Dr Hisham (HA) Hellyer Bio

Dr Hisham A. (H.A.) Hellyer Biography A scholar and author focusing on politics, international studies, and religion, in the West and the Arab world, Dr Hisham (H.A.) Hellyer FRSA is a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) and a fellow of the Centre for Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge. He is also a Senior Associate Fellow in International Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, which was founded in 1831 in London by the Duke of Wellington, with its offices across the street from the Prime Minister’s office.Shaykh Hisham is also a scholar-cleric in the Islamic tradition, and serves as a Council member of the British Board of Scholars and Imams. Appointed as the first professorial fellow in Islamic Studies at Cambridge Muslim College, he is a professor at the UTM RZS Centre for Advanced Studies on Islam, Science and Civilisation [RZS-CASIS] in Malaysia, senior scholar of the renowned South African seminary, Azzawia Institute, and is regularly included in the scholarly section of the annual global list of ‘The 500 Most Influential Muslims’ in the world (‘The Muslim 500’). His teachers in the Islamic tradition include the likes of Tan Sri Professor S. M. Naquib al-Attas, the Malaysian polymath, and al-allama al-marhum Shaykh Seraj Hendricks, the representative of the Makkan sage, al-muhaddith al-Hijaz Sayyid Muhammad b. Alawi al-Maliki; Shaykh Seraj authorised Shaykh Hisham with a full ijaza in 2009.Following the 2005 London bombings, Dr Hellyer was appointed as Deputy Convenor of the UK Government’s Taskforce as an independent academic expert, and served as the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s first Economic and Social Research Council Fellow, as a non-partisan independent scholar. In 2020, Dr Hellyer was elected as Fellow (FRSA) of the Royal Society of Arts in London due to his contributions in his subject areas, particularly in the international relations of the West and the Middle East, security studies, and belief. Founded in 1754, the Royal Society’s Patron is HM Queen Elizabeth II, and its President is HRH The Princess Royal Anne, with its fellows including the likes of Judi Dench, Nelson Mandela, Stephen Hawking, David Attenborough, and Charles Dickens.In the realm of policy, Dr Hellyer was also nonresident Fellow at the Centre for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in DC, Research Associate at the JFK School of Government at Harvard University, a visiting fellow at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Malaysia, and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in DC. He is regularly called upon by ministerial level policy members of government in the US, the UK, the EU, and various international governments due to his expertise in his areas of interest.In his writing, Dr Hellyer draws not only on his training and expertise, but on his experience living in MENA, Europe, North America and Southeast Asia, and his background as a multi-lingual (English, Arabic, French) British citizen of English, Egyptian, Sudanese, and Moroccan background. He has visited and researched more than two dozen countries, including Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Turkey. This has led him to explore research ranging from religious diversity in the United States, populism in Europe, and MENA geopolitics, to the effect of the rise of China on international order, to the role of faith in radical populist movements in religious communities in Southeast Asia. His analysis is regularly featured in leading outlets such as the Washington Post, CNN, the BBC, Foreign Policy, the New York Times, the Guardian, Politico, the Financial Times, New Straits Times, and Daily News Egypt.As part of his portfolio, he currently co-steers the European Commission project on “Radicalisation, Secularism and the Governance of Religion”, which brings together North African, Middle Eastern, European, and Asian perspectives with a consortium of twelve universities and think-tanks – a project where Dr Hellyer is responsible for co-managing a research team of some 30 people worldwide, leading specifically on the MENA region, security issues, and overall oversight. A research entrepreneur, he also founded the VC Group for research consultancy, and served as the first Arab world-based Senior Practice Consultant at the Gallup Organisation.A scholar and an analyst, Dr Hellyer has held scholarly attachments at noted institutions including the University of Warwick, where he was a Senior Research Fellow, the Department of Law at the American University in Cairo, and the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies of the University of Oxford, authoring 7 books, 5 monographs & more than 18 book chapters and journal articles in various presses. While his main disciplinary home is International Relations, particularly with regards to the study of politics, security and sociology, Dr Hellyer has also published widely in Religious Studies, especially in terms of Islamic intellectual thought, religion and modernity, and contemporary Islam. His main area focuses remain the West and the Arab world.Recent books and monographs include Muslims of Europe: the ‘Other’ Europeans for Edinburgh University Press, Engagement with the Muslim Community & Counter-Terrorism: British Lessons for the West for Brookings Institution Press, A Revolution Undone: Egypt’s Road Beyond Revolt for Oxford University Press and Hurst& Company, A Sublime Path: the Sufi Way of the Makkan Sages for Fons Vitae, and The Islamic Tradition and the Human Rights Discourse (editor) for the Atlantic Council.Dr Hellyer’s degree in law was read at one of Europe’s top schools of law at the University of, with an advanced degree in international political economy at the University of Sheffield’s noted Department of Politics. He completed a multidisciplinary PhD at the University of Warwick as an Economic and Social Research Council scholar, studying with the renowned late Professor M. Anwar, one of Europe’s leading scholars on European minority communities.