David Kenner

David Kenner is a reporter and the Middle East coordinator for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. As an ICWA fellow (Saudi Arabia, 2019–2021), he was based in Riyadh and Beirut, reporting on political and economic upheaval in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. Previously, he was Foreign Policy magazine’s Middle East bureau chief from 2013 to 2018, based in Beirut and Cairo and reporting regularly from Iraq, Jordan and Turkey. His work has been published in The Atlantic, Politico, Slate and elsewhere.

Posts and Dispatches from David Kenner:

• Saudi Arabia’s quiet frontier
  When viewed from the kingdom’s deep south, political and economic life look different than in the bustling capital....

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• Lebanon in uncharted territory
  It’s far from clear how the government can square the need for economic austerity with protesters’ steadily mounting demands....

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• Present at the creation: William Eddy and the US-Saudi alliance
  In a remote cemetery in Lebanon, the grave of the man who forged one of the 20th century's central relationships prompts questions about its limits....

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• Saudi Arabia’s hidden diversity
  In Jeddah, a society with different cultural norms but many of the same economic challenges....

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• Saudi Arabia’s modernization gamble
  Can the kingdom provide enough financial security to rewrite its basic social contract?...

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• Landing in Riyadh
  Encountering a sprawling metropolis full of empty spaces, speeding cars and hopes for socioeconomic change....

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