Dr. Mohamed Rabie

Dr. Rabie was named professor for the first time by Georgetown University in Washington in 1976. And in 2013, he was named distinguished professor of international political economy by the School of Governance and Economics (EGE) in Rabat, Morocco; a private not-for-profit college associated with Science Po in France.

Rabie was born in 1940 in Yazour, a small town next to Jaffa in Palestine, grew up in a refugee camp at the outskirts of Jericho, and graduated from Jericho High School in 1957. Upon graduation, he received a scholarship from the United Nations Refugees and Works Agency (UNRWA) to continue his college studies in Egypt, and from there he traveled 4 years later to Germany on a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD); and later on to the United States to pursue graduate studies. He received a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics and an MA in rural sociology in 1962 and 1964, respectively from Ain Shams University in Cairo, and received an MA and Ph.D. degrees in Economics, in 1968 and 1970, respectively from the University of Houston in Houston, Texas. Prof. Rabie studied at 5 universities and taught at 11 universities in the United States, the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.

Prof. Rabie participated in tens of conferences, seminars, and dialogue groups in over 45 countries; he chaired and/or organized several international conferences in Jordan, Kuwait, the United States, Switzerland, Tunisia, and Morocco. In 2016, he was the keynote speaker at the Annual Economic Conference of the Economics Institute in Seoul, South Korea. He is also the recipient of several grants and awards as a student from Jordan (High School Award); scholarship from the UNRWA to study in Cairo; a scholarship from the American University of Cairo to study for an MA in economics; a grant from the (DAAD) for German language and graduate studies in Germany; a research assistantship from the University of Houston and a scholarship from the Institute for International Education (IIE). And as a professor, he received a research grant from the DAAD in 1972 for a summer stay at the German Orient Institute in Hamburg; and in 1973, he received a research grant from the Kuwaiti Council for Science and Culture; and in 1992, he received an invitation from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH) to become a fellow with a grant for 6 months stay in Germany. Prof. Rabie took advantage of that opportunity to travel to other European countries and write his book “Conflict Resolution and Ethnicity”; which was the first book to develop a theory of conflict resolution. And in 2018 he received another grant from the Alexander von Humboldt foundation for 3 months stay in Germany. During this stay, Prof. Rabie gave 4 public lectures; and conducted a six-week seminar on “Global Issues” at the German American Institute in Heidelberg. Moreover, Prof. Rabie gave over 400 public lectures at more than 50 universities and research institutes in about 30 countries.

Board Memberships and Honors;

1972-1976 board member of the Palestine National Fund;

1973-1977 board member of the Arab Fund for Technical Assistance for African Countries;

1973-1977 member of the steering committee of the Euro-Arab Dialogue;

1973-1974 founding director of the Palestine Student Fund in Beirut;

1973-1976 founding editor of the Social Science Quarterly published by Kuwait University;

In 1985, he founded in Washington the Center for Educational Development, a not-for-profit center, and served as its president until 1994.

A member of the Arab Thought Forum since 1989;

A member of the Authors Guild and The World Union of Poets;

A fellow of the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation since 1992, with Prof. Dr. rank;

1989-1992 a fellow of Harvard University “Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East”;

1988-1991, a member of the Brooking Institution team to advance peace in the Middle East;

1990-1993 A member of the Board of Directors of Search for Common Ground, the Middle East Initiative, which is based on the ideas that Rabie articulated in his booklet, A Vision for the Transformation of the Middle East;

In 2015, Prof. Rabie was honored by The State of Palestine for his intellectual contributions and was awarded “The State of Palestine Lifetime Achievement Award, 2015”; which was granted for the first time.

In 2016, Prof. Rabie was honored by the American Arab Community Cultural Center in Houston and was granted the “Lifetime Academic Achievement and Leadership Award”;

Prof. Rabie is the founding President of the Arab Thought Council in Washington since 2016;

In 1985 Prof. Rabie predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union in a lecture at Germany’s Institute for Economics and Politics (Stiftung Wiesenschaft und politic); and in 1988 he conceived the idea of the US-PLO dialogue, drafted the original document that guided the negotiations, and coordinated the secret contacts between the US and the PLO that led the US to recognize the PLO, open a dialogue with it, and launch the peace process. In 1992, Rabie predicted the Great Recession in his book, The New World Order. And as for “The Arab Spring,” he predicted the scenario of the political upheaval and the Islamic forces ascension to power in more than one article and his book, the Making of the Arab Future published in 2000, as well as in a poem written in 1994.

A special activity: connection with Harvard University

In the spring of 1989, Harvard University invited me to give a lecture to the international fellows and faculty members on the US – PLO Dialogue.

Later in the year, I was invited to join the Institute of Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East to promote peace and economic cooperation in the region, which allowed me to give several talks to students at the university as well as to the fellows of the Institute and present more than one 5 papers and talks at the institute’s regular conferences.

In the spring of 1990, Harvard University held a reception at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington DC to introduce the institute and explain its objectives and activities; several members of congress, many Arab, European and Asian ambassadors, and the national media attended; two keynote speakers were asked to make presentations; I was one of them, representing the Arab American community; Stuart Eizenstat was the other, representing the Jewish American community. Mr. Eizenstat served as US ambassador to the European Union and deputy secretary of the US Treasury.

In 1991, the Institute held its largest conference at London University and asked me to be the keynote speaker; more than 100 intellectuals, professors, journalists, retired politicians and businessmen from several European, Middle Eastern and other countries, including Japan, Russia, and the United States attended.

In 1989 and again in 1991, I made an argument against the ‘economic viability’ of states’ concept, replacing it by the ‘economic competitiveness’ of states. In making my argument, the economy was placed in its proper historical and sociocultural contexts; consequently, all talk about the economic viability of states ended; in 2001, Harvard University established the Institute of Strategy and Competitiveness. Moreover, as a graduate student, I argued that the concept of economic development was misconceived from the beginning; instead, I explained and promoted the idea that development is a comprehensive societal process that requires economic restructuring and sociocultural transformation. This idea is articulated in my book; A Theory of Sustainable Sociocultural and Economic Development, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2016.

In 1998, I negotiated with the Harvard business school a cooperation agreement between Harvard University and Erfurt University in Germany, which I represented in the US at the time. And later in the year, I negotiated an agreement between the American University in Washington and Erfurt University for a double degree program; allowing students of both universities to spend 2 years at each university and get a bachelor's degree from each one.

Website: www.yazour.com

English Publications

Prof. Rabie has so far published a total of 58 books in English and Arabic, about 200 scholarly papers, and more than 2000 newspapers articles, and over 400 ‘ideas and reflections’, about half in English and the rest in Arabic.

Major books in English

1. History of Racism, (Lap Lambert Academic Publishing, 2021) this book was translated into 6 other languages: German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish.

2. Ideas for Life; Amazon, 2021

3. Flowers of Peace; Amazon, 2021

4. Perspectives on Life; Amazon, 2019

5. The Global Debt Crisis and its Socioeconomic Implications; Creating a Sustainable, Peaceful and Just World, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)

6. A Theory of Sustainable Sociocultural and Economic Development (Palgrave Macmillan 2016)

7. Global Economic and Cultural Transformation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)

8. Saving Capitalism and Democracy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)

9. The Making of History (Authors Choice, 2001)

10. The US-PLO Dialogue (University Press of Florida, 1995)

11. Conflict Resolution and Ethnicity (Praeger, 1994)

12. Conflict Resolution and the Middle East Peace Process, (Deutsches Orient Institut, Hamburg, Germany 1993)

13. The New World Order (Vantage Press, 1992)

14. A Vision for the Transformation of the Middle East (Center for Educational Development, Washington 1990)

15. The Politics of Foreign Aid: US Foreign Assistance and Aid to Israel, (Praeger, 1988)

16. Israel and South Africa; the ties that bind; (Center for Educational Development, 1990)

17. A book of poetry in Albanian

In addition to the above, there are 6 more books ready to be published.

1. A Future for All;

2. The Death of Conscience.

3. The Marathon of Hope. (Memoirs)

4. The Harvest of a Lifetime.

5. Missing the Nightingale Singing. (Biography)

6. A Rendezvous with God