Fawaz A. Gerges is a Professor of International Relations and holds the Chair in Contemporary Middle Eastern Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He was the founding Director of LSE’s Middle East Centre (2010–2013). Gerges earned his Ph.D. from Oxford University and an M.Sc. from LSE. He has taught at Oxford, Harvard, Columbia, and Sarah Lawrence College and was a research scholar at Princeton University.
His latest book, What Really Went Wrong: The West and the Failure of Democracy in the Middle East (Yale University Press, 2024), examines the region’s political crises. His forthcoming book, The Great Betrayal: The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in the Middle East, will be published by Princeton University Press in 2025.
Gerges’ writings have appeared in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and Foreign Policy. He has received MacArthur, Fulbright, and Carnegie fellowships, with his works translated into multiple languages.
His areas of expertise include international relations, the Middle East, Islamist and jihadist movements, and American foreign policy. Gerges is a frequent media commentator on outlets like BBC, CNN, and Al Jazeera.