Ziad Majed is the Elliott E. Burdette Professor at the American University of Paris. He teaches History, Politics and International Relations and writes on French, Lebanese, Syrian, and Arab affairs as well as on Middle Eastern political transitions and crises. After graduating in Economics from the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), he obtained a Master’s degree in Arabic Literature, then a DEA and a Ph.D. in Political science from Sciences Po Paris (France). Majed has been involved since 1994 in research work and reform campaigns related to political processes, Legal and civil society causes and women’s rights in Lebanon and other Arab countries. For the last 20 years, he has been regularly publishing articles and papers in Arabic (in Now Lebanon, Al-Quds al-Arabi, Al-Hayat, Aljazeera Center, the Journal of Palestine Studies, Daraj and Megaphone) and in French (in Orient Littéraire, Mediapart, Le Monde, Express, Libération, and AOC). He is a board member in Lebanese and French cultural institutes, a consultant for many international organizations, and a lecturer in festivals and annual conferences. His books include “Syrie, la révolution orpheline”, published in Arabic, French and – in an updated version – in German, “Dans la tête de Bachar Al-Assad” (with Subhi Hadidi and Farouk Mardam-Bey) in French, and “Iran and its four Arab fronts.”