experts
Yezid Sayigh
Senior Fellow, Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center

about

Yezid Sayigh is a senior fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, where he works on the comparative political and economic roles of Arab armed forces, the impact of war on states and societies, and the politics of authoritarian resurgence. Previously, Sayigh held teaching and research positions at King’s College London, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Oxford, and headed the Middle East program of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. Sayigh was also an adviser, negotiator, and policy planner in the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks with Israel 1991-2002 and advised on Palestinian public institutional reform until 2006.

Sayigh is the author of numerous publications, including most recently Civilians in Arab Defense Affairs: Implications for Providers of Security Assistance (2023), Throwing Down the Gauntlet: What the IMF Can Do About Egypt’s Military Companies (April 2022); Retain, Restructure, or Divest? Policy Options for Egypt’s Military Economy (2022), Praetorian spearhead: The role of the military in the evolution of Egypt’s state capitalism 3.0 (2021); Owners of the Republic: An Anatomy of Egypt’s Military Economy (2019); Dilemmas of Reform: Policing in Arab Transitions (March 2016); Crumbling States: Security Sector Reform in Libya and Yemen (June 2015); Missed Opportunity: The Politics of Police Reform in Egypt and Tunisia (March 2015); The Syrian Opposition’s Leadership Problem (April 2013); Above the State: The Officers’ Republic in Egypt (August 2012); “We serve the people”: Hamas policing in Gaza (2011); and Policing the People, Building the State: Authoritarian transformation in the West Bank and Gaza (2011). He is the author of the award-winning Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993 (Oxford, 1997).

education
PhD, War Studies, King’s College London , BSc, Chemistry, American University of Beirut 
languages
Arabic, English, French

All work from Yezid Sayigh

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239 Results
commentary
Anatomy of a Military Fall

Why did Bashar al-Assad’s armed forces fail to act, unlike those in Egypt, Libya, Algeria, and Sudan?

· December 10, 2024
In The Media
in the media
Yezid Sayigh on Lebanese Conflict

Yezid Sayigh discusses the escalating conflict in Lebanon.

· November 26, 2024
Al Jazeera English
commentary
The Palestinian Struggle Needs to be Reimagined

The U.S. election result and Yahya Sinwar’s death are markers that the contemporary national movement is moribund.

· November 12, 2024
paper
Do No Harm: Toward an Environmental Audit of Military-Managed Civilian Projects in Egypt

In order for Egypt to respond effectively to the alarming environmental threats it faces, it must bring the large number of military-managed projects and production in the civilian domain under a single, integrated national framework for climate change mitigation and adaptation planning, monitoring, and accountability.

· November 12, 2024
In The Media
in the media
Yezid Sayigh on Escalation in Southern Lebanon

Yezid Sayigh discusses the developments in the middle east and the escalation in Lebanon.

· October 18, 2024
CNN
In The Media
in the media
The End of Hamas?

A discussion with Yezid Sayigh about why he sees Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October as an inflection point both for the Palestinian movement and global history.

· October 17, 2024
The LRB Podcast (London Review of Books)
In The Media
in the media
What Was Possible Before October 7th and What Remains Possible Now

Israel still doesn’t have a clear and coherent political end goal.

· October 7, 2024
New Yorker
commentary
What “Day After” for Israel?

The Jewish state has joined Arab countries in seeing its foundational social contract displaced by “forever wars.”

· October 7, 2024
In The Media
in the media
Israel–Hezbollah: What’s Different This Time?

A conversation about how these confrontations are different from previous conflicts.

· October 3, 2024
The Inside Story Podcast