Mathieu Guidère

Mathieu Guidère is a French writer and a full professor at the University of Toulouse II – Le Mirail. A scholar of Islam and the Arab world, he is also an expert in geopolitics, Arabic history, Middle Eastern cultures and societies, and ideological trends especially Islamist movements. In 2012, he published the Historical Dictionary of Islamic Fundamentalism" (Scarecrow Press, 2012). in English. He has held other professorships at such prestigious institutions including the University of Geneva, Switzerland (2007 to 2011) and the Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, France (2003-2007). During the last decade, Dr. Guidère has published several books on the Arabic language and culture such as The Arabic Translation (La Traduction arabe, Ellipses, 2005), The Classical Arabic Poetry (La Poésie arabe classique, Ellipses, 2006).

Dr. Guidère is co-founder of the Radicalization Watch Project and editor-in-chief of the Defense Concepts Journal based in Washington, D.C. He was awarded a Fulbright Prize in 2006 to advance his research on the topic. He has published books on the Al-Qaeda organization and its activities in North Africa and the Middle East such as The New Terrorists (Les nouveaux terroristes, Autrement, 2010) and The Al-Qaeda Recruitment Manual (Le Manuel de recrutement d'Al-Qaeda, Le Seuil, 2007) which has been translated into Spanish (Manual de Reclutamiento Al Qaeda, Edorial Base, 2007). He has also published in English for the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point: "The Tribal Allegiance System within AQIM."

During the 1990s, Mathieu Guidère worked on issues surrounding global communications and translation studies. Afterwards, he published several works including Advertising and Translation (Publicité et traduction, L'Harmattan, 2000), The Multilingual Communication: Market and Institutional Translation (La communication multilingue : Traduction commerciale et institutionnelle], De Boeck, 2008), and Iraq in Translation: The Art of Losing a War without Knowing the Language of your Opponent (Irak in translation : De l'art de perdre une guerre sans connaître la langue de son adversaire, Jacob-Duvernet, 2008), and Oriented Translation and Communication (Traduction et Communication orientée, Editions Le Manuscrit, 2009).

Since 2011, Dr. Guidère has been a Senior Fellow at The Brain Sciences Foundation. He was also a lead researcher for MIT Mind Machine Project. His research activities deal with cognitive linguistics and cultural intelligence, particularly as it applies to the Islamic world and the Middle East. He has been regularly interviewed by European media outlets such as France24 and many Anglophone publications as well including The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Education

Mathieu Guidère's interest in studying the Arab world began while he was a child as he spent his first 18 years in various countries throughout the Middle East. There, he received both a French and Arabic education. Upon arriving to Paris, he began his advanced studies at the Sorbonne University. There, he studied French literature and Middle Eastern cultures at the Master's level. During this time, he joined the École supérieure de cadres interprètes-traducteurs and graduated from there in 1995. Then, in 1997, he received the agrégation degree in Arabic before obtaining his doctoral degree in linguistics a year later and while preparing a second Doctorate in medieval Arab history also from the Sorbonne.

In short, Guidère holds a Ph.D. in linguistics, a Master's diploma in French Linguistics and in Middle Eastern Studies, as well as a Bachelor's in modern Arab studies and French literature. He also has an HDR diploma (Habilitation à Diriger les Recherches) from the University of Lyon 2. His degrees were completed in both French and Arabic.

Career

After his agrégation, Guidère became an associate professor (Maître de Conférences) at the Lumière University Lyon 2 in France were he taught linguistics and translation from 1998 to 2003. After September 11, 2001, the French government made use of his knowledge and Guidère was appointed resident professor by the French Military Academy of Saint-Cyr in 2003. While at this position (which lasted until 2007), he was also the director of the Strategic Information Analysis Laboratory (LAISVT) in the academy's research center (CREC Saint-Cyr).

In 2006, he began to study radical groups for the Center for Advanced Defense Studies in Washington D.C.. Then, in 2007, Guidère joined the University of Geneva (Switzerland) were he was a professor of multilingual monitoring and translation studies. Since 2011, he remains at his post at the University of Toulouse II- Le Mirail, France, as a full professor of Islamic and Arabic studies.

He also served as Editor-in-Chief of Les Langues Modernes, an academic journal sponsored by the French Association of Languages professors, and has written over 20 books whose topics cover the Arab language and culture, radical Islam, and global terrorism. He has also conducted many conferences in both French, Arabic, and English.

Selected Works

• Historical Dictionary of Islamic Fundamentalism (Scarecrow Press, 2012).
• Le Printemps islamiste: démocratie et charia (Éditions Ellipses, 2012).
• Atlas des pays arabes (Éditions Autrement, 2012).
• Le Choc des révolutions arabes (Éditions Autrement, 2011; nouvelle édition 2012).
• Les Nouveaux terroristes (Éditions Autrement, 2010).
• Obama inchallah (Éditions Le Manuscrit, 2009).
• Al-Qaida à la conquête du Maghreb (Éditions du Rocher, 2007).
• Le Manuel de recrutement d'Al-Qaida (Éditions du Seuil, 2006).
• Riche comme un oignon (Editions Ellipses, 2008).
• Introduction à la traductologie (Éditions De Boeck, 2008)
• La communication multilingue (Éditions De Boeck, 2008)
• Irak in Translation ou De l'art de perdre une guerre sans connaître la langue de son adversaire (Éditions Jacob-Duvernet, 2008).
• Les Martyrs d'Al-Qaida (Éditions du Temps, 2005).
• La traduction arabe (Éditions Ellipses, 2005).
• La poésie arabe classique (Éditions Ellipses, 2005).
• Dictionnaire multilingue de la Défense (Éditions Ellipses, 2004).
• Méthodologie de la recherche (Éditions Ellipses, 2004).
• Kalimât: le vocabulaire arabe (Éditions Ellipses, 2003).
• Manuel de traduction français-arabe (Éditions Ellipses, 2002).
• Lexique bilingue de l'arabe d'aujourd'hui (Éditions du Temps, 2001).
• Publicité et traduction (L'Harmattan, 2000).

Recent Interviews

• Mohammed Merah: France Shooting Suspect Seen as Home-Grown Militant, New York Times
• The Interview, France24
• An al-Qaeda link in British terrorism case?, The Washington Post
• Toulouse Safe from Gunman, The Riviera Times
• English-language magazine provided bomb tips to 9 terror suspects, British say, The Washington Post
• Toulouse Siege: As it Happened, The Telegraph
• These European Jihadists become Destabilized after their Return from Afghanistan, Huffington Post
• French Gunman was on Terror Watch List, The Ledger
• Live from France, BBC

Articles

• Al-Qaeda’s Noms de Guerre Defense Concepts, Vol.1, Edition 3, Fall 2006, pp. 6–16. ISSN 1932- 3816
• Algeria’s Al-Qaida Franchise Le Monde diplomatique, Nov. 2006, English edition
• Iraq’s Resistance Evolves Le Monde diplomatique, May 2006, English edition
• How to Decode Resistance Propaganda' in Le Monde diplomatique, May 2005, English edition
• Une filiale algérienne pour Al-Qaïda Le Monde diplomatique, Nov. 2006, French edition
• Qui sont les insurgés irakiens? Le Monde diplomatique, May 2006, French edition

External links

• Guidere.org website