Khalifa, Sheik Hamad bin Isa al- (1950– )

Emir (ruler) of Bahrain from 1999 and king of Bahrain from 2002. A career soldier, he was crown prince from 1964 and became emir of Bahrain in 1999 following the sudden death of his father, Sheik Isa bin Salman al-Khalifa. He played an important role in establishing and modernizing the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF), and had served as its commander-in-chief since its inception in 1968. He also served as Bahrain's first minister of defence 1971–88. As king, he has continued with his father's pro-western policies and introduced political reforms, including the release of all political prisoners, granting women the right to vote, and holding elections for parliament. He adopted the title King of Bahrain in February 2002. In 2002 he expressed opposition to ‘unilateral’ military action by the USA against Iraq.

Sheik Hamad's role in the crackdown on political protests by Bahrain's Shiite majority in 1994 was somewhat controversial. Many in the Shiite opposition saw him as a hardliner, with a reputation for keeping Shiites out of key BDF and other positions. But others saw him as more amenable to liberalization than his late father, or his uncle the prime minister, who had overall control of the internal security forces, the instrument for repressing the protest.

Born in Riffa, Bahrain, he studied English at a public school in Cambridge, England, and then military affairs at the Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, Hampshire 1967–68. He was decreed Crown Prince in 1964 and, on his return to Bahrain in 1968, set up the BDF in anticipation of British withdrawal from the Gulf in 1971, and headed the defence department. In 1972 he completed a course at the US Army's Command and Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; he also took other military courses in the USA and at Sandhurst, England, while taking charge of the development of the BDF.