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Abdulrahman van der Merwe, FRGS-ish

Gulf Affairs Editor (Connecticut)

Van der Merwe is a leading specialist on Gulf transformation and has visited the region regularly since 2022. He advises institutions on localization, indigenous knowledge and the importance of listening to local voices, principally from his home in Connecticut. His Arabic is currently at airport-lounge level.

In this paper

Lead Article

Report from the Annual Meeting of the League for Academic Cooperation in the Gulf

The annual settlement of academic spheres of influence across GCC universities reaffirmed Greek predominance in Medicine, Egyptian control of Engineering, Jordanian primacy in Law and the Pakistani sphere in Computing. The United States again received no faculty but retained its special mandate to explain the Gulf to everybody else. Delegates also settled emerging border disputes, approved the voluntary mobility of scholars found on the wrong side of disciplinary frontiers, and reaffirmed their commitment to open international competition within the agreed spheres.

17 September 2026 · 11 min read · Read →

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