Member Profile

KAPSARC School of Public Policy

About KSPP:

The KAPSARC School of Public Policy (KSPP) was established in 2024 as the first institution in Saudi Arabia dedicated to graduate education and executive education in public policy. Advancing world-class education and research to develop impactful public policy leaders for global progress, KSPP equips current and future leaders with the analytical and leadership skills needed to address complex policy challenges. Its flagship offering is a two-year Master of Public Policy (MPP) program with concentrations in Public Sector Management and Leadership, Data Analytics, and Energy and Climate Policy. KSPP also delivers executive education programs in public policy, leadership, economics, and finance for professionals across the public and private sectors.

About the Master of Public Policy Program:

The KSPP’s Master of Public Policy is a two-year, full-time program that aims to enable and empower future policy leaders and professionals within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and globally by equipping them with the analytical and leadership skills needed to address the most pressing domestic and international public policy challenges. The inaugural cohort successfully graduated from the MPP program in the summer of 2026.

The program comprises 13 courses totaling 42 credit hours. The core courses combine full-semester courses, application-based short courses, and a capstone project. Students have the opportunity to choose one of three concentration areas and two elective courses or a research thesis.

The program offers three specialized concentration areas that enable students to tailor their studies to their professional interests and career aspirations: Public Sector Management and Leadership, focusing on governance, leadership, and institutional performance; Data Analytics, equipping students with quantitative and analytical tools for evidence-informed policymaking; and Energy and Climate Policy, addressing the policy dimensions of energy systems, sustainability, and the global energy transition.

Degree Programs

Master of Public Policy

KAPSARC School of Public Policy In The World

Faculty

Slobodian Discusses AI, Democracy, and Silicon Valley in ‘The Guardian’

Quinn Slobodian, Pardee Professor of International History and author of Muskism (2026), was recently featured in a piece titled “Democracy blindsides Silicon Valley’s power players looking to transform the world with AI”, by Eduardo Porter for The Guardian, discussing the growing public backlash against artificial intelligence infrastructure and what it reveals about the relationship between technology, power, and democracy. In an article examining opposition to the rapid expansion of AI data centers across the United States, Slobodian argued that public skepticism is more than a reaction to local development projects, but part of a broader concern about who gets to shape the future of society....

Faculty

Hare Examines the Diplomatic Fallout of the Trump-Venezuela Oil Agreement

In a recent commentary for the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, Paul Webster Hare, Master Lecturer and former British ambassador to Cuba, analyzes the implications of a controversial oil agreement between the Trump administration and Venezuela’s interim government led by Delcy Rodríguez, who assumed her role after the United States’ removal of Nicolás Maduro from power on January 3, 2026. Hare argues that the deal marks a dramatic departure from decades of public diplomacy on both sides....

Faculty

Verschuren Explores Why International Defense Collaborations Often Fail

Sanne Verschuren, Assistant Professor of International Security at the Pardee School of Global Studies, has published a new article in the Journal of Strategic Studies on September 21, 2026, examining an enduring puzzle in international security: why states repeatedly pursue collaborative military technology projects despite their frequent failures. In her article,“Why interstate arms collaborations fail: The commitment-implementation paradox in the context of NATO BMD,” Verschuren argues that many multinational defense initiatives contain the very conditions that ultimately undermine their success....