Andrew J. Tabler

Andrew J. Tabler is a Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and a participant/contributor to the Fikra Forum (FF) which is a WINEP project. From his FF profile:
 * Andrew J. Tabler is a Next Generation fellow in the Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he focuses on how the United States can engage with Syria in a way that best advances U.S. interests. A journalist and researcher, Andrew has achieved unparalleled qualitative and long-term access to Bashar al-Asad's Syria. He is the cofounder and former editor-in-chief of Syria Today, Syria's first private-sector English-language magazine, and has been a media consultant for Syrian nongovernmental organizations (2003-2004) under the patronage of Syrian first lady Asma al-Asad. In fourteen years of resident consultancy, research, and journalism in the Middle East, Andrew served, most recently, as a consultant on U.S.-Syria relations for the International Crisis Group (2008) and as a fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs (2005-2007), writing on Syrian, Lebanese, and Middle Eastern affairs. His long-term residence in the region began in 1994 with graduate studies in comparative politics and Arabic at the American University in Cairo. After editorships with the Middle East Times and Cairo Times, Andrew became senior editor and director of editorial for the Oxford Business Group (OBG) in 2000. The following year, he personally oversaw with OBG the first comprehensive report on Syria in more than thirty years.  Andrew has interviewed Syrian first lady Asma al-Asad, Israeli president Shimon Peres, the late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, slain Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, former Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora, and current Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri. His articles and opinion pieces on Syrian and Lebanese affairs and U.S. foreign policy have appeared in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, the International Herald Tribune, Newsweek, and Foreign Policy. He has also appeared in interviews with CNN, NBC, PBS, NPR, and the BBC. Andrew is author of the forthcoming book In the Lion's Den: Inside America's Cold War with Assad's Syria (I.B. Tauris, 2010) and the 2007 Stanley Foundation report The High Road to Damascus: Engage Syria's Private Sector. Andrew received his M.A. from American University in Cairo (AUC) and a Certificate from the Arabic Language Institute at AUC. He received his B.A. from Washington & Jefferson College.

Affiliations

 * AIPAC – featured speaker at the AIPAC Annual Policy Conference (21 Mar 2010)
 * Fikra Forum, Contributor
 * Syria Today – former editor-in-chief