Fabrice Balanche

Fabrice Balanche (born November 3, 1969, in Belfort, France) is a French geographer and specialist in the political geography and geopolitics of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and the wider Middle East.

He was described by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as "one of the leading French experts on Syria".^[1] He is regularly quoted in the written press on the subject of Syria,^[2] in relation to his methods of mapping the Syrian civil war.^[1][3][4][5]

In April 2025, he was assaulted by masked pro-Palestinian activists during a class at Lyon 2 University.^[6] The Lyon public prosecutor's office opened an investigation for "obstructing the exercise of the teaching function."^[6][7] He was placed under "functional protection."^[6][7][8]

Publications

Books

• Lessons of the Syrian crisis (in French), Odile Jacob, Paris, 2024.
• Syria and Lebanon: sectarianism and power (in French), Presses Universitaires de Rhin et Danube, Hunningues, 2022.
• Sectarianism in Syria's Civil War Archived 2018-09-22 at the Wayback Machine, Washington Institute, 2018.
• Atlas of the Near East: State Formation and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1918–2010, Brill, Amsterdam, 2017
• Geopolitics of the Middle East (in French), La Documentation française, Documentation photographique, Paris, 2014
• The Alaouite region and the Syrian power (In French), Karthala, Paris, 2006, 313 p. (ISBN 978-2-84586-818-2)
• Atlas of the Arabic Near East, Paris-Sorbonne University Press RFI, 2012, 135 p. (ISBN 978-284-050-7970)

Collective works

• Lebanon and the Syrian crisis (in French), Maghreb-Machrek, Paris, n° 217, printemps 2014
• Beirut between globalization and Syrian crisis (in French), Géosphère, USJ-Beyrouth, Volume 3