America’s Middle East: The Ruination of a Region | Professor Marc Lynch
The Middle East Policy Forum, in collaboration with the Elliott School Book Launch Series, is proud to host Professor Marc Lynch as he speaks about his forthcoming book, America’s Middle East: The Ruination of a Region.
After Hamas’ shocking 2023 attack on Israel, the United States stood firmly behind Israel’s near-genocidal war on Gaza, despite widespread moral outrage and significant damage to Washington’s global agenda. But Gaza is only the latest paradox in thirty-five years of Middle East policy. How did this pattern develop, why can’t policymakers learn from repeated Middle Eastern calamities, and what does Gaza’s destruction mean for America’s place in the world?
Professor Marc Lynch charts the United States’ disastrously failed approach to the post–Cold War Middle East, where aspirations for U.S. leadership and a calm region have only produced war, instability, and humanitarian catastrophe. Professor Lynch exposes the failure of each president’s efforts to transform the Middle East in America’s image, or pivot away from the region; Washington’s refusal to take seriously the views of Middle Easterners; and its fantasy of forging a regional order ‘without’ the Palestinian issue.
Moving between American politics and Middle Eastern realities, Professor Lynch’s incisive account explains why U.S. policy has not changed despite its horrifying human costs, from Iraq, Lebanon and Syria to Iran, Yemen and Libya.
Also featuring introductory remarks by Elliott School Dean Alyssa Ayres, you can participate in the conversation with Professor Marc Lynch in-person or virtually. The event is open to the public and the media. For those interested in purchasing a copy of Professor Lynch’s new book, copies will be available for sale at the event.
Speaker
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Professor Marc Lynch received his B.A. in Political Science from Duke University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University. He teaches courses on Middle Eastern politics and international relations. He is the director of the Project on Middle East Political Science, a contributing editor for The Washington Post's Monkey Cage political science page, editor of the Columbia University Press series Columbia Studies on Middle East Politics, and a nonresident senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
