The nihilistic methodologies common within Middle East studies, including postcolonial studies as exemplified by the late Edward Said, have harmed the humanities and social sciences across the disciplines. Bruce Thornton, a classics professor at California State University, Fresno, traces this intellectual decline today in an essay commissioned by CW and published at FrontPage Magazine:
In theory, Middle East studies programs are a good idea. One of the biggest impediments to countering modern jihadism has been the lack of historical knowledge about the region and Islam. But even the attention and urgency that followed the terrorist attacks on 9/11 have not led to such knowledge. The result has been policies pursued both by Republicans and Democrats that are doomed to fail, as the current chaos in the region attests.