Dr. Hussam Hussein is a Fellow of the International Science Council, a senior researcher in environmental politics based in Jordan, and a research associate in international relations at the University of Oxford, having previously been a Fulford Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College and Oxford Martin Fellow. His research focuses on the role of discourses in shaping water policies in the Middle East, transboundary water governance and critical hydropolitics, and issues related to the political economy of environmental governance.
Dr Hussein has held fellowships at the American University of Beirut, at the University of Kassel , at the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on “Cities of Tomorrow”, and is currently fellow of the Young Academy of Sustainability at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) and member of the Executive Committee (2023-2025) of the Global Young Academy.
He obtained his PhD degree from the School of International Development, University of East Anglia with a thesis investigating the discourse of water scarcity in the case of Jordan, and its impacts on transboundary water governance. His fieldwork has been funded by the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), the Arab Council for Social Sciences (ACSS), and by the Royal Geographical Society (RGS).
He obtained his BA and MA in International Relations and Diplomacy from the University of Trieste – Gorizia (Italy), he studied Middle Eastern Studies at SOAS, University of London, and obtained an MA in Interdisciplinary European Studies from the College of Europe.
In addition to his academic career, he worked on issues of sustainable development and environmental governance for the Italian Embassy in Jordan, the European Parliament, the International Finance Corporation – World Bank, UNICEF WASH Jordan, the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), and as Executive Director at the Royal Scientific Society of Jordan and as Acting Director of the WANA (West Asia and North Africa) Institute.
Research
His research focuses on:
- Hydropolitics (transboundary water governance, conflict and cooperation over shared water resources)
- Role of discourses and narratives in IR
- Construction of (water) scarcities
- Climate change politics
- Environment and Climate Change
