Professor Amin Saikal

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 was 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, and as an author and adviser.  He is the author of numerous works on the Middle East, Central Asia, and Russia, including The Rise and Fall of the Shah: Iran – From Autocracy to Religious Rule, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009); Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival: (London, I.B. Tauris, 2004);  Islam and the West: Conflict or Co-operation? (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003); co-editor, Democratization in the Middle East: Experiences, Struggles, Challenges (New York: United Nations University Press, 2003); co-editor, Islamic Perspectives on the New Millennium, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2004.  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 and The New York Times. . He is also a frequent commentator on radio and television.

Prof Saikal's presentation at the presentation at the Countering Militancy in Pakistan: Domestic, Regional and International Dimensions Conference was, Afghanistan and Pakistan: The Question of Pashtun Nationalism?