Gilles Kepel, (born June 30, 1955) is a French political scientist and Arabist, specialized in the contemporary Middle East and Muslims in the West.[1][2] He is Professor at the Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) and director of the Middle East and Mediterranean Program at PSL, based at Ecole Normale Supérieure.[3] His latest book, Away from Chaos. The Middle East and the Challenge to the West (Columbia University Press, 2020) was reviewed by The New York Times as “an excellent primer for anyone wanting to get up to speed on the region”.[4]