Current Activities
Capacity Building, Public Diplomacy  & Policy Science Interface

• Organization of the First International Symposium on Saudi Arabia’s Heritage, forthcoming at the University of York, UK, 2013 (in preparation)
• Founder President & Management of the GCC Network fpr Research and Development
• Organization and Chair of the ‘Sustainable Tourism Development in the GCC’ initiative

 

Reviewer in International Journals

• Reviewer: Tourism and Hospitality: Planning & Development Journal (Taylor & Francis Group)
• Reviewer: Land Degradation & Development (John Wiley & Sons)
• Reviewer: Water Resources Management (Springer)

 

Voluntary Academic Service

• Board Member - Commission on Land Degradation / International Union of Soil Sciences
• Organization and Session Convenor of "Islam, Democracy and Development: Challenges for the Arab World" for the Norwegian Association for Development Research (NFU) Annual Conference on ”Ethics, Human Rights and Development”, 13-15 September 2006 in Oslo, Norway
• Webdesign & Editor of the Wengen Global Change Research Blog
• Co Chair of Session: Enhancing livelihood of desert communities, socioeconomic studies and cross-cutting issues at the Ninth International Conference on Development of Drylands – Sustainable Development in Drylands: Meeting the Challenge of Global Climate Change, 7-10 November 2008, Alexandria, Egypt
• Rapporteur for the session on "Environment and Climate" at the 3rd International Conference on Water Resources and Arid Environments 2008 and the First Arab Water Forum, from 16 to 19 November 2008 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• Organization and Chair of the Working Group Middle East for the Research Group Climate Change and Security; KlimaCampus, Hamburg University, Center for Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (ZMAW)
• External Reviewer of the proposal for establishing a Department of Political Science & International Relations in the College of Arts & Social Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman
• Workshop Director: “Gulf Youth Employment: Private and Public sector initiatives and the realities” 3rd Gulf Research Meeting, Cambridge University, July 11 - 14, 2012, UK
• Session Convenor & Organizer: Tourism Development in the GCC States: Reconciling Economic Growth, Conservation and Sustainable Development, at the 2012 Exeter Gulf Studies Conference - An interdisciplinary conference on the Gulf region (Arabia, Iran, Iraq), past and present, Center for Gulf Studies, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, 17–20 July 2012, UK
• Panel Chair of the opening session “Trend Spotting 2013: The inseparable link between events and the tourism industry” and organizer and Chair of “Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Spotlight: MICE Development in a G20 member state” at the MICE Arabia Congress, February 27th-28th 2013, Doha, Qatar
• Workshop Director: Employment, Tourism, and the State Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, Doha, December, 2013