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Walid Phares
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Walid Phares
Walid Phares (Arabic: وليد فارس; born December 24, 1957) is a Lebanese-American political advisor, scholar and conservative pundit.
He worked as an advisor for the Republican presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney in 2011–12 and Donald Trump in 2016. He has also served as a commentator on terrorism and the Middle East for Fox News since 2007, and for NBC from 2003 to 2006. Since 2022, he has been a foreign policy analyst for Newsmax.
A Maronite Christian, Phares has gained attention for having been a chairman of the Social Democratic Party in Lebanon in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War, and for his expertise in counterterrorism with a focus on jihadism.
Phares was born to a family of Maronite Christians in 1957 in Lebanon, and was raised in the capital city of Beirut and in his native village of Ghouma in the Batroun District. A dual Lebanese and American citizen, he immigrated to the United States in 1990, when the Lebanese Civil War was coming to a close.
He holds joint undergraduate degrees from Saint Joseph University and the Lebanese University in law, political science, and sociology. Following his undergraduate studies, Phares practiced law in Beirut for a short period before earning a master's degree in international law from the Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 in France and a PhD in international relations and strategic studies from the University of Miami.
Phares has drawn controversy over his association with the Social Democratic Party in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War. In 1984, Phares adhered to a small Lebanese political party of the center-left, the "Social Democratic Christian Union" – Union Sociale Démocratique Chrétienne (USDC). Phares has also served as secretary general of the World Maronite Union, and secretary general of the World Lebanese Cultural Union. According to The Washington Post, Phares "was a political adviser to Lebanese militants during their war against Muslim factions during the 1980s." Phares has said that he was only involved with the militants in a political capacity and that he has not been directly implicated in any acts of violence.
Abed Ayoub, the national legal and policy director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, criticizes Phares saying: "If you look at his history, he was a warmonger and he shouldn't be near the White House. He was part of a militia that committed war crimes and, if anything, he should be tried for war crimes." Sarah Stern, president of the pro-IsraelEndowment for Middle East Truth think tank, defended his actions: "He represented his left-of-center party within a coalition of parties that oversaw the local government of the Christian community when it was surrounded by the Syrian army and the terrorist groups between 1986 and 1988. Phares is being attacked because he is on the right side of the issues and is fearless in speaking out the truth... [Walid] is in a caliber of his own. He understood the rise of radical Islam in the Middle East. He understood very early on what ISIS is, that it's a real threat. He understands that Islam is more than a religion, that it's also an ideology and an ideology of conquest."
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 the student organization Haiti Watch. In 2008 he became Coordinator of the Trans-Atlantic Parliamentary Group on Counter Jihadi-Terrorism. Since 2008, he has lectured at the National Intelligence University in Washington DC, at the Center for Counterintelligence and Security Studies (CI Center) in Virginia, and at the Daniel Morgan Academy, a Graduate School of National Security in Washington DC. He teaches at BAU International University in Washington, D.C. also serving as a university provost and as Director of Graduate Studies at the university.
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Walid Phares
Walid Phares (Arabic: وليد فارس; born December 24, 1957) is a Lebanese-American political advisor, scholar and conservative pundit.
He worked as an advisor for the Republican presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney in 2011–12 and Donald Trump in 2016. He has also served as a commentator on terrorism and the Middle East for Fox News since 2007, and for NBC from 2003 to 2006. Since 2022, he has been a foreign policy analyst for Newsmax.
A Maronite Christian, Phares has gained attention for having been a chairman of the Social Democratic Party in Lebanon in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War, and for his expertise in counterterrorism with a focus on jihadism.
Phares was born to a family of Maronite Christians in 1957 in Lebanon, and was raised in the capital city of Beirut and in his native village of Ghouma in the Batroun District. A dual Lebanese and American citizen, he immigrated to the United States in 1990, when the Lebanese Civil War was coming to a close.
He holds joint undergraduate degrees from Saint Joseph University and the Lebanese University in law, political science, and sociology. Following his undergraduate studies, Phares practiced law in Beirut for a short period before earning a master's degree in international law from the Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 in France and a PhD in international relations and strategic studies from the University of Miami.
Phares has drawn controversy over his association with the Social Democratic Party in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War. In 1984, Phares adhered to a small Lebanese political party of the center-left, the "Social Democratic Christian Union" – Union Sociale Démocratique Chrétienne (USDC). Phares has also served as secretary general of the World Maronite Union, and secretary general of the World Lebanese Cultural Union. According to The Washington Post, Phares "was a political adviser to Lebanese militants during their war against Muslim factions during the 1980s." Phares has said that he was only involved with the militants in a political capacity and that he has not been directly implicated in any acts of violence.
Abed Ayoub, the national legal and policy director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, criticizes Phares saying: "If you look at his history, he was a warmonger and he shouldn't be near the White House. He was part of a militia that committed war crimes and, if anything, he should be tried for war crimes." Sarah Stern, president of the pro-IsraelEndowment for Middle East Truth think tank, defended his actions: "He represented his left-of-center party within a coalition of parties that oversaw the local government of the Christian community when it was surrounded by the Syrian army and the terrorist groups between 1986 and 1988. Phares is being attacked because he is on the right side of the issues and is fearless in speaking out the truth... [Walid] is in a caliber of his own. He understood the rise of radical Islam in the Middle East. He understood very early on what ISIS is, that it's a real threat. He understands that Islam is more than a religion, that it's also an ideology and an ideology of conquest."
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 the student organization Haiti Watch. In 2008 he became Coordinator of the Trans-Atlantic Parliamentary Group on Counter Jihadi-Terrorism. Since 2008, he has lectured at the National Intelligence University in Washington DC, at the Center for Counterintelligence and Security Studies (CI Center) in Virginia, and at the Daniel Morgan Academy, a Graduate School of National Security in Washington DC. He teaches at BAU International University in Washington, D.C. also serving as a university provost and as Director of Graduate Studies at the university.
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