Dr H A Hellyer

Specialising in geopolitics, security studies & political economy, Dr H.A. Hellyer has more than 20 years of experience in governmental, corporate advisory, and academic environments in the West, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. A senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London, he simultaneously serves as senior fellow in Geopolitics and Security at the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC. In recognition of his scholarly and public impact, he was elected as Fellow (FRHistS) of the Royal Historical Society, and Honoree member of the Diversity in National Security Network. Designated as Deputy Convenor of the UK Government’s Taskforce on tackling radicalisation, he was appointed as the first Economic & Social Research Council Fellow in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

Previously a nonresident Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution in DC, and scholar in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, he served as the first Arab world-based Senior Practice Consultant at the Gallup Organisation, where he analysed public opinion data worldwide. Formerly Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Centre for the Middle East, he was also appointed as fellow at the Institute for Strategic and International Studies in Malaysia. His insights on current events are regularly sought by the international media networks such as CNN and the BBC, with op-eds for publications like the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, the New York Times, the Guardian, Politico, the Financial Times, New Straits Times, and Daily News Egypt.

Dr Hellyer has also held academic attachments at noted institutions including the University of Warwick (UK), where he was the research equivalent of an associate professor; the American University in Cairo as a professor of law; the JFK School of Government at Harvard University as research associate; Cambridge University, as a visiting fellow at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; and as visiting professor at RZS-CASIS at the University of Technology in Malaysia. His publications in his specialist subject areas include 7 books, more than 20 book chapters, journal articles and monographs to various academic presses.

With a degree in law from the University of Sheffield’s School of Law, and an advanced degree in international political economy at the University of Sheffield’s Department of Politics, Dr Hellyer completed a multidisciplinary PhD in the social sciences at the University of Warwick, as a UK Economic and Social Research Council scholar. He can be reached via twitter.com/hahellyer or https://www.rusi.org/contact.

Diversity in National Security Network Honorees (2024-onwards): The Network is a bipartisan coalition of national security and foreign policy practitioners, based in Washington DC, particularly known for its annual lists identifying, promoting and recognising voices in the national security sector from minority ethnic backgrounds.

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (2023-onwards): Founded in 1868, the RHS advances scholarly studies of history, promoting historical research in the United Kingdom and worldwide, representing historians of all kinds.

RISSC-Georgetown University 500 (2017-onwards): A ‘who’s who’ of 500 prominent scholars, politicians, religious affairs officials, business elites, and cultural figures.