I am an Assistant Professor of Security Policy and Peace at Leuphana University and a Research Fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (Institute for Middle East Studies). The primary focus of my research is on how states and international organizations respond to and overcome national and international challenges to peace and security posed by both state and non-state actors. A major area of my research examines the use of economic statecraft by states and international organizations—such as economic sanctions—to address issues including nuclear proliferation, terrorism, democratic backsliding, and armed conflicts. My ongoing research analyzes the decision-making processes behind such state-led coercive policies, as well as citizens’ perspectives, particularly public opinion on the use of coercive foreign policy tools and foreign policy more generally.

I primarily engage in empirical-analytical research that employs quantitative methods, utilizing observational data and original survey experiments. I am one of the co-creators of the “International Sanctions Termination Dataset”: A large-N dataset containing information on the imposition, design, termination, and outcome of 399 international sanctions cases imposed from 1990 to 2018. However, I am also open to qualitative approaches and conduct case research on individual countries in the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region.

My work has been published in International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Global Security Studies, Journal of Peace Research, European Economic Review, Review of International Economics, and Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen.

I completed my PhD at the University of Konstanz (2023) and my BA and MA in Political Science at the University of Mannheim. Before taking up my current position, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Salzburg (2023-2025) and a Research Fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (2018-2023). I was also a Visiting Scholar-in-Residence at the American University in Washington DC funded by Fulbright and a visiting DAAD Graduate Student at the Johns Hopkins University. When I am not doing research I am dancing, hiking, watching/playing football or visiting my family in Egypt.

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