Dania Thafer EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF GULF INTERNATIONAL FORUM

Dr. Dania Thafer is the Executive Director of the Gulf International Forum. Her area of expertise is on US-Gulf relations, security and the political economy of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. She is also a Professorial Lecturer at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University.
Thafer has been widely published and interviewed on matters concerning the Arab Gulf states. She has co-authored two edited books, The Arms Trade, Military Services and the Security Market in the Gulf States: Trends and Implications, and The Dilemma of Security and Defense in the Gulf Region. Dr. Thafer is currently writing a book focused on the effect of state-business relations on economic reform in the GCC states. Previously, she worked at the National Defense University’s Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies.
Dr. Thafer has a master’s degree in Political Economy from New York University and has a PhD in Political Science from American University in Washington, DC.