AUB announces appointment of Tarek Mitri as new IFI director

BEIRUT: The American University of Beirut has appointed Tarek Mitri as the new director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI).

“We are so fortunate to have a man of Tarek Mitri’s stature and experience as the new director of the Issam Fares Institute,” AUB President Peter Dorman said in a statement released Thursday. “As a statesman and scholar with wide understanding of the region and public policy, Mitri is ideally suited to lead the Issam Fares Institute.

“His leadership will further reinforce the IFI as a forum for leading research, debate and policy development on issues of central importance to the Arab region.”

Between 2005 and 2011, Mitri served in various posts for the Lebanese government: as environment minister, minister of state for administrative reform, culture minister, information minister and acting foreign minister.

Mitri was also the special representative of the U.N. Secretary-General and head of the U.N. Support Mission in Libya from 2012 to 2014.

The statement described the former minister as “an unwavering advocate for intercultural and interreligious dialogue in his teaching, writing and ecumenical service to the community.”

Mitri is the chairman of the board of trustees of the Institute of Palestine Studies, chairman of the board of the Nicolas Sursock Museum, a member of the Université Saint Joseph’s strategic council and a member of the executive board of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha, Qatar.

A graduate of AUB and Université de Nanterre Paris X, Mitri has taught at USJ, Balamand University, University of Geneva, Amsterdam Free University, Harvard University and AUB.

He also authored a number of books and articles on religion and politics, as well as interreligious and intercultural dialogue, in Arabic, English and French.

“As the new director of the IFI, Mitri follows Rami Khouri, who as the founding director established the IFI as the leading independent institute for scholarly interaction, knowledge creation and policy development in the Middle East,” the statement said.