Elliott School of International Affairs – Page 4

May 12, 2022May 12, 2022

Elliott School M.A. Candidate and Rosenthal Fellow Will Work for House Foreign Affairs Committee This Summer

Medha Prasanna has spent the bulk of her graduate studies at George Washington University learning about international organizations as well as Asian history and politics. But this summer, she will spend her time on Capitol Hill working for the United States Congress.

The Elliott School of International Affairs M.A. candidate was selected as a prestigious Harold Rosenthal Fellow, providing summer funding and work opportunities in a congressional or executive branch office to students demonstrating outstanding commitment to international affairs and interest in public service. Prasanna, who begins her post on May 23, will be a fellow for the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Asia Pacific Team, where she will spend much of her time doing general research.

She understands the fellowship is about governance in the U.S. and therefore can be difficult to answer as to why an international student from India studying policy of another region wants to work in the U.S. government. But she believes what happens in the halls of Congress is pivotal to the geopolitical scene.

“In a sense, what America does has an effect on everybody in the world,” she said. “I feel like if I’m contributing or if I’m in public service to the U.S. in some way, that’s going to have a ripple effect that affects my country and other countries.

“Being a global citizen is sort of what the fellowship stands for.”

The fellowship was established in 1977 to honor the memory of Harold Rosenthal, a Senate staff member who at age 29 was a victim of a terrorist attack while on duty. It is a program of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization striving for a more effective government for American citizens.

Prasanna, who attended Ashoka University near Delhi, India, before arriving at GW, has determined through her studies the importance of looking at international relations through regional approaches. While she believes there is merit in being an expert of one country, she sees even more value in observing how nations react to one another.

In terms of the Asia Pacific, specifically, Prasanna feels it is the next hub when it comes to global problems such as climate change, pollution, cybersecurity, backsliding democracies, land and maritime conflicts. She understands how supply chains in the region are critical to the normal functioning of a global society. Having deep knowledge and understanding of how the U.S. government works will be beneficial whatever career she eventually pursues.

After graduation, Prasanna has ambitions of working with an international organization in hopes of traveling to different places to better understand local people and policies. But with how much influence U.S. foreign affairs can have on the geopolitical structure, Prasanna is excited to spend the summer learning the nuances and intricacies of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and U.S. government in general.

“I think Congress is very important to American foreign policy,” Prasanna said. “I just want to understand when there’s a crisis, what is the legislative response; what are the processes? I want to learn now so I can navigate these things better when I’m in an international organization myself.”

She already has government and international organization experience as she is currently a public information intern at the United Nations, and she was a Student Association graduate senator-at-large. Prasanna is also pleased with the value of her GW education, shouting out Elliott School faculty member David Shambaugh as a particular person of influence.

If her attention to detail is any indication, Prasanna fits the bill of being a future civic leader. She found out about the fellowship through an email from the Elliott School’s Graduate Student Services. She makes sure to read everything that comes through her inbox, which may very well put her in the minority among her peers. Because of this diligence, however, she found what could be a life-changing and career-defining opportunity.

Once she applied, GW nominated her to the fellowship, which then set her up with standard placement interviews. She found out her destination for the summer at the end of April. The fellowship will end Aug. 19, just before the fall semester begins.

She is well on her way to a career seeking to improve the lives of others, and she’d like to start by encouraging other GW students who have faced rejection—which she did before getting her big yes—to stay the course and continue applying for opportunities.

“You might hear a lot of no’s in Washington, but no’s are a part of the process and often lead to something better,” she said.

And, of course, always read the fine print in emails.

Note: Congressman Gregory W. Meeks (D-N.Y.) is the first Black Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and will be the keynote speaker at the Elliott School’s graduation ceremony on May 13. In addition, GW Law alum Susan Ellis Wild, J.D. ’82, currently serves on the 52-seat House Foreign Affairs Committee. The Democratic Congresswoman from Pennsylvania will deliver the keynote address at the Law School Diploma Ceremony on Sunday, May 15.

April 11, 2022

A Week at Elliott

Each semester the Elliott School hosts dozens of diverse events featuring distinguished speakers from all aspects of the international affairs community, all free to students and often open to the public and to the media. In just one recent week alone, the Elliott School hosted Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi, former Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd on the future of conflict between China and the US, the Mayor of Los Angeles on the growing impact of non-state actors on international affairs, former Joint Chief of Staff General Richard Myers on the importance of character in leadership, and a discussion about the significance of Arab League state, Qatar, hosting the upcoming World Cup Soccer Championships. Several of these events were recorded.

Visit the links below to see the recordings of these and other prestigious events held at the Elliott School.

(En)Gulfing the Global Game: World Cup Qatar 2022

The Dean’s Speaker Series “What’s Next in Foreign Affairs” hosted Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti

Kevin Rudd, the former Prime Minister of Australia and current President and CEO of the Asia Society, for a discussion of his new book The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping’s China.

March 4, 2022March 8, 2022

50 years later: Richard Nixon’s Historic Visit to China

Two Elliott School faculty members who are leading international experts on U.S./China relations offer commentary on the 1972 foreign affairs breakthrough.

President Richard Nixon made one of the most significant foreign visits in the history of the United States 50 years ago when he traveled to the People’s Republic of China Feb. 21-28, 1972—ending two-plus decades of no communication or diplomatic ties between the two nations.

GW Today sat down with two leading international experts on U.S./China from the Elliott School of International Affairs to discuss the trip to Beijing 50 years later.

David Shambaugh, the Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science and International Affairs and director of the China Policy Program, served the State Department and National Security Council during President Jimmy Carter’s administration. He also served on the board of directors of the National Committee on U.S./China Relations and is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. Asia-Pacific Council and other public policy and scholarly organizations. Before GW, he was senior lecturer, lecturer and reader in Chinese politics at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, where he also served as editor of The China Quarterly.

Robert Sutter, Professor of Practice of International Affairs, had a government career that lasted from 1968 until 2001. He served as senior specialist and director of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division of the Congressional Research Service, the national intelligence officer for East Asia and the Pacific at the U.S. Government’s National Intelligence Council, the China division director at the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Shambaugh and Sutter were asked questions, some the same and some different, separately for this article.

Q: At the time, what was the significance of Nixon’s visit to China?

Shambaugh: President Nixon’s visit to China in February 1972 was described at the time as “the week that changed the world.” While perhaps hyperbole, there is indeed truth in this characterization—for three principal reasons. First, it ended the 22-year estrangement and total lack of contact between both the governments and the people of China and the United States. It would take another seven years before official diplomatic relations would be consummated under the Carter administration—where I worked on the China staff of the National Security Council staff at the time—which in turn opened a wide variety of direct ties between our two societies, but the Nixon visit catalyzed the process. Second, with the American opening to China, other governments around the world, which had been part of the previous U.S. policy to isolate and contain China, now were free to open their own relations with the People’s Republic of China—thus, in a real sense, the Nixon visit not only opened U.S./China relations, but it also did much to open China’s own doors to the world that had been previously almost completely isolated. Third, the Nixon visit was a strategic stroke of genius and fundamentally altered the balance of power in the so-called strategic triangle (U.S., China, Soviet Union) at the time, aligning America and China against Moscow. That, in turn, led over time to the weakening of the Soviet Union, its collapse and end of the Cold War.

Q: How was the event viewed in the U.S. at the time? What about in China?

Sutter: It was a big news item, and it was widely applauded. Everyone thought this was a great idea. The Chinese were on their best behavior. It was all very cordial. And it was in the interest of both sides to look like they were very close. China was desperate. And China was under the gun from the Soviet Union. It was very much in the Chinese interest because they were very worried about the U.S. and Soviet Union.

Q: Did Nixon’s China policy and visit facilitate the creation of modern China?

Shambaugh: Indirectly, yes. Nixon’s visit facilitated China’s broader opening the world, notably the Western world. This brought China in direct contact with the world’s most developed economies—which have been central to the foreign investment, technology transfer, and professional exchanges that have all contributed much to China’s dynamic economic growth since. But it also took the death of [Chinse President] Mao [Zedong] and the coming to power of Deng Xiaoping in 1978 to relax the repression and xenophobia within China, so the country could take advantage of the door that Nixon and Mao initially opened.

Q: What would be comparable to Nixon’s visit today?

Sutter: I just want to reiterate the fragility of China (in 1972). This was a dangerous mission. They were taking a risk. But they must have had enough evidence that they felt the president could be secured, and they could get him out if they had to. It was like going to North Korea today. China then was a lot like North Korea today. Very secretive. There’s so many things you didn’t know. It was a gamble, in a way.

Q: Why does the Nixon visit still fascinate so many? And why is it important for students today to learn about it?

Shambaugh: The Nixon visit continues to fascinate, in part, because it was such great public theater—because it took place on live television. Here was a society (Communist China) that had been completely closed off from the world since 1949, having recently been convulsed by the cultural revolution (from 1966-76), literally opening itself up for others to peer inside. The drama of Nixon meeting Mao [Zedong], being feted in the Great Hall of the People, touring the Great Wall and signing the Shanghai Communique was all riveting theater. As for students today, I am currently teaching my graduate-level U.S./China relations course this semester, and we watched the film ”History Declassified: Nixon in China” earlier this month, and I also invited to class Winston Lord—who was Nixon’s and [former Secretary of State] Henry Kissinger’s close aide. He participated in Kissinger’s secret 1971 trip to Beijing, the Nixon visit itself, played a key role in negotiating the Shanghai Communiqué, and later became America’s ambassador to China from 1985 until 1989. The students loved it. So, yes, the Nixon visit is still very much alive, at least in my class in the Elliott School. As for what students can still learn from it, I would say that no matter how great a gulf or differences can be between governments or peoples, there is always the possibility of improving ties. This is something we should remember about U.S./China relations when they are as strained as they are today.

Q: Nixon self-described the visit as a “week that changed the world.” Looking back 50 years later and where the two countries are now, is that statement accurate, far off, or somewhere in the middle?

Sutter: It fundamentally changed the world at the time, but the world has also changed since, and China changed. Maybe the United States has changed too, but China has definitely changed. It’s just more powerful. We never knew, we outsiders never knew what China would do if it became very powerful. There was no evidence to back that up. But now we have evidence of it. That changes our perceptions and, and that’s what’s happened over the last few years.

March 4, 2022March 8, 2022

Alumna Learned Important Lessons as Member of GW Debate and Literary Society

As she gathered with her debate teammates at Atlanta’s Morehouse College, where Martin Luther King Jr. once perused the corridors as a student, George Washington University alumna Hailey Knowles, B.S. ’21, realized her ears would be the best asset that day instead of her voice.

She was a member of the GW Debate and Literary Society competing in the Social Justice Debates between the two schools. The topic centered around police brutality. Knowles, who is white, acknowledged that she hadn’t been personally affected the same way people of color have, so listened carefully to others’ lived experience and learned how to gather evidence and make an argument on behalf of others.

“It really taught me to listen to others and understand a perspective that I’m not familiar with, or I haven’t been personally exposed to,” said Knowles, who graduated from the Elliott School of International Affairs last fall with a degree in international affairs with minors in statistics and Arabic and a concentration in the Middle East. “And that was really valuable for me.”

In today’s world where information is constantly flying around from both verified and unverified sources, it’s as important as ever to critically think and understand multiple perspectives, skills Knowles enhanced during her time at GW.

Her time with the Debate and Literary Society opened the door to all kinds of opportunities, including a fellowship at the French Embassy and trips across the United States and Europe.

She was particularly drawn to the society, which is almost 200 years old, because it emphasizes civic debate as a tool for engagement and service. One example, she said, was discussing food waste in Las Vegas, which happens to be her hometown. In addition to debating, they also toured a food bank to get a better understanding.

“Not only is it a competitive debate, but we also do a lot of interaction with the topics that we’re doing,” she said. “I just really liked that.”

She rode off into the sunset with the team when it won the 2021 EU Delegation’s Schuman Challenge, a foreign affairs contest where U.S. students presented and defended transatlantic policy initiatives before judges such as an EU ambassador, president of German Marshall Fund and a CNN national correspondent.

Knowles believes strong rhetoric is crucial when discussing topics that carry as much societal magnitude as police structure and food inequality. Having that combination of knowledge and communication skills is vital in the art of persuasion. She noted that you can have all the right answers, but if the opposition is tailoring the way it speaks to the judge—or equivalent figurehead—it won’t matter (Think of the first Kennedy/Nixon television debate, where TV viewers declared Kennedy the winner because of his poise on camera while radio viewers gave the nod to Nixon for his content).

Thanks to her experiences with the Debate and Literary Society—coupled with a high inner ambition—Knowles has entered the workforce prepared to make a difference. She currently works at the U.S. Institute of Peace, and she’s grateful for opportunities at GW showing her the importance of learning, understanding and speaking.

“It really helped me learn how important listening is and understanding different sides,” Knowles said. “It’s helped me a lot in not only debate, but also in jobs and everything else.”

February 9, 2022February 10, 2022

GW Elliott Launches Fund to Increase Access and Promote Equity

An innovative initiative at the Elliott School will soon provide significant new resources for students, advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in international affairs education by increasing access for students with financial need.

The initiative, the Elliott Equity Fund, is in line with GW University’s commitment to excellence and affordability. The fund, which the school will grow through philanthropic contributions, will help foster an inclusive academic environment, further efforts to diversify the student body, and ensure that students can reach their full potential.

“Our emphasis on equity prioritizes providing opportunities and resources for historically underrepresented students in order to promote equal access and success,” said Jonathan Walker, senior assistant dean for student services, diversity, equity, and inclusion at the Elliott School. The fund will enhance support for tuition, as well as important extracurricular activities in international affairs, such as study abroad and internships, both transformative educational opportunities that often still remain out of reach for those who need to earn.

Walker, Elliott School Dean Alyssa Ayres, and the school’s Office of Diversity, Equity and, Inclusion, together with members of GW Elliott’s Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, developed the concept for nearly a year. They then shared plans for the initiative with colleagues across the university, honing its purpose and ensuring it aligns with the university’s mission and goals.

Increasing Access to Promote Equity

Scholarships and fellowships are more critical now than at any time in the university’s history – and the only way to keep GW Elliott accessible during this time of exceptional economic uncertainty. The pandemic’s disproportionate impact on lower-income families has widened inequality, putting the costs of higher education further out of reach.

GW Elliott is determined to reverse this trend, a critical mission in our times, as the United States becomes an increasingly diverse society. As the world becomes more multipolar geopolitically, students will graduate into a diplomatic arena that requires greater knowledge of more regional contexts, and the skills to operate in a wider and more diverse variety of environments. Increasing access to an international affairs education also can help ensure that we are best positioned to understand and resolve the most pressing challenges facing our interconnected world – and that GW Elliott nurtures a new generation of international affairs leaders who understand the complexity of this diverse world and the importance of equity, respect, justice, inclusion, and civil discourse to greater understanding.

How the Elliott Equity Fund Works

The Elliott Equity Fund (EEF) aims to help GW Elliott attract and maintain a diverse student body through tuition and non-tuition awards for students with financial need – and who will advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of international affairs.

Accordingly, non-tuition awards will expand financial support currently offered to students for the many on-the-ground learning experiences that an Elliott education makes possible. These include study abroad and high-quality, unpaid internships. Often, students with limited financial resources are not able to pursue these game-changing opportunities.

Undergraduate and graduate students, including newly-admitted students, may apply for support from the Elliott Equity Fund. A committee of Elliott School and GW professionals will holistically review each student’s application for an award.

Once underway, the EEF will strengthen the Elliott School’s promise to build leaders for the world. As one undergraduate explained, “Supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion means providing everyone with the chance to grow.”

Donate Today

Gillian Villarroel, B.A. ’24

“Growing up, my life was surrounded by the realities of diversity and inclusion. Often, I felt like an outsider in school trying to find a community where I could feel a true sense of belonging. As a minority student, it seemed like a negative thing at first, but as I grew, I learned to love my culture. I was able to perceive things through the lens of my heritage that perhaps my peers weren’t able to.”

Gabriel Young, B.A. ’23

“International affairs and domestic affairs are inevitably intertwined….To understand how to improve one’s community, [individuals] must know their place in the world, and that’s why I’m in the field. Diversity and inclusion means having a variety of voices in the room and making sure that those voices are fairly heard.”

July 19, 2018July 19, 2018

MES Students Receive Boren and CLS Scholarships

The Elliott School’s Institute for Middle East Studies congratulates the following five students who received either a Boren Fellowship or Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) from the U.S. State Department to study Middle East languages:

Thomas Harris (Boren, Arabic)

Mary Ivancic (Boren, Arabic)

Rosalie Rubio (Boren, Arabic)

Brennan Ryan (Boren, Arabic)

Adam Aviles (CLS, Persian)

Both the Boren Fellowship and Critical Language Scholarship are part of a U.S. government initiative to increase the number of Americans studying and gaining proficiency in foreign languages deemed vital to U.S. national security interests. We at GW are very proud of our exceptional students, and we wish them the best of luck wherever their language studies may take them this summer or coming academic year!

July 19, 2018July 19, 2018

Arabic Book Club – Summer 2018 Edition

During the summer, we will be reading Mawsim al-Hijra Ilaa al-Shamaal (Season of Migration to the North) by the late Sudanese author Tayeb Salih. The book club will begin on Saturday, June 2, and run through August. All Middle East Studies alumni and current GW students are eligible to participate.

Meetings are generally held on Saturday mornings at the Elliott School. If you are interested in joining the Arabic Book Club, please contact Mitchell Ford, IMES’s Senior Academic Advisor and Arabic Instructional Assistant, at (202) 994-1545 or mfordy89@gwu.edu.

The book club was created to give students and alumni the opportunity to engage with modern Arabic literature by authors from across the Arab World. Mitch hopes that this club will enable participants to learn and discuss the ideas and themes in the books as they would with any regular reading group – while also learning important vocabulary and grammatical constructions.

July 19, 2018July 23, 2018

Alumni Profile: Danielle Feinstein, BA ’11

What have you been up to since graduation?

Right now, I am completing my Master’s in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, during a sabbatical year on the Boren National Security Fellowship in Oman. Before my MA, I was a Program Coordinator at the Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at the American University in Cairo and a Fulbright Research Fellow with the National Democratic Institute field office in Jordan. At GW, I majored in Middle Eastern Studies and minored in Religion.

What professor or class stands out in your memory of the program?

Three professors really stand out to me in my memories of the Middle Eastern Studies program. The first is Nathan Brown who was my advisor for my Elliott Undergraduate Scholars thesis. I had spent one semester in Cairo doing interviews in the fall of 2010, and when I returned in January 2011, of course everything in Egypt had massively changed. I remember I would come to Professor Brown’s office full of anxiety about how I was going to track all the moving pieces of the revolution and turn them into an academic paper. He was extremely supportive and has been to this day. The second professor I remember is Charles Kiamie* who taught a seminar on the Middle East, which was infused with practical expertise from his years working in the U.S. government. Finally, Jennifer Lambert empowered me to TA for her course International Relations of MENA during my senior year, and she has been empowering me to achieve my aspirations of being a smart, competent authority in the field ever since.

(*Charles Kiamie is also a Middle East Studies alumnus, BA ‘00.)

How do you think alumni can be a resource for current students?

We are only a cold email away. If you are a student and you find someone whose experience interests you, don’t second guess yourself, just reach out!

July 19, 2018July 19, 2018

Alumni Profile: Priya Vithani, MA ’16

After graduating from the University of Virginia in 2013 with an interdisciplinary major in “Human Rights in the Middle East,” Priya came to GW to research the connections between entrepreneurship and democratic development in the Middle East. She was a recipient of the Aramex fellowship in 2014, where she worked with a social startup in Jordan. She also traveled to Cairo, where she researched the sociopolitical dynamics of entrepreneurs in Egypt for her capstone project. While at GW part-time, Priya worked as a full-time desk officer at the U.S. Department of State, covering the North Africa portfolio as a policy officer for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Priya also briefly served as the U.S. liaison to the UN Universal Periodic Review and Special Procedures processes in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs and on a short rotation as the human rights officer at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt. Following graduation from GW, Priya left the Department in 2017 for a fellowship with Kiva Microfinance, which took her to Lebanon, Morocco, and Jordan over an eight-month period. Priya is currently a Financial Sector Specialist at the World Bank Group on the Innovation in SMEs project, a first-of-its-kind project in the region that supports entrepreneurs and investment funds in Lebanon. She lives in Beirut, Lebanon.

What advice would you give to new students?

If you’re new, welcome to the program and congratulations! My advice is this: the program, while excellent, isn’t cheap, so you might as well make the absolute most of it. Take advantage of the Elliott School’s and the program’s many scholarships and programs to pay for school and go abroad. In total, I was able to recover about half of my tuition costs through these fellowships. Leverage the fact that you are studying in DC to do an internship or find meaningful work alongside the program, even if it means switching to part-time or taking a lighter load one semester. This will put you miles ahead of other graduate students, give you a source of income, and you’ll be able to add a degree of practicality to your academic work. Being in DC, you are surrounded by hundreds of think tanks, NGOs, and academic events or conferences. Go to as many of these as you can, ask questions, and talk to people there (network genuinely). Don’t be afraid to ask and make the program work for you. If you can’t find something that you feel would make your experience better or help you academically or professionally, talk to the IMES staff and propose ideas. The worst thing you can do is nothing at all. And lastly, don’t underestimate the interconnectivity of the field that is Middle East Studies! The people you meet and study with could just one day end up being your future coworkers or even supervisors. (My former boss at the Department of State is an alumnus of the program, and sometimes I even had to email professors in the program for work-related issues!). The field is a revolving door, and your professional reputation can carry you a long way. I hope it does. Best of luck!

July 19, 2018July 23, 2018

Faculty Book Spotlight: Arguing Islam After the Revival of Arab Politics

Arguing Islam book with author Dr. Nathan Brown

Interview of Dr. Nathan Brown conducted via email by Sumaya Almajdoub, MA ‘17.

Hello Dr. Brown, I’ve enjoyed reading your book, and the first question I wanted to ask you is about the title. Your title mentions the “revival of Arab politics,” what do you mean by “revival”? When did Arab politics “die”?

I do not think that politics ever completely died, but it was often driven underground. When I did research on Egypt in the 1960s, I was struck by how little politics was part of the public record—when I looked at publications like newspapers there was a narrow range of views, and only top officials seemed able to set the terms of what was said. When I first traveled to the Arab world in the early 1980s, politics did not form a large part of public or private discussion. That really changed beginning in the 1990s in all kinds of public and private channels.

In your book you elaborate on the ways in which lively, complex and nuanced discussions continue to happen in the Arab public sphere, can you give us examples of these discussions?

Even with the authoritarian wave of the past few years, it is still the case that there is a lot more politics discussed in social media, older media, and private conversations. As an example, “personal status law”—the category of law that covers marriage, divorce, and inheritance—is constantly debated by people who are not only well versed in technical religious vocabulary on those issues but also very aware of the practical implications of small changes in the law. The debate is sensitive, since it involves issues that matter to everybody. But it is also sophisticated.

Do these discussions in the public sphere affect outcomes on the ground? Do they shape policies? Why or why not?

I looked at several areas—constitution writing, school curricula, personal status law—to try to see where public debates actually seemed to affect decisions made by public officials. What I found was that a lot of the debates are not really connected to political realities; officials can and do ignore them. There are exceptions—I found, for instance, cases in which public officials decided to reach out to influential religious and women’s rights groups—who eyed each other suspiciously–to make a change to divorce law that had wide support. But for the most part, debates become more polarized because advocates of contrary views do not have to deal with each other.

What about those who argue that the Arab world is witnessing political apathy due to increased levels of suppression, destabilization and civil strife? How would you respond to them?

I think the level of alienation is growing. But alienation is not the same as apathy. What I sense is a growing despair about formal politics—parties, organizations, elections—particularly for younger generations. But that alienation from the current order can take many forms—from enthusiastic action in 2011 to withdrawal in 2018—and I think it is very much an open question what form it will take in the coming years.

How has the Arab public sphere changed with the introduction of the internet and social media? Have debates become more polarized? Are these changes only relevant to the Arab public sphere, or is this part of a global phenomenon?

Debates have become more polarized and newer social media may facilitate that process but they are not the driving force. The way in which regimes have declined (somewhat unevenly) in their ability to control all channels of communication has allowed people to form linkages. That such linkages sometimes lead to silos and echo chambers is not simply a phenomenon in the Arab world.

One phenomenon that is particularly pronounced in the Arab world—though hardly unique to it—is the decline of various kinds of authority. Religious authority, for instance, has not disappeared but it has become more pluralistic. Many more voices join debates and the range of views heard is becoming much greater. And the separation between the two senses of “authority”—ability to make decisions that govern people and ability to have one’s views treated with deference—is also marked.

Was there a specific event or incident that inspired you to write this book?

No specific event, no. I was interested even before the 2011 uprisings. But I had begun to notice how lively debates were becoming but how few of those debates seemed to be getting attention.

Was this book easier or harder to write compared to your other publications?

It was much broader. That made it easier in the sense that I did not need to know every detail before starting to write. But it also made it harder, since I had to think a lot more about what generalizations could be justified.

Do you have any advice for aspiring scholars who want to write a book? Or is there anything you’d like to add?

Do not write a scholarly book unless there is a specific question that you think needs to be answered and that you can pose and answer in a compelling way.