Announcing New Middle East Program Fellows

• September 20, 2023

Philadelphia, PA 
September 20, 2023 

The Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) is pleased to announce the appointment of two new Middle East Program Fellows. 

“Dr. Hadar and Dr. Salih both bring to FPRI a great depth of expertise and analytical sharpness and exemplify our commitment to building a Middle East program that combines keen geopolitical insight with practical, on-the-ground perspectives,” commented Middle East Program Director James Ryan.

Leon Hadar is a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Middle East Program. A Washington-based journalist, political scientist, and global affairs analyst, Hadar is the author of Sandstorm: Policy Failure in the Middle East (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) and Quagmire: America in the Middle East (Cato Institute, 1992). 

A former research fellow in foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, Hadar’s commentaries have been published in major global affairs magazines, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, World Policy Journal, Middle East Journal, Middle East Policy, and Mediterranean Quarterly, as well as in leading American and international newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Philadelphia Inquirer, El Pais, and The Straits Times.

Hadar has served as Washington correspondent for The Business Times and as the New York and United Nations bureau chief of The Jerusalem Post and The London Jewish Chronicle. He is a contributing editor with The National Interest and The American Conservative, has contributed regularly to The Spectator, and is a columnist and blogger for Haaretz (Israel).

Dr. Hadar holds three Master’s degrees, one in political science and communication from Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and two from the School of International and Public Affairs and the School of Journalism (where he was the recipient of the Henry N. Taylor Award) at Columbia University where he also received a certificate from the Middle East Institute. He received his Ph.D. in international relations from the American University, Washington DC. 

Hadar taught international relations, Middle East politics, and communication at the American University and the University of Maryland, College Park, and was the director of international studies at Mount Vernon College in Washington.

 

Mohammed A. Salih is a Senior Fellow in FPRI’s Middle East Program and a researcher and journalist based in Virginia, United States. He holds a Ph.D. from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and has written for nearly two decades on Middle Eastern affairs for international news outlets, think tanks, and academic journals. His main interests include Kurdish affairs, Iraq, Iran, the Islamic State group, and the region’s intersection of media, culture, and politics.

His writings have appeared, among other places, at The Washington Post, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, Christian Science Monitor, The Nation, Al Jazeera English, Al-Monitor, AmwajMedia, Rudaw, and in publications from the Middle East Institute, and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Fikra Forum. He has appeared on major international news outlets such as CNN, Fox News, Sky News, The Independent, and Voice of America, commenting about Middle East regional issues.