Beverley Milton Edwards

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Bio

Beverley Milton-Edwards is a nonresident senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs. Her research focuses on contemporary politics in the Middle East, Political Islam, and Security. She is also a Senior Policy Advisor and Mediator with more than 20 years of experience advising the European Union and different governments, including Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Previously, Milton-Edwards was a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, Oxford University, and Georgetown University. Prior, she was a Professor of Politics and Director of the the programme in Violence, Terrorism and Security and the Centre for the Study of Ethnic Conflict at Queen’s University Belfast in Ireland. She has also been part of ceasefire mediations and track II negotiations at different stages of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Milton-Edwards has authored numerous books including Hamas, the quest for power (Polity, 2024), The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, a people’s war (Routledge, 2009),  Contemporary Politics in the Middle East (Polity Press, 2018), The Muslim Brotherhood: The Arab Spring and its future face (Routledge, 2016), and Islamic Fundamentalism since 1945 (Routledge, 2014). Her articles and essays have been published in Protest, Critical Muslim StudiesInternational AffairsSecurity DialogueJournal of Palestine StudiesBritish Journal of Middle East Studies, and Third World Quarterly, among others.
Milton-Edwards is an elected Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences as well as a Fellow of the HEA and NTFS. She was co-founder and board member of the British Association of Islamic Studies.

Research Areas

  • Security sector governance
  • Political Islam
  • Multilateral cooperation
  • Conflict management

Countries of Focus

  • Palestine
  • Gulf (GCC)
  • Mashreq

Other Areas of Interest

  • Middle East foreign policy
  • Strategic dialogue

Education

  • Ph.D., Politics, University of Exeter, 1991
  • M.A., International Relations and Political Economy of the Middle East, University of Exeter, 1988
  • Hons. B.A., Upper Second Politics, University of Portsmouth, 1986

Articles

Who is Hamas’ new political chief and what are the implications of his appointment for the group and ceasefire negotiations?
Beverley Milton Edwards
ME Council experts assess the impact of Israel’s war on Gaza, 300 days in, and the recent assassinations of senior leaders of Hamas and Hizballah.
Hamidreza Azizi, Beverley Milton Edwards, Omar H. Rahman, Tarik M. Yousef, Adel Abdel Ghafar, Mohammad Abu Hawash, Jin Liangxiang
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza is entering its fourth month with no end in sight. Council experts explore various dimensions of the fallout.
Adel Abdel Ghafar, Galip Dalay, Omar H. Rahman, Beverley Milton Edwards, Tarik M. Yousef, Abdalftah Hamed Ali, Alhala Alkuwari, Ranj Alaaldin, Sahar Khamis
Middle East Council experts offer their thoughts on the unfolding crisis in Palestine-Israel that began on October 7.
Ali Bin Musa, Shahram Akbarzadeh, Sahar Khamis, Nader S. Kabbani, Beverley Milton Edwards, Hamidreza Azizi, Omar H. Rahman, Galip Dalay, Noha Aboueldahab, Saoud El Mawla, Faozi Al-Goidi
The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 constituted a seismic failure for Israel's security and intelligence communities, which despite a vaunted reputation and cutting-edge technology, has lost much of its capabilities in the Gaza Strip over the past 15 years.
Beverley Milton Edwards
The expansion of BRICS, announced at the August summit in South Africa, signals an emerging shift in the international order. Middle East Council experts analyze the significance of the bloc on the global stage and discuss questions raised at the summit about multipolarity, de-dollarization, and more.
Galip Dalay, Beverley Milton Edwards, Aisha Al-Sarihi, Shahram Akbarzadeh, Adel Abdel Ghafar, Ranj Alaaldin, June Park, Oumeyma Chelbi, Abdalftah Hamed Ali
With less than one week left before the start of the tournament, scheduled for November 20 through December 18, 2022, experts from the Middle East Council on Global Affairs reflect below on the various dimensions of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
Tarik M. Yousef, Marc Owen Jones, Ranj Alaaldin, Nejla Ben Mimoune, Faozi Al-Goidi, Beverley Milton Edwards, Adel Abdel Ghafar