Christopher Davidson

Senior lecturer in the School of Government and International Affairs of the Durham University (UK), he is deemed to be one of the world's leading experts on the Gulf countries. He studied Modern History at Cambridge University and obtained a Doctorate in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of St Andrews. He has lived and worked in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Beirut, acquiring extensive knowledge of the region, which has led to his working as a United Nations consultant. His book Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success (Columbia University Press, 2008), has become an internationally recognised reference work. It analyses the fabrication of "Brand Dubai" on the basis of the emirate's combination of the strictest autocracy and a market economy sustained by the service sector.