Shana R. Marshall
Shana R. Marshall
Assistant Research Professor of International Affairs; Associate Director of the Institute for Middle East Studies
Full-time Faculty
Department: International Affairs
Contact:
1957 E St. NW, Office #512F
Washington, D.C. 20052
Shana Marshall is Associate Director of the Institute for Middle East Studies and Assistant Research Professor of International Affairs. She is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute, a member of the Forum on the Arms Trade network and co-leads the working group on Transnational War Economies with the Security in Context project. Dr. Marshall earned her PhD from the University of Maryland-College Park, and prior to joining GW held fellowships at The Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University and the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University.
Middle East Political Economy, Global Arms Industry, Militarized Tech
Dr. Marshall’s primary research interests include the global military industrial complex, US foreign policy, and the political economy of militaries in the Middle East. Her current research examines the role of private equity and venture capital in the expansion and transformation of weapons production.
Ph.D., University of Maryland
IAFF 6378 Political Economy of the Middle East
PSC 6377 Comparative Politics of the Middle East
“In Silicon Valley, Hegseth is just one link in the brave new kill chain” Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft; https://responsiblestatecraft.org/defense-tech-silicon-valley/; February 2026
“New Directions in the Arms Trade: Multipolarity and the Rise of the South” in Routledge Handbook of Defense Economics, forthcoming (with Omar Dahi)
“The Role of the Gulf States in Expanded Weapons Production in the Global South” PRISME (Pathways to Renewed and Inclusive Security in the Middle East); https://prismeinitiative.org/blog/role-gulf-states-expanded-weapons-production-global-south-shana-marshall/; Fall 2024
“20 unhinged comments heard at an AI conference in DC” Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft; https://responsiblestatecraft.org/military-ai/; June 5, 2024
“How Venture Capital is Busting the Military Industrial Complex – for its own benefit” Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft; https://responsiblestatecraft.org/venture-capital-military-industrial-complex/; January 15, 2024
“The Military Industrial Venture Capital Complex” Security in Context Policy Paper 23-03. December 2023, https://www.securityincontext.com/posts/the-military-industrial-venture-capital-complex
“The Defense Industry’s Role in Militarizing US Foreign Policy,” Middle East Report, Summer 2020. https://merip.org/2020/06/the-defense-industrys-role-in-militarizing-us-foreign-policy/
“Middle East Armies and the Global Military-Industrial Complex,” in Joel Beinin, Bassam Haddad, and Sherene Seikaly (eds), A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa, Stanford University Press, December 2020. https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29753
“Egypt’s Emerging Ruling Class,” Carnegie Endowment, 26 October 2020.
“The Defense Industry’s Role in Militarizing US Foreign Policy” Middle East Report 49(294), Summer 2020.
“Middle East Armies and the Global Military-Industrial Complex,” in Joel Beinin, Bassam Haddad, and Sherene Seikaly (eds), A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa, Stanford University Press, December 2020.
“Two Paths to Dominance: Military Businesses in Turkey and Egypt” with Ismet Akca and Zeinab Abul-Magd for the Carnegie Endowment’s Civil-Military Relations in Arab States (CMRAS) project.
“Scholars, Spies and the Gulf Military Industrial Complex,” Middle East Report, September 2019.
“Jordan’s Military-Industrial Sector: Maintaining Institutional Prestige in the Era of Neoliberalism.” In Grawert, Elke and Zeinab Abul-Magd (eds) April 2016. Businessmen in Arms. How the Military and Other Armed Groups Profit in the MENA Region. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
“Indigenous Military Production in the UAE and Saudi Arabia and the Rise of Gulf Military Activism,” September 2016. In Armies and Insurgencies in the Arab Spring. Holger Albrecht, Aurel Croissant, and Fred Lawson (eds.). University of Pennsylvania Press.
“The Egyptian Armed Forces and the Re-Making of an Economic Empire,” 15 April 2015. Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“Partners in Profiteering: Defense Firms and Diplomats in Post-Revolutionary Egypt.” 24 July 2013. Jadaliyya
“Cashing in After the Coup: US Military Aid to Egypt and Defense Industry Profits.” 17 July 2013. The Middle East Channel, ForeignPolicy.com
“Jordan’s Military-Industrial Complex and the Middle East’s New Model Army.” June 2013. The Middle East Report. 43(267): 42-45.
“The New Politics of Patronage: The Arms Trade and Clientelism in the Arab World.” 8 November 2012. Crown Center Working Paper, No. 4. Brandeis University. www.brandeis.edu/crown/publications/wp/wp4.html
“Why the U.S. won’t cut military aid to Egypt.” 29 February 2012. The Middle East Channel, ForeignPolicy.com
“Egypt’s Generals and Transnational Capital.” Co-authored with Joshua Stacher. Spring 2012. The Middle East Report. 42(262): 12-18.
“Egypt’s Other Revolution: Modernizing the Military-Industrial Complex.” 10 February 2012. Jadaliyya
“The Modernization of Bribery: The Arms Trade in the Arab Gulf.” 23 December 2010. Jadaliyya.
“Money for Nothing? Offsets in the US-Middle East Defense Trade.” November 2009. International Journal of Middle East Studies. 41(4): 51-53.