Energy Trade as a Contributor to Peace in the Middle East

Omar Al-Ubaydli is the Director of Research at Derasat, Bahrain, an affiliated Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University, and an affiliated Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center. His research interests include political economy, experimental economics, and the economics of the GCC countries. He has served as a member of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Joint Advisory Board of Economists and a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago.

Al-Ubaydli regularly publishes his research in international peer-reviewed academic journals. His mainstream media articles appear in Arabic and English-language newspapers and blogs such as Al-Hayat, The National, Forbes Opinion, and US News. Al-Ubaydli earned his BA in Economics from the University of Cambridge and his MA and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago.

Asna Wajid is a research trainee at Derasat. She holds a BA in Politics and International Studies from the University of Warwick and an MSc in Global Governance and Ethics from University College London. Her master’s thesis focused on climate change vulnerability affecting countries in the Global South and the role that non-governmental organizations play in facilitating climate change adaptation programmes.

Her interests lie in the field of international development, particularly regarding environmental justice and global sustainability and diplomacy.

She strongly believes global challenges require cooperation across disciplines to reach 58 well-informed solutions and appreciates how the role of research is an integral step in assisting such solutions. She is currently working with Derasat to publish two research papers focused on the role of civil society in Bahrain in the environmental domain, and on the effectiveness of green building rating systems in improving energy efficiency in buildings across the island.