Bilal Y. Saab

Associate Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme

Biography

Bilal Y. Saab is Associate Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme. He also serves as the Senior Managing Director of TRENDS US in Washington, DC. His work focuses on political and military analysis. 

Bilal has over 23 years experience working on the Middle East and US defence policy in the region. A former US Department of Defense senior advisor, he oversaw US security cooperation in the CENTCOM Area of Responsibility.


He specializes in the Levant and the Gulf regions and focuses on security cooperation between the United States and its regional partners, and Arab national security and defence processes. His highly-acclaimed book is called Rebuilding Arab Defense: US Security Cooperation in the Middle East.

Past experience

2018–2025Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University
2019–2024Senior Fellow and Director of Defense and Security Program, MEI
2018–2019Senior Advisor in the Pentagon’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy