Dr. Roby C. Barrett is a fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Forum at Cambridge University specializing in Gulf and regional security issues. He is a former Foreign Service Officer with a background in intelligence and special operations. A graduate of the Foreign Service Institute’s intensive two-year Arab Language and Middle East Area Studies program, Dr. Barrett’s background includes the Counterterrorism Tactics and Special Operations training courses.

Dr. Barrett was a keynote speaker and panelist on Iran at the 2017 Canadian-U.S. Intelligence Conference on Gulf Security, Washington, D.C. In 2016, he also headed the Gulf Arab team for the Office of National Intelligence in a simulation exercise on Russian influence in the Middle East. Dr. Barrett has been a Senior Fellow and Instructor of Applied Intelligence at US Special Operations Command and a briefer and subject matter expert with Special Operations—US Central Command. He provides support to various US government organizations including the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the National Defense University, the State Department, and the intelligence community. He has been a featured presenter at the National Defense University, State Department, USSOCOM and Special Operations-Central Command as well as with the intelligence community. He was a visiting professor at the Royal Saudi Arabian Command and Staff School focused on Gulf security, specifically Yemen and Iran, and a featured expert on Iran at the German Council on Foreign Relations and with the Bundeswehr. He has spoken at numerous Middle East conferences including the Bahrain MOI Gulf Security Forum, the opening of the King Abdullah Special Operations Training Center, the Arabian Gulf SOF Conference in Manama, and the Middle East Security Conference in Abu Dhabi. His commentary has appeared on numerous domestic and international outlets.

Education
B.A. in History and Government at Texas A&M University - Commerce; M.A. in History and Government at Baylor University; M.A. in Government at Texas A&M University - Commerce; Ph.D. in Middle East and South Asian History at University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Barrett was also an Eisenhower-Roberts fellow of the Eisenhower Institute in Washington D.C., a Rotary International fellow at the Russian and East European Institute at the University of Munich, and a Scottish Rite Research fellow at Oxford University.

Languages
Arabic, German

Countries of Expertise
Arabian Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Pakistan, India

Publication Highlights

Contact Information

Email: rbarrett@mei.edu

Programs

Programs