Dr. Nakhleh is a retired Senior Intelligence Service Officer, a Research Professor and Director of the Global and National Security Policy Institute at the University of New Mexico, a National Intelligence Council/IC Associate, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Since retiring from the US Government in 2006, he has consulted on national security issues, particularly Islamic radicalization, terrorism, and the Arab states of the Middle East. He has published frequently on the “Arab Spring” in the Financial Times and the LobeLog blog. At CIA, he was a senior analyst and director of the Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program and of Regional Analysis in the Middle East. He was awarded several senior commendations and distinguished medals for his service, including the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal and the Director’s Medal.
He is the author of numerous academic books and scholarly articles including A Necessary Engagement: Reinventing America’s Relations with the Muslim World (Princeton University Press, 2009); Bahrain: Political Development in a Modernizing Society (Lexington Books, 2011; originally published in 1976 and translated into Arabic in 2006); “Intelligence Sharing and Co-operation: Opportunities and Pitfalls,” in Steve Tsang, ed., Combating Transnational Terrorism: Searching for a New Paradigm (Praeger, 2009); and “Moderates Redefined: How to Deal with Political Islam” and “Propaganda and Power in the Middle East,” Current History (December 2009 and 2013). Dr. Nakhleh’s previous publications include: The Gulf Cooperation Council: Policies, Problems, and Prospects (Praeger, 1986); The Persian Gulf and American Policy (Praeger, 1982); Arab-American Relations in the Persian Gulf (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1975); and The West Bank and Gaza: Toward the Making of a Palestinian State (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1975). In 2009 Dr. Nakhleh served on The Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Task Force on “Religion and the Making of U.S. Foreign Policy” and participated in the writing of the Task Force report titled Engaging Religious Communities Abroad: A New Imperative for U.S. Foreign Policy (The Chicago Council, 2010). He and his wife, Ilonka Lessnau Nakhleh, live in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He can be reached at 505-385-8334, (enakhleh@unm.edu or abucr@msn.com).