Amb. Reda Mansour, PhD is a former Israeli ambassador to both Brazil and Ecuador. Appointed at 35 years old, he was the youngest ambassador in Israel’s history as well as the first non-Jewish career diplomat. Early in his career as consul general of Israel to the U.S. Pacific Northwest, based in San Francisco, he used art and music to promote Arab-Jewish dialogue. Later, he also served in Atlanta, where he was chosen by his fellow consul generals from more than 50 countries to be the dean of the Atlanta Consular Corps. Mansour is also an accomplished author, who has published among his academic body of work four books of poetry as well as several short stories. His doctoral work from the University of Haifa focused on the intellectual history of modern Syria. He also holds an M.A. from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and speaks five languages.

In 2017, Amb. Mansour taught the following courses as a visiting Israeli scholar at the Emory University History Department:

Israel: Religion, Society, Culture, and Identity (Fall 2017)

This course explores the issues of religion, society, culture and identity in Israel.Israel is an emergent society composed of Jewish immigrants that arrived frommore than 70 different countries. It is also a country that defines itself as "Jewishand Democratic" with a large minority containing 20% Arab citizens and otherethnic-religious groups. This course will present these different groups,discussing the interactions between them and the communities of their origin. Itwill likewise explore the changes in the culture and identity of these groups. This course will present the "The Four Tribes" dynamics of Israeli society. Thismodel, outlined by President Reuven Rivlin in 2015 posited that “secular”Jewish-Israelis, once the dominant group in the country, and especially amongstthe elite, would no longer be a clear majority. Israel is rapidly moving towardsbeing a minority-dominated society, comprised of four tribes: Ultra-OrthodoxJews, Religious Jews, Secular Jews, and Arabs.

Israeli Diplomacy: History, and Politics (Fall 2017)

This course explores Israeli diplomacy since the state’s establishment in 1948until now. We will explore major changes in Israeli diplomacy through its manyforms: Traditional Diplomacy, Public Diplomacy, Development Diplomacy,Cultural & Economic Diplomacy, Multilateral Diplomacy and Crisis Diplomacy.The course also looks at the role of Israeli diplomacy in times of war and conflictas well as in times of peace and negotiation. It discusses the effects of moderndiplomatic tools such as technology, social networks and state branding onIsraeli diplomacy.Increasingly open and interdependent global political and economicenvironments, the rise of non-state actors and interest groups internationally,along with rapid advances in information technology, have arguably changed thepractice of Israeli diplomacy in the 21st century. In the Middle East, thetraditional instruments of government statecraft such as "Hard Power” proveless sure in a diffuse and multi-polar geopolitical setting. This course willexamine what roles “soft power” and “smart power” play in Israeli foreign policy.