For Immediate Release:  March 27, 2006
Contact:  Marsha Nishi Mullan     
610-328-8535      
http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/

Middle East Scholar, Expert on Terrorism to Speak at Swarthmore College

Noted Middle East scholar and expert on terrorism and world conflict Walid Phares will speak at Swarthmore College on Tuesday, March 28, on the future of jihad, the war on terrorism, and the war in Iraq.  His talk at 5 p.m. in the Science Center, Room 101, is free and open to the public.

Phares is a professor in Florida Atlantic University's Department of Political Science where he teaches Middle East political issues, ethnic and religious conflict, and comparative politics.  He has written eight books on the Middle East and published hundreds of articles in newspapers and scholarly publications such as Global Affairs Middle East Quarterly, and Journal of South Asian and Middle East Studies.  His most recent book is Future Jihad:  Terrorist Strategies Against America (St. Martins, 2005).  A senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a terrorism analyst for MSNBC, Phares has testified before the Senate and conducted briefings at the State Department, Departments of Defense and Justice, the European Parliament, and the Security Council of the United Nations.