Sami Moubayed

Sami Moubayed is editor-in-chief of Forward Magazine in Syria. He is also a writer, political analyst, and historian, based in Damascus. His latest book is Steel & Silk: Men and Women Who Shaped Syria 1900-2000 (Cune Press, Seattle, 2005) and other books include The Politics of Damascus 1920-1946 (Dar Tlass, 1998), Damascus Between Democracy and Dictatorship 1948-1958 (University Press of America, 2000), and The George Washington of Syria: The Rise and fall of Shukri al-Quwatli (Dar al-Zakira, 2006). His articles on Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria appear regularly in The Daily Star, Asia Times, Al-Hayat, Gulf News, al-Ahram Weekly, and The Washington Post. He lectures frequently at the Assad National Library on the founding years of the Syrian Republic, in association with the Friends of Damascus Society and appears regularly on Syrian TV, Al-Jazeera, and BBC. He is a member of the editorial board of al-Mashreq Journal (published by the University of Melbourne). Moubayed is also an Associate Professor at the Faculty of International Relations and a Member of the Board of Trustees at the University of Kalamoon in Syria. He has lectured at the National Institute of Administration (INA), and The Arab Academy for Public Relations. He is a co-founder and two-time board member of the Syrian Young Entrepreneurs Association (SYEA). He is also a Research Fellow at St Andrews University in Scotland where he is a co-founder of the Syrian Studies Center. He has interviewed leading international figures like Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, US president Jimmy Carter, Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal, and Lebanese presidents Amin Gemayel and Elias Hrawi. He has interviewed leading cultural and media figures like ABC’s Barbara Walters, The New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh, the Syrian poet Adonis, the playwright Mohammad al-Maghout, and the Brazilian bestselling author Paolo Coelho. He is author of a 30-episode television series on Syrian President Shukri al-Quwatli. In December 2008, he began working on the memoirs of Duraid Lahham, a pioneer of Syrian theatre, television, and cinema, which are due for release in 2010. Moubayed is also co-creator of SyrianHistory.com, the first and only online museum of modern Syrian history. Moubayed studied at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and obtained his PhD in Middle East Affairs from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom.