Prof. Tim Niblock has served as the Vice-President of the European Association for Middle Eastern Studies, the Vice-President of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, and the Vice-Chair of the UK Council for Area Studies Associations. He was also the founding director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter — the largest Middle Eastern studies institute in Europe – and is currently an Emeritus Professor in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter.

He received his bachelor’s degree from Oxford University, his first postgraduate qualification from the College d’Europe, Bruges, and his PhD from the University of Sussex, UK. From 1969 to 1977, he was a lecturer and an associate professor in the University of Khartoum, Sudan. Since then he has been a lecturer, associate professor, and professor at the University of Reading, the University of Durham, and the University of Exeter. He was Director of the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Durham between 1993 and 1999, Director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter between 1999 and 2006, and Chair of the Management Committee of the IAIS between 2009 and 2012.

In the course of his career, Prof. Niblock has supervised the theses of a large number of doctoral students, many of whom have gone on to hold senior positions in universities and governments around the world. He has worked to promote Middle Eastern studies in many parts of the world – Europe, Latin America, India and China in particular. He has held Visiting Professor positions in many universities around the world. Among these are four in China: Tsinghua University, Shanghai International Studies University, North-West University Xi’an, and Shaanxi Normal University.

Among his published books are: The Gulf States, Asia and the Indian Ocean: Ensuring the Security of the Sea Lanes (edited with Talmiz Ahmad and Degang Sun, 2018); Conflict Resolution and the Creation of a Security Community in the Gulf Region (edited, with Talmiz Ahmad and Degang Sun); Security Dynamics of East Asia in the Gulf Region (edited, with Yang Guang, 2014); Asia-Gulf Economic Relations in the 21st Century: The Local to Global Transformation (edited, with Monica Malik, 2013); The Political Economy of Saudi Arabia (2007), Saudi Arabia: Power, Legitimacy and Survival (2006); ‘Pariah States’ and Sanctions in the Middle East: Iraq, Libya and Sudan (2001); and Class and Power in Sudan (1987).