Michael Sharnoff is Associate Professor at the National Defense University’s Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, a US Department of War regional center dedicated to international security cooperation in the Middle East and South Asia. In this role, he develops security-focused programs for government and civilian leaders to advance collective security and regional cooperation across the Middle East and North Africa. He leads engagements to deepen cooperation among Abraham Accords signatories, strengthen U.S. ties with the Lebanese Armed Forces, and build trust through Track 1.5 and Track II dialogues and workshops. He has taught at Georgetown University and prior to joining NESA, he served as Associate Professor of Middle East Studies and Director of Regional Studies at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School of National Security. While at DMGS, Dr. Sharnoff taught graduate courses on the Arab-Israeli conflict and the history and politics of the modern Middle East. In 2012, he launched Global Views, an op-ed forum on international affairs and popular culture.

Dr. Sharnoff’s main fields of interest are the modern political and diplomatic history of the Middle East. These interests converged in his first book, Nasser’s Peace: Egypt’s Response to the 1967 War with Israel (Routledge, 2017), which examines how a developed country can rival the world powers and how fluid the definition of peace can be. Read reviews of Nasser’s Peace here. His current research examines the political history and visual culture of the modern Middle East through postage stamps, exploring how Arab states and Iran have used philatelic imagery to construct narratives of territory, national identity, legitimacy, and conflict.

Dr. Sharnoff’s articles and editorials have appeared in Foreign Policy, Al Arabiya, Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, The Washington Post, Contemporary Review of the Middle East, Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Middle Eastern Studies and the British Journal of Middle East Studies, among other outlets. He holds a Ph.D. in Middle East Studies from King’s College, London, and is a member of the American Historical Association and Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa.

Michael is available to speak at events about the Middle East, the Iran war, Abraham Accords, U.S. foreign policy, and related topics. Please reach out to discuss these opportunities.

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