Dr Simon A. Waldman is Lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies at the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies at King’s College London. He obtained his MA and PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from King's College London, having earlier read Politics and Sociology at Brunel University. Simon’s research focuses on international diplomacy towards the Middle East, statebuilding and leadership in the region, Turkish history and politics, Kurdish history and politics and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is the head of the Turkish Studies Research Group at King’s College London. Simon’s latest book is Anglo –American Diplomacy and the Palestinian Refugee Problem (Palgrave MacMillan), and he is the co-author of the forthcoming The New Turkey and its Discontents (Hurst and Oxford University Press, 2016). Simon has taught a wide range of university courses and modules at undergraduate and postgraduate level including A History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, The International Relations of the Middle East and State Builders, Revolutionaries and Reactionaries: Makers of the Contemporary Middle East.