Shibley Telhami

Shibley Telhami is an American professor in the department of government and politics at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a nonresident senior fellow of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Life
Telhami was born into an Arab family in Israel but has lived his entire adult life in the United States. He is fluent in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. He advised in one way or another every U.S. administration from George H. W. Bush to Barack Obama.

Career
Telhami is a political scientist specializing in international relations, American foreign policy, and Middle Eastern politics with a particular focus on the role of public opinion. He is the author and editor of numerous books and academic articles and contributes to various periodicals and newspapers.





Before coming to the University of Maryland, he taught at several universities, including Cornell University, the Ohio State University, the University of Southern California, Princeton University, Columbia University, Swarthmore College, and the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his doctorate in political science. In 2016, he established and assumed the directorship of the University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll, which probes American public opinion on domestic and foreign policy issues.

Telhami has also been active in foreign policy. He has served as advisor to the U.S. Mission to the U.N. (1990–91), as advisor to former Congressman Lee H. Hamilton, and as a member of the U.S. delegation to the Trilateral U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian Anti-Incitement Committee, which was mandated by the Wye River Agreements. He also served on the Iraq Study Group as a member of the Strategic Environment Working Group. He has contributed to The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times and regularly appears on national and international radio and television. He has served on the U.S. Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World, which was appointed by the Department of State at Congress's request, and he co-drafted the report of their findings, Changing Minds, Winning Peace. He has also co-drafted several Council on Foreign Relations reports on U.S. public diplomacy, on the Arab-Israeli peace process, and on Persian Gulf security.

Telhami is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has served on the board of the Education for Employment Foundation, several academic advisory boards, and has served on the board of Human Rights Watch (and as chair of the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch/Middle East). He has also served on the board of the United States Institute of Peace. Telhami received the Distinguished International Service Award from the University of Maryland in 2002 and the Excellence in Public Service Award from the University System of Maryland Board of Regents in 2006. He was selected by the Carnegie Corporation of New York with the New York Times as one of the "Great Immigrants" for 2013. He also received the University of Maryland's Honors College 2014 Outstanding Faculty Award.

As part of the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development, Telhami established an international lecture series titled the Sadat Lecture for Peace.