Walid Phares
| Walid Phares | |
|---|---|
| Native name | وليد فارس |
| Born |
December 24, 1957 Beirut, Lebanon |
| Residence | United States |
| Nationality | American of Lebanese Origin |
| Religion | Maronite |
| Website |
www |
Walid Phares (Arabic: وليد فارس IPA: [waˈliːd ˈfaːres]) is an American scholar of Lebanese Maronite Christian extraction. He is a commentator on global terrorism and Middle Eastern affairs.
Phares has testified before committees of the U.S. State, Justice, Defense and Homeland Security, the United States Congress, the European Parliament, and the United Nations Security Council. Since 2007, he has served as an expert on terrorism and the Middle East for Fox News since 2007 and was a terrorism expert for NBC from 2003 to 2006.
In 2011, Phares was appointed by Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney as an adviser on foreign affairs. He was subsequently recommended to and chosen by the 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump, as an expert on terrorism, counter-terrorism, and Middle Eastern Affairs.
Biography
Phares is an American citizen and a Christian Maronite of Lebanese origin. He was born on December 24, 1957, grew up in Beirut, and emigrated to the United States in 1990. He holds undergraduate degrees in law, political science, and sociology from Saint Joseph University and the Lebanese University in Beirut. Following his undergraduate studies, Phares practiced law in Beirut for a period of time, then went on to obtain a master's degree in international law from the Université de Lyon in France and a PhD in international relations and strategic studies from the University of Miami.
Phares taught at the Department of International Relations at Florida International University (FIU) in 1992 and was a visiting professor of comparative politics at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Palm Beach County from 1993 to 1994. He was hired as a full-time professor of Middle East studies and international relations in the Department of Political Science at FAU in 1995. While at FAU, Phares sponsored several student organizations focused on human rights, including Haiti Watch, Human Rights Organization, the Latin American Student Association, and the Society for the Study of the Middle East. In 1995 he launched the Florida Society for Middle East Studies (FMES), the second-largest of its kind in the US.
Phares is a visiting fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy in Brussels. In 2008 he became Coordinator of the Trans-Atlantic Parliamentary Group on Counter Jihadi-Terrorism.[1]
Phares has served as secretary general of the World Maronite Union,[2] and secretary general of the World Lebanese Cultural Union.[3][4]
Authorship
Since 1979 and over three decades, Phares published fourteen books in English, French, Arabic, some translated into Spanish, Russian and Serbo-Croat. His first book al Taadudiyya التعدُّدية (Pluralism) was described by the US Congress Arab Area specialist in 1996 to be “a precursor to Samuel Huntington paradigm,” published in an article in 1993, and as a book in 1996. Phares’ publishing history can be divided in three eras: The 1980s, starting in 1979, the 1990s, and the post 9/11 era.
The 1980s
The Arabic books and essays of the 1980s included “Hiwar Dimucrati” حوار دمقراطي (Democratic Dialogue 1980), al Fikr al Masihi al Demucrati الفكر المسيحي الدمقراطي (Christian Democratic Thought 1981), as well as several short essays some under his name, some under a pseudonym. In 1987 he published “Abaad al Thawra al Khumainiya al Islamiya al Iraniya” أبعاد الثورة الخمينية الإسلامية اليرانية (The dimensions of the Khomeinist Islamic Revolution of Iran). In 1981, Phares published a history essay initially in French under the title “Treize Siècles de Lutte,” which was translated into English in 1982 as “Thirteen Centuries of Struggle,” and in 1983 in Spanish as “Trece Siglos de lucha.” During the 1980s, Phares published a large number of Op Eds and articles in Arabic and French in dailies in the Middle East including al Nahar النهار, al Ahrar الاحرار, al Amal الامل , al Massira المسيرة, Le Reveil, etc. as well as in publications in France and Switzerland. He published academic articles in Panorama: Journal of Geopolitics
The 1990s
In the 1990s Phares published a series of academic essays at the IRP Press of the University of Miami, titled as “A History of the Middle East” in 1993, “Ethnic Conflict in the Middle East” in 1994, and “The Middle East under Radical Islam” in 1994. In 1995, Phares published his first academic book in the United States with Lynne Rienners Publisher Lebanese Christian Nationalism: Rise and Fall of an Ethnic Resistance. He published several Op Eds in English including in the Lebanese American Journal, Beirut Times, the Jerusalem Post, and “Le Devoir” of Canada.
He published numerous journal articles such as “The Syrian-Iran axis” in Global Affairs: American Journal of Geopolitics in 1991; “Sudan’s Battle for Public Opinion” and “Middle East Minorities” in the Middle East Quarterly; and a variety of other articles published in The Journal of Middle East and South Asian Affairs as well as magazines . He also authored several studies including “An Alternative Policy for South Lebanon” in 1998.
Post-9/11
As of 2001, author Walid Phares published his largest number of books and articles starting with the Foreign Policy journal’s best top ten for 2006, Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against America (Palgrave) which was published in November of 2005. In 2006, another version was published under the title “Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against the West” (Palgrave). Future Jihad was published in Spain under the title of “La Futura Yihad” by Center FAES, Madrid. Also a Serbo-Croat version was published in Belgrade in 2007. In 2007, Phares published The War of Ideas: Jihadism against Democracy (Palgrave). It was followed in 2009 with The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad (Palgrave McMillan).
The most noted book in the decade was the one that predicted the Arab Spring, titled The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East published by Simon & Schuster Editions in New York in 2010, before the Arab upheavals of 2011. In September 2011, a Russian version of Coming Revolution was published in Moscow by Cosmos publishing house. In 2013, Phares published his first book in France “Du Printemps Arabe a l’Automne Islamiste” at Hugo, Paris. His last comprehensive book was The Lost Spring: US Policy in the Middle East at (Palgrave) 2014. Phares published many essays and studies between 2001 and 2015 in English, including “The Iranian Global Threat” in 2015 on Amazon.
In addition to books and essays, Phares authored numerous op-eds in The Washington Times; The Wall Street Journal; The Philadelphia Inquirer; The Dallas Tribune; The Atlanta Constitution; The New York Post; the Chicago Sun; The Boston Herald; the San Francisco Chronicle; the Seattle Times;, the Oregon Times; The National Review; American Thinker; Cutting Edge News; Family Security Matters; Fox News; L’ Orient Le Jour; 'Le Figaro; El Pais, and many more.
Academic work
Phares was a visiting lecturer on the history of the Middle East and Lebanon at Saint Joseph University, Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik, and the Lebanese University from 1979 to 1989.
From 1993 to 2005, Phares taught at the Department of Political Science at Florida Atlantic University. He has been a senior lecturer at the Lifelong Learning Society since 1994. His courses include Middle East Politics, Political History, Ethnic and Religious Conflict, and International Terrorism. He has lectured throughout North America and Europe.
He lectures since 2008 at the National Intelligence University in Washington DC, at the CI Center in Virginia, and the Daniel Morgan Academy in Washington DC. He teaches at BAUI University in Washington, D.C.
Phares is the president of the Global Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., a think tank dedicated to the study of international relations, particularly between the US and the Greater Middle East
Although Phares is often described as a scholar on terrorism, Stanford University terrorism academic Martha Crenshaw stated that Phares was "not in the mainstream as an academic".[5]
Political activism in Lebanon
Soon after finishing his graduate degree in Public Law, Phares joined in 1981 the "MECHRIC Committee", a federation of Middle Eastern Christian NGOs. In 1984, Phares adhered to a small political party of center-left, the "Social Democratic Christian Union" – Union Sociale Démocratique Chrétienne (USDC).[6]
In 1986, he represented the USDC in the political council of the Lebanese Forces, the umbrella organization for the Christian Resistance parties and independent personalities during the Lebanese civil war. He served as the head of External and Diaspora affairs in the Lebanese Forces during the years 1986 and 1987. In 1988 Phares revamped the USDC and was elected as Secretary General for the new Social Democratic Christian Party (PSDC). His attempts to democratize the Lebanese Forces coalition by demanding its leaders to go through a transparent electoral process put him on a collision course with the ruling warlords and led him to resign from the political council of the Lebanese Forces in March 1989.
Phares was appointed as foreign policy adviser to Mitt Romney for his 2012 presidential campaign.[7] His appointment was met with criticism from the Council on American–Islamic Relations, which described him as “an associate to war crimes” (due to his ties to the Lebanese Forces) and a “conspiracy theorist”.[7] The appointment also provoked negative reactions from Islamic studies academics Ebrahim Moosa and Omid Safi,[7] however both scholars were described as militant Islamists by several pieces, including "Walid Phares vs the Middle East Studies" as well as the Center for a New American Security's Andrew Exum, who said that Phares was "widely viewed as an extremist".[5]
Writing
Books
| Year | Book | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Pluralism in Lebanon | Kasleek University |
| 1980 | The Lebanese Thought and the Thesis of Arabization | Dar el-Sharq Press |
| 1981 | Democratic Dialogue | Manshurat el-Tagammoh |
| 1985 | Thirteen Centuries of Struggle | Mashreq Editions (Beirut) |
| 1986 | The Iranian Islamic Revolution | Dar el-Sharq Press |
| 1995 | Lebanese Christian Nationalism: The Rise and Fall of an Ethnic Resistance | L. Rienner Publishers |
| 1998, 2001 | History of the Middle East: Trends and Benchmarks | IRP University of Miami Press |
| 2005 | Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies Against America | Palgrave Macmillan |
| 2007 | The War of Ideas: Jihadism against Democracy | Palgrave Macmillan |
| 2008 | The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad | Palgrave Macmillan |
| 2010 | The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East | Simon & Schuster |
| 2014 | The Lost Spring. U.S. Policy in the Middle East and Catastrophes to Avoid | Palgrave Macmillan |
Documentaries
References
- ↑ "Biography of Walid Phares". Trans-Atlantic Parliamentary Group on Counter Jihadi-Terrorism. Retrieved 2011-11-01.
- ↑ World Maronite Union WMU Secretariat General
- ↑ UNSCR 1559:Calling on Syria to Pull Out From Lebanon
- ↑ "Special Report With Brit Hume". Fox News. March 10, 2005.
- 1 2 Vary, Jarad (24 October 2011). "Meet Mitt Romney’s Radical, Right-wing, Sharia-phobe Foreign Policy Advisor". The New Republic. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
- ↑ "Walid Phares under attack". American Thinker.
- 1 2 3 Coppins, McKay (10 December 2011). "Mitt's Muslim Problem". The Daily Beast.
External links
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