Lenczowski was a pioneer in his field as the founder and first chair of the Committee (later Center) of Middle Eastern Studies at Berkeley.
Lenczowski's book, American Presidents and the Middle East, along with The Other Arab-Israeli Conflict by Steven L. Spiegel and Peace Process by William B. Quandt, are considered by historian and former Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, as being "three of the genre's finer examples", focusing on the post-World War II period and seeking to investigate broader aspects of America's Middle East history.
He took his LL.M degree in 1936 and continued his studies in France, where he earned a Certificate in Civil Law at the University of Paris (1936) and a Doctorate in Juridical Science in Lille (1937).
In 1940 he volunteered to serve in the Polish Independent Carpathian Brigade which had moved out from Vichy controlled French Syria to Palestine.
There he was part of the effort to receive, process and assist some two million Poles, who had just been released from Soviet concentration camps upon the intervention of Britain.
When the Yalta accord was signed in 1945, the Lenczowskis refused to serve in Stalin's communist government in Poland and sought refuge in the United States.
It was here that he came to the attention of Peter Odegard, one of the pivotal figures of the discipline of political science of the time and chair of the Berkeley department.
Upon Odegard's invitation, Lenczowski came to Berkeley in 1952 as a visiting associate professor; after another year of research and language study in Lebanon, he became a tenured member of the faculty.
The fourth edition was reviewed by John C. Campbell in Foreign Affairs in 1980 and states, in part; "This new edition of a well-known survey is worth noting for the extensive additional material covering 18 years of kaleidoscopic events, and because it remains remarkably comprehensive and reliable both as an introduction to the region and as a reference work.
"[4] Between 1949 and his death, Lenczowski authored six books and monographs, co-authored and co-edited two others, and published nearly 100 scholarly articles on Middle Eastern politics.
George Lenczowski's scholarship is characterized by the accumulation of massive amounts of data, most of which he collected from personal encounters and field trips.