Professor Fawaz A. Gerges (London School of Economics & Political Sciences – LSE) will deliver the lecture on “A Rupture in the International Relations of the Middle East” on Saturay April 18th, 2026 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Fawaz A. Gerges is Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and holder of the Emirates Professorship in Contemporary Middle East Studies. He was also the inaugural Director of the LSE Middle East Centre from 2010 until 2013. He earned a doctorate from Oxford University and M.Sc. from the London School of Economics. Gerges has taught at Oxford, Harvard, and Columbia, and was a research scholar at Princeton and the chairholder of the Christian A. Johnson Chair in Middle Eastern Studies and International Affairs at Sarah Lawrence College, New York. His special interests include Islam and the political process, social movements, including mainstream Islamist movements and jihadist groups (like the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda), Arab politics and Muslim politics in the 20th century, the international relations of the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict, state and society in the Middle East, American foreign policy towards the Muslim world, the modern history of the Middle East, history of conflict, diplomacy and foreign policy, and historical sociology. Professor Fawaz A. Gerges’ most recent books include: What Really Went Wrong: The West and the failure of democracy in the Middle East (Yale University Press, 2024). [read more]

Themes to be addressed:

1. The Middle East in the Global Context
2. The Changing Geopolitics and Geoeconomics in the Middle East
3. The Future of Iran and the Axis of Resistance
4. The role of the Arab States: Is the Abraham Accords dead?
5. The New American-Israeli Order
6. Burying the Principle of a Palestinian State?
7. Where Is Europe?
8. Declining Russia
9. And the winner is: China?