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. He earned a M.Sc. at the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Oxford University. He taught at Oxford, Harvard, and Columbia universities and was a research fellow at Princeton University for two years. He held the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation Chair in Middle Eastern Studies and International Affairs at Sarah Lawrence College. In the last decade[when?] Gerges spent five years conducting field research in several Middle Eastern countries on several topics and subjects, including social movements (such as the Muslim Brotherhood, and jihadist groups like Al Qaeda), on Arab and Muslim politics in the 20th century, and relations between the West and the Muslim world. 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.[citation needed] On the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, Oxford University Press released Gerges' book, The Rise and Fall of Al Qaeda (2011).[4] Gerges' book, Obama and the Middle East [5] (May 2012) was published by Pelgrave Macmillan one year later. 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.
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