About Michael Robbins

Michael D. H. Robbins is a Research Fellow with The Dubai Initiative and a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Michigan. A recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Student Fellowship, his dissertation examines the institutional and contextual factors that account for the success or failure of Islamist parties in the Arab world. Previously, Robbins has published on determinants of passive support for terrorism in the Journal of Conflict Resolution and he has an article under review on how elections affect individual-level support for democracy in non-democratic countries. He has also worked extensively on the Arab Barometer, a seven-country public opinion survey.

Prior to graduate school, Robbins worked as an analyst in the Office of the Chief Economist, Middle East and North Africa Region of the World Bank. During his tenure, Robbins conducted research for the flagship report Unlocking the Employment Potential in the Middle East and North Africa in addition to authoring a report on employment in Yemen. He has lived in Egypt, Jordan, and Spain and has traveled extensively throughout the Arab world. Robbins is proficient in Arabic and Spanish and holds a B.S. from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.