Annelle Sheline, PhD, is a research fellow in the Middle East program. She previously served as a Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor’s Office of Near Eastern Affairs (DRL/NEA), before resigning in March 2024 in protest over the Biden administration’s unconditional support for Israeli military operations in Gaza.

Annelle is completing a book manuscript on religious authority in the Middle East, focused on the countries of Jordan, Morocco, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. She is a senior non-resident fellow the Arab Center of Washington DC, a non-resident fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, and an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University. She holds a PhD in political science from George Washington University.

She has written for Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, The Nation, Foreign Policy, and The New Republic, and has appeared on the BBC, CNN, CBS, and Al Jazeera.