BASSAM TIBI was born in Damascus and educated in Germany. He has been Professor of International Relations at the University of Goettingen since 1973 (between 1982-2004 in a variety of affiliations at Harvard, the latest 'The Harvard Bosch Fellow'). Professor Tibi lectured and taught at more than 30 universities in four continents including Khartum, Yaounde/Cameroun, Ankara and the Middle East, more recently at the Islamic State University of Jakarta, Indonesia. Since 2004 he has held the A.D. White Professorship-at-large at Cornell University. Professor Tibi is author of numerous books in English and German translated into 13 languages. Among these books are
Arab Nationalism (3rd edition 1997),
Conflict and War in the Middle East (2nd edition 1998) and
The Challenge of Fundamentalism (updated edition 2002). He is also contributor to
International Herald Tribune and
Wall Street Journal and to leading German press. The President of Germany awarded him the highest decoration of the state/first class for his contribution for a better understanding of Islam in Germany.