Philip Gater-Smith is a PhD candidate in International Political Economy at Durham University, United Kingdom. His research concerns the New Silk Roads and their geopolitical risks, especially China’s economic relations with the Gulf states. He has worked as a project manager at Durham’s Ustinov College and as a teaching assistant at Durham’s School of Government and International Affairs. He has also undertaken field research in the United Arab Emirates and contract work at Gulf State Analytics, the European Council on Foreign Relations and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Gater-Smith holds an MA in International Relations from Durham University and a BA in History and Arab-Islamic Culture from the University of Münster.