Bilal Y. Saab is a nonresident senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Forward Defense program within the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. He is also a senior managing director of TRENDS US in Washington, DC; an associate fellow at Chatham House; and an editorial board member of the War Studies Journal.
Saab is a subject matter expert on defense and geopolitics with specializations in defense transformation, capability development planning, emerging defense technologies, military operations, and security cooperation. His regional specialization is the Middle East. Saab served as a senior advisor in the US Department of Defense during the first Trump administration, assuming oversight responsibilities for US security cooperation in the Central Command area of responsibility.
Saab’s published work includes Rebuilding Arab Defense: US Security Cooperation in the Middle East. His second book, which focuses on Saudi Arabia’s defense transformation, is forthcoming. He previously founded and directed defense and security programs at the Middle East Institute and the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. He taught for seven years at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where he created a course on US defense policy in the Middle East. Earlier in his career, he held research and fellow positions at the Council on Foreign Relations, Brookings, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Saab is fluent in both written and spoken Arabic and French. He has more than two decades of experience living in the Middle East. Saab has received various analytic and leadership awards throughout his career, including the Thought Leadership Award from the Atlantic Council and the Abshire-Inamori Leadership Award from CSIS.
Saab earned his BA from American University of Beirut, his MLitt from the University of St Andrews, and his MA from the University of Maryland, College Park.