Reza Pankhurst spent time between 2002 and 2006 in jail as a political prisoner in Egypt. Upon his return to the UK he entered academia, achieving a distinction in his Masters degree before beginning doctoral research which he completed in 2011 at the London School of Economics, with his thesis being accepted on examination without any need for corrections. His work has been published in academic journals and he has presented numerous papers in seminars and conferences. He has appeared on panels with Dr. Patrick Seale, Sir David Blatherwick, Dr. Kemal Helbawy, Karl Sharro and Brendan O’Neill amongst others. He is also a contributing writer on Foreign Policy Journal.