Welcome!
I am a Ph.D. candidate at George Washington University. My scholarship examines authoritarian politics, civil-military relations, terrorism and counterterrorism, and the implications of security policy on governance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). I conduct policy-relevant research on counter-terrorism policymaking and enforcement, as well as on the dynamics of civil-military and state-society relations.
My dissertation focuses on the influence and autonomy of coercive institutions in MENA with a special emphasis on the establishment and development of the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate (GID). By exploring the sources of the GID's institutional autonomy, I highlight the political implications of their role as vital stakeholders and provide policy recommendations contextualized to Jordanian politics.
My research has been supported by the Foreign Language and Area Studies Scholarship (Jordan), the David L. Boren Fellowship (Jordan), the American Political Science Association Minority Fellows Program, and the George Washington Institute of Middle East Studies. My work has been published in Jadaliyya, Political Violence at a Glance, Responsible Statecraft, Duck of Minerva, and Arab Law Quarterly. I am also co-founder of the global online initiative, Jam3a: a Virtual MENA Workspace for Graduate Students, Early Career Scholars, and Young Foreign Policy Professionals.