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Dr. Muqtedar Khan is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware. He was the Academic Director of the State Department’s National Security Institute (2016-2019) and is the Academic Director of the American Foreign Policy Institute at the University of Delaware (2019-2022. He was a senior non-resident fellow of the Brookings Institution (2003-2008), a fellow of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University (2006-2007), and a fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (2001-2016). He was a senior fellow with the Center for Global Policy (2016-2020) and is a Nonresident Scholar with the Newlines Institute. Dr. Khan earned his Ph.D. in International Relations, Political Philosophy, and Islamic Political Thought from Georgetown University in May 2000. He founded the Islamic Studies Program at the University of Delaware and was its first director from 2007-2010.

As an expert on governance, Islam and American foreign policy, he has lectured and trained scholars, students, elected leaders and policy makers in the U.S., Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Finland, Germany, UK, France, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, India, Ireland, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Singapore, Canada, Argentina and Belgium. His most recent book is, - Islam and Good Governance: Political Philosophy of Ihsan, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). He is also the author of: American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom (Amana, 2002), Jihad for Jerusalem: Identity and Strategy in International Relations (Praeger, 2004), Islamic Democratic Discourse (Lexington Books, 2006), and Debating Moderate Islam: The Geopolitics of Islam and the West (University of Utah Press, 2007). Dr. Khan is a frequent commentator in the international media. His articles and commentaries can be found at www.ijtihad.org. His research can be found here, tweets @Muqtedarkhan and he hosts a YouTube show called Khanversations.

Where do you see the most exciting research/debates happening in your field?   

This is a difficult question to answer. I have never been confined to a single discipline. My current research is on India’s Grand Strategy and the vector of its political and economic development. I am particularly concerned about the emergence of a Hindu Rashtra and its impact on India’s democracy and the well-being of its minorities. The key questions in this area are about India’s strategic alignment and how its relationships with the US and China progress. My book before this current research was Islam and Good Governance. It explored the role of Sufism and Islam’s mystical values in advancing a vision of values based good governance that is democratic, inclusive, and attentive to national virtue as much as national interest. The debates in this area are about the role of Islam in the public sphere, the compatibility of Islam and democracy, and the modes of Islamic governance. Scholars and activists are both  seeking to define an Islamic state that can address Muslim needs in contemporary times. Prior to that I was working on Islamic movements and US foreign policy in the Muslim World. This field continues to examine and explore the role of Islamists in Muslim politics and the emergence of violent extremism in the forms of Al Qaeda and Daesh. My first book was about American Muslims and their struggle to balance faith and freedom. I engaged in several debates that Muslims in the West are having about citizenship, democracy, gender equality and freedom. My dissertation, which was published under the title Jihad for Jerusalem, was about modifying constructivism to recognize that when core interests were not at stake, states would act rationally, but when their core values were at stake their choices would be shaped by their identity. The book seeks to bridge the divide between rationalism and reflectivism in international relations. I will continue to write about governance, values, Islamic enlightenment and reform even as I venture into new areas of research. I am driven by my own intellectual interests and not by disciplinary or paradigmatic debates.

How has the way you understood the world changed over time, and what (or who) prompted the most significant shifts in your thinking?

My understanding of social theory is influenced by Anthony Giddens’ theory of structuration, and it underpins my constructivist preferences. I have also learnt a lot from Michel Foucault’s work........

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