Larbi Sadiki

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Bio

Larbi Sadiki is a nonresident senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs. He is a scholar with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He is an expert in democratization studies and political transitions. Previously, he was a professor at Qatar University, lecturing on international affairs and political science. He was also a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center and senior lecturer and Director of the Middle East Politics programme at the University of Exeter.

Sadiki authored numerous publications and articles in Third World Quarterly, The Spectator, Political Studies, Orient, Middle East Journal, and Australian Journal of International Affairs, among others. He won several research grants in Qatar (National Priorities Research Program, Postdoctoral Research Award, and Undergraduate Research Experience Program) and in the UK (British Academy and Leverhulme). Sadiki is editor-in-chief of the Brill Journal PROTEST; and editor of a Routledge series on Middle East democratic transitions.
He authored the major primer on the Arab Spring, Routledge Handbook of the Arab Spring: Rethinking Democratization (2016), as well as Routledge Handbook of Middle East Politics: Interdisciplinary Inscriptions (2021). He also edited a special issue of the Journal of North African Studies entitled “Discoursing ‘Democratic Knowledge’ & Knowledge Production in North Africa” (2015, Vol. 20).
Sadiki has also edited several volumes on Middle Eastern regional politics. He is the author of Rethinking Arab Democratization: Elections without Democracy (Oxford, 2009, 2014) and editor of the Routledge series, Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Democratization and Government. Oxford University Press has released his co-authored book: Revolution and Democracy in Tunisia: A Century for Protestscapes (2024).
His analysis has appeared in many international outlets, including Al Jazeera, TRT World, The New York Times, BBC, and Middle East Institute.

Research Areas

  • Democratization
  • Regime transition
  • Arab Spring
  • Human rights

Countries of Focus

  • MENA region
  • Tunisia

Other Areas of Interest

  • Islamist Movements
  • MENA-EU relations
  • Gulf small states

Education

  • Ph.D., Political Science and International Relations, The Australian National University, 1997
  • M.A., International Studies, University of Sydney, Australia, 1991

Articles

The recent outbreak of violence in Sudan has already taken a heavy toll on the country and threatened stability abroad. Middle East Council scholars offer their insights on what’s driving the conflict, the imperative to bring it to a swift end, and its implications for Sudan and beyond.
Nader S. Kabbani, Paul Dyer, Larbi Sadiki, Adel Abdel Ghafar, Sahar Khamis, Ranj Alaaldin, Dania Thafer, Faozi Al-Goidi
Twenty years have passed since the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, leaving the country and the wider region forever changed. In this Council Views, Middle East Council experts reflect on this seminal moment in the region’s modern history and what has ensued in the two decades since. 
Galip Dalay, Omar H. Rahman, Ranj Alaaldin, Faozi Al-Goidi, Adel Abdel Ghafar, Robert P. Beschel Jr., Tarik M. Yousef, Larbi Sadiki
The devastating earthquakes and aftershocks that struck Turkey and Syria have resulted in a massive loss of lives and infrastructure, with many more still injured, homeless, and vulnerable. What are the various aspects of the aftermath and policy implications of this tragedy?
Tarik M. Yousef, Nader S. Kabbani, Ahmet F. Aysan, Larbi Sadiki, Marc Owen Jones, Ranj Alaaldin
Elections in Tunisia this week produced the lowest voting turnout in the world. Is the country’s democratic project on the brink, and what can save it?
Larbi Sadiki