At the end of July 2023, I relocated to Doha, Qatar for one year, to conuduct my project, ROK-GCC as Visiting Fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs (formerly Brookings Doha Center).
My project will be ROK-GCC and spread across three main issues and will conduct fieldwork in KSA, UAE and Qatar:
- Technology – CBDCs in the Gulf (and possible South Korean design of blockchains for them);
- Security – South Korean tender for the Saudi Arabian nuclear plant and dual use;
- Energy and Investment – Gulf SWFs on South Korean industries for economic diversification by the UAE (Mubadala), Saudi Arabia (PIF), and Qatar (QIA) (and in comparison to their investments elsewhere).
During my time in Doha, I will be directing convening a series of workshops on Emerging Technologies for the Small States Research Program at Georgetown University in Qatar. The topics will cover 5G/6G connectivity, semiconductors and generative AI, and Urban Air Mobility (UAM).
For the purposes of data access on Gulf SWFs, I will be remotely affiliated with the Institute for Middle East Studies of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University in Washington, DC.
