Expertise

Middle East, Arab World, Democracy, Authoritarianism, Regimes, Development, Comparative

Biography

Sean Yom is Associate Professor of Political Science at Temple University and Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is a specialist on regimes and governance in the Middle East, especially in Arab monarchies like Jordan, Kuwait, and Morocco. His research engages topics of authoritarian politics, democratic reforms, institutional stability, and economic development in these countries, as well as their implications for US foreign policy. His publications include From Resilience to Revolution: How Foreign Interventions Destabilize the Middle East (Columbia University Press, 2016) and The Political Science of the Middle East: Theory and Research since the Arab Uprisings (Oxford University Press, 2022); articles in print journals like Comparative Political Studies, European Journal of International Relations, Studies in Comparative International Development, and Journal of Democracy; and contributions in online venues like Foreign Policy. He also advises country-level work with international NGOs and sovereign clients. Education: A.B., Brown University (2003); PhD., Harvard University (2009).

Website

Selected Publications

• The Political Science of the Middle East (co-edited with Marc Lynch and Jillian Schwedler) (New York: Oxford University Press, 2022).
• “Kuwait’s Democratic Promise,” Journal of Democracy 34, 3 (2023): 46-61.
• “Water, Stateness, and Tribalism in Jordan,” in Making Sense of the Arab State, eds. Steven Heydemann and Marc Lynch (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2024), 247-273.

Courses Taught

• Middle East Politics
• Comparative Democratization and Dictatorship
• Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in the US

Graduate

• Democracy, Autocracy, and Regime Change 
• Qualitative Research Methods