I was in Aleppo, Syria when the email came. I had been invited to attend President Obama's landmark address in Cairo! A day later, I sat anxiously in the nosebleed section of Cairo University's auditorium, surrounded by excited Egyptian students. They all could not wait to hear how the American president - my president - sought a new beginning with the world's Muslims. When the president entered the stage, one student next to me shouted, "We love you Obama!" It never felt so good to be Amreeki in Egypt.
The magic of that day has long subsided. The world, it turns out, cannot be fixed with a speech. But two years later, I still hold on to the promise of that address. It is a promise that we, the world's greatest nation, can and must do better. We have too often pushed aside our core values for the sake of our perceived interests. As a result, we have neither secured our values nor our interests.
I have focused my studies and career on how we can reconcile our interests with our values in the Middle East. To do so, we must first achieve a better comprehension of the region and our policy choices there. This blog is my humble attempt to contribute to that understanding.
As always, anything I write in this blog is my own personal opinion and does not reflect anyone else's. That goes for my Twitter account at @IbnLarry too!
You can also read about me in Arabic (من أنا باللغة العربية).
The magic of that day has long subsided. The world, it turns out, cannot be fixed with a speech. But two years later, I still hold on to the promise of that address. It is a promise that we, the world's greatest nation, can and must do better. We have too often pushed aside our core values for the sake of our perceived interests. As a result, we have neither secured our values nor our interests.
I have focused my studies and career on how we can reconcile our interests with our values in the Middle East. To do so, we must first achieve a better comprehension of the region and our policy choices there. This blog is my humble attempt to contribute to that understanding.
As always, anything I write in this blog is my own personal opinion and does not reflect anyone else's. That goes for my Twitter account at @IbnLarry too!
You can also read about me in Arabic (من أنا باللغة العربية).
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