Emile Hokayem is Director of Regional Security and Senior Fellow for Middle East Security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). He specialises in regional politics, security and conflict analysis in the Middle East, including the national security and defence policies of the Middle Eastern states, the role of armed non-state actors, and the interests and involvement of external actors in the Middle East. Prior to joining IISS, Emile was the political editor and international affairs columnist of The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi, and from 2004 to 2008 was the research fellow for the Middle East at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC. Emile is the author of Syria's Uprising and the Fracturing of the Levant (IISS Adelphi Series 2013), and the editor of the IISS Strategic Dossier Iran's Networks of Influence in the Middle East (2019).