Bio image

Between academia and the U.S. State Department, Dr. Nabeel Khoury has devoted his working life to examining the U.S. role in the Middle East and to following the cultural and political developments taking place across the Middle East and North of Africa. He is now a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Hariri Center.

Khoury earned his B.A. in Political Science from the American University of Beirut and his M.A. and P.h.D. in Political Science from the State University of New York at Albany. His life in academia included a three year stint teaching at the University of Jordan in Amman, followed by four years  as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY. While in the U.S. foreign service, he also taught strategy and international relations at the Marine War College and the National Defense University’s War College.

Khoury has published articles on Leadership and Development in the Arab world in The Middle East Journal, the Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and The International Journal of Middle East Studies. His most recent scholarly articles on the regional impact of the Arab uprising and on U.S. policy in Yemen, appear in the summer 2013 and summer 2014 issues of Middle East Policy, the Scramble for Iraq, in The Cairo Review in 2014 and The Long View of the Arab Uprising, in al-Bustan (Penn State University Press) in 2016.

His first publication was, Muhammad Abduh, An Ideology of Development, published in the Muslim World, 1976. The most cited scholarly article is titled, “The Arab Lobby: Problems and Prospects," published in the Middle East Journal, 1987.

In 1987, Khoury left academia to join the U.S. State Department. Among his overseas posts: Consul General in Morocco (1998-2002) and Deputy Director of the Media Outreach Center in London (2002-2004). During the Iraq war, Khoury served as a State Department spokesperson at U.S. Central Command in Doha and in Baghdad in 2003. From Baghdad, he went to Yemen  as Deputy Chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Sanaa (2004-2007). As director of the Near East South Asia Office of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research from 2008 to 2012, Khoury followed the Arab uprising  and participated in high level meetings and briefings on the turmoil that preceded and followed those historic events. Following his retirement from State, Khoury was a Senior Fellow at the Chicago Council for Global Affairs (2013), authoring the Middle East Corner website for the Council and lecturing at Northwestern University - with a focus on U.S. national security and policy in the Middle East.

Khoury takes pride in his love for poetry, classical music and literature.  His one regret is that he  hasn’t yet taught a course on the Middle East using only the songs of Legendary Lebanese singer Fairouz, who embodies for him everything that is noble about Lebanon and the entire Arab world. From Khoury’s perspective, Arabic literature and poetry humanize abstract political concepts and capture not only public opinion but the very soul of the region. Throughout his foreign postings, Khoury organized  intellectual forums to discuss literature and politics with writers, journalists and intellectuals in the region, from Egypt and Morocco to Saudi Arabia .

Today, Khoury divides his time between writing op-eds, addressing U.S. foreign policy on panel discussions and conducting radio and TV interviews. His Book, Bunker Diplomacy, An Arab-American in the U.S. foreign service, describes his experiences as an Arab-American diplomat over the span of twenty five years. On a personal level, it explores the identity question. In terms of policy, it describes how the security profile has deteriorated sharply for American diplomats in the Middle East during his career and reasons behind this deterioration.  Khoury hopes the book will shed some light on the reasons for continued tensions between the U.S. and Arab societies.

From Washington D.C., Khoury tweets at @khoury_nabeel  and can be contacted via email at nk@nabeelkhoury.com


Front Cover Photo: @WWannualleave
🔸 Aftermath of Nasrallah's Assassination, Arab Center9/30/24
🔸 Implications of the War on Gaza
🔸   https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/the-far-east-pivots-to-the-middle-east/
https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/the-far-east-pivots-to-the-middle-east/
🔸  American Influence Declining:https://arabcenterdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Declining-American-Influence-in-the-Middle-East-Afghanistan-Iraq-and-Libya.pdf
🔸 Houthis at Sea:  //arabcenterdc.org/resource/assessing-yemen-as-a-second-front-in-the-gaza-war/
🔸  Gaza Policy     
🔸  Yemen & Iran-Saudi Rapprochement: https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/yemen-and-the-               saudi-iran-rapprochement/ 🔸 https://bit.ly/3X5mj7P   Assad-Erdogan Rapprochement
 🔸   Gordian Knot: U.S. - Israel Relations    
  🔸  https://gulfif.org/why-america-cant-escape-the-gulf/
   🔸 https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/biden's Syria policy steady non-commitment and                          persistent failure.  
   🔸Lebanon's Presidential Race 2022  
   🔸https://bit.ly/3PmgEaP Yemen's Presidential Council
   🔸Hezbollah Mirrors a Failed State & Troubled Region   
   🔸The Long View of the Arab Uprising 
   🔸 https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/yemen-the-failure-of-international-diplomacy/
   🔸https://bit.ly/3nDXgKj an international development fund for Lebanon
   🔸https://gulfif.org/formalizing-a-middle-eastern-cold-war/    🔸 https://t.co/PISGx01Wa6?amp=1
   🔸Biden's Yemen Initiative at a Crossroads               
   🔸 http://arabcenterdc.org/policy_analyses/yemens-critical-momen
   🔸 https://bit.ly/3kZJHCn To End Yemen War Stop the Battle for Ma'rib
  🔸 https://bit.ly/3tP8ehH  A Historic Opportunity for Peace in Yemen
   🔸 https://bit.ly/3oYGQtG  Biden't Yemen Imperative (Atlantic Council)
  🔸 https://bit.ly/36hhjpz   Biden and Iraq
   🔸https://bit.ly/2ZQ9Uu1 UAE/Israel Normalization
  🔸https://bit.ly/32slYSC  Riyadh Agreement 2.0
 🔸 https://bit.ly/31j2sIM  Lebanon: Revolution or Reform?
 🔸https://bit.ly/3a3oMJi  Beirut Explosion
  🔸 http://arabcenterdc.org/policy_analyses/unabated-war-and-descent-into-chaos-in-yemen/
 🔸 https://www.alayyam.info/news/895K946R-9BFG1E-A726
 🔸https://gulfif.org/yemen-will-a-divided-nation-end-the-state/ Gulf International Forum
 🔸Order of Battle Trumps Peace in Yemen, The Arab Center, Washington, DC
🔸The assassination of Qasem Soleimani: Likely consequences, The Atlantic Council

🔸 What Does the Riyadh Agreement Mean for the War in Yemen?, Fletcher Forum.
🔸 The Catch-22 of Lebanese Reform, The Arab Center.
🔸 Reform or Total Chaos for Lebanon?The Arab Center.

🔸 Trump’s Sanctions on Hezbollah Threaten Lebanon’s Stabilitythe Arab Center.

🔸 Killing the messenger: Trump administration v. the intelligence communityThe Hill.

🔸 The Drums of WarThe Atlantic Council.

🔸 A Yemen-based US foreign policy and return to international moral leadershipThe Hill.

🔸Passage of SJR 7, Better Late Than Never,The Atlantic Council.

🔸Trump’s Yemen ProblemThe Atlantic Council.

🔸 Yemen conflict: Can one make peace with the Houthis?The Hill. 

🔸The Trump Administration Has Lost the Debate on US-Saudi RelationsThe Atlantic Council.

🔸A US–Iran strategy begins in YemenThe Hill. 

🔸 Trump Exits Syria: Blundering Toward a Very Dangerous Situation,The Atlantic Council.

🔸 Oil, Arms, and Counterterrorism: A Look At Saudi Options and How Far the Kingdom May GoThe Atlantic Council.

🔸 The Khashoggi Affair: Back to the FutureThe Atlantic Council.

🔸 The War in Yemen: Playing With FireThe Atlantic Council.

🔸Yemen: The Battle for al-Hodeida Between War and PeaceThe Atlantic Council.

🔸 Iraq: The Reinvention of Muqtada al-SadrThe Atlantic Council.

🔸 Lebanese Elections: This is Not a Political EarthquakeThe Atlantic Council.

🔸 Why It’s A Bad Idea To Abandon The White Helmets In SyriaThe Atlantic Council.

🔸 Yemen: What Dreams May Come,The Atlantic Council.

🔸 The Meaning of Eastern Ghouta and Assad’s “Victory”The Cairo Review. 

🔸 A farewell to Ali Abdullah SalehAl Jazeera English.

🔸 Yemen: National Reconciliation Without Foreign InterventionThe Atlantic Council.

🔸 The Limits of Democratization in MoroccoThe Atlantic Council.

🔸 Trump Rushes into Raqqa, The Cairo Review.

🔸 When Will They Announce the Death of the Arabs?The Atlantic Council.

🔸 Limitless Ambitions Of Yemen’s Houthis, The Cairo Review. 

🔸  The Arab World’s Sorry StateThe Atlantic Council.

🔸  Scramble for IraqThe Cairo Review.

🔸 Watching Cairo from WashingtonForeign Policy.

🔸 No Exit: The Politics of Garbage in LebanonThe Cairo Review.

🔸 Lebanonizing Yemen May Save ItThe Atlantic Council.

🔸 The Obama Doctrine and the Middle East: Problems and ProspectsGeo-strategic Media. 

🔸 Will the Real President Obama Please Stand Up?The Chicago Council for Global Affairs.

🔸 Book Review: The New Middle East: Protest and Revolution in the Arab World by Fawaz Gerges,
Penn State University Press. 

🔸 Yemen: In Search of a Coherent U.S. PolicyMiddle East Policy.

🔸 Book Review of William Rugh's Front Line Pubic DiplomacyInternational Journal of Middle East Studies.

🔸 Chapter in "Leadership and Development in Arab Society" book, American University of Beirut.

🔸 Middle East CornerNorthwestern University.

🔸 The Arab Cold War Revisited: The Regional Impact of the Arab UprisingMiddle East Policy.

🔸 The Pragmatic Trend in Inter-Arab Politics, Middle East Journal. 
Bunker Diplomacy: An Arab-American in the U.S. Foreign Service

Lebanese born U.S. diplomat Nabeel Khoury “offers readers a searing personal journey through America’s trials and tribulations in the Middle East,” writes former Deputy Secretary of State William Burns. The book, Bunker Diplomacy, is a firsthand account of U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East through the eyes of an Arab-American who tried to bridge the divide between Washington and the Arab world through interactions with Arab literati, journalists and government officials. The stories he tells of his experiences in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Iraq and Yemen shed light on why U.S. diplomacy moved over his twenty five years in the service from open-door cultural facilities throughout the region to hiding behind high walls and inside sealed safe havens.

Moroccan royal family member Hicham Alaoui writes, “This is a gripping narrative that fuses two stories in one - The personal journey of a man who stood between two worlds, Beirut and Washington, at once Arab and American, The second narrative is a story of America itself as a great power casting a long shadow over the Arab world … that these two stories come from the same book is reason enough to read it, but that they come from the career of the same individual will make readers never forget it.”

Former U.S. ambassador to Qatar and Lebanon writes, “ From Egypt, to ‘The Magic Kingdom’ to Iraq, Morocco and Yemen — Dr. Khoury undertook his duties with a flair that was both bold and unique. I only wish that American policy makers would read his chapters on Morocco and Yemen in particular, and benefit from his general policy recommendations.”

The book published by Westphalia Press, is now available for order via Amazon: here.
Also available directly from Westphalia Press: here.
You may contact Dr Khoury via twitter here. 
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