Professor Avi Shlaim

Professor of International Relations and Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford

Avi Shlaim was born in Baghdad in 1945, after which his family moved to Israel where he did his national service in 1964-1966. He read History at Jesus College, Cambridge, and completed an MSc in International Relations at the London School of Economics in 1970. He subsequently began teaching at the University of Reading before moving to Oxford in 1987. He was the Alastair Buchan Reader in International Relations from 1987 to 1996 and the Director of Graduate Studies in International Relations from 1993 to 1995, and also 1998 to 2001. His research interests lie mainly in the Arab-Israeli conflict and he is considered a prominent ‘New Historian’ on the subject.

Shlaim has written a number of books, including The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (2001), Lion of Jordan: The Life of King Hussein in War and Peace (2007) and most recently Israel and Palestine (2009). He is also a regular contributor to leading national newspapers and commentator on both radio and television.