People

John Waterbury
William Stewart Tod Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Emeritus
Department of Politics and Woodrow Wilson School
Princeton University

John Waterbury served as the 14th president of the American University of Beirut between 1998 and 2008. He was the first president to reside in Beirut since 1984. During his tenure at AUB, Waterbury sought to restore the university to its long-standing place and reputation as an institution of higher learning meeting the highest international standards. He remains President Emeritus of the American University of Beirut and in 2008 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the institution.

Before joining AUB, Waterbury was, for nearly twenty years, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs/ He specialized in the political economy of the developing countries with a special focus on the Middle East. He was director of Princeton's Center of International Studies and editor of the academic journal, World Politics, from 1992 to 1998.

Waterbury earned his PhD in public law and government at Columbia University in 1968 and went on to the University of Michigan as assistant professor of Political Science. In 1971 he joined the American Universities Field Staff, a consortium of American Universities, which he represented in Cairo from 1971 to 1977. During 1977-78 he was visiting professor at the Université Aix Marseilles III in France.