Prof Amin Saikal

Australian National University, Australia

Governmental Engagement of Muslims: An Australian Muslim Perspective

Bio

Amin Saikal is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (The Middle East and Central Asia) at the Australian National  University.

Professor Saikal is a specialist in the politics, history, political economy and international relations of the Middle East and Central Asia. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University, Cambridge University and the Institute of Development Studies (University of Sussex), 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 through the development of the Centre for Arab & Islamic Studies, and as an author and adviser. He is also a member of many national and international academic organisations, and the author of numerous works on the Middle East, Central Asia, and Russia, including Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival: (I.B. Tauris, 2004); Islam and the West: Conflict or Co-operation? (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003); Lebanon Beyond 2000, Canberra: Centre for Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University, 1997 (co-editor); The Rise and Fall of the Shah (Princeton University Press, 1980); (co-author) Regime Change in Afghanistan: Foreign Intervention and the Politics of Legitimacy (Westview Press, 1991); (co-editor) Islamic Perspectives on the New Millennium, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2004; (co-editor) Democratization in the Middle East: Experiences, Struggles, Challenges (New York: United Nations University Press, 2003); (co-editor) The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Cambridge University Press, 1989); (co-editor) Russia in Search of its Future Cambridge University Press, 1995). Professor Saikal has also published numerous articles in international journals, as well as many feature articles in major international newspapers, including the International Herald Tribune. He is also a frequent commentator on radio and television.