the excellent work of the center’s team over the last four years in establishing it as a hub for scholarship and research on the pressing policy issues relevant to the Muslim world and the U.S,” said Kenneth Pollack, senior fellow and director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy.

The center will continue to host leading scholars who will conduct independent research on the socio-economic and geopolitical issues facing the Muslim world; host forums, workshops and seminars to engage in the public policy debate on these issues; and help organize the annual U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha.