Lecturer Biographical Notes

Training Session Understating the European Union
January 10-14, 2009
Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Dr. Abdullah Baabood is director of the Gulf Research Center (GRC) – Cambridge, UK. He holds Master’s Degrees in Business Administration (MBA) and in International Relations. He has also gained a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Cambridge (UK). Dr. Baabood has a general interest in the international political economy, particularly in the subject area of regionalism and globalization. In particular, he has a regional interest in the Gulf States’ economic, political, security and social development. He has participated in numerous international conferences, workshops and seminars and also has several publications to his credit. His academic and research interest focuses on the GCC states' external relations and especially on the inter- regional cooperation between the GCC states and the European Union (EU). He is a member of a number of academic and research institutions as well as business organizations, professional bodies and committees.

Sandra Dias Fernandes is lecturer in the field of international relations at the University of Minho (Portugal) since 2001. She graduated in International Relations (1999) and completed a Master degree in European Studies (2004) at the University of Minho. She was awarded with the Jacques Delors Prize 2005 for her research on the relations between the European Union and Russia, namely their political and security dimensions. Since October 2005, she carries on her research at the PhD level on “Multilateralism in the relations between the European Union and Russia: the quest for regional and global affirmation”, under the supervision of Bertrand Badie at Sciences po (Paris). Sandra Fernandes also attended the course in National Defense of the Intitute for National Defense (Portugal), in 2003-2004. In 2007, she was invited by the Free University of Brussels (ULB) to teach Master classes on European security and the EU-Russia relation. She was also invited by the Moscow State Institute (University) of International Relations (MGIMO) on the same subject. Last year, Sandra Fernandes furthermore collaborated with the Portuguese Embassy to the Russian Federation in the context of the Portuguese Presidency of the EU. Sandra Fernandes is at present visiting research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels.

Khalid Hroub is director of the Cambridge Arab Media Project in association with the Centre of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge, where he previously served as visiting scholar. He has also worked for the Middle East Programme of the International Institute of International Studies in London. Mr. Hroub is host of the weekly book review program, Books and Authors, on Aljazeera; editor of the forthcoming book, New Media and Politics in the Arab World; author of Hamas: Political Thought and Practice; and weekly contributor to the Arab daily newspapers Al-Hayat, Al-Sharq, Al-Ittihad, Al-Kahera, and Al-Ghad. He has also written for the International Herald Tribune and his academic writings have appeared in Middle East Journal, Middle East International, Journal for Palestine Studies, Shu’un Arabyya, Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies, Outre Terre, and Internationale Politik. Mr. Khroub is a member of Queens’ College.

Piotr Maciej Kaczyński is a Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels where he specializes in European political integration, EU treaty reform, consequences of the EU enlargement, EU foreign policy, relations with US and Russia, European Neighbourhood Policy; the Barcelona Process, as well as EU-Latin American relations. He is fluent is Polish, English, French. Piotr Kaczyński received his M.A. in International Relations from Warsaw University in 2002 and a M.A. in European Studies from the College of Europe in 2004.

Dr. Christian Koch’s work combines the both the foreign and domestic relations issues of the GCC states. His particular interest and specialty is GCC-EU Relations and the overall development of the Gulf’s ties with the European Union and its member states. He was formerly the Head of the Strategic Studies Section at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR), a position he held for six years. Dr. Koch has authored and edited well over 30 published articles and books in both English and German. Many of his articles have been syndicated in local and international newspapers including the Financial Times. His books include: EU- GCC Relations and Security Issues (2008); A Window of Opportunity: Europe, Gulf Security and the Aftermath of the Iraq War, editor with Felix Neugart (2006); Unfulfilled Potential: Exploring the GCC-EU Relationship, editor (2005); and Gulf Security in the Twenty-First Century, editor with David Long (London: I.B. Tauris, 1998). He received his doctorate in political science in 1999 from the Friedrich-Alexander- Universität in Erlangen-Nürnberg with a dissertation on the role of voluntary association in the political development of Kuwait, an M.A. in International Affairs from the American University, Washington and a B.A. in International Studies from the University of South Carolina.

Dr. Sebastian Kurpas has been a Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels since 2003 and Head of the ‘Politics and Institutions’-Section since 2008. His research focus lies on EU institutional reform, the European decision-making process and the EU’s communication and information policy. In 2002/03 he worked in the press service of the European Commission. He has studied law and political science in Freiburg, Germany, and Grenoble, France. Dr. Kurpas holds a law degree from the University of Freiburg, a Master of European Public Administration from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium and a PhD in political science from the University of Tübingen, Germany.