Welcome! I am Dana Abu-Haltam, a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
My research focuses on international security, relations, and political economy, with an emphasis on how great power competition, particularly the U.S.-China rivalry, shapes the foreign policy behavior of countries in the MENA region. Specifically, I examine the effects of foreign aid, trade dependence, military leverage, regional threats, and public opinion.
My dissertation investigates the behavior of MENA countries in response to U.S.-China competition, with case studies on Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, and Egypt. My research employs qualitative methods, including fieldwork interviews conducted in Jordan during the summer of 2024.
Additionally, I study China’s rise as a great power, particularly through its use of Chinese Strategic Partnerships (CSP). For this research, I collected original data on CSPs and applied time-series quantitative data analysis (using Stata) to explore the selection and effectiveness of China’s choice of partners.
Feel free to reach me at: dabuhalt@vols.utk.edu
