ROBERT BRENTON BETTS is a retired professor at the University of Balamand, Lebanon, and at the American University of Beirut. He holds a PhD in international relations and Middle East studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced Internationl Studies and is the author of three previously published books: Christians in the Arab East: A Political Study (John Knox Press, 1978), The Druze (Yale University Press, 1988), and The Southern Portals of Byzantium (Musical Times, 2009). He lives in Summerville, South Carolina.