Now that Alwaleed bin Talal, the Saudi royal benefactor after which centers at Georgetown University and Harvard University are named, has been removed from power, what will become of the Middle East studies academics who benefited from his largesse? Campus Watch Fellow A.J. Caschetta, writing at the Jerusalem Post, ponders both their fate and their conspicuous silence on the matter:
Last November, when the crown prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), arrested dozens of wealthy royals and businessmen, many were stunned to learn that his cousin Alwaleed bin Talal was among those charged with “corruption.” Few have as much to lose from bin Talal’s misfortune as the Middle East Studies industry, which has profited handsomely from his “activist philanthropy.”
