Dr. Minas Lyristis is an Assistant Professor at the College of Security and Global Studies at the American University in the Emirates, specializing in International Relations, strategic studies, regional security, geopolitics, and foreign policy analysis. His scholarship focuses particularly on Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, the broader Middle East and North Africa, Southeastern Europe, and the Eastern Mediterranean. Drawing on Defensive Realism and contemporary approaches to strategic analysis, his work examines grand strategy, regime and national security, regional balancing, strategic hedging, proxy warfare, hybrid and emerging security threats, defence transformation, maritime geopolitics, trade and connectivity corridors, and the evolving role of state and non-state actors in an increasingly multipolar international system.
His research agenda is centred on Saudi Arabia’s strategic transformation, Vision 2030, Gulf security, multipolar regional orders, defence localization, and the intersection of geopolitics, technology, energy, and strategic connectivity. He is the author of the forthcoming Routledge monograph Saudi Arabia’s Grand Strategy in a Multipolar World: Vision 2030 and the New MENA Regional Order, published in the Routledge Research in Strategic Studies series. His wider scholarly work addresses Saudi strategic hedging, the Greece–Saudi Arabia strategic partnership, Gulf defence entrepreneurship, the Russia–Ukraine war and proxy-conflict dynamics, intelligence cooperation, maritime security, and major geopolitical connectivity initiatives linking Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. His research and policy analyses have appeared in academic journals and internationally recognized policy platforms, including the Journal of European and American Intelligence Studies, Studia Securitatis, MANARA Magazine of the Cambridge Middle East and North Africa Forum, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, and other specialist outlets in international relations, security, and strategic affairs.
Dr. Lyristis brings together academic scholarship, university teaching, policy research, strategic consultancy, and public governance. Before joining the American University in the Emirates, he served as an Academic Fellow and lecturer in the Department of Mediterranean Studies at the University of the Aegean, contributing to teaching and research in international relations, diplomacy, Mediterranean affairs, and Middle Eastern politics. His professional experience also extends beyond academia: he served as an elected Regional Councillor of the South Aegean Region in Greece, where he was involved in public administration, regional development, tourism policy, and strategic planning. This combination of scholarly and institutional experience informs his approach to contemporary geopolitical and security challenges and strengthens the policy relevance of his academic work.
He holds a Ph.D. with Distinction in International Relations from the University of the Aegean, where his doctoral research examined Saudi Arabia’s domestic and foreign policy, national security, regime survival, and the strategic significance of Vision 2030. He also holds an MSc in Geopolitical Analysis, Geostrategic Synthesis, and Defence and International Security Studies from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, as well as a bachelor’s degree from the University of the Aegean with specialization in International Relations and Organizations. His international academic experience includes Erasmus+ training at Ghent University, while his professional and scholarly affiliations have included the Hellenic Society of International Law and International Relations, the Center for Middle Eastern Policy Analysis (KEAMEP), Strategy International, and other research institutions. His distinctions include a Chinese Government Scholarship for participation in the Global South Think Tanks Dialogue, a Best Research Paper Award, and scholarship support from the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.