Georges Corm was born in Alexandria. He is a professional economist, a journalist and a writer.
He is a specialist in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. He graduated from the Institut d’études politiques de Paris and has a degree in private law; he holds the title of higher studies in public law and a state doctorate in constitutional law from the Faculty of Law and Economic Sciences of Paris.
His thesis “Contribution to the study of multi-faith societies” was published and then translated into Arabic and Serbo-Croatian by the Centre for Scientific Research in Sarajevo.
He teaches at the three most important universities in Lebanon, San José University (USJ), American University (AUB) and Lebanese University, and lectures and gives seminars at various American and European universities. He has participated in numerous talks in Europe, the United States and the Arab world.
He has settled in Beirut, but resides in Paris. He has also acted as a consultant for various international organisations such as the World Bank and the European Union, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA) and the FAO, which has enabled him to extend his knowledge of many countries (Algeria, Jordan, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, Tanzania, Iran, Yemen, Bahrain, Oman and Jordan). He was Minister of Finance and the Treasury for the Lebanese Republic from December 1998 to October 2000, and has also been a consultant in the private sector.
He is a member of numerous scientific boards and associations: secretary-general and member of the management committee of the Arab organisation for the fight against corruption, Major Research Fellow and member of the consultative committee of the Economic Research Forum for the Arab Countries, Iran and Turkey, a member of the Arab Economic Research Society (Cairo), a member of the Arab Thought Forum (Amman), a member of the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Moyen-Orient Contemporain, CERMOC (Beirut, Amman) and the Maghreb Mashreq Study (until 1996), and a member of the advisory committee of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, in Geneva (1995-2000). He writes opinion articles in numerous newspapers and has published many books, including the following: Le Proche-Orient éclaté (1956–2005); Orient-Occident: la fracture imaginaire; L’Europe et l’Orient: de la balkanisation à la libanisation. Histoire d’une modernité inaccomplie; Le Liban contemporain. Histoire et société; Histoire du pluralisme religieux dans le bassin méditerranéen; Le Nouveau désordre économique mondial; Le Moyen-Orient; La question religieuse au XXIe siècle. Géopolitique et crise de la post-modenité; Histoire du Moyen-Orient. He is also the author of the novel La mue.
LiberPress Award 2008
He received the Award for his dedication to studying and working for democratisation and the freedoms of the Middle East area; for his desire to achieve coexistence between religions, fight against fanaticism and promote the development of regions and countries in peace and tolerance.