Speaker

Joseph A. Kéchichian is a Senior Fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; CEO of Kéchichian & Associates, LLC, a consulting partnership that provides analysis on the Arabian/Persian Gulf region; and a Senior Writer for Gulf News, the top-ranked English-language news daily in the United Arab Emirates. Previously, Dr. Kéchichian was the Honorary Consul of the Sultanate of Oman in Los Angeles, California (2006-2011), a Fellow at the Middle East Institute (2009-2010, 2012-2013), Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (1998-2001), Associate Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation (1990-1996), Hoover Fellow at Stanford University (1989), and a Professor at the University of Virginia (1986-1989).

A prolific author, Dr. Kéchichian’s latest books include Legal and Political Reforms in Sa‘udi Arabia (Routledge, 2012) and a biography of the late Queen `Iffat Al Thunayan of Sa‘udi Arabia (2014). His other books include Faysal: Saudi Arabia’s King for All Seasons (2012), Power and Succession in Arab Monarchies (2008), The Just Prince: A Manual of Leadership (co-authored with R. Hrair Dekmejian, 2003), Iran, Iraq, and the Arab Gulf States (2001), A Century in Thirty Years: Shaykh Zayed and the United Arab Emirates (editor, 2000), and Oman and the World: The Emergence of an Independent Foreign Policy (1995). Dr. Kéchichian received his doctorate from the University of Virginia and is fluent in Arabic, Armenian, English, French, Italian, Turkish, and is slowly but surely learning Persian.