Dr. H.A. Hellyer is a nonresident fellow with the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World at Brookings. Dr. Hellyer was previously Gallup’s first senior practice consultant to be permanently based in the Middle East, a Ford fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a senior research fellow at the University of Warwick. A United Nations Alliance of Civilizations ‘Global Expert’ in Arab politics, pluralism, religion and security issues in the West and the Arab world, Dr. Hellyer was appointed as deputy convener of the United Kingdom taskforce on tackling radicalization and extremism after the 7/7 bombings in London in 2005. He also served as the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) first economic and social research council fellow, within its Islam team and counter-terrorism team.

Dr. Hellyer’s expertise has been called upon by different governmental and non-governmental actors including the U.K. House of Commons, the U.S. Departments of State and of Homeland Security, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He has authored several books and monographs, and has contributed more than 20 book chapters and journal articles to various presses. Some of his more recent publications include Muslims of Europe: the ‘Other’ Europeans (Edinburgh University Press, 2009), Engagement with the Muslim Community and Counter-Terrorism: British Lessons for the West (The Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World, December 2007), and The Chance for Change in the Arab World: Egypt’s Uprising (Chatham House Journal of International Affairs, November 2011).

Dr. Hellyer’s academic career, where he continues to look at political philosophy, law, and the interchange between the West and the Muslim world, has included affiliations at the American University in Cairo, the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies of the University of Oxford, and the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

To provide political advisory, commercial research, and media services on relations between and within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Muslim communities, and the West, Dr. Hellyer founded the Visionary Consultants Group (VCG) as a consortium for consultants in North America, Europe, MENA, and Southeast Asia. Its subject-matter expertise is widely utilized by thought leaders in media, business and other sectors. As part of his consultancy work, Dr. Hellyer has been appointed in a variety of capacities, including as senior academic advisor for Soliya, the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations implementation organization, and as director of strategic partnerships for the “America in Arabic” television series hosted by the ‘Arab Jon Stewart’, Bassem Youssef of Egypt.

He is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (U.K., Bahrain, U.S., and Singapore), the British Society of Middle East Studies, and Fellow of the Young Foundation (U.K.). He has authored op-eds and provided media submissions for publications such as The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The National (Abu Dhabi) and the Egypt Independent (Cairo), and is regularly interviewed by the press and hosted on TV programs such as the BBC Doha Debates. A British citizen, he lives in Cairo, and works between there, London and Washington, D.C.

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