Area of Expertise

Middle East politics, Arab politics, Gulf politics, Islamist politics, politics of Islamic finance

Additional Information

Kristin Smith Diwan is an assistant professor in comparative and regional studies at the American University School of International Service. She works in both comparative politics and international relations and specializes in Arab and Islamist politics. Diwan has written many publications on the politics and political economy of the Arab Gulf, among them "Sovereign Dilemmas: Sovereign Wealth Funds in Saudi Arabia," Geopolitics,(April 2009); “The Gulf Comes Back to Earth" (with Fareed Mohamedi) Middle East Report(Fall 2009); “Bahrain’s Shia Question,” Foreign Affairs(March 2011); and “Kuwait’s Impatient Youth Movement,” Foreign Policy(July 2011). She is currently completing a book manuscript on the emergence of Islamic banking in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states entitled From Petrodollars to Islamic Dollars: Islamic Finance in the Arab Gulf.Diwan previously held the Qatar Post Doctoral Fellowship at Georgetown University. She received her PhD in political science from Harvard University and holds an MA in international affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.