November 6, 2026
The Lebanese American University (LAU) launched the Cedar Dialogues: Lebanon • The Levant • The World, a new flagship forum for intellectual and cultural exchange, at its LAU New York Debbane Campus in Midtown Manhattan.
LAU President Chaouki T. Abdallah officially opened the series before a packed audience in the campus’s newly renovated lecture hall. He and LAU New York Executive Director Barbar Akle welcomed Dr. Bernard Haykel, professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University and a leading scholar of the Gulf states and Islamist political movements, who delivered the inaugural Debbane Lecture. Special guests included Chair of the Board of Trustees Mike Ahmar, former Board Chair Philip Stoltzfus, and Carla Debbane, representing the Debbane family.
The Cedar Dialogues brings Lebanese scholars, artists, and leaders from academia, diplomacy, business, and public life to the global stage for critical conversations on the issues shaping the region and the world. The series was made possible by the generous support of the Raymond Debbane Family Foundation, as part of a landmark gift to transform the LAU New York Debbane Campus into a hub that connects the LAU community in Lebanon and New York with the wider world.
Reflecting the university’s dual identity as a Lebanese and an American institution, Dr. Abdallah said that LAU’s “identity is a dialogue.” He described LAU New York as a bridge between the two countries and a valuable forum for urgent and timely discussions. Because Lebanese and other regional voices are sometimes left out of conversations about the issues that affect them, he added, the Cedar Dialogues offer “a place where the Middle East does some of the talking.”
In his lecture, “The Future of the Middle East Between Revisionist and Status Quo States and Ideologies,” Dr. Haykel examined the regional contest between powers seeking to redraw the order and those working to preserve it, as well as the role the United States plays in that dynamic. He described a region in a consequential period of change, one in which “alliances are shifting, and strategies are recalibrating.”
The Debbane Lecture will serve as the Cedar Dialogues’ flagship annual keynote, opening each season’s program. LAU New York will build on this inaugural event with upcoming discussions on subjects ranging from history and fine arts to fashion, gender, civil society, and entrepreneurship.