Architect of the Taif agreement, which brought an end to the Lebanese civil war, Lakhdar Brahimi has been appointed Joint Special Representative for Syria by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and League of Arab States Secretary General Nabil El Araby.

The Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs invited Lakhdar Brahimi to give a lecture on January 21, 2010, "Making Peace and Keeping Peace: Reflections on UN experiences in the Middle East and Afghanistan" for the Bill and Sally Hambrecht Distinguished Peacemakers Lecture Series at the American University of Beirut.

Brahimi spoke of lessons learned in mediation, peace-making and peace-keeping by "navigating by sight", respecting the dynamism of each situation, and learning "how to read facts" in several regions including Lebanon, Iraq, Angola, Haiti, and the Congo. Brahimi concentrated mostly on his work in Afghanistan, and spoke about the UN having a "light footprint" – how the UN utilizes its resources – and questioned the premise of peace-making and mediation, and the tools available to do a "good job." Brahimi ended with the role of the UN Security Council and its effects on mediation, and the UN's standing on the international stage.

On promoting elections and democracy, Brahimi said, "Since the end of cold war, all of our peace operations practically consider that the ultimate objective, after putting an end to the fighting, is to organize an election. They called it the Exit Strategy. It is the Exit Strategy par excellence: If you organize an election, then democracy has come, and you declare victory and you leave. [Elections] will do the good you expect of them ONLY if they happen at the right time in the right sequence of events that constitute a peaceful process. If [elections] come too early or at the wrong time, they may even do more harm than good