Joshua Landis

Joshua M. Landis (born May 14, 1947) is an American academic who specializes in the Middle East and is an expert on Syria. He is the head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, and since 2004 has published the blog Syria Comment.

Background

Landis was brought up in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon and has lived in various countries of the Middle East, such as Syria, Egypt, and Turkey. In 1982, he was in Syria during the Hama Islamic uprising. He earned his BA from Swarthmore College, MA from Harvard University, and PhD from Princeton University. He's fluent in Arabic and French and has studied Turkish, Italian and Ottoman. He has received three Fulbright grants and a Social Science Research Council award.

Academia

He taught at Sarah Lawrence College, Wake Forest University, and Princeton University before moving to the University of Oklahoma. Since May 2004, Landis has published the Syrian Comment blog, which focuses on Syrian politics, history, and religion. Landis regularly travels to Washington, D.C. to consult with government agencies. In 2008, he received the Outstanding Teaching Award at his university.

Landis is a frequent analyst on TV and radio, like on PBS News Hour, Charlie Rose Show, CNN and Fox News. He has been widely quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Time, and comments frequently for NPR and BBC radio. He has spoken at the Brookings Institution, USIP, Middle East Institute, and Council on Foreign Relations.

External links

• Joshua M Landis at the University of Oklahoma
• Syria Comment

Articles written by Joshua Landis:

• ""The Battle between ISIS and Syrias Rebel Militias,"" (January 4, 2014) in Syrian Comment
• "“The Syrian Uprising of 2011: Why the Assad Regime is Likely to Survive to 2013,”" (February 2012) in Middle East Policy Vol. XIX, No. 1 (2012).
• "Shishakli and the Druzes: Integration and Intransigence," in The Syrian Land: Processes of Integration and Fragmentation. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1998: 369-396
• Syria and the 1948 War in Palestine A shorter version of this article was published as “Syria in the 1948 Palestine War: Fighting King Abdullah’s Greater Syria Plan,” in Eugene Rogan and Avi Shlaim, eds., Rewriting the Palestine War: 1948 and the History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 178–205. (Translated into French, Spanish and Arabic)
• "Early U.S. Policy toward Palestinian Refugees: the Syria Option," in The Palestinian Regugees: Old Problems - New Solutions, eds. Joseph Ginat and Edward J. Perkins, University of Oklahoma Press: Norman OK, 2001, pp. 77–87.
• Islamic Education In Syria: Undoing Secularism in Eleanor Doumato and Gregory Starrett, Eds., Teaching Islam: Textbooks and Religion in the Middle East, London & Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007, pp. 177–196.
• "The Syrian Opposition,” The Washington Quarterly, Vol. 30, pp. 45–68. 2007. (written with Joe Pace)
• "The Syrian Opposition: The struggle for unity and relevance, 2003–2008," in Fred Lawson, ed., Demystifying Syria, Saqi Books, 2009, pp. 120–143. (written with Joe Pace)
• "Will failure to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict mean a new Cold War in the Middle East?" Foreign Policy - Middle East Channel, Tuesday, May 11, 2010
• "The U.S.-Syria Relationship: A Few Questions," Middle East Policy, Vol. XVII, No. 3, Fall 2010, pp. 64–73.