Leslie S. Lebl

I am the Principal of Lebl Associates and a Fellow at the American Center for Democracy. I also contribute occasionally to the blogs of Rachel Ehrenfeld, Founder and CEO of the American Center for Democracy, and Clemens Heni, director of the Berlin International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (BICSA).

I'm a strong believer in making foreign policy accessible to the average educated citizen. Most people are busy; they want to be better informed about world affairs but have little time to do the necessary research, given that they receive little news via the mainstream media.

My job is to help fill that gap. I draw on my almost 25 years of experience as a Foreign Service Officer, my scholarly research and analysis, and the insights I gain from talking to American and foreign audiences.

For examples of my work, please see articles I have written on issues like combating radical Islam, transatlantic relations after Bush, U.S.-EU relations, including counter-terrorism cooperation, and European defense policy. You'll find the links on the 'Publications' page. The 'Events' page lists the various speeches and panel discussions in which I've participated in recent years.

I'm currently working on a book about the conflict between key aspects of traditional Islamic law, or sharia, and Western law. Aimed at Americans but using examples from Europe, it is related to two articles which appeared in Orbis: "Radical Islam in Europe," and "The EU, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation." Other publications include "The Islamist Threat to European Security," which appeared in the Summer 2014 issue of the Middle East Forum and a monograph on Islamism and security in Bosnia-Herzegovina published by the Strategic Studies Institute.