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October 2007 Elliott School Strengthens Middle East Programs
By Jamie L. Freedman With a new degree program, research organization, and policy forum, GW’s Elliott School of International Affairs is poised to become a national leader in Middle East studies. “One of the Elliott School’s top priorities this year is to build on GW’s existing expertise on the Middle East by launching several interconnected institutional initiatives on this important part of the world,” says Michael E. Brown, dean of the Elliott School. A cornerstone of the effort is GW’s new M.A. in Middle East studies directed by Nathan J. Brown, professor of political science and international affairs, which welcomed its first class this fall. “More than 100 candidates applied to the master’s program, and we enrolled 17,” he says. The interdisciplinary two-year program delves deeply into the Middle East’s culture, development, history, and politics, preparing students for careers in government, the private sector, and international and nongovernmental organizations. The rigorous curriculum blends theory and practice and draws from a wide range of academic disciplines. Students select one of 10 areas of expertise to focus on, ranging from conflict and conflict resolution to international economic affairs. Rounding out the program are a variety of elective courses, including the Arab-Israeli conflict, global Islamic feminism, U.S. policy in the Gulf, and imperialism in the Middle East. Degree candidates also must gain an advanced level of proficiency in a modern Middle East language. The University bolstered its distinguished roster of Middle East scholars this year by hiring four full-time faculty members with extensive experience in the field: Ilana Feldman, Adina Friedman, Marc Lynch, and Shira N. Robinson. “The quality of our Middle East faculty is first rate,” states Brown, noting that 13 faculty members now focus the majority of their teaching and research on the Middle East. Newcomer Lynch says that he was attracted to GW by the opportunity to be part of the creation of a program that he believes will quickly become a “premier center for Middle East studies in Washington.” A political scientist by training, Lynch comes to GW from Williams College, where he was renowned for his expertise on the Arab media, Jordan, Iraq, and Islamist movements. His blog, Abu Aardvark, reaches some 2,000 readers a day. In a parallel initiative, Nathan Brown also directs GW’s newly launched Institute for Middle East Studies, a research organization that sponsors conferences, workshops, public lectures, and faculty and student research related to the Middle East. “It’s not an accident that both the M.A. program and the institute were launched at the same time,” says Professor Brown. “We now have a critical mass of scholarly interest on the Middle East at GW, and we’re all hoping that the institute will become widely recognized as a center people can turn to for analysis and understanding of issues related to this politically charged region.” This past spring witnessed the launch of another high-profile Elliott School initiative—the Middle East Policy Forum, directed by Ambassador Edward W. Gnehm Jr., B.A. ’66, M.A. ’68, GW’s Kuwait Professor of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Affairs. The forum supplements the M.A. program’s curriculum by bringing leading scholars, analysts, journalists, diplomats, and policymakers to campus to discuss current and emerging trends in the Middle East. Highlights of the forum’s inaugural semester included a lecture by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. “We’re delighted to be able to give our students the chance to engage directly with key figures with notable reputations on Middle East issues,” says Gnehm, who served as U.S. ambassador to Jordan and Kuwait during his distinguished 36-year diplomatic career. “A lot of our students say that this is why they came to GW and to Washington.” Dean Brown is optimistic that the new initiatives will place GW squarely on the map as a leading university on Middle East issues. “Given the exceptional expertise of our faculty, the high level of interest from our students, and our extraordinary location in the heart of Washington, D.C., the Elliott School is in a truly unique position to educate the next generation of international leaders, advance global understanding of the Middle East, and engage the policy community in the United States and around the world,” he says.
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