Dr. Anas Iqtait

Biography

Anas Iqtait is a political economist whose research examines geoeconomics in the contemporary Middle East, with a particular focus on fiscal governance and the diffusion of financial technologies in the region. His work integrates macro-level political-economic analysis with ground-level institutional studies, bridging area studies and comparative political-economy scholarship. Prior to commencing his doctoral studies, he managed a regional investment portfolio comprising leading Middle Eastern public and private equity firms based in the Dubai International Financial Centre. He has also worked on economic development and humanitarian programs in Jerusalem with organizations such as the United Nations OCHA, Oxfam, and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). Anas is a co-founder and serves as the Chief Editor of the Near East Policy Forum at ANU, and is a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute in the USA as well as a research associate at the Economic Research Forum in Egypt. His monograph, 'Funding Quest for Sovereignty: Palestine' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), examines the political economy of public revenues in the context of Palestinian state-building. A regular media commentator on Middle Eastern geopolitics and geoeconomics, Anas's analyses have appeared in outlets such as Foreign Policy, BBC, Al Jazeera English, ABC, SBS, Channel NewsAsia, and the Washington Post.

Research Interests