From Oil to AI: The Quest for Digital Autonomy in the Middle East
14 May 2026. From 18:30 | Conference | English | IEMed
The Persian Gulf’s major powers are racing toward technological sovereignty. However, the paths they have chosen are very different. While Saudi Arabia and the UAE invest very large amounts of money into global partnerships and AI infrastructure, Iran has turned knowledge itself into a revolutionary weapon, fusing science with ideology under the banner of “knowledge jihad”. The result is a region split between two competing visions: one that builds by connecting to the world, and one that builds by shutting it out. Live conflicts now put both models to the test. In this lecture, we will explore how these divergent knowledge development strategies took shape, what they reveal about each state’s relationship with technology and power, and why the fault lines between them are becoming one of the defining forces in regional geopolitics.
A lecture by Sara Bazoobandi, Researcher at the Institute for Security Policy, University of Kiel. She has been a a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, within the GeoEconomics Center. Previously, she was a researcher at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies and an associate professor of international political economy at Regent’s University London. She has also been a visiting professor at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore.
Throughout her career, she has worked as an economic analyst for various international business organizations, policy advisory institutions, and research centers. She has also participated in numerous initiatives and research projects on political, economic, and social issues in the Middle East and North Africa. In her research, she has addressed, among other topics, the diversification of Iran’s economy and the rise of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps within Iran’s political and economic systems. She currently focuses on the autocratic application of artificial intelligence, AI governance, cybersecurity, and cyber-enabled repression and influence operations.
She is the author of “Emerging Defence Technologies in the Middle East: Strategic Implications and Regional Security Dynamics”; “The Gulf Cooperation Council Countries’ Quest for Economic and Digital Transformation”; “Populism, Jihad, and Economic Resistance: Studying the Political Discourse of Iran’s Supreme Leader”; and “Iran’s Foreign Policy Making: Consensus Building or Power Struggle?” (with Jens Heibach and Thomas Richter).
Moderated by Olivia Glombitza, lecturer in International Relations, Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, UAB, this session of the Aula Mediterrània 2025-26 series is co-organised with the Master’s Degree in International Relations, Security and Development, UAB.
Speakers
Olivia Glombitza
Associate lecturer in International Relations UABOrganised by
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