Joseph A. Kéchichian

Joseph Kéchichian
Born	(1954-03-15) March 15, 1954 Beirut, Lebanon
Fields	Middle Eastern studies, Persian Gulf studies
Institutions	University of Virginia, RAND Corporation, UCLA, Stanford University, Middle East Institute
Alma mater	University of Virginia
Known for	Power and Succession in Arab Monarchies, Succession in Saudi Arabia

Joseph Albert Kéchichian (French pronunciation: ​[Keʃiʃian], born March 15, 1954) is a political scientist and Senior Fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; the CEO of Kéchichian & Associates, LLC, a consulting partnership that provides analysis on the, Persian Gulf region, specializing in the domestic and regional concerns of Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Yemen; and a Senior Writer with the Dubai-based English-language news daily Gulf News. He served as the Honorary Consul of the Sultanate of Oman in Los Angeles, California from 2006 to 2011.

Biography

Kéchichian received his doctorate in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia in 1985, where he also taught (1986-1988), and assumed the assistant deanship in international studies (1988-1989). In the summer of 1989, he was a Hoover Fellow at Stanford University (under the U.S. State Department Title VIII Program). Between 1990 and 1996, he labored at the Santa Monica-based RAND Corporation as an Associate Political Scientist, and was a lecturer at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).

Between 1998 and 2001, Kéchichian was a fellow at UCLA’s Gustav E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies, where he held a Smith Richardson Foundation grant (1998-1999) to compose Succession in Saudi Arabia (New York: Palgrave [2001]) and Beirut and London: Dar Al Saqi, 2002, 2003 [2nd ed] (for the Arabic translation)]. He published Political Participation and Stability in the Sultanate of Oman, Dubai: Gulf Research Center, 2005, Oman and the World: The Emergence of an Independent Foreign Policy (Santa Monica: RAND [1995]), and edited A Century in Thirty Years: Shaykh Zayed and the United Arab Emirates (Washington, D.C.: The Middle East Policy Council [2000]), as well as Iran, Iraq, and the Arab Gulf States (New York: Palgrave [2001]). In 2003, he co-authored, with R. Hrair Dekmejian at USC, The Just Prince: A Manual of Leadership (London: Saqi Books), which includes a full translation of the Sulwan al-Muta` by Muhammad Ibn Zafar al-Siqilli.

In 2008, he published two studies, Power and Succession in Arab Monarchies (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, and Beirut: Riyad al-Rayyes Books, 2012—in 2 volumes for the Arabic translation]), and Faysal: Saudi Arabia’s King for All Seasons Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida and Beirut: Dar al-‘Arabiyyah lil-Mawsu‘at, 2012]. His newest book is Legal and Political Reforms in Sa‘udi Arabia, published by Routledge in December 2012, and he has just completed a companion volume to Faysal on ‘Iffat Al Thunayan: An Arabian Queen (London: Sussex Academic Press, 2015).

Kéchichian is a frequent participant in conferences throughout the world and delivers frequent lectures to leading think-tanks and political institutions. He is also a regular interviewee on radio and television programs, appeared on The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour during and since the War for Kuwait to comment on developments in the Gulf crises, and is a on Al Jazeera English programs as well as various BBC programs. The National Public Radio affiliate in Chicago, USA, WBEZ, airs his commentaries on a regular basis as well. Kéchichian is fluent in Arabic, Armenian, English, French, Italian, Turkish, and Persian.

He is of Armenian descent.

Works

• From Alliance to Union, Sine loco : Sussex Academic Press, 2016 (upcoming, August?)
• Power and Succession in Arab Monarchies, Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2008, ISBN 1-58826-556-0
• Faysal: Saudi Arabia's King for All Seasons, Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8130-3242-9
• Political Participation and Stability in the Sultanate of Oman, Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Gulf Research Center, 2005
• The Just Prince: A Manual of Leadership, London, England: Saqi Books, 2003, ISBN 0-86356-783-5
• Succession in Saudi Arabia, New York, United States: Palgrave, 2001, ISBN 0-312-23880-0, Beirut and London: Dar Al Saqi, 2002, 2003 [2nd edition (for the Arabic language translation), ISBN 1-85516-445-0
• Oman and the World: The Emergence of an Independent Foreign Policy, Santa Monica, California: RAND, 1995, ISBN 0-8330-2332-2

“The Enduring Saudi Oil Power,” in Robert E. Looney, ed, Handbook of Oil Politics, London and New York: Routledge, 2012, pp. 284-294.

• The Sultanate of Oman and the US, in Robert E. Looney, ed, Handbook of US-Middle East Relations: Formative Factors and Regional Perspectives, London and New York: Routledge, 2009, pp. 417-433.
• Reforming the Judiciary in Saudi Arabia, in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 1979-2009: Evolution of a Pivotal State, A Special Edition of Viewpoints, Washington, D.C.: The Middle East Institute, 2009, at http://www.mei.edu/Publications/WebPublications/Viewpoints/ViewpointsArchive/tabid/541/ctl/Detail/mid/1623/xmid/784/xmfid/11/Default.aspx
• Refining the Saudi ‘Will to Power’, Perspectives 003, National University of Singapore Middle East Institute, Singapore, 2009, pp 1-16 at http://www.mei.nus.edu.sg/publications/MEI%20Perspectives%20003-Final.pdf
• Affirming the Saudi Will to Power: Domestic Challenges to King `Abdullah, Middle East Institute Policy Brief, Number 16 (June 2008), pp. 1-9 at http://www.mideasti.org/policy-brief/affirming-saudi-will-power-domestic-challenges-king-%E2%80%98abdullah
• Can Conservative Arab Gulf Monarchies Endure a Fourth War in the Persian Gulf, The Middle East Journal, 61:2 (Spring 2007), pp. 283-306.
• Extremism & Opposition Movements on the Arabian Peninsula, ORF Studies in Muslim Societies-V, New Delhi: Observer Research Foundation, 2006, pp. 1-55.
• Democratization in Gulf Monarchies: A New Challenge to the GCC, Middle East Policy 11:4 (Winter 2004), pp. 37-57.
• Testing the Saudi ‘Will to Power:’ Challenges Confronting Prince Abdallah, Middle East Policy 10:4 (Winter 2003), pp. 100-115.
• The Burden of Saudi Arabia [Review Article], The Middle East Journal 57:3, (Summer 2003), pp. 492-497.
• The Throne in the Sultanate of Oman, in Joseph Kostiner (ed.), Middle Eastern Monarchies: The Challenge of Modernity, Boulder, Colorado and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000, pp. 187-211.
• Saudi Arabia’s Will to Power, Middle East Policy 7:2 (February 2000), pp. 47-60.
• Trends in Saudi National Security, The Middle East Journal, 53:2 (spring 1999), pp. 232-53.

Editor

• A Century in Thirty Years: Shaykh Zayed and the United Arab Emirates, Washington, D.C.: Middle East Policy Council, 2000, ISBN 0-943182-08-5
• Iran, Iraq, and the Arab Gulf States, New York, United States: Palgrave, 2001, ISBN 0-312-29388-7

References

• Political scientists Joseph Kechichian and Gregory Gause at Chicago Public Radio's Gretchen Helfrich
• Saudi Arabia. Right royal, The Economist, Oct. 2 2008