Baker is an international authority on the Arab and Islamic world.  The author of critically acclaimed studies of Islam and Arab societies, his most recent book, One Islam, Many Worlds of Muslims, Oxford University Press, 2015, is a comparative study of the roots of Islamic renewal, in particular within Egypt, Turkey, and Iran.  BookList cited it as one of the ten most important books in 2015 on religion and spirituality. 

A President Emeritus of the International Association of Middle East Studies, he is also a board member of the International Council for Middle East Studies, and founding member and director of the International Association of Contemporary Iraqi Studies.  He consults periodically for the State Department, the Department of Defense, USAID, and other government agencies and private foundations. 

In teaching and research, Baker employs a pragmatic, inquiry-based approach, focusing on questions and the use of logic and persuasiveness of evidence to answer them, while at the same time stressing the relationships between the theoretical and the practical.

Publications:

• Baker, Raymond W. One Islam, Many Worlds of Muslims. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2015.
• Baker, Raymond W. Islam Without Fear: Egypt and the New Islamists. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, September 2004.
• Baker, Raymond W. Sadat and After: Struggles for Egypt's Political Soul. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, August 1990.
• Baker, Raymond W. Egypt's Uncertain Revolution Under Nasser and Sadat. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1978.

Selected Consulting and Research Monographs:

• Baker, Raymond W. ‘Civil Society’ in Egypt:  Concept and Social Realities. Program on Governance and Democracy, USAID, August 1992.
• Baker, Raymond W., and Alan Richards. Political Economy Review of Egypt. Program on Governance and Democracy, USAID, May-July 1992.
• Baker, Raymond W. External Factors Affecting Soviet Foreign Policy:  The Muslim World.  Georgetown Center for International and Strategic Studies, April 1983.
• Baker, Raymond W., and Alvin Rubinstein. Force, Power, Projection: The Middle East.  Pacific Sierra Corporation, October, 1982.

Selected Articles and  Book chapters:

• Baker, Raymond W.  “The Paradox of Islam’s Future.” In Religion, Democracy, and Politics in the Middle East, edited by Daniel Byman and Marlena Mantas, New York: The Academy of Political Science, 2012.
• Baker, Raymond W. “Islam at the Edge of Chaos: Building the World in a Global Age.” In Religion, Social Practice, and Contested Hegemonies: Reconstruction the public Sphere in Muslim Majority Societies, edited by Armando Salvatore and Mark Levine. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
• Baker, Raymond W. "Screening Islam: Terrorism, American Jihad, and the New Islamists." Arab Studies Quarterly, 25, no. 1-2 (Winter/Spring 2003).
• Baker, Raymond W. Egypt in the Space and Time of Globalism, in Globalization: Policies, Challenges, and Responses. Edited by Shereen T. Ismael. Calgary, Canada: Deltselig Enterprises, 1999.

• Carnegie Fellow in Islamic Studies, 2006-2008.
• 1970-2016 research fellowships and awards from the National Science Foundation; Ford Foundation (twice); Earhart Foundation; Mellon Foundation, Johnson Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities (four times).