Dr. Walid Phares holds degrees in law and political science from Saint Joseph University and the Lebanese University in Beirut, a Masters in international law from the Universite de Lyons in France and a Ph.D. in international relations and strategic studies from the University of Miami. He taught political sociology at Saint Joseph University in the 1980s and practiced law in Beirut until 1990. He was the publisher of Sawt el-Mashreq (weekly) and Mashrek International (monthly) between 1982 and 1987. Dr. Phares taught at Florida International University and the University of Miami from 1991 to 1993. In 1994, he became an associate professor in Florida Atlantic University's Department of Political Science where he teaches Middle East political issues, ethnic and religious conflict, and comparative politics. He lectures to academic and community audiences worldwide on various subjects such as Islamic fundamentalism, Arab nationalism, democratization, human rights, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the status of Christians and other Middle Eastern minorities.
He has written seven books on the Middle East and published hundreds of articles in newspapers and scholarly publications such as Global Affairs, Middle East Quarterly, and Journal of South Asian and Middle East Studies. Dr. Phares has appeared in the international and national media, including CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, and BBC as well as on radio broadcasts. He has served as a board member of several national and international think tanks and human rights associations and is a leading advisor to several ethnic associations and the founder of the Florida Society for Middle East Studies. Dr. Phares has testified before the US Senate Subcommittee on the Middle East and South East Asia and regularly conducts congressional and State Department briefings. Since September 2001, Dr. Phares has been a senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies serving as an expert on terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism and Jihad movements. Dr. Phares can be reached by e-mail at Phares@walidphares.com.
