
Shana Marshall
Associate Director & Assistant Research Professor, Institute for Middle East Studies,
George Washington University (website)
email: smarshall [at] gwu [dot] edu
phone: (202) 994-7916
Associate Director & Assistant Research Professor, Institute for Middle East Studies,
George Washington University (website)
email: smarshall [at] gwu [dot] edu
phone: (202) 994-7916
Middle East | corruption | defense industry | arms sales
Shana Marshall is Associate Director of the Institute for Middle East Studies and Assistant Research Faculty member at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. She is an active member of several research collectives and projects, including the Middle East Research & Information Project, the Political Economy Project, and Security in Context. Her current research focuses on patterns of military entrepreneurship in Egypt, Jordan, and the UAE, as well as the intersection of militarization and finance capital. Prior to coming to George Washington University, Marshall was a research fellow at The Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University and the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University.
Marshall earned her PhD in International Relations and Comparative Politics of the Middle East at the University of Maryland in 2012. Her dissertation, “The New Politics of Patronage: The Arms Trade and Clientelism in the Arab World” examines how Middle East governments use arms sales agreements to channel financial resources and economic privileges to domestic pro-regime elites. Her work has been published by The Middle East Report (MERIP), The International Journal of Middle East Studies, Middle East Policy, Jadaliyya, the Carnegie Middle East Center, and various edited volumes.
Shana Marshall is Associate Director of the Institute for Middle East Studies and Assistant Research Faculty member at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. She is an active member of several research collectives and projects, including the Middle East Research & Information Project, the Political Economy Project, and Security in Context. Her current research focuses on patterns of military entrepreneurship in Egypt, Jordan, and the UAE, as well as the intersection of militarization and finance capital. Prior to coming to George Washington University, Marshall was a research fellow at The Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University and the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University.
Marshall earned her PhD in International Relations and Comparative Politics of the Middle East at the University of Maryland in 2012. Her dissertation, “The New Politics of Patronage: The Arms Trade and Clientelism in the Arab World” examines how Middle East governments use arms sales agreements to channel financial resources and economic privileges to domestic pro-regime elites. Her work has been published by The Middle East Report (MERIP), The International Journal of Middle East Studies, Middle East Policy, Jadaliyya, the Carnegie Middle East Center, and various edited volumes.
Recent publications:
- “The Defense Industry’s Role in Militarizing US Foreign Policy,” Middle East Report 49(294), Summer 2020,
- “Middle East Armies and the Global Military-Industrial Complex,” in Joel Beinin, Bassam Haddad, and Sherene Seikaly (eds), A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa, Stanford University Press, December 2020,
- “Scholars, Spies and the Gulf Military Industrial Complex,” Middle East Report, September 2019.