Primoz Manfreda is a researcher and political risk analyst, advising clients on political and economic trends in the Middle East. His love affair with the Middle East started with backpacking trips in 2001, and continued through studies, professional work and living experience in the region.
Experience:
After finishing his studies in the UK in 2007, Primoz left for Damascus, Syria, where he spent a year learning Arabic and working as a freeelance journalist. Apart from battling the Syrian dialect, Damascus was an invaluable experience of a Middle Eastern country undergoing profound social and economic change that later led to the "Arab Spring" in 2011.
Returning to London, Primoz started working as a regular contributor to a leading US provider of global political risk services. He produces reports on political developments in the Middle East with a forecast on likely future trends, and has covered almost every country in the Levant, the Gulf and North Africa.
Primoz also spent two years as an analyst at a UK think-tank, conducting research on security and development in southern Afghanistan, and co-managing youth employment programs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In 2011 he worked in Dubai, UAE, where he was involved in several youth-related projects in cooperation with local government agencies.
Education:
Primoz received an MA in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the London University. Majoring in Middle Eastern politics and society, he wrote a thesis on Shiite political parties in contemporary Iraq.
From Primoz Manfreda:
When I first moved to the Middle East I was amazed by the variety of people's lifestyles and the diversity of local culture, which was only rarely captured in the news stories. I hope that through this site you will get a sense of how this diversity informs regional politics.
My approach to this site is to provide you with enough information on the changing face of the Middle East to be able to make sense of the torrent of news coming from the region.
Following the events in the Middle East has rarely been so fascinating. Stop by often, and hopefully you will be inspired to learn more about the region.
http://middleeast.about.com/b/2013/01/21/al-qaeda-in-syria-al-nusra-front.htm