After Hamas’ shocking 2023 attack on Israel, the United States stood firmly behind Israel’s near-genocidal war on Gaza, despite widespread moral outrage and significant damage to Washington’s global agenda. But Gaza is only the latest paradox in 35 years of Middle East policy. How did this pattern develop, why can’t policymakers learn from repeated Middle Eastern calamities, and what does Gaza’s destruction mean for America’s place in the world?

Author Marc Lynch charts the United States’ disastrously failed approach to the post–Cold War Middle East, where aspirations for US leadership and a calm region have only produced war, instability and humanitarian catastrophe. Lynch exposes the failure of each president’s efforts to transform the Middle East in America’s image, or pivot away from the region; Washington’s refusal to take seriously the views of Middle Easterners; and its fantasy of forging a regional order ‘without’ the Palestinian issue.

Moving between American politics and Middle Eastern realities, this incisive account explains why US policy has not changed despite its horrifying human costs, from Iraq, Lebanon and Syria to Iran, Yemen and Libya.

The event is taking place in Bush House Lecture Theatre 2, located in Bush House.

SPEAKER

Marc Lynch is professor of political science at the George Washington University and director of the Project on Middle East Political Science. He runs the popular blog and podcast Abu Aardvark's MENA Academy.