Robert G. Rabil

Robert G. Rabil

Dr. Robert G. Rabil is a professor of political science at Florida Atlantic University. He received his doctorate in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University. His area of studies and expertise include Political/Radical Islam, Transnational and Revivalist movements, Salafism, US-Arab Relations, Arab-Israeli Conflict, Terrorism and Contemporary Middle East Politics in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Israel, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia. He is an internationally renowned and acclaimed scholar. His books have been highly commended and reviewed by major academic journals in the U.S., U.K., Arab world, Australia, Israel and Iran.

Dr. Rabil served as the Chief of Emergency for the Red Cross in Baabda district, Beirut during Lebanon's civil war, and was project manager of the U.S. State Department funded Iraq Research and Documentation project. Dr. Rabil was awarded the LLS Distinguished Professorship in Current Events, the Excellence in Teaching Award and in May 2012 was conferred an honorary Doctorate in Humanities from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

Dr. Rabil’s frequent speaking engagements include appearances at major universities such as Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Brandeis University, Case Western Reserve, and the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. He participates in round table discussions and forums sponsored by the U.S. Government, including the U.S. Army and National Intelligence Council. He appears on media outlets such as ABC, CBS, BBC, FOX, MSNBC and C-SPAN.

Books

Year	Book	Publisher
2004	Embattled Neighbors: Syria, Israel, and Lebanon	Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.
2006	Syria, the United States, and the War on Terror in the Middle East	Praeger Publishers
2011	Religion, National Identity, and Confessional Politics in Lebanon: The Challenge of Islamism	Palgrave US
2014	Salafism in Lebanon: From Apoliticism to Transnational Jihadism	Georgetown University Press
2016	The Syrian Refugee Crisis in Lebanon: The Double Tragedy of Refugees and Impacted Host Communities	Lexington Books

Embattled Neighbors: Syria, Israel, and Lebanon

Winner of the Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title Award 2003 Embattled Neighbors deals with the fabric of relations between Israel, Syria, and Lebanon, three neighboring countries whose destiny has been combined ever since they emerged as independent states and even before that. Their joint history is a history of conflict and struggle. The book focuses on this conflict, its roots and its development along the years. At the same time, it gives special emphasis to the futile efforts during the 1990s to bring this conflict to an end. The last part of the book thus raises the question of why the three states failed to overcome the difficulties and bridge the wide gap of hostility and animosity that separated them.

Syria, the United States, and the War on Terror in the Middle East

Ever since Syria won its independence from France in 1946, it has been a crucial player in Middle Eastern politics. Over the years, relations between the United States and Syria have fluctuated as Washington has tried to balance its commitment to Israel's security with its support for Arab regimes in order to protect vital and strategic interests in the Arab world. The Arab-Israeli conflict is, however, no longer the only focal point of the relationship. Now, terrorism has entered the fray. On the State Department's "terrorism list" since 1979, Syria became even more persona non grata as far as Washington was concerned when Damascus vocally opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. The American war in Iraq, occupation, and promotion of democracy throughout the Middle East pose a strong challenge to the Syrian regime. The new Syrian leadership, in power only since 2000, faces immense challenges--protecting Syria's regional status and surviving internal and external threats. Against this background, Syria and the United States have set themselves on a collision course over terrorism, arms proliferation, Lebanon, the Middle East peace process, and Iraq. Syria is, nevertheless, extremely important to the United States, because it can be a force for either stability or instability in an extremely volatile region.

Recent events have put the spotlight on Syria's policies and actions. After the assassination of a Lebanese politician, protests in Lebanon led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops. While the withdrawal averted an immediate threat of bloodshed, the Bush administration accused Syria of being a source of instability in the Middle East, with Secretary of State Rice charging that Syria was still active in Lebanon and was supporting foreign terrorists fueling the insurgency in Iraq. The U.S.-Syrian relationship is of critical importance to the United States' efforts to promote democracy throughout the Middle East. At the same time, the United States has been pressuring Syria to clamp down on terrorism within its own borders. Rabil provides a history of the modern U.S.-Syrian relationship, putting the latest events in the context of this contemporary history, and placing the relationship in the context of Middle Eastern politics.

The book is much more than an overview of US-Syrian relations. It sketches the most important developments in the Levant and its surroundings from the middle of the 20th century up to today. Thus the book also deals with Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. Nevertheless, Rabil keeps a clear, systematic focus on the complex linkages between regional developments and Syria's foreign policy.

Religion, National Identity, and Confessional Politics in Lebanon: The Challenge of Islamism

Tracing the rise of Islamism in Lebanon and its attempt to Islamize society and state by the reverse integration of society and state into the project of Islamism, this book looks at Lebanon against a background of weak and contested national identity and capricious interaction between religious affiliation and confessional politics, and attempts to illustrate in detailed analysis this "comprehensive" project of Islamism according to its ideological and practical evolutionary change. The author demonstrates that, despite ideological, political and confessional incongruities and concerns, Islamism, in both its Sunni and Shi'a variants, has maintained a unity of purpose in pursuing its project: jihad against Israel and abolishment of political sectarianism.

Robert Rabil's work confirms his role as a prominent scholar and insightful reader of Lebanese political realities. The study offers an important and well-researched comparison of two extremely relevant political players within Lebanon, and serves as an analytical tool to grasp the origins and development of Islamism in the country.

Salafism in Lebanon: From Apoliticism to Transnational Jihadism

Salafism, comprised of fundamentalist Islamic movements whose adherents consider themselves the only "saved" sect of Islam, has been little studied, remains shrouded in misconceptions, and has provoked new interest as Salafists have recently staked a claim to power in some Arab states while spearheading battles against "infidel" Arab regimes during recent rebellions in the Arab world. Robert G. Rabil examines the emergence and development of Salafism into a prominent religious movement in Lebanon, including the ideological and sociopolitical foundation that led to the three different schools of Salafism in Lebanon: quietist Salafists, Haraki (active) Salafists; and Salafi Jihadists.

Emphasizing their manhaj (methodology) toward politics, the author surveys Salafists' ideological transformation from opponents of to supportive of political engagement. Their antagonism to Hezbollah, which they denounce as the party of Satan, has risen exponentially following the party's seizure of Beirut in 2008 and support of the tyrannical Syrian regime. Salafism in Lebanon also demonstrates how activists and jihadi Salafists, in response to the political weakness of Sunni leadership, have threatened regional and international security by endorsing violence and jihad.

Drawing on field research trips, personal interviews, and Arabic primary sources, the book explores the relationship between the ideologies of the various schools of Salafism and their praxis in relation to Lebanese politics. The book should interest students and scholars of Islamic movements, international affairs, politics and religion, and radical groups and terrorism.

This is a must read book. It is the most detailed and up to date study on Salafism in Lebanon. The book's merit lies not only in its division of Salafism into three distinct schools: quietest, Haraki and Salafi-Jihadi, but also in the elegant way in which it sheds the layers of confusion canopying this relatively new but prominent religious movement.

The Syrian Refugee Crisis in Lebanon: The Double Tragedy of Refugees and Impacted Host Communities

Scheduled for release in August 2016 this book examines the unfolding of the Syrian refugee crisis in relation to the spillover of the Syrian civil war in Lebanon and against the background of Lebanon–Syria relations and Lebanon’s socio-political, cultural, legal, and economic conditions. It surveys Lebanon’s response plans to the refugee crisis as part of the development of the international response plans to address the protection and needs of the Syrian refugees and Palestinian refugees from Syria, as well as the impacted host communities and institutions. At the same time, this book emphasizes the dramatic shift in popular and institutional attitudes towards the refugees as a response to and as a growth of the sheer magnitude of the refugee crisis, which made Lebanon the only country in modern history with the highest per capita concentration of refugees in the world. By examining these attitudes against the background of achievements and failures of the response plans, the impact of the crisis on state institutions on the local and national levels, and the collective consciousness of a nation barely surviving the scars of its civil war, this book not only underscores the deepening tragedy of Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, but also the consequential tragedy of many Lebanese, who have been forced into poverty and whose livelihoods have been affected by insecurity and the almost complete collapse of social services. As a result, the tragedy of the Syrian refugee crisis has become an international crisis affecting vulnerable persons across nationalities, and, unless it is addressed diplomatically and its response plans sufficiently funded, the tragedy will only deepen across continents.

Affiliations

• Affiliate in Research, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 1999-present.
• Member of the Board of Directors, Iraq Institute for Strategic Studies, Inc., Beirut, Baghdad, London, Washington, DC, 2004-present.
• Advisory Board, Florida Society for Middle East Studies, Boca Raton, Florida, 2004-present.
• Adjunct Scholar, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Washington, DC, 2005-2009.
• Academic Adviser, American Lebanese Coalition and World Lebanese Cultural Union, 2003-present.
• Academic Adviser, Central Naval Analysis,2006-present.
• Academic Adviser, Middle East and National Security Organization, an FAU student club which promotes awareness of Middle East and US national security issues.