Adel Abdel Ghafar is a nonresident fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings, and was a fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, where he was previously acting director of research. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar. He specializes in political economy and his research interests include state-society relations, socio-economic development and foreign policy in the MENA region. Abdel Ghafar has a background in international banking and finance and has worked for a number of financial institutions including HSBC and Citigroup. Abdel Ghafar holds a doctorate in political science and international relations from the Australian National University.

Sophie Zinser is Schwarzman Academy Fellow, Asia-Pacific Programme and Middle East North Africa Programme at Chatham House, Royal Institute of International Affairs. She provides analysis on China’s role in the Middle East and South and Central Asia, with a particular focus on the US’s role in the burgeoning China-Middle East relationship. She also works on forced labour and migration issues in the Middle East and Asia.

A former Fulbright Scholar in Amman, Jordan and Schwarzman Scholar with a Masters in Global Affairs from Tsinghua University, Sophie has worked for five years on policy across the Middle East and Asia with both United Nations and grassroots organizations.