Toms Ratfelders is a researcher specialising in international relations of the Middle East. His area of focus lie in the Gulf region and in a study of the foreign policies of the small GCC monarchies (especially Qatar and Oman). He is also interested in the Russian foreign policy in the region and both the material and cognitive aspects surrounding it.
Toms holds a master’s degree in the Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia security studies from the University of St. Andrews (UK) and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations – European Studies from the Riga Stradins University (Latvia). He currently studies for a PhD in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware (USA). Toms has a substantial professional experience in journalism, having worked for 3 years for one of the largest online news media outlets in Latvia – TVNET. He is also a former civil servant in the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he helped to facilitate bilateral relations between Latvia and the Gulf states. Toms’s passion is education, which he puts to use when teaching courses on international relations of the Middle East at the Riga Stradins University and serving as a teaching assistant at the University of Delaware.