Dr. Paola Maria Raunio is an Assistant Professor of Homeland Security at Rabdan Academy.
Dr. Raunio previously worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations at the University of Sharjah, UAE and as a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Department of Philosophy, Contemporary History and Political Science at the University of Turku, Finland.
Her teaching experience includes undergraduate and post-graduate courses in intelligence and counter-intelligence, homeland security, terrorism and counter-terrorism, transnational organized crime and other related topics. Her research interests include Iran, Gulf security and American foreign policy making in the Middle East.
• PhD in International Relations, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland, UK, 2014
• MA in Near and Middle Eastern Studies, SOAS, London, UK, 2008
• MA Honours in International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK, 2007.
• Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence
• Transnational Organized Crime
• Homeland Security
• Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism
• Iran
• U.S. – Middle East relations
• Regional security of the GCC
• ‘The Qatar Crisis: The Regionalization of Insecurity? in Kristian Alexander and William Guéraiche (Eds.), Facets of Security in the United Arab Emirates (Routledge), 2022.
• The Islamic State and the threat of terrorism in the twenty-first century Finland. Security Studies Anthology, Vol. IX (in Finnish). 2016.
• ‘Authoritarian Resilience and International Linkages in Iran and Syria’ in Steve Heydemann and Reinoud Leenders (Eds.) Middle Eastern Authoritarianism: Governance, Contestation and Regime Resilience in Syria and Iran (Stanford, Stanford University Press). 2013.
