Dr Lina Khatib is a leading authority on the Middle East and international affairs who has directed some of the world's most respected policy research programmes. 

Most recently she was Director of the SOAS Middle East Institute and Professor of Practice at SOAS University of London. Before that she led the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, where she is now an Associate Fellow, and directed the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. She co-founded and led the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. She is also a visiting scholar with the Middle East Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center. She has published several books and writes and comments widely on international affairs.