Director, FDD's Future of Terrorism Project

Dr. Walid Phares is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies where he focuses on Middle East history and politics, global terrorist movements, democratization and human rights. Dr. Phares also leads the foundation's Future of Terrorism Project, which considers how the Jihadi-Islamist threat will mutate over time and what can be done to defend against new, more deadly strains of terrorism.

Dr. Phares is the author of ten books on terrorism and the Middle East. His latest book, The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad, was published in March, 2008.  His previous work, War of Ideas: Jihadism Against Democracy, was published April, 2007. His book, Future Jihad, Terrorist Strategies Against America, has been listed on Foreign Policy magazine's best selling titles for three months. The new paperback international edition Future Jihad, Terrorist Strategies against the West was published in November of 2006.

In addition, Dr. Phares serves as a Fox News Channel Middle East Contributor. A fluent English, French, and Arabic speaker, he is a frequent guest on Fox News Channel, CNN, the BCC, al-Jazeera, al Hurra, al-Arabiya, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CTV, Global TV, and hundreds of radio programs. Previously Dr. Phares served as a terrorism analyst for MSNBC. He writes frequently for academic publications and newspapers, including Global Affairs, Middle East Quarterly, International Journal of Security Studies, Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Philadelphia Inquirer, National Review, and Chicago Sun Times.

A frequently consulted expert, for more than two decades Dr. Phares has been called upon by European Commissioners, European Parliament members, as well as French, British, Belgian, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, and Cypriot legislators, officials and Diplomats. He has served as an expert for the Dutch Government on Terrorism. He has also testified to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Middle East and South East Asia, the House committees on international relations and Homeland Security and regularly conducts congressional, State Department, Department of Defense, and Department of Justice briefings.

Dr. Phares is also a senior fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy, a policy institute based in Brussels that is dedicated to defending democratic values, promoting freedom and addressing the ideologies of terrorism.

Dr. Phares is an Adjunct Professor at National Defense University School for National Security Executive Education (SNSEE). From 1993 to 2006, Dr. Phares was a professor of Middle East Studies at Florida Atlantic University. He has also held teaching positions at Florida International University and the University of Miami.  He holds degrees in law and political science from Saint Joseph and the Lebanese Universities in Beirut, a Masters in international law from the Universite de Lyons in France, and a Ph.D. in international relations and strategic studies from the University of Miami in the United States.