Richard Javad Heydarian is a lecturer (political science and international relations) at Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU), the Philippines, and consultant to a number of institutions, including the House of Representatives and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (Manila office). As an expert on geopolitics and development issues in the Asia-Pacific and MENA regions, he has written for or been interviewed by Asia Times, New York Times, Huffington Post, Bloomberg, The Diplomat and Tehran Times, among other publications. He has participated in and/or presented papers at varying regional and international academic and track II conferences, focusing on regional integration, economic development and international security. Currently, he is the editor of the newly launched Socdem Asia Quarterly, which seeks to bring together views and analyses by leading regional and international experts and policy-makers on latest developments in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

1. A Brave New Middle East: The Birth of a New Era 2. The Anti-Development State: Economic Origins of Arab Upheavals 3. The Advent of Economic Globalization: A Prelude to Crisis 4. The Great Recession: Collapse of the Arab Crony Capitalism 5. The New Powerbrokers: Political Islam and the Arab Summer 6. Gulf Exceptionalism: How the Monarchies have Reshaped the Arab Spring 7. Peering into Abyss: The Arab Spring at the Crossroads 8. Where Do We Go From Here?: Finding the True Path to an Arab Spring