Dr Hamdy A. Hassan is a Professor of Political Science at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zayed University. He earned his PhD in Comparative Politics from Cairo University and the University of Maryland (1990). He has served as a visiting professor at (among others) Leiden University, Deakin University, and Al-Bait University and currently serves as a Country Expert on Comoros and Tanzania for Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) at the University of Gothenburg.