Mehran Kamrava is Professor of Government at Georgetown University Qatar. He is the author of a number of journal articles and books, including, most recently, A Concise History of Revolution; Troubled Waters: Insecurity in the Persian Gulf; Inside the Arab State; The Impossibility of Palestine; Qatar: Small State, Big Politics; The Modern Middle East: A Political History since the First World War; and Iran’s Intellectual Revolution. His edited books include Routledge Handbook of Persian Gulf Politics; The Great Game in West Asia: Iran, Turkey, and the Southern Caucasus; Fragile Politics: Weak States in the Greater Middle East; Beyond the Arab Spring: The Evolving Ruling Bargain in the Middle East; The Political Economy of the Persian Gulf; The Nuclear Question in the Middle East; and The International Politics of the Persian Gulf.