Edwin Samuel is the UK Government’s Arabic Media Spokesperson to the Middle East and North Africa, based at the UK Government Arabic Media Hub in Dubai. He specialises in “soft power” projection, communications and political- security risk. As a regional spokesperson, Edwin travels around the region regularly to be near to major regional broadcasters to project UK messaging and values.

As a spokesperson, Edwin is responsible for representing British Government views, engaging in a full and open exchange of views in Arabic on the current range of
issues confronting the region and the international community, using the full range of broadcasters, press and social media outlets in the region.

Edwin joined the British Diplomatic Service in 2001 after having graduated with a law degree from Balliol College, Oxford, qualified as a Barrister and working at the
European Commission in Brussels and HSBC Group. During his time in the Diplomatic Service, Edwin has served in Berlin, Damascus, Brasilia, Riyadh, and Dubai.

Edwin’s intimate relationship with the Arab world and the Middle East began when he started to learn Arabic at the University of Jordan in 1997 and thereafter he has been
a committed visitor to and resident in the Middle East. His defining experience was in Riyadh as the first secretary where be became a strong proponent of “modernisation without westernisation” as a model for social and regional evolution.