As part of a continuing series of events to mark our 30th anniversary, the Centre for Lebanese Studies, together with the European Council on Foreign Relations’s MENA programme, are delighted to invite you to an interactive dinner talk with Ambassador Tom Fletcher on Thursday 10th December 2015 at 7:30 for 8PM. The event will be…
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يسر مركز الدراسات اللبنانية والجامعة الامريكية في بيروت قسم العلوم الاجتماعية دعوتكم لحضور مقهى السوسيولوجيا الشهري موضوع الشهر النقابات في لبنان: حراك وطني واجتماعي؟ حنا غريب غسان صليبي تشرين الثاني ٢٩ الساعة السادسة المكان: قهوة ة في شارع الحمراء المحاضرة في اللغة العربية The Centre for Lebanese Studies and the American University in Beirut, Department…
Read articleThe talk was about Bowen’s book on the Arab-Israeli 1967 war and his perspective on the current situation. Jeremy Bowen has been Special Correspondent for BBC news since March 2003. He was previously the BBC ME Correspondent and has covered conflicts in over 70 countries throughout the world. Jeremy has won a number of awards…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The events of September 11th and the consequences’. The late Sir Marrack Goulding was Warden of St Antony’s College and former UN Under Secretary General.
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The Middle East peace process: where do we go from here’. Mr. Michael Binyon is leader writer for the Times and former Diplomatic correspondent for the Times from 1991-2000.
Read articleTalk entitled ‘Means versus ends: how to combat terrorism in the Middle East’. Dr Rosemary Hollis is head of the Middle East Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House).
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The Middle East Peace Process: From breakthrough to breakdown’. Mr Afif Safieh was head of the Palestinian diplomatic delegation to the United Kingdom, the US and Russia.
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The Palestinian-Israeli conflict: what next?’. Avi Shlaim is Professor of International Relations at St Antony’s College, Oxford University and the author of the highly acclaimed book ‘The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World’ (Penguin, 2000). He is also a frequent contributor to newspapers (most recently the International Herald Tribune and the Guardian)…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘War crimes and the future of the Middle East: building on International Law’. Mr. Mallat is a lawyer at the Beirut bar and holds the Jean Monnet Chair in European Law at St Joseph’s University in Lebanon. He is also Amnesty International’s lawyer for the Middle East Regional Office which he helped establish…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The United States and the Arabs -friendly regimes and angry populations’. Dr Yamani is a specialist in social, political and human rights issues in the Arab states, as well as on women and Islam. She is currently Associate Fellow in the Middle East Programme of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House)…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘September 11 and the War on Terrorism: consequences for US policy in the region, including Iraq’. Mr. Halliday is Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science since 1983. He is a former chairman of the Research Committee of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and is a…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘Civil and uncivil violence in Lebanon: a discussion on political violence and post-war reconstruction and rehabilitation’. Samir Khalaf is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Behavioral Research at the American University of Beirut. Probably Lebanon’s best-known Sociologist, Professor Khalaf has also held academic appointments at Princeton, as a Fulbright Scholar…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The future role of UN peacekeeping in South Lebanon post the Israeli withdrawal, and the challenges that lie ahead for the UN both in Lebanon and the Middle East’. The late Sir was Warden at St Antony’s College, Oxford University, and former Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs and Peace-keeping Operations at the United…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘Current events in the Middle East: the impending war against Iraq and prospects for US-Arab relations’. Former US Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East and South Asia from 1983 to 1989 in the Reagan administration, and also served as US Ambassador to Syria (1974 to 1978), Saudi Arabia and the Philippines.…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The current crisis in the Middle East, the deterioration in US-Arab relations and the implications for Lebanon and the region’. Mr Tueni is one of Lebanon’s foremost statesmen and political writers. He is also the publisher and editor of Lebanon’s An-Nahar, one of the Arab world’s most credible and authoritative daily newspapers (established…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The current situation in the Middle East, as the region braces itself for a potential new war’. Glass, the world famous veteran journalist and reporter lived in Lebanon from 1972 to 1976 and again from 1983 to the end of 1984, was the Chief Middle East correspondent for ABC News from 1983 to…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The Bush Doctrine and Its Implications for US Foreign Policy’. Mr Polk was a member of the Policy Planning Council of the US Department of State. He then became Professor of History and founding Director of the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago, and the President of the Adlai…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘An assessment of economic and political prospects for Lebanon in the current regional climate’. Mr Lahoud is a former Ambassador to the United States, has served in the Lebanese Parliament as an MP for the Metn region, and was a Member of the Foreign Affairs, Budget and Finance Committees. In 2001, Mr Lahoud…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The upcoming Israeli elections and the implications for the region’. Mr La Guardia is Diplomatic Editor of the Daily Telegraph, and formerly their Middle East correspondent based in Jerusalem between 1990 and 1998. He is also author of the best selling and highly acclaimed book ‘Holy Land, Unholy war: Israelis and Palestinians’ (John…
Read articleA talk entitled ‘Iraq and the Arab Future’. David Ignatius writes a twice-weekly column on global politics, economics and international affairs for the Washington Post. He is a former executive editor of the Herald Tribune and was foreign editor of the Washington Post (1990-1992) supervising the paper’s Pulitzer Prize winning coverage of the Iraqi invasion…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The British Museum Excavations Project in Saida’. In a rare departure from our normal focus on current events and the politics of the Middle East, we were delighted to welcome Claude Doumet Serhal, one of Lebanon’s foremost archaeologists. She is a special assistant to the British Museum and since 1998 is the Director…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The impact of the current situation in the Middle East on Lebanon and prospects for the country’s economic recovery in 2003’. Marwan Hamadeh, Former Minister for the Displaced, and Member of Parliament is a former journalist and a highly respected and articulate politician.
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The Battens Come Down: How the Institutional Media Stifle Middle East Reporting’. Tim Llewellyn was the BBC Middle East correspondent based in Beirut from 1976 to 1980 and in Nicosia from 1987 to 1992. He has covered all the major stories in the Middle East in the past quarter century, including the Lebanese…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The Future of British- Arab Relations in Light of Current Events’. Sir David Gore-Booth, KCMG, KCVO was a distinguished diplomat who served as UK Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and India and was also head of the Middle East and North Africa Department at the Foreign Office.
Read articleTalk entitled ‘What Future for the Palestinian Authority?’. Yezid Sayigh is Academic Director of the Cambridge Programme for Security in International Society and a Teaching Fellow in the Politics and History of the Modern Middle East, Centre of International Studies, University of Cambridge. He is also a consulting Senior Fellow for the Middle East at…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘Syria: Friend or Foe of the West?’. Dr. Alan George, freelancer and broadcaster, has been closely involved with the Middle East since 1967. His first degree was from Oxford and his MA and PhD (on Syria) were from Durham. He frequently commentates on Middle East affairs on TV and radio. He is a…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The Middle East Road Map: Are the Parties Ready for Peace?’. Dr. Khalil Shikaki, an Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research (Ramallah) Dr. Shikaki took his Ph.D. from Columbia University and taught at several universities including Bir Zeit, Al Najah National University. He…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘Is A Two-State Solution Still Possible?’. Ghada, a leading Palestinian activist, academic, writer and a research Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter. She also held posts at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London and at the School of Oriental and African Studies. She was…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘Lebanon, the Arabs, and the Emerging Global Scenarios’. Ambassador Clovis Maksoud, Professor of International Relations and Director of the Centre for the Global South at the American University in Washington DC. Dr. Maksoud, a Lebanese national, was the League of Arab States Chief Representative to India and South East Asia from 1961 to…
Read articleA talk entitled ‘The Relationship between Islam and the West post September 11th’. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is a senior researcher at the Foreign Policy Centre, a leading independent think tank in the UK that was launched in 1998 by Tony Blair and the then Foreign Minister Robin Cook. She writes a weekly column for the Independent…
Read articleMr. Siegman is Senior Fellow and Director of the US-Middle East Center at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He is a leading expert on the Middle East, Arab-Israeli relations and US Middle East policy. He was previously Executive Director of the American Jewish Congress from 1978-1994. He is a frequent contributor to…
Read articleA talk entitled ‘Oil: A Curse for the Arabs?’ given by Robert Mabro, a fellow of St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, the Director of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and a Senior Research Officer in the economics of the Middle East at Oxford.
Read article‘Lebanon and the Region: The Challenges’. This dinner talk celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the Centre for Lebanese Studies under the patronage of H.E. Mr. Issam Fares, Deputy Prime Minister of Lebanon, who was the guest of honour and keynote speaker.
Read articleTalk entitled ‘Building the Lebanon Brand’. Fiona Gilmore is the founding partner of Acanchi, a London based independent consultancy which specialises in strategy development for country brands. During a career spanning 25 years, she has advised on communications, strategy, brand positioning, architecture, innovation, migration, internal communication and identity for global leaders such as Vodafone, Unilever,…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The Lebanese abroad and how they can help the new Lebanon’. Dr. Philip Salem, the world renowned oncologist and cancer researcher, studied medicine at the American University of Beirut and began his career in cancer medicine in 1968 at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York. Back in Lebanon in 1971 he…
Read articleAn evaluation of, comparing and contrasting, the power sharing agreements that were used to regulate the ethno-national conflicts at different times in both divided societies in Northern Ireland, the 1973 Sunningdale Agreement and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, and in Lebanon the 1943 National Pact and the 1989 Ta’if Accords. Michael R. Kerr is…
Read articleFormer Prime Minister of Lebanon and MP for Tripoli, Najib Mikati, spoke about the present situation in Lebanon and the Near East.
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The future of Lebanon’. Chibli Mallat is a Professor of Law at St. Joseph University, a senior fellow at Yale Law School, and principal partner at Mallat Law Offices in Beirut. Chibli was an active member of the Cedar Revolution in February 2005 and is a strong supporter of voting rights for Lebanese…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘Democracy and Sectarianism: lessons from the Iraqi Experience’: How setting out the principles of a democratic government are sometimes in contradiction with the political realities on the ground and may require a more imaginative form of political system. A parallel was drawn with Lebanon which, like Iraq, suffers from sectarianism and a form…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The Future Role of Syria in the Region’. HE Mr. Sami Khiyami, Ambassador of Syria to the Court of St. James, spoke about The Future Role of Syria in the Region. In view of the aftermath of the Iraq invasion and in view of its relationship with Iran and Lebanon, Syria is called…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘Lebanon Under Western Eyes’. Alex discussed the Lebanon that emerged from her research trips and conversations with Lebanese of all communities and beliefs over the past three years. In particular she shared her observations about Lebanon’s special status as the quintessentially diverse, multi-confessional country of the Middle East, the evolving nature of Lebanese…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘Beirut: the City of Recurring Conflicts’. Since October 2004 Beirut has been rocked by a number of explosions in hitherto relatively safe districts which have targeted politicians, journalists and civilians. This mobile violence was coupled in the summer of 2006 by a war which damaged many of the roads and bridges connecting the…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘The Palestinian Triangle: Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians ‘. Largely from the perspective of the past, that of King Hussein.
Read articleTalk entitled ’60 Years of Damage: Israel and the Arab World since 1948′. Israel’s establishment in the Arab world sixty years ago impacted most immediately on the Palestinians. But what is often ignored is the extensive damage inflicted on the Arab frontline states and the Arab world in general. Lebanon especially has paid a heavy…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘Which Foreign Policy for Lebanon?. The interplay between the domestic and external environments affecting Lebanon’s foreign policy and the major changes in both environments which raise new challenges to foreign policy making’. Drawing on past experience and in light of a pro-active and successful foreign policy as a main source of national security,…
Read articlePatrick Seale, who is a well known British writer on Middle East Affairs, spoke on the theme of Syrian Geopolitics Under Bashar Al Asad (including Syria-Lebanon relations). Born in Ireland and educated at Oxford University, Patrick worked as a foreign correspondent in many parts of the world for Reuters and The Observer. For some fifteen…
Read articleDavid Gardner, Chief Leader Writer and Associate Editor of the Financial Times, gave a talk about ‘Arab Exception’, or why despotism, and Western collusion in preserving it, has held the Arab World back. David joined the Financial Times in 1978 and worked mainly as a foreign correspondent (Spain, Mexico & Central America, Brussels and New…
Read articleTalk entitled ‘New Prospects for Peace in the Middle East ?’. He analysed fresh aspects of the Arab Israeli conflict given the recently elected governments both in Israel and the United States. Henry Siegman is president of the US/Middle East Project, an independent policy institute which until 2006 was part of the Council on Foreign…
Read articleDr. Eugene Rogan’s spoke about his recent book ‘The Arabs: A History’ (published by Allen Lane November 2009). Dr. Rogan is a Faculty Fellow and University Lecturer in the Modern History of the Middle East at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, where he serves as Director of the Middle East Centre. The book is an authoritative…
Read articleTim Llwellyn, whose book ‘Spirit of the Phoenix: Beirut and the Story of Lebanon’, published by I.B. Tauris, spoke about the dangers for Lebanon and about the British media’s continued lack of enterprise and balance in reporting on Lebanon in particular – and its neighbours in general – in covering Hezbollah, the Lebanese South, the…
Read articleRami’s appointment in 2005 as the Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut follows a long career in journalism in the Middle East, especially in Jordan and Lebanon where he still serves as editor at large of the Beirut- based Daily Star newspaper. His…
Read articleDr. Mansel, who made his reputation as a historian and authority on nineteenth century France, and later wrote two excellent works on Constantinople and the Ottoman Empire, has very recently published a highly acclaimed book entitled ‘Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe on the Mediterranean’ where the Levant is seen through the history of three key cities,…
Read articleNadim Houry is Human Rights Watch’s senior researcher for Lebanon and Syria and the director of the Beirut office. His talk was entitled ‘Is Lebanon Reformable?’ In the course of his work Nadim has documented violations of international humanitarian law during the July 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. He has also researched human rights…
Read articleLord Michael Williams talked about “Lebanon and the UN After the 2006 War”. Lord Michael Williams was the UN Special Coordinator in Lebanon from 2008 to 2011 appointed by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. He will offered his perspectives on the latest developments in the region, especially relating to Lebanon. Lord Williams is very…
Read articleDINNER LECTURE H.E. AMBASSADOR TOM FLETCHER HELD AT THE SLOANE CLUB, ON 16th SEPTEMBER 2012 AT 7:30 PM Our guest of honour was Ambassador Tom Fletcher, who is currently serving as Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Lebanon. He shared his insights on the current situation in Lebanon, and offered his perspective on the conflict in Syria…
Read articleDINNER LECTURE H.E. AMBASSADOR TOM FLETCHER THE SLOANE CLUB, 16th SEPTEMBER 2012 AT 7:30 PM Our guest of honour will be Ambassador Tom Fletcher, who is currently serving as Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Lebanon. He will share his insights on the current situation in Lebanon, and offer his perspective on the conflict in Syria…
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