Known to many as American University’s “peace legend,” Abdul Aziz Said (1930–2021)
led an academic career spanning nearly sixty years. Always a forward-looking thinker,
Said consistently sought to be among the first to grapple with the leading-edge issues of
his day, from decolonization and turbulent social change in developing countries to the
influence of multinational corporations, the normative priority of human rights, cultural
aspects of conflict resolution, and the promotion of Islamic-Western understanding.
Taken together, his extensive writings, innovative pedagogy, and practical pursuits offer
a model for engaged scholarship, characterized by dynamic use of the platform provided
by a university career to advance international peace, intercultural dialogue, and social
justice as well as a spiritual ethic emphasizing unity and connectedness among peoplefrom diverse cultural, religious, and racial backgrounds.
• Abdul Aziz Said has been an innovator in international relations and peace
studies;
• Born in Syria, he completed his higher education in the United States and went
on to teach multiple generations of international affairs students;
• He was a leading scholar focusing on global peace as well as Islam and peace;
• His writings address salient global issues from the 1950s to the first decades of
the twenty-first century.