Jonathan Fulton is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Zayed University, in Abu Dhabi, UAE. His teaching and research interests focus on China’s relations with the Arab Gulf monarchies, international relations of the Persian Gulf, and international relations of East Asia. He received his PhD in International Relations from the University of Leicester, UK, where his dissertation focused on China’s relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council member states. He has written widely on China-Middle East relations for both academic and popular publications. He is the author of the China’s Relations with the Gulf Monarchies and co-editor of External Power and the Gulf Monarchies.

Professor Anoush Ehteshami is Professor of International Relations in the School of Government and International Affairs and Director of the Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at Durham University. He is also the Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah Chair in International Relations and Director of the HH Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah Programme in International Relations, Regional Politics and Security. He acts as Co-director of the AHRC-funded Open Worlds Initiative entitled Cross-Language Dynamics: Reshaping Community. Previously, he was Vice-President and Chair of Council of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies and served as a Fellow of the World Economic Forum. He has authored and contributed to multiple books and journals on the Middle East, including a 2019 book entitled How China’s Rise is Changing the Middle East.

Dr Dawn Murphy, Assistant Professor of International Security Studies at the US Air War College, specialises in Chinese foreign policy and domestic politics, US-China relations, and international relations. Her current research analyses China’s interests and behaviour as a rising global power towards the existing international order. Specifically, Dr Murphy examines China’s relations with the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa and is currently completing a book titled “Great Power Competitor in the Global South? China in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa.” The book analyses China’s foreign policy approach towards the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa regionally (e.g., political, economic, military, and foreign aid) and through detailed case studies of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF), the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), the China-Middle East Issues Special Envoy, the China-Africa Issues Special Envoy, China’s Special Envoy for Syria, China’s naval base in Djibouti, and China’s Belt and Road initiative. The project is based on extensive field work conducted as a Visiting Scholar with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, China; a Visiting Research Fellow with the American University in Cairo, Egypt; a Visiting Researcher at Stellenbosch University’s Centre for Chinese Studies in South Africa; as well as research trips to Beijing, Washington, D.C., Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.
Dr Murphy holds a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University, Master of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and PhD in Political Science from George Washington University. Dr Murphy’s previous academic appointments include Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program at Princeton University and Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Washington University.