Prof Adham Saouli

Prof Adham Saouli

Professor

Researcher profile

Email
as575@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

Biography

Adham Saouli is Professor of International Relations and Middle East Politics in the School of International Relations.

Saouli has held a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at the University College Dublin, Lectureship in Politics and International Relations at the University of Edinburgh and Visiting Professorship at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He is the editor of Disruptions, a book series for Edinburgh University Press.

He joined the University of St Andrews in 2014. Saouli was the School’s Director of Teaching (2020-23) and Director of Postgraduate Studies (2015-2018).

Saouli holds an MA degree in Political Studies from the American University of Beirut and PhD in International Relations from the University of St Andrews.

Teaching

  • Foreign Policy Analysis and International Security (IR1006) - Contributor
  • Politics and State Formation in the Middle East (IR3301)
  • Political Order and Violence (IR4601) - Senior Honours
  • Political Order and Violence in the Middle East (IR5601) - Postgraduate Module
  • Theory and Analysis (IR5501)—Postgraduate Module for the MECACS degree. Co-teacher.
  • Research Methods in International Relations (IR5601) - Contributor, PhD Module

Research areas

Saouli’s interdisciplinary research straddles the fields of International Relations, Comparative Politics, Political Theory, and Middle East politics. He is interested in the genesis and development of political actors—be they states, social movements, or individuals—and is fascinated by the dilemmas they encounter and the intended and sometimes tragic consequences of their behaviour.

Inspired by the intellectual tradition of Historical Sociology, Saouli’s research forms a dialogue between theory and empirical analysis, which is usually based on fieldwork in the Arab world and/or Arabic sources. He has published on state formation, social movements, political ideas, and the politics and international relations of the Middle East. He has examined several cases, including Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas. 

Saouli’s first book, The Arab State: Dilemmas of Late Formation (Routledge, 2012), translated into Arabic, offered a conceptual and theoretical framework on the formation, deformation, and continued survival of Arab states. His second book, Hezbollah: Socialisation and its Tragic Ironies (Edinburgh University Press, 2019), explains Hezbollah’s genesis and socialisation over time and the tragic consequences it generated.

Saouli has also edited several books, including Unfulfilled Aspirations: Middle Power Politics in the Middle East (Oxford University Press, 2020) and co-edited The War for Syria (Routledge, 2019).

His latest publication is a co-edited textbook on International Relations of the Middle East: Theories and Case Studies (Cambridge University Press, 2026)

Saouli's  ‘Performing the Egyptian Revolution’ (Political Studies, 2015) was nominated for the Harrison Prize.

Saouli is now researching the historical origins and contemporary political impact of the Arabo-Islamic concept of Fitna.

Selected publications

 

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