Amin Saikal is Distinguished Professor and Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University. A recipient of the Order of Australia (AM) and elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA), he is the author of Zone of Crisis: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq (2014), Iran at the Crossroads (2015) and Iran Rising: the Survival and Future of the Islamic Republic (2018).