Dr. Jeffrey G. Karam is an assistant professor of political science at the Lebanese American University. He is also an Associate at the Middle East Initiative at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a visiting assistant professor of international relations and Middle East politics at Harvard University’s Summer School and Division of Continuing Education.
Before joining LAU, Dr. Karam was a postdoctoral research fellow in the International Security Program at Harvard University’s Belfer Center and a visiting assistant professor of international relations at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies.
As an interdisciplinary and multilingual scholar, Dr. Karam’s research and teaching spans the subfields of International Relations, International Security, American Foreign Relations, and Middle Eastern Studies. His research focuses on the Politics of Intelligence and National Security, US-Middle East Relations, American Foreign Policy, and Revolutions, Coups, and Wars in the Middle East. Dr. Karam is currently finishing his first book on the nexus between American intelligence and foreign policy in the Middle East. His research has been supported by many organizations including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Belfer Center of Science and International Affairs, the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, and the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He is the recipient of several awards, including the Christopher Andrew-Michael Handel Award for best article published in Intelligence and National Security during 2017.
Dr. Karam has been invited to give talks and seminars at several institutions including Boston University, Harvard University, and Tufts University. He regularly presents papers, organizes panels, and chairs discussions at the annual meetings of the American Political Science Association (APSA), the International Studies Association (ISA), and the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). In addition to a Postdoctoral Fellowship in International Relations and International Security at Harvard University, he holds a PhD in Political Science from Brandeis University’s Crown Center for Middle East Studies, an MA in Political Studies from the American University of Beirut, and a dual BA in International Affairs and Diplomacy from Notre Dame University, Louaize.
Dr. Karam is an avid reader and collector of spy fiction, especially novels by John le Carré and Ben Macintyre, and someday plans to write an espionage novel. He listens to a wide range of popular music that was influenced by the subculture of the 1960s and 1970s, especially genres that connect between popular culture and politics.
He tweets @JGKaram.