Steffen Hertog

Steffen Hertog is Associate Professor in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics. He was previously Kuwait Professor at Sciences Po in Paris, lecturer in Middle East political economy at Durham University and a post-doc at Princeton University. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Oxford and MSc and M.A degrees from the School of Oriental Studies and the University of Bonn.

Steffen’s main interest lies in Gulf and Middle East political economy, with a specific focus on the political economy of public sectors, state-business relations and labour markets. He has a subsidiary interest in issues of political violence in the Islamic world.

His academic publications have appeared in leading political science and area studies journals, including World Politics, British Journal of Political Science, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Review of International Political Economy, Socio-Economic Review and Comparative Studies in Society and History. His book on the politics of economic reform in Saudi Arabia, Princes, Brokers and Bureaucrats: Oil and the State in Saudi Arabia, was published by Cornell University Press in 2010. He is the editor of Labour Market, Unemployment and Migration in the GCC (Gerlach Press 2012) and co-editor, with Giacomo Luciani and Marc Valeri, of Business Politics in the Middle East (Hurst 2013). A book about political radicalism and higher education co-authored with Diego Gambetta, “Engineers of Jihad”, was published in 2016 by Princeton University Press.

Research interests

• Comparative political economy
• Comparative politics of the developing world
• Gulf and Middle East politics

Teaching Responsibilities

Government Department, London School of Economics & Political Science

• Power and Politics in the Modern World: Comparative Perspectives
• Political Economy of the Developing World
• Introduction to Comparative Politics
• Qualitative Methods in the Study of Politics
• Research Design in the Social Sciences

Books:

• (with Diego Gambetta), Engineers of Jihad: The Curious Connection Between Violent Extremism and Education (Princeton University 2016), listed as one of the best books of the year 2016 by Foreign Affairs

• (with Alissa Amico), MENA SOEs: Engines of Development and Competitiveness? (OECD 2013)

• (edited with Giacomo Luciani and Marc Valeri), Business Politics in the Middle East (Hurst 2013)

• (editor) Labour Market, Unemployment, and Migration in the GCC (Gerlach Press 2012)

• Princes, Brokers and Bureaucrats: Oil and the State in Saudi Arabia (Cornell University Press 2010)