Economics and geoeconomics of the Middle East. Political economy, governance, and fiscal policy of the Arab World. Islamic finance and fintech.

Anas Iqtait is a Lecturer in Economics and Political Economy of the Middle East. He holds a PhD in Political Economy of the Middle East from the ANU, an MA in International Development Policy from Seoul National University (South Korea), and a BS in Financial Economics from Methodist University (United States). Anas also holds an IBM professional certificate in Data Science. His research interest spans a range of areas, including: political economy, economic relations, and geoeconomics of the Middle East region; political economy dynamics shaping governance and fiscal policy of the Palestinian Authority and the Levant; and fintech in the Middle East.

Prior to conducting his PhD research, Anas gained extensive professional experience working in the Middle East. He worked in the financial services industry in the United Arab Emirates where he managed a portfolio of leading Middle East based public and private equity firms. He also worked in the economic development field in Palestine with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Oxfam, and the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

Anas is a co-founder and chief editor of the ANU based Near East Policy Forum and serves as a non-resident scholar with the Middle East Institute (United States). His academic publications include Funding and the Quest for Sovereignty in Palestine, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. Anas is also a frequent commentator on the geopolitics and geoeconomics of the Middle East. His policy publications and analysis have appeared with leading national and international outlets such as Foreign Policy, BBC, Aljazeera International, ABC, SBS, Channel NewsAsia, and Sky News Australia.