A foreign relations expert who served on Americas diplomatic team during the crisis that led to the Persian Gulf War will give the final Benedum Lecture Series talk at West Virginia University.

Shibley Telhami, whose specialization is Middle East relations, will speak at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 16, in G24 Eiesland Hall. His lecture will be”The Stakes: America, the War on Terrorism and the Middle East.”

The Benedum Lecture Series brings experts from other universities and institutions to the WVU campus every year to speak on topics related to a specific theme. This years series is”September 11th: One Year Later.”

Telhami is the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Before joining Marylands faculty, he was associate professor of government and director of the Near Eastern Studies Program at CornellUniversity and a visiting fellow at the WoodrowWilsonCenter. He earned his doctorate in political science from the University of California at Berkeley and has taught at several universities.

His publications include”Power and Leadership in International Bargaining: The Path to the Camp David Accords,”“International Organizations and Ethnic Conflict,”“Identity and Foreign Policy in the Middle East”and numerous articles on international politics and Middle Eastern affairs.

Telhami has also been active in foreign relations. While a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs fellow, he served as advisor to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations during the Iraq-Kuwait crisis and was on the staff of Congressman Lee Hamilton. He is the author of a report on Persian Gulf security for the Council on Foreign Relations and the co-drafter of another Council report on the Arab-Israeli peace process.

He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the advisory committee of Human Rights Watch/Middle East. He has been a member of the American delegation of the Trilateral American/Israeli/Palestinian Anti-Incitement Committee mandated by the Wye River Agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. He was appointed by the White House to the Board of the United States Institute of Peace.

Telhami has been a contributor to the Washington Post , the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times . He also has a weekly radio commentary that broadcasts all over the Middle East.