Fawaz Gerges

On the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, Oxford University Press released Gerges' book, The Rise and Fall of Al Qaeda (2011). Gerges' book, Obama and the Middle East (May 2012) was published by Pelgrave Macmillan one year later.

Gerges is the author of numerous books and publications, including two recently acclaimed texts: Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy (2007), and The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global (2009). The Washington Post selected The Far Enemy as one of the best 15 books published in the field. Journey of the Jihadist was on the best-selling list of Barnes & Noble and Foreign Affairs magazine for several months.

He has appeared on television and radio networks throughout the world, including CNN, ABC, CBS, NPR, the BBC and Al Jazeera. During the weeks leading up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, he was a regular guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, PBS’s The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and The Charlie Rose Show.

Fawaz A. Gerges, a U.S. citizen, was born into a Christian Orthodox family in 1959 in Beirut, Lebanon. During the Lebanese Civil War, his hometown was destroyed by Islamic militants, forcing his family to flee to Syria and take refuge in Christian monasteries. Gerges stayed in Syria for a year before moving to the United States.

Gerges was born during a Lebanese civil war in 1958 and was part of the 1975 war generation. According to him, "My generation was wiped out—killed, mutilated and polluted by sectarian-tribal conflict between 1975 and 1990, or forced into exile." Although he immigrated to the United States to escape the conflict, Gerges' younger brother, Bassam, was killed during the war in 1990. Gerges has lived most of his life in the United States.