Jill Crystal is the Curtis O. Liles III Professor of Political Science at Auburn University. She received her BA from Cornell University and MA and PhD from Harvard University. She is the author of numerous articles, chapters, and of two books on the Gulf: Oil and Politics in the Gulf: Rulers and Merchants in Kuwait and Qatar (Cambridge University Press) and Kuwait: The Transformation of an Oil State (Routledge)). Her research and teaching interests include Gulf politics, authoritarianism and democratization, policing, and political economy.