Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Lebanese American University

Currently Research Fellow with the Global Scholarly Dialogue Programme of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, EUME Fellow at the Forum Transregionale Studien, Research Affiliate at the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Politics and the Otto-Suhr Institute of Political Sciences at Freie Universität Berlin.

Dr. Jeffrey G. Karam is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Lebanese American University. He is a non-resident Research Associate at Harvard University’s Middle East Initiative. His research provides a critical discussion of the Politics of Intelligence and Foreign Policy and Revolutions and Counter-Revolutions in the Middle East. 

Karam is the editor of The Middle East in 1958: Reimagining A Revolutionary Year (London: I.B. Tauris and Bloomsbury, 2020). He is currently finishing his first book on American intelligence and foreign policy in the Middle East during revolutionary times and political change. Karam is also co-editing a book entitled, The Lebanon Uprising of 2019: Voices from the Revolution, which I.B. Tauris and Bloomsbury publish in 2022. His research has been supported by many organizations including, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Belfer Center of Science and International Affairs, and others. His research has been published in academic and public outlets, including Intelligence and National Security, the Arab Studies Journal, The Washington Post, H-Diplo/ISSF,the Daily Star Lebanon, Megaphone, Jadaliyya, and other venues.

Karam is the recipient of several awards, including the Christopher Andrew–Michael Handel Prize for the best article published in Intelligence and National Security during 2017 and the Hussein Oueini Memorial Award at the American University of Beirut. Previously, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of International Relations and Middle East Politics at Harvard University’s Division of Continuing Education, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the International Security Program at Harvard University’s Belfer Center, and a Visiting Assistant Professor of International Relations at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Politics from Brandeis University and an M.A. in Politics from the American University of Beirut.      

Karam is currently a Research Fellow with the Global Scholarly Dialogue Programme of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. He is likewise a EUME Fellow at the Forum Transregionale Studien and a Research Affiliate at the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Politics and the Otto-Suhr Institute of Political Sciences at Freie Universität Berlin.

Selected Publications

 

Books

• Jeffrey G. Karam, ed. The Middle East in 1958: Reimagining A Revolutionary Year (London: I.B. Tauris and Bloomsbury, 2020)
• Jeffrey G. Karam and Rima Majed, eds. The Lebanon Uprising of 2019: Voices from the Revolution. Forthcoming with I.B. Tauris and Bloomsbury in 2022.  

 

Peer Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters (selected)

• “Reimagining 1958 Through the Lenses of Multilingual Sources and Interdisciplinary Perspectives” in Jeffrey G. Karam ed., The Middle in 1958: Reimagining A Revolutionary Year. New York and London:I.B. Tauris and Bloomsbury, 2020.
• “Cautious Revisionism and the Limits of Hegemony in 1958: A Revolutionary Year for the United States in the Middle East” in Karam ed., The Middle in 1958: Reimagining A Revolutionary Year.
• “Reflections and Conclusions from the Revolutionary Year of 1958” in Karam ed., The Middle in 1958: Reimagining A Revolutionary Year.
• “Reflections on Beirut Rules: The Wider Consequences of US Foreign and Security Policy in Lebanon.”  Intelligence and National Security, May 2020, p. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2020.1762298
• “Lebanon’s Civil Society as an Anchor of Stability.” Middle East Brief no. 117, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University, April 2018.
• “Missing Revolution: The American Intelligence Failure in Iraq, 1958.” Intelligence and National Security, vol. 32, Issue 6, October 2017, p. 693-709. https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2016.1275138
• “Beyond Sectarianism: Understanding Lebanese Politics through a Cross-Sectarian Lens.” Middle East Brief no. 107, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University, April 2017.

 

Peer-Reviewed Public Analysis and Commentary (selected)

• “The Small Rift in the U.S. Congress on Palestine and Israel.” Megaphone News,14 May 2021. [article written and published in Arabic]
• “One Week After the US Presidential Elections.” Megaphone News, 9 November 2020. [article written and published in Arabic]
• “Biden and Trump on Lebanon: One Policy in Lebanon with a Different Outlook on Iran.” Megaphone News, 4 November 2020. [article written and published in Arabic]
• “The Explosion of the Phoenix Bird” Megaphone News, 6 August 2020. [article written and published in Arabic, and co-authored with Sana Tannoury-Karam]
• “A Letter to Jeffrey [former US Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey D. Feltman] on The Lebanese Revolution.” Megaphone News, 28 November 2019. [article written and published in Arabic]
• “The Lebanese Intifada: Observations and Reflections on Revolutionary Times.” Jadaliyya, 10 November 2019. (co-authored with Sana Tannoury-Karam)
• “Misrepresentations of the Revolution have begun.” The Daily Star, 4 November 2019.
• “Lebanon’s Government Resigned: Here Are Three Possibilities for What’s Next.” The Monkey Cage Blog, The Washington Post, 31 October 2019.
• “Lebanon’s Armed Forces and the Security Organizations are not the Solution.” Megaphone News, 23 October 2019. [article written and published in Arabic]
• “Lebanon Finally has A New Government: Here are Three Reasons for Cautious Optimism.” The Monkey Cage Blog, The Washington Post, 31 January 2019.
• “Diving into the Papers of Farid Chehab, Lebanon’s First Spy Chief.” The Daily Star, 6 October 2018.

Podcasts and Digital Platforms/Features (selected)

• The Fire In These Times, Episode 73, Re-imagining A Revolutionary Year in Revolutionary Timeswith Jeffrey G. Karam, 2 May 2021.  
• The Beirut Banyan, Episode 239: 1958, Then and Now with Jeffrey G. Karam, 29 January 2021.
• The Richardson Institute’s ‘Sectarianism, Proxies, and De-sectarianization’ (SEPAD Pod) with Jeffrey G. Karam, 22 January 2021.
• Jadaliyya’s New Texts Out Now (NEWTON) featuring The Middle East in 1958: Reimagining A Revolutionary Year, 5 November 2020.