Nawaf Obaid

Nawaf Essam Ahmad Obaid (Arabic: نواف عصام احمد عبید) is an author, academic, philanthropist and a former Saudi Arabian government advisor. He currently serves as the CEO of the Essam & Dalal OBAID Foundation (EDOF) in Geneva, Switzerland. Obaid is also a Commissioner at the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) and a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London.

Nawaf Obaid
نواف عبید
Born
Nawaf Essam Ahmad Obaid
Alma materGeorgetown University

Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

University of London (King’s College)
Known forWriter, academic, diplomat

Background

Nawaf Obaid's family originate from Yanbu Al Nakhl in the Madinah Province of Saudi Arabia. They are second cousins to the Filali Alawi royal family in Morocco.

He is a grandson of Sayyid Ahmad Mohammed Obaid, the Kingdom's first agricultural chief under Saudi Arabia's founding monarch, King Abdulaziz.

Sayyid Ahmad Obaid was also the communications battlefield coordinator to the Saudi military campaign in Yemen that culminated in the Treaty of Taif in 1934 that officially incorporated Jizan, Asir, and Najran into modern Saudi Arabia. He is widely credited for introducing the modern printing press into the Kingdom in the 1950s by launching Al Riyadh Magazine.

Nawaf Obaid's eldest uncle, Taher Ahmad Obaid, served as the Deputy Agriculture Minister during the time of King Faisal bin Abdulaziz. And his second Uncle, Dr. Ibrahim Ahmad Obaid, served as the Deputy PTT Minister during the time of King Fahad bin Abdulaziz.

He's also a nephew of Dr. Thoraya Obaid, the former United Nations Undersecretary for Population Affairs and former Executive Director of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

He has two brothers: Tarek Essam Ahmad Obaid is the Co-Founder and CEO of PetroSaudi International and Karim Essam Ahmad Obaid is the Director of Edelweiss Holdings.

Education

– International Baccalaureate, Humanities; International School of Geneva, 1982–1993.

– BS, International Relations; Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, 1994–1996.

– MPP, International Security & Political Economy; John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, 1996–1998.

– PhD, Political Science (Security Studies); Department of Political Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000–2001 (coursework completed).

– MA & PhD, War Studies; War Studies Department at King's College London, 2010–2013.

Career

Public career

Obaid started his public career in February 2003 by being named as a Special Advisor for Strategic Communications to the Saudi Ambassador to the UK and then to the US. Based between London and Washington DC, he held the position until December 2006.[1] Then, in February 2007, he became a Special Advisor to the President of Citizens Affairs at the Saudi Royal Court, based between Riyadh and Jeddah. Leaving that position in January 2011, he shortly thereafter became the Counselor for Foreign Media Affairs to the Saudi Minister of Culture and Information in Riyadh. In May 2011 he became the Counselor to the Saudi Ambassador to the UK.[2] He held this position until January 2016.

In 2006, Obaid was fired from the staff of Prince Turki Al Faisal, then Saudi Ambassador to the United States, for publishing an opinion piece[3] in the Washington Post "contending that 'one of the first consequences' of an American pullout of Iraq would 'be massive Saudi intervention to stop Iranian-backed Shiite militias from butchering Iraqi Sunnis.'"[4] The article also suggested that the Kingdom could cut oil prices in half, which "would be devastating to Iran."[5] While the Saudi government disavowed the piece and Prince Al Faisal cancelled his contract as a result, "Arab diplomats said...that Mr. Obaid's column reflected the view of the Saudi government, which has made clear its opposition to an American pullout from Iraq."[6]

From September 2014 up to the present, Obaid has also served as CEO of the Essam and Dalal Obaid Foundation (EDOF), based in Geneva, Switzerland.[7] EDOF was founded by Obaid and his two brothers to honour the humanitarian legacy of their parents. EDOF supports organizations that are doing important work in the fields of medical research and social progress in order to help them fulfill their already proven track record of success. Some of the projects that EDOF has supported include initiatives with the Mayo Clinic, the CNN Freedom Project, and the International Committee of the Red Cross,[8] among others. EDOF also funded the creation of the Essam and Dalal Obaid Center for Reconstructive Transplant Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.[9]

Since April 2018, Obaid has been a Commissioner at the Commission for International Justice & Accountability (CIJA). CIJA is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation dedicated to conducting criminal investigations during armed conflict and analysing evidence of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. CIJA is apolitical and carries out its investigative activities independently from any government. Through its work CIJA provides support for local police forces, war crimes and counterterrorism investigations, and countering violent extremism (CVE) programmes.[10]

CIJA has been especially implicated in the Syrian civil war. Since 2012, CIJA Investigators have smuggled more than a million government documents out of Syria, many of them from top secret intelligence facilities. “The documents are brought to the group’s headquarters, in a nondescript office building in Western Europe, sometimes under diplomatic cover. There, each page is scanned, assigned a bar code and a number, and stored underground. A dehumidifier hums inside the evidence room; just outside, a small box dispenses rat poison.”[11]

The so called “Assad Files” have allowed CIJA investigators and criminal lawyers to capture top secret intelligence and security reports and tie the Syrian regime to mass torture and killings, and crimes against humanity.[12]

Academic career
  • June 2020 - Present | Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the War Studies Department at King's College, University of London.
  • April 2017 – August 2018 | Inaugural Visiting Fellow for Intelligence and Defense Projects at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.[13]
  • March 2017 | Co-founded the Saudi & GCC Security Project at The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University.[14]
  • September 2012 – April 2017 | Visiting Fellow and Adjunct Lecturer Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.[15]
  • January 2008 – January 2016 | Senior Fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh.[16]
  • May 2004 – January 2007 | Adjunct Fellow for the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC.[17]
  • January 1999 – January 2000 | Research Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) in Washington DC.[18]

Selected publications
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References
  1. "Saudi Arabia's Emerging New Strategic Doctrine". Brandeis University.
  2. "Egypt no friend of the Gulf say prominent Saudis". Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
  3. Obaid, Nawaf (29 November 2006). "Nawaf Obaid – Stepping into Iraq". ISSN 0190-8286.
  4. Cooper, Helene. "Saudis Say They Might Back Sunnis if U.S. Leaves Iraq".
  5. Obaid, Nawaf (29 November 2006). "Nawaf Obaid – Stepping into Iraq". ISSN 0190-8286.
  6. Cooper, Helene. "Saudis Say They Might Back Sunnis if U.S. Leaves Iraq".
  7. "Saudis, Russians and Italians: the murky world of Joseph Mifsud". Al-bab.com.
  8. Org, EDOF. "Essam and Dalal Obaid Foundation Partners with the International Committee of the Red Cross". PR Newswire. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
  9. "Dov'è Joseph Mifsud, il prof. del Russiagate?". Il Foglio (in Italian).
  10. "The Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA)". BIRN. 18 December 2018.
  11. Taub, Ben. "Exposing Assad's War Crimes". The New Yorker.
  12. "Shame on the Arabs". Foreign Policy.
  13. "Nawaf Obaid". Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
  14. "Saudi & GCC Security Project Series". Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
  15. "Obaid joins Belfer Center as visiting fellow". Harvard Gazette. 29 June 2012.
  16. wgunning. "Nawaf Obaid". Al-Monitor.
  17. "National Security in Saudi Arabia". Center for Strategic and International Studies.
  18. "Nawaf Obaid". The Washington Institute.
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