Christopher Davidson is Reader in Middle East Politics and a Fellow at Durham University in the UK. He is an author of multiple books on the Middle East, including Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East (2016). According to a review in The Christian Science Monitor , the book "comes closer than any recent popular study to offering definitive answers" to the questions of the origins of the strife in the region. [1]
A graduate (BA & MA) of Cambridge University, he completed his doctorate at St Andrews University in Scotland. [2] He has appeared in various media outlets worldwide. [3]
Davidson has publicly spoken out against bank fraud schemes in Dubai perpetuated by an American, British, Pakistani, and Turkish fraud cell aimed at scamming Middle Eastern banks. He says "Some might say that it's evidence of the anti-corruption drive, but again, where are the Emiraatis?" gaining him popularity in Middle Eastern circles. [4]
Davidson received attention for his prediction that many expatriate investments in Dubai and Iraq may see substantial losses. He analyzed and accurately predicted outcomes in 2009. [5]
Davidson's monograph "Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success" was published by Columbia University Press.
In May 2008 he was involved in a successful escape attempt from western Beirut amidst an armed takeover by militants. [6]
In October 2009 he was the keynote speaker, with Donald Trump Jr., at Cityscape 2009 in Dubai, the Middle East's biggest real estate investment conference.
Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group. Its paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council. Hezbollah was led by Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah from 1992 until his assassination in an airstrike in Beirut in September 2024.
Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia, bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west; Cyprus lies a short distance from the country's coastline. It is at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula. Lebanon has a population of more than five million and an area of 10,452 square kilometres (4,036 sq mi). Beirut is the country's capital and largest city.
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. As of 2014, Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region and the thirteenth-largest in the Arab world. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coast. Beirut has been inhabited for more than 5,000 years, making it one of the oldest cities in the world.
The culture of Lebanon and the Lebanese people emerged from Phoenicia and through various civilizations over thousands of years. It was home to the Phoenicians and was subsequently conquered and occupied by the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Persians, the Arabs, the Crusaders, the Ottomans and the French. This variety is reflected in Lebanon's diverse population, composed of different religious groups, and features in the country's festivals, literature, artifacts, cuisine and architecture of Lebanon. Despite colonization by different entities genetic testing has revealed that 89% of Lebanese people today descend from the Phoenicians. Regardless of religion or colonization which were layers of paint on top.
Élias Sarkis was a Lebanese lawyer and President of Lebanon who served from 1976 to 1982.
Anthony Shadid was a foreign correspondent for The New York Times based in Baghdad and Beirut who won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting twice, in 2004 and 2010.
HSBC Bank Middle East Limited is the largest and most widely represented international bank in the Middle East.
Banque du Liban is the central bank of Lebanon. It was established on August 1, 1963, and became fully operational on April 1, 1964. In 2023, Wassim Mansouri stepped up as interim governor of the Banque du Liban after Lebanon failed to name a successor to Riad Salameh, whose term finished in July 2023. Salameh, who was chairman for 30 years, has been accused of corruption, money laundering and running the largest Ponzi scheme in history; he was additionally labeled "the world’s worst central banker". He is currently under sanctions by Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Christianity in Lebanon has a long and continuous history. Biblical scriptures show that Peter and Paul evangelized the Phoenicians, leading to the dawn of the ancient Patriarchate of Antioch. As such, Christianity in Lebanon is as old as Christian faith itself. Christianity spread slowly in Lebanon due to pagans who resisted conversion, but it ultimately spread throughout the country. Even after centuries of living under Muslim Empires, Christianity remains the dominant faith of the Mount Lebanon region and has substantial communities elsewhere.
Kai Bird is an American author and columnist, best known for his works on the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, United States-Middle East political relations, and his biographies of political figures. He won a Pulitzer Prize for American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Roger Edward Tamraz is an international banker and venture capital investor who has had an active business career in oil and gas in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and the United States since the early 1960s. He is the billionaire chairman of the Dubai, UAE-based petroleum energy firm NetOil.
Michel Kilo was a Syrian Christian writer and human rights activist, who has been called "one of Syria's leading opposition thinkers."
Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum was an Emirati politician, the deputy ruler of Dubai and the minister of finance and industry of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He was the second son of the late ruler Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum. Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum was the head of the UAE's delegation at the International Monetary Fund and the OPEC Fund.
The earliest written record of Dubai (Dibei) is accredited to Muhammad al-Idrisi, who mapped the coast of the UAE in the tenth century AD. Circa 1580, the state jeweler of Venice, Gasparo Balbi, documented the pearling industry of Dubai and other cities currently presiding in UAE territory. Though traditionally conservative, the UAE is one of the most liberal countries in the Gulf, with other cultures and beliefs generally tolerated. Politically it remains authoritarian, however, relations with neighbouring Iran have been tense because of an ongoing territorial dispute over Gulf islands. The UAE was one of only three countries to recognise Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
The cinema of Lebanon, according to film critic and historian Roy Armes, is the only other cinema in the Arabic-speaking region, beside Egypt's, that could amount to a national cinema. Cinema in Lebanon has been in existence since the 1920s, and the country has produced more than 500 films.
Lebanon is an eastern Mediterranean country that has the most religiously diverse society within the Middle East, recognizing 18 religious sects. The recognized religions are Islam, Christianity (the Maronite Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, evangelical Protestantism, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Latin Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Assyrian Church of the East, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church, and Judaism.
Juma al Majid is an Emirati businessman, political adviser, and philanthropist. He is the founder and chairman of Juma Al Majid Holding Group. In 2016, Al Majid was ranked among the richest Arabs in the world.
Jim Muir is a British journalist, currently serving as a Middle East correspondent for BBC News, based in Beirut, Lebanon.
Florence Eid-Oakden was the CEO & Chief Economist of Arabia Monitor Research & Strategy, a London-based independent research firm specialising in the economies, markets and geopolitics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).