"Knowledgeable" Academics

Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute has a pretty damning review of Rashid Khalidi's new book Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East.

Columbia University historian Rashid Khalidi laments in the introduction to his critique of American policy in the Middle East, taking policymakers to task for listening to "ill-informed pundits rather than people who are actually knowledgeable about the rest of the world."

Rather than demonstrating why academics should be consulted by policymakers, however, Resurrecting Empire is a case study of why they are not. Khalidi's book, which examines the record of Western involvement in the Middle East and analyzes the likely outcome of the most recent U.S. incursions, rests on questionable sources, a tendency to favor polemic over fact and reflects little understanding of how policy is made.