Emma Soubrier

Emma Soubrier is a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute. Her research focuses on the security strategies and foreign policies of the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, particularly the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, and the political economy of arms trade in the Gulf. Soubrier has published numerous articles and book chapters in French and English on Gulf security issues. Her work looks to promote a renewed approach to security that no longer focuses merely on the political and military aspects of security but includes a broader look at people-centered dimensions (human security, particularly societal security and environmental security). Her forthcoming book, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates: Diverging Paths to Regional and Global Power (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2022), is based on her PhD thesis, which received a Dissertation Award from the Institute for Higher National Defense Studies (France) in 2018.

Soubrier is a professorial lecturer and a visiting scholar at the Institute for Middle East Studies at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where her class focuses on U.S. policy in the Gulf. She is an expert with the Forum on Arms Trade. As part of a research team with the World Peace Foundation (Tufts University), she is working on a project on “Defense Industries, Foreign Policy and Armed Conflict” funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Soubrier was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre Michel de l’Hospital, Université Clermont Auvergne (France), a visiting scholar at the Institute for Middle East Studies for one year, and a visiting scholar at AGSIW for two years. She worked for three and a half years at the French Ministry of Defense and for three years at Airbus Defence and Space. She received her PhD in political science from the Université Clermont Auvergne in 2017 and holds an MA in international relations from Sorbonne University (Paris, France).