Dr. Sultan Barakat, Professor at the College of Public Policy (CPP), directed a workshop as part of the 12th Gulf Research Meeting (GRM) held at the University of Cambridge from July 13-16, and organized by the Jeddah-based Gulf Research Center. Professor Enas S. Al-Eisa, President of Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, delivered the keynote address.

The workshop theme was 'Gulf State Donors Across the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus' and aimed to advance knowledge and foster connections between academic communities concerned with Gulf states in humanitarian policy, development/foreign aid, and peace/security. 

Dr. Barakat’s contributions included a paper titled “Gulf States and Peacebuilding: Key Characteristics, Dynamics, and Opportunities”, in which he presented the findings of research commissioned by the University of New York’s Center on International Cooperation (CIC). He considered the emergent peacebuilding roles and practices of the Gulf States from a comparative perspective and highlighted key issues and dilemmas. He argued that Gulf states should continue to invest in deepening their own societal capacities for peacebuilding, noting that Qatar has made the largest strides in investing in relevant national capacities.