Daniel Neep

Daniel Neep is Assistant Professor in political science at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies in the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

Neep's main field of expertise is the politics of modern Syria. He is the author of 'Occupying Syria under the French Mandate: Space, Insurgency and State Formation' (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and is currently conducting new research for a book looking at the spatial and economic dimensions of state formation in Syria from 1920 to the present day.

Professor Neep has spent several years in Syria since the late 1990s, variously studying, working and teaching, and is fluent in Damascene Arabic. Prior to joining Georgetown in 2013, he was a lecturer [assistant professor] in the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. He also worked for 3 years as Research Director (Syria) for the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), in which capacity he was based in Damascus throughout the first year of the Syrian uprising before relocating to Amman, Jordan. Before moving into academia, Neep was Head of the Middle East & North Africa Programme at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), a foreign policy think tank in London, from 2002 to 2004.

Neep teaches courses on comparative politics of the Middle East, Syrian politics, empire, and war & military politics on Georgetown's renowned Master's program in Arab Studies. Until fall 2015 he is on sabbatical from Georgetown, during which time he will be affiliated to the Center for Arab and Middle East Studies at the American University of Beirut.