Azim was awarded the Julia Montgomery Memorial Scholarship 2024-2025.
Azim Wazeer’s journey to becoming a DPhil candidate in Politics at the University of Oxford embodies the Canadian immigrant success story. Born in Sri Lanka and raised in Saudi Arabia, Azim’s path led him to Vancouver as an undergraduate, where he was a long-time resident and became deeply embedded in the local community, serving on the City’s Intercultural Advisory Committee and volunteering with a local boxing gym supporting underprivileged youth, among other diverse experiences.
More than a decade after leaving Saudi Arabia for Canada, the October 2018 Saudi-Canada diplomatic breakdown marked a turning point for Azim. Despite a varied career in real estate development and the post-secondary sector in Vancouver and Toronto, the October events elevated his latent interests in the ongoing, rapid changes in Saudi Arabia to something of an obsession. Subsequent incidents, like China’s detention of ‘the two Michaels’ and the assassination of a Sikh activist in Vancouver, revealed a broader, global trend: Canada becoming an attackable proxy for rising powers against ‘the West’. This realisation motivated his formal study of evolving self-perceptions driving unforeseen changes in the Saudi state and society that seem to inform the Kingdom’s new, aggressive posture abroad.
In that vein, Azim’s research explores how autocrats manage risk when pursuing changes amid newfound stability and how citizens respond. This research examines new aspects of authoritarian politics, looking beyond a traditional focus on election rigging and censorship. Intrigued by the complexities autocratic states face as they integrate into global markets and offer their societies greater access to the world, Azim aims to unpack how information is shaped, shared, and received by state and society in this new context. Using Saudi Arabia as his primary case study, he examines how the Kingdom maintains legitimacy during its Vision 2030 transformation while reducing material inducements and traditional appeals to its citizens. His work is relevant given increasing democratic backsliding globally and its implications for Canadian foreign policy.
Azim’s academic journey, including a BCom from the University of British Columbia and an MA in Arab Studies (Distinction) from Georgetown University, is complemented by his experience as a political risk consultant for the Eurasia Group. He was a co-convener of the Middle East Politics Seminar at St. Antony’s College and was recently appointed Stipendiary Lecturer in Politics at Trinity College, Oxford. His research has been presented at the British Society of Middle East Studies, the Gulf Research Meetings, and the American Political Science Association.
Azim’s work is supported by St. Antony’s College, a Doctoral Fellowship from SSHRC, and now the Canadian Centennial Scholarship Fund. Looking to the future, he aspires to a career as a political science professor in the Canadian post-secondary ecosystem where he can continue his research and shape future scholars and policymakers, contributing to Canada’s ability to craft effective foreign policy in a changing world.
