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Robert Springborg

Robert Springborg

Springborg

Robert Springborg is a Research Fellow of the Italian Institute of International Affairs and Adjunct Professor, Simon Fraser University. Formerly he was Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School and Program Manager for the Middle East for the Center for Civil-Military Relations; the holder of the MBI Al Jaber Chair in Middle East Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where he also served as Director of the London Middle East Institute; the Director of the American Research Center in Egypt; University Professor of Middle East Politics at Macquarie University in Sydney Australia; and assistant professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also taught at the University of California, Berkeley; the College of Europe, Warsaw; the Paris School of International Affairs of Sciences Po; and the University of Sydney. In 2016 he was Kuwait Foundation Visiting Scholar, Middle East Initiative, Kennedy School, Harvard University. His most recent books are Egypt (2018) and Political Economies of the Middle East and North Africa (2020), both published by Polity Press. He is the editor in chief of The Handbook of Contemporary Egypt, published by Routledge in 2021.  

Comment: Addressing legitimate security concerns around the resettlement of asylum seekers requires a holistic and long term approach by the government, and bottom-up engagement by citizens, writes Robert Springborg

09 August, 2016

Comment: Egypt's threat to 'flood' Italy with migrants - following Rome's embargo on Egypt for F16 spare parts - could be one President Sisi lives to regret, says Robert Springborg.

01 August, 2016

Comment: Far from facilitating democratic transitions, US support for moderate Islamists as a firewall strategy was ill-advised and instead caused these transitions to abort, writes Robert Springborg

21 July, 2016

Comment: The EU has failed to provide the procedures and substance of good democratic governance, leaving less important states and their citizens with an unfair deal, writes Robert Springborg

04 July, 2016

Comment: Instead of dividing existing states, or sustaining "fierce but brittle" states, the aim should be to bring about institutions that are more responsive to their citizens, argues Robert Springborg.

30 June, 2016

Comment: The knee-jerk, panicked response of EU leaders to Brexit reflects their inability to recognise what is wrong with their organisation, writes Robert Springborg

26 June, 2016

Comment: Both Trump's America and the Middle East would benefit from more globalisation, but neither are capable of guiding their nations through the inevitable turbulence it creates, writes Robert Springborg

24 June, 2016

Comment: The Speaker traditionally acted as a shock absorber between the opposing sides in parliament, but al-Aal appears to have reinterpreted this vital role, writes Robert Springborg

21 June, 2016

Comment: Robert Springborg asks whether Obama's diplomatic gamble is any more likely to succeed than the attempts of his predecessors.

13 June, 2016

Comment: Overly rapid population growth has negative economic, environmental and political consequences. Action to reduce the rate of population growth in the MENA region is overdue, writes Robert Springborg

07 June, 2016