Will Middle East studies academics applaud Saudi Arabia’s would-be reformer, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, when he meets with President Trump this week? Not if their newfound hostility towards their former ally and benefactor--now that it’s aligned with Israel--is any indication. Campus Watch Fellow A.J. Caschetta declares the love affair over at the New English Review:
There’s a new political order taking shape in the Middle East, and it’s shaking up the academic order that has dominated Middle East studies for over three decades. With Iran, Qatar, Turkey, and what’s left of Assad’s Syria on one side, and Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, Egypt, and Israel on the other, academics are finding new enemies and new allies. Saudi Arabia, once an important ally and benefactor of Middle East specialists, suddenly finds itself subjected to the contempt usually reserved for Israel.
