This person is no longer with the Carnegie Endowment.
Amal Saad-Ghorayeb was a visiting scholar in the Carnegie Middle East Center. A leading expert on Hizbollah, Saad-Ghorayeb has done extensive research on the organization, conducting numerous in-depth interviews with leading Hizbollah officials. She has also written extensively about Lebanon’s Shiites and Lebanese politics. Prior to joining Carnegie, she taught political science at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, and was a consultant at the Beirut Center for Research and Information–a leading Lebanese research center specializing in public opinion research.
Selected Publications: “Hizbollah’s Outlook in the Current Conflict: Motives, Strategy and Objectives”, (Carnegie Policy Outlook, August 2006); “Hizbollah’s Outlook in the Current Conflict: Accommodating Diplomacy and Preparing for the Post-War Context”, (Carnegie Policy Outlook, August 2006); “Factors Conducive to the Politicization of the Lebanese Shi’ites and the Subsequent Rise of Hizbollah,” (Journal of Islamic Studies, 14, 3, Dec. 2003); Hizbollah: Politics and Religion, (Pluto Press, 2002)
Despite its reactive origins, the recent mobilization of the Shiite community in Lebanon does not seem to be an ephemeral episode, but rather a new chapter in an ongoing epic of communal consciousness and activism with far-reaching political implications.
There is no easy solution to the predicament of Hezbollah's armed status. Thus far, the organization and the new Lebanese government have resisted calls by the United States and the international community to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559, which urges the state to disarm all militias.
Despite the international commotion over last year's Cedar Revolution and withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon, the much vaunted Beirut Spring appears to have been a mirage. Neither the anti-Syrian protests (capped by the mammoth March 14, 2005 demonstration) nor the Syrian withdrawal ushered in an era of political reform.
Interview with Amal Saad-Ghorayeb on the status of Hezbollah.
After the war of last summer, Lebanon had settled back into a pretense of normality, shattered periodically by massive demonstrations in the streets of the capital, as Hizbollah mustered its supporters in an attempt to force the government to call for early elections. The government refused to give in. Hizbollah is now trying to break the impasse.
An in-depth look into the mindset of Hizbollah’s leadership, including their priorities, justifications for continued armament, and animosity towards the U.S. Through unprecedented access to high-ranking Hizbollah officials, including Hizbollah’s Deputy Secretary General.
Saad-Ghorayeb, a Lebanese political analyst writing from Beirut, draws on interviews she carried out with Hizbollah officials both before and after the outbreak of fighting in mid-July to provide vital insights into the causes and consequences of the war with Israel.
