Simon Mabon

Professor Simon Mabon is Chair in International Politics at Lancaster University where he directs the Richardson Institute. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Leeds and is the director of SEPAD, funded by Carnegie Corporation and The Henry Luce Foundation, which looks at the position and contestation of sectarian identities within the contemporary Middle East (www.sepad.org.uk).

Mabon is the author of a number of books on the contemporary Middle East including: Houses built on sand: Sectarianism, revolution and violence in the Middle East (Manchester University Press, 2020); Saudi Arabia and Iran: Soft Power Rivalry in the Middle East (IB Tauris, 2013); and The Struggle for Supremacy: Saudi Arabia and Iran (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). He has published in a range of Middle East and International Relations journals including: Review of International Studies; Middle East Journal; Middle East Policy; British Journal of Middle East Studies; Politics, Religion and Ideology; and Third World Quarterly. He is the co-editor of a major Middle Eastern book series with Manchester University Press.

In 2016-7 Mabon served as academic advisor to the House of Lords International Relations committee report into the UK’s relations with the Middle East. He regularly consults with governmental agencies and for international news outlets including the BBC, CNN, CNBC, Sky, Al Jazeera, Al Arabiyya, France 24, Deutsche Welle, and others. He tweets @profmabon.