Resurrecting Empire

I just finished reading Rashid Khalidi’s Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America’s Perilous Path in the Middle East. Khalidi is the Edward Said Chair in Arab Studies at Columbia University and has received lots of media attention for some of his supposedly controversial views. In this book, Khalidi analyzes the challenges facing the [...]

The Benefits of American Military Intervention

Our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have resulted in the collapse of brutal regimes and the supposed arrival of democracy.  One of the less discussed issues has been the economic reconstruction.  Two recent articles give a good sense of the recent economic “progress” in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In Kabul, two cities are rapidly emerging.  There are [...]

Reading the News

I’ve been busy the last week with piles of grading and trying to get caught up at Friends. I loved my trip to Saudi Arabia, but I don’t understand how anyone can actually handle any job that requires lots of business travel. I literally spent two weeks catching up from my two week [...]

The Chinese Obsession

After taking my tenth grade world history course, more than one student has joked that I have an obsession with China.  In many ways they are correct.  China definitely has become one of the main foci of my world history course.  Part of the reason is that China has historically been one of the most [...]

Saudi Fun

The last night I was in Saudi Arabia, I went to a fun and simple dinner in someone's backyard. I spent half the night laughing hysterically, and the other half talking about football with the host's sons. Here are a few pics from that night.

technorati tags: saudi_arabia, travel

A Lesson in Media Bias

Back in August, I mused about My Man Hugo Chávez and Pat Robertson’s call for his assassination. Since then Chávez rarely goes more than a week without appearing in the news. He has struck cheap oil deals with the state of Massachusetts, and he had a public argument with Fox in Mexico. [...]

Explaining Myself

I still find myself defending Saudi Arabia more than I ever would have imagined.  It’s not that I’m on the payroll of the Saudi government.  I’m not even convinced that the Saudi Arabian economy won’t collapse in ten years because they will run out of oil.  But I’m surprised by how much people seem unwilling [...]