He received both his Masters of Arts in Law and Diplomacy and his Ph.D. in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Boston). He is also the coordinator of the Environmental Policy Planning component of AUB’s Interfaculty Graduate Environmental Science Program. Previously, Dr. Makdisi worked as an Economic Affairs Officer in UN-ESCWA’s Economic Development Issues and Policies Division (2001-2002) and in the Environment Team of the Sustainable Development and Productivity Division (2002-2004) where he worked on projects (such as governance for sustainable development and regional trade and environment capacity building in the Arab region) related to the Arab region’s follow-up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).