Vanessa Newby is a Visiting Fellow at the ANU and is currently based in Lebanon.  She has a PhD in International Relations from Griffith University with a regional focus on the Middle East.  Her research interests include international security, peacebuilding, migration, the politics of religion and the international relations of the Middle East.  Vanessa has been researching and writing about the Middle East for ten years, and has lived in the region for three of those years.  She can speak, read and write Modern Standard Arabic and Levantine Arabic.  Vanessa has published in international peer-reviewed journals such as International Peacekeeping and Contemporary Politics.