Ports, Power, and Sovereignty

I am a Sudanese scholar whose intellectual journey has been shaped by the contested histories, political struggles, and enduring legacies of empire in Sudan and the wider Red Sea region. My work is driven by a fascination with how power travels across borders, how empires reinvent themselves, and how communities navigate, challenge, and reshape the forces that define their political futures. 

My academic journey has taken me from electrical engineering in Khartoum to a master's degree in Statecraft and National Security Affairs at The Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C., and a Ph.D. in International Studies from the University of Washington. Bridging engineering, strategic studies, and critical international relations, I bring an interdisciplinary perspective to questions of technology, infrastructure, power, and warfare. I currently teach at the University of Washington and Seattle University.

My scholarship explores the intersections of empire, infrastructure, technology, and political violence. I examine ports as gateways to global trade, as well as strategic spaces where commerce, imperial ambitions, and military power converge. My research on port imperialism, grounded in extensive fieldwork across the Red Sea region, investigates how states, corporations, and armed actors reshape sovereignty, regional security, and the geography of conflict. My work also engages emerging technologies of warfare, particularly drones, and their implications for contemporary conflicts.

Beyond academia, I am the founder and director of the Red Sea Initiative, where I connect scholarship with public dialogue and policy debates. My research and analysis have appeared in academic publications and outlets such as  African Arguments, War on the Rocks, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and World Politics Review. I have contributed commentary to international media, including the BBC and Deutsche Welle.

At the heart of my work is a commitment to decolonizing how Africa and the Red Sea are studied and understood. I seek to move beyond narratives that reduce these regions to arenas of geopolitical competition, centering instead the voices, knowledge, and political agency of the people who inhabit them.