Rami Khouri
Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
Contact:
Email: rami.khouri@dailystar.com.lb
Experience
Rami George Khouri is a Palestinian-Jordanian and U.S. citizen whose family resides in Beirut, Amman, and Nazareth. He is director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut. His journalistic work includes writing books and an internationally syndicated column, and he also serves as editor at large of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper.
He spent the 2001–2002 academic year as a Nieman Journalism Fellow at Harvard University and was appointed a member of the Brookings Institution Task Force on US Relations with the Islamic World. He is a research associate at the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflict at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University (NY, USA), a Fellow of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (Jerusalem), and a member of the Leadership Council of the Harvard University Divinity School. He also serves on the board of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University.
He was executive editor of the Daily Star newspaper in 2003–2005, and before that had been editor-in-chief of the Jordan Times for seven years, when he also wrote for many years from Amman, Jordan for leading international publications, including the Financial Times, the Boston Globe, and the Washington Post. For 18 years he was general manager of Al Kutba, Publishers, in Amman, and in recent years served as a consultant to the Jordanian tourism ministry on biblical archaeological sites. He has hosted programs on archaeology, history, and current public affairs on Jordan Television and Radio Jordan. He often comments on Mideast issues in the international media and lectures frequently at conferences and universities throughout the world.
He has BA and MSc degrees respectively in political science and mass communications from Syracuse University
September 30, 2009
Partnering for Progress in the Middle East
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
BEIRUT -- At almost every international or regional gathering these days on how to fix the assorted problems and deficiencies in the Middle East, a common theme keeps popping up: What is the most effective and legitimate way for foreign parties -- governments, international agencies, non-governmental organizations, universities or companies -- to help achieve advances in areas like human rights, economic growth, social protection, democratization, or technological advancement?
September 21, 2009
Souvenir Photo at the UN
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
BEIRUT -- No concrete results are expected from the September 22 meeting at the United Nations among US President Barack Obama, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (I write this the morning of the 22nd in Beirut, before the meeting takes place). This marks the end of phase 1 of Obama’s intriguing foray into Arab-Israeli peace-making.
September 21, 2009
Climate Change in the Arab World
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
COPENHAGEN -- The amount and quality of available scientific data on the global impact of climate change is staggering -- as I rediscovered at a seminar organized by the Danish foreign ministry in Copenhagen this week. The debate that swirled around the issues of climate change and global warming just two or three years ago has vanished. There is much more certainty now on the nature and extent of the changes to the Earth’s climate that can be attributed to the impact of human activity, mainly the burning of fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases.
September 16, 2009
Going All the Way with Iran
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
NEW YORK -- The United State is juggling four critical and increasingly linked foreign policy issues in Palestine/Israel, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, but seems to be making little headway as we approach critical junctures in all four. A different approach seems worth pondering.
September 14, 2009
Thoughts While Flying to New York on September 11, 2009
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
NEW YORK -- I marked the eighth anniversary Friday of the 9/11 terror attack in the United States by flying from Beirut to New York -- apt symbols of their wider American and Arab societies that in so many sectors are locked in an ongoing confrontation that includes the use of violence by both sides. This day of remembrance occurred at a time when the United States was refocusing seriously on waging the hitherto inconclusive “global war on terror” in Afghanistan.
September 9, 2009
Work to Do on West-Middle East Relations
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
HAMBURG, Germany -- I had the pleasure in Hamburg this week of sharing a panel discussion with two impressive people -- Iranian lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, and former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer. The gathering, sponsored by the Korber Foundation to discuss "The Future of the Middle East,",confirmed that we have much work to do on the issue of when, and whether, powerful Western countries have the responsibility and/or the right to intervene in the internal affairs of Third World countries.
September 7, 2009
Suggestions for Obama at the UN
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
BEIRUT -- It is at once heartening and perplexing to see growing expectations that US President Barack Obama will make some sort of formal gesture on Arab-Israeli peace-making during his speech at the United Nations at the opening of the General Assembly session later this month. It is heartening because the United States is an essential player in any serious peace-making effort, mainly because it is the only party Israel trusts. So it is important that the United States actively engage in trying to re-start peace negotiations.
September 2, 2009
Nothing to Celebrate in Libya Today
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
If there is a moment, a place, a person, and a legacy that come together to bring sadness to all Arabs, they are upon us this week in the 40th anniversary of the September 1, 1969 revolution that brought Col. Muammar Gaddafi to power. There is nothing to celebrate today in Libya, other than a colossal waste of that country's human and natural resources over four decades.
August 31, 2009
Sensible US Courage and Hapless US Imbecility
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
BEIRUT -- If you wait long enough, sensible things always happen in America, often among the armed forces’ senior command. One example was Commander of US Central Command General David Petraeus’ recent affirmation that resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict fairly is “very central” to the mission of American troops and diplomacy in the Middle East. This would create a much more favorable regional environment for the United States and its allies, dampen the appeal of militants and terrorist groups, and remove threats to American troops.
August 26, 2009
International Law, Torture and Accountability
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
GENEVA -- The decision this week by the United States’ top legal officer, Attorney General Eric Holder, to appoint a federal prosecutor to examine abuse of prisoners held by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a small step in a much bigger task that challenges all people and governments around the world: How to apply the rules of war in a reasonable and effective manner?
