A history of American expertise on the Middle East, from T.E. Lawrence to Breitbart.

Feb 25 2017

What the more far right wing think tanks want is a more hegemonic discourse. They don't want academics getting on a radio program and saying 'let's really think about what's driving our foreign policy.' They want to dictate what's driving our foreign policy, how it's talked about, how it's reflected in the press, and they've been quite effective at doing this for two to three decades.

Historian Osamah F. Khalil explores decades of shifting US foreign policy in the Middle East through the battle within the US for control of Middle East expertise - from the Cold War rise of the national security establishment, to the contemporary militarization of knowledge as government-aligned think tanks challenge academia for the lens through which we view the region.

Osamah is author of America’s Dream Palace: Middle East Expertise and the Rise of the National Security State from Harvard University Press.

Interview transcript via Antidote Zine

Guest

Osamah Khalil

@abu_layla

Osamah F. Khalil is Assistant Professor of U.S. and Middle East History at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

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