This week marks the first anniversary of the Abraham Accords. In this podcast, FMEP’s Lara Friedman talks with the Quincy Institute’s Annelle Sheline about the impact of those accords so far, and where the region is headed in the coming period. You can access Annelle’s article mentioned in the podcast here: Who do they think they are? Israel tells US to ease off Saudi, Egypt human rights

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Biographies

Annelle Sheline is a Research Fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute and an expert on religious and political authority in the Middle East and North Africa. Sheline is completing a book manuscript on the strategic use of religious authority in the Arab monarchies since 9/11, focusing on the cases of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, and Oman. She has received fellowships from the U.S. government including a Boren Fellowship and a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship, as well as fellowships from the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS), the Loeb Institute for Religious Freedom, and the Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance. Sheline was previously the Zwan Postdoctoral Fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Prior to beginning her PhD, she worked as a journalist in Egypt and Yemen. In addition to academic writing, she was written for The Washington Post, The Nation, Foreign Policy, Politico, The National Interest, and The Globe Post, and her analysis has been published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Arab Gulf States Institute of Washington, Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, and the Baker Institute. Sheline received her doctorate from George Washington University’s department of political science and her bachelor’s degree from NYU’s Gallatin School. She is a non-resident fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. She has done field research in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, the U.A.E., Jordan, Morocco, and Egypt, and has advanced proficiency in Arabic, French, and Spanish.

Lara Friedman is the President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP). With more than 25 years working in the Middle East foreign policy arena, Lara is a leading authority on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, with particular expertise on the Israeli-Arab conflict, Israeli settlements, Jerusalem, and the role of the U.S. Congress. She is published widely in the U.S. and international press and is regularly consulted by members of Congress and their staffs, by Washington-based diplomats, by policy-makers in capitals around the world, and by journalists in the U.S. and abroad. In addition to her work at FMEP, Lara is a Contributing Writer at Jewish Currents and a non-resident fellow at the U.S./Middle East Project (USMEP). Prior to joining FMEP, Lara was the Director of Policy and Government Relations at Americans for Peace Now, and before that she was a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, serving in Jerusalem, Washington, Tunis and Beirut. She holds a B.A. from the University of Arizona and a Master’s degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service; in addition to Englis