Melani Cammett is Professor of Government at Harvard University. Cammett's recent books include Compassionate Communalism: Welfare and Sectarianism in Lebanon (Cornell University Press 2014), which won the American Political Science Association (APSA) Giovanni Sartori Book Award and the Honorable Mention for the APSA Gregory Luebbert Book Award; A Political Economy of the Middle East (co-authored with Ishac Diwan, Westview Press 2015); and The Politics of Non-State Social Welfare in the Global South (co-edited with Lauran Morris MacLean, Cornell University Press 2014), which received the Honorable Mention for the ARNOVA book award. Her current research projects explore governance and the politics of social service provision by public, private and non-state actors and identity politics in the Middle East. Cammett is also working on a new project on the long-term historical roots of distinct economic and social development trajectories in the region and currently serves as a commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Syria. She has published numerous articles in academic and policy journals, consults for development policy organizations, and is the recipient of various fellowships and awards.