Bernard Haykel (born 1968)[1] is professor of Near Eastern Studies and the director of the Institute for Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia at Princeton University.
[2][3] He has been described as "the foremost secular authority on the Islamic State’s ideology" by journalist Graeme C.A.
After working as a post-doctoral research fellow at Oxford University in Islamic Studies, he joined New York University in 1998 as associate professor before taking up his post at Princeton.
[5] He is a member of the board of directors of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
[7] According to BBC News, Haykel speaks regularly to Mohammed bin Salman, the authoritarian ruler of Saudi Arabia.