Stephen Philip Cohen (Middle East expert)

Stephen Philip Cohen is a specialist in Middle East policy (not to be confused with the Brookings Institution's Stephen Philip Cohen who is a specialist in South Asian policy issues, although the latter has been co-organizer of the Brookings "Islamic World and US Policy" forum that meets in Doha, Qatar every year).

In 1979 he founded the Institute for Middle East Peace and Development and remains its President. According to a biographical note he "is the National Scholar of Israel Policy Forum and in the last years he has been a visiting professor at Princeton University and Lehigh University."

"Since 1975 when he first traveled to Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian areas as part of a team of university professors, he has pioneered behind the scenes efforts in bringing Arabs and Israelis together," his biographical note states.

"Dr. Cohen created the first secret official negotiations between Israel and the PLO years before Oslo under the supervision of Chairman Arafat and Shimon Peres, and launching the premier intermediaries of Israeli Prime Ministers and Arafat until the collapse of the peace process into the second intifada. Together with a Syrian American colleague, he has been in confidential, off-the-record discussions with Syria's top leadership from pre-Madrid days with President Hafez el-Assad and through the Presidency of his successor and son Bashaar el-Assad. He is also a senior member of the United States group led by Ambassador Edward Djerejian engaged in off-the-record US/Syria dialogue," it states.

According to his biogrpahic note "he was the founding president of the Foundations of Charles Bronfman. He was the first President of S. Daniel Abraham's Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation. He was a partner with Lester Crown and Robert Lifton in the New Middle East LLC. Lester Crown was also Co-Chair of the Businessman for Middle East Peace and Development created by Steve Cohen."

Cohen was identified in a Wall Street Journal article as one of five sponsors of the Committee for the Republic.

In 2001 Cohen cowrote a briefing paper with Daniel Pipes who is the director of the Middle East Forum. 

He is a scholar at the Israel Policy Forum.