Contemporary Arab World, Euro-Arab relationship, Euro-Mediterranean relations, Euro-Palestinian relations, Arab-Israeli conflict
Bichara Khader is Professor Emeritus at the Catholic University of Louvain and Founder of the Study and Research Centre on the Contemporary Arab World “Groupe d’études et de recherches sur le Monde Arabe contemporain” (GERMAC). He has been member of the Group of High Experts on European Foreign Policy and Common Security (European Commission) and Member of the Group of Wisemen on cultural dialogue in the Mediterranean (European Presidency). Currently he is visiting professor in various Arab and European universities. He has published almost 30 books on the Arab World, the Euro-Arab, Euro-Mediterranean and the Euro-Palestinian relations. “Le Grand Maghreb et l’Europe, Enjeux et perspectives”, Publisud-Quorum, Paris, 1992; “Conflits et processus de paix au Proche-Orient”, Academia-Bruylant, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1996; “Le partenariat euro-méditerranéen, après la Conférence de Barcelone”, L’Harmattan, Paris, 1997; “Le partenariat euro-méditerranéen vu du Sud”, L’Harmattan, Paris, 2001; “Les migrations dans les rapports euro-arabes et euro-méditerranéens”, L’Harmattan, 2011; “Le printemps arabe : un premier bilan”, Sylleps, 2012. The most recent books are: “Le Monde Arabe expliqué à l’Europe”, L’Harmattan, Paris, 2009 (French and Spanish), “Europe and the Arab World”, Zed Books New Edition 2013 ( English, Arabic, Spanish), “ l’Europe pour la Méditerranée”, L’Harmattan, Paris, 2015 (French, Arabic and Spanish).
Bichara Khader was born in February 1944 in Zababdeh, a Palestinian village with a Christian majority located near Jenin. He arrived in Belgium in 1965 to pursue his university studies at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain). After graduating in political, economic and social sciences from UCLouvain, he joined The Johns Hopkins University SAIS Bologna Center (Bologna, Italy), then returned to UCLouvain for his PhD. Assistant and then professor at the Faculty of Political, Economic and Social Sciences of the UCLouvain since 1974, he founded and directs, in the same faculty, the “Centre d’Études et de Recherches sur le Monde Arabe contemporain” (CERMAC). Emeritus professor since 2010, he regularly gives lectures and courses in Arab and European countries, notably at the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Management (HEM) in Morocco, at the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies in Malta, at the College of Europe in Natolin (Poland), at the Saint Joseph University in Beirut and in various Spanish and Italian universities. Professor Bichara Khader is an internationally recognized specialist in the field of contemporary Arab world, Euro-Arab and Euro-Mediterranean issues. He is the brother of Naïm Khader, first PLO representative in Brussels, murdered in 1981.
