Fouad A. Ajami (September 9, 1945 – June 22, 2014) was a prominent Lebanese-American scholar, academic, and commentator on Middle Eastern affairs. Born in southern Lebanon and raised in Beirut, he immigrated to the U.S. in 1963, where his intellectual trajectory evolved from early support for Arab nationalism and Palestinian self-determination to becoming a key neoconservative influence on U.S. foreign policy, particularly as an advisor to the George W. Bush administration. He was famously cited by Vice President Dick Cheney as a source of confidence for the 2003 Iraq War, predicting that American troops would be welcomed by Iraqis. Ajami authored influential books including 'Beirut: City of Regrets,' 'The Vanished Imam,' 'The Arab Predicament,' 'The Dream Palace of the Arabs,' and 'The Foreigner’s Gift: The Americans, the Arabs and the Iraqis in Iraq,' with his work often focusing on the internal 'predicament' and failures of Arab leadership, which led to significant friction with other Middle East scholars like Edward Said. He joined Princeton University's politics department in 1973. By 1980, he became director of Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), serving as the Majid Khadduri Professor of Islamic Studies. Later, he served as the Herbert and Jane Dwight Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, co-chairing the Herbert and Jane Dwight Working Group on Islamism and the International Order. Ajami consulted for CBS on Middle East affairs, was a contributing editor since 1989, a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and a regular guest on CBS News and CNN. His lyrical analyses shaped American discourse on Arab consciousness and politics. Despite his academic success, he remained a polarizing figure; supporters praised his unflinching critique of Middle Eastern autocracy, while critics accused him of 'native informing' and providing an intellectual veneer for American imperialism. He passed away at age 68 after a battle with cancer in Maine.