Samer Shehata, a faculty member in the David L. Boren College of International Studies at the University of Oklahoma, has received the International Affairs Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars from the Council on Foreign Relations. The prestigious award facilitates practical experience in the foreign policy-making field, providing a 12-month placement at a U.S. federal government agency, in Congress, or with an international organization.
“A CFR fellowship will allow me to make progress on a book project examining the regional dimensions of authoritarianism in the Middle East,” Shehata said. “The project approaches authoritarianism as a transnational phenomenon.”
"I hope to analyze how autocratic regimes in the Middle East cooperate and learn from one another and how regional organizations often function to help these regimes maintain power, often with little regard for democracy, human rights or the rule of law,” he added. “The CFR fellowship will also allow me to observe U.S. foreign policy toward the region, not at the level of presidential statements or official policies, but at the micro-level from within the U.S. government.”
