EmPr Amin Saikal

Amin Saikal AM, FASSA is Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Islamic Studies, ANU.

Professor Saikal is a specialist in the politics, history, political economy and international relations of the Middle East and Central Asia, and the role of Islam in these regions.

He is also currently Adjunct Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia, and Adjunct Senior Fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.

He has been a Visiting Fellow and Visiting Professor at a number of institutions, including Princeton University, Cambridge University, the Institute of Development Studies (University of Sussex), Indiana University, and RSIS, as well as a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in International Relations (1983-1988).

In April 2006, he was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to the international community and to education, and as an author and adviser. He is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.

He is author of numerous works on the Middle East, Central Asia, political Islam, and Russia. His books include How to Lose a War: The Story of America's Intervention in Afghanistan, London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2024; Iran Rising: The Survival and Future of the Islamic Republic, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021; The Spectre of Afghanistan: Security of Central Asia, London: I.B. Tauris, 2021 (co-author); Islam beyond Borders: The Ummah in World Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019 (co-author); Iran at the Crossroads, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2016; Zone of Crisis: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq, London: I.B. Tauris, 2014; Democracy and Reform in the Middle East and Asia: Social Protest and Authoritarian Rule after the Arab Spring, London: I.B. Tauris, 2014 (co-editor); Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival, London: I.B. Tauris, 2012; The Rise and Fall of the Shah: Iran from Autocracy to Religious Rule, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009; Islam and the West: Conflict or Co-operation? London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003; Democratization in the Middle East: Experiences, Struggle, Challenges, New York: United Nations University Press, 2003; Russia: In Search of its Future, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995; The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989 (co-editor).

Professor Saikal has also published many articles in refereed international journals, as well as numerous feature articles in major international dailies, including the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and The Australian, as well as The Strategist. He is also a frequent commentator on national and international radio and television networks, including the BBC, the ABC, SBS, and TRT World.

politics, history, political economy and international relations of the Middle East and Central Asia, and the role of Islam in these two regions.