America's dream palace: Middle East expertise and the rise of the national security state

Abstract

America's Dream Palace examines the relationship between U.S. foreign policy and the origins and expansion of Middle East studies and expertise from World War I to the Global War on Terror. It analyzes the transition from the private knowledge of American missionaries and Orientalist scholars adapted for government use in the First and Second World Wars to the privatized knowledge of think tanks with close ties to the U.S. national security establishment in the late and post-Cold War periods. The book draws on extensive research at national, university, and foundation archives in the United States, the United Kingdom, Lebanon, and Egypt. It demonstrates that the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 ultimately led to the growth and diversification of Middle East studies. An unintended consequence of this expansion was strained relations between academia and the government, which contributed to, and was compounded by, decreased federal funding for area studies. By the 1980s, these factors led to a perceived decline in the field, while think tanks garnered increased attention and influence. The author contrasts the post-September 11 expansion of the national security bureaucracy and the predominance of think tanks with attempts to marginalize university-based Middle East studies centers and scholars