Zaid Eyadat
Professor-in-Residence Political Science & Human Rights
Zaid Eyadat is a political scientist and Professor of Human Rights at the University of Jordan, with over ten years of experience in researching the democratization of the Middle East within the framework of game theory. His expertise lies in Middle East politics, with his current research focusing on human rights, conflict management and resolution, the democratization and politics in the Middle East, and Islamic politics. Through his membership in both governmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as international institutions, he has extensively contributed to the analysis and advancement of Middle East politics within a comparative and international framework, working extensively on legislation, policies, and procedures with the Jordanian government and NGOs. Some of his recent works include “The Rationality of Political Violence: Modeling Al-Qaeda vs. the United States” “Culture and Foreign Policy: an Explanatory Model. American Foreign Policy Post 9\11 and “The Calculus of Consensus: an Alternative Path to Arab Democracy.” Currently, he is finalizing a project on Islamic theorizing on politics and the state, the theory of ethics in Islam, as well as developing an explanatory model for the Arab revolutions.
Eyadat has been heavily involved in the sphere of higher education, as both an instructor and developer of university programs. He founded and currently chairs the Human Rights and Human Development Department in the School of International Studies at the University of Jordan. This program is the first of its kind in the Middle East and acts as a regional hub for human rights and human development disciplines, issues, research and academic activities. The basic philosophy of the department is to promote the culture of human rights in the region within the discipline of International Relations and seeks to strengthen the common ground between universalism and relativism in order to foster intercultural and cultural understanding.
As a political practitioner, Eyadat is directly involved in the political process, as he has worked with the Royal Hashemite Court in Jordan. Through this position, he has proposed, advanced, and evaluated public policies, in addition to analyzing political indicators related to the political structures and democratic processes in Jordan and the Middle East. He has also proposed alternative policies pertaining to foreign policy, youth, human rights, and high education. He is also focused on the role of religion, Islam specifically, in the Middle East and the corresponding relation between Islam and politics. As a member of the Steering Committee in the Center for Ethics and Global Politics, the International Research Network on Religion and Democracy, and the Istanbul Seminar, part of the Reset Group, Eyadat is working on a project that is concerned with the notion of “Modernizing Islamic Political Thought.” This project aims at providing new scientific interpretations of the basic texts in Islam through discourse and hermeneutic analysis that emphasizes the rational aspects of Islam as a religion and its natural compatibility to modernity and to the dialogue between the West and Islam.
Eyadat holds a Ph.D. and MA in Political Science (both with distinction) from the University of Southern California, an MA in Political Science (honors) and a BA in Political Science and Economics (honors) from the University of Jordan.
