Abdallah Bou Habib | |
|---|---|
عبد الله بوحبيب | |
.jpg) Bou Habib in 2023 | |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants | |
| Assumed office 10 September 2021 | |
| Prime Minister | Najib Mikati |
| Preceded by | Zeina Akar (interim) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 21 November 1941 Lebanon |
| Political party | Independent |
| Alma mater | American University of Beirut Vanderbilt University |
Abdallah Bou Habib (born 21 November 1941) is a Lebanese economist, author, and diplomat who is serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs since September 2021.[1] He previously served as Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister of Lebanon (2001-2005) and as Lebanon's Ambassador to the United States (1983-1990). From 2007-2015 Bou Habib founded and directed the Issam Fares Center for Lebanon, a non-partisan Beirut based think-tank dedicated to the advancement of a balanced and realistic understanding of major global, regional and domestic issues affecting Lebanon.
Bou Habib was born in Jdeide, el Matn, Lebanon. He is a graduate of Brummana High School (1960) and the American University of Beirut where he received his B.A. in Economics (1967) and his M.A. in Economics (ABT 1970). He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee in 1975. At Vanderbilt University Department of Economics he taught as Assistant Professor (1975–76) and as Senior Teaching Fellow (1973–75). He served as Lecturer at Notre Dame University, Lebanon (2002-2003) and at La Sagesse University, Lebanon (2003-2015)
In 1976, Bou Habib joined the World Bank Group where he served as an Economist and later as Senior Loan Officer until 1983. After serving as Ambassador of Lebanon, he rejoined the World Bank in 1992 and served as Senior Adviser to the Vice President of the MENA Region & Regional External Affairs Unit Chief, MENA Region until retirement in 2001.
Bou Habib has written two books: America's Values and Interest/ A Half Century of US Foreign Policy in the Middle East, 2019 (Arabic) and Al Daou' Al Assar, US policy Towards Lebanon, a record of Bou Habib's seven years as Lebanon's Ambassador to the US, 1991 (Arabic). Over the past thirty years, he has published a myriad of articles about Lebanon in regional and international dailies. His Ph.D. dissertation: The Long-Run Supply of Crude Oil in the United States (Vanderbilt University, 1975) was published by Arno Press, NY, 1979.
Bou Habib is married to Julia Seabrook Cole and together they have three children and six grandchildren.