PhD Student organises meeting of Gulf security experts
ABDULAZIZ SAGER, a Saudi PhD student in International Relations ("Dynamics and perceptions on Gulf Security since 1971" - supervised by Prof. Gerd Nonneman), this January gathered a stellar group of experts and officials at a high-profile meeting hosted by the Gulf Research Center (Dubai), on "Consequences of US Policy for the Gulf Region" (January 11-12, 2007, Park Hyatt Hotel, Dubai). Participants included Gen. Anthony Zinni (former US CENTCOM commander and frequent presidential envoy), Ambassador Hossein Mousavian (a key former nuclear negotiator for Iran, and now with the Expediency Council), former Iraqi Defence Minister Saadoun Al-Dulaimi, and select Gulf academics in the field of politics & IR, along with European and Asian Middle East experts and a sprinkling of officials from the GCC states and Iran. Alongside his PhD research, Abdulaziz has swiftly built up a major international reputation for the Center, of which he is the Founding Chairman, and which is now collaborating with many of the best-known think tanks in Europe, the US and the Middle East, as well as Asia, and with NATO, the European Commission, and Arab organisations. Among his and the center's next events: a GCC-NATO meeting in Riyadh, a round-table with US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns in Dubai, and a workshop on Gulf-Pakistan relations in Islamabad.