Prof. Tim Nimblock

Prof. Tim Nimblock is an eminent scholar of international relations and Vice-President, British Society for Middle Eastern Studies.

Research interests of Prof. Niblock cover a wide range of areas related to the politics, economics and international relations of the Arab and Islamic worlds, the political economy of Arab and Islamic states, with particular reference to Sudan, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia and the smaller Arab states of the Gulf. Specific attention is focused on the social and political effects of economic liberalisation in these states. The wider theoretical framework through which Middle Eastern political economy is approached are those of underdevelopment, the dynamics of rentier state economies, and liberalisation/democratisation theories: The international relations of Middle Eastern states, with particular reference to the interactions between these states and the wider international community: Islam and the state: the role of religion in state-building and state-resisting, with particular reference to the Middle East. Also issues of human rights in Islamic perspectives, focusing on the interplay between universalism and cultural relativity: Legitimacy, civil society and political power in the Arab World.