Haizam Amirah-Fernández is Senior Analyst for the Mediterranean and the Arab World at Elcano Royal Institute in Madrid and Professor of International Relations at IE University’s School of Global and Public Affairs.

He specializes in international relations and political economy of the Middle East and North Africa, political Islam, and transitions to democracy in the Arab world, where he has lived for over sixteen years.

Professor Amirah-Fernández has been the lead researcher of the NATO-funded project “Responding to Emerging Security Challenges in NATO’s Southern Neighbourhood”. He has published extensively on Middle Eastern and North African affairs, and he is co-editor of books on North Africa and Euro-Mediterranean relations. He has lectured in universities in Europe, MENA countries and the U.S.

He holds an MA in Arab Studies on a Fulbright scholarship from Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies in Washington DC. He completed his studies at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Université Libre de Bruxelles, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

He has worked for the United Nations in New York and for Human Rights Watch in Washington DC. Professor Amirah-Fernández is a frequent commentator in the Spanish and international media. He speaks Spanish, Arabic, English, and French.