“I come from no country, from no city, no tribe. I am the son of the road…
all tongues and all prayers belong to me. But I belong to none of them.”
-Amin Maalouf
This website was founded in January 2012. At the time, it was designed to act as a repository of news and analysis regarding the end of American combat operations in the Middle East (US combat troops had just left Iraq), “so that these regions and the developments happening there [could] remain available to viewers across the world, mainly through the use of interviews.” However, as recent developments in Syria, Iraq, and the surrounding region have shown, this mission was premature: The United States, its allies, and its rivals are engaging in unprecedented ways with political futures across the Middle East and Afghanistan. Therefore, building on our initial goal, we aim to provide analysis that contextualizes rapidly-evolving events within the appropriate historical contexts whence they were born. This website will act as an occasional forum for the thought leaders, policymakers, and actors shaping the regions concerned to engage in a cross-cutting fashion with the concepts behind the news.
Ultimately, what each of these discussions offers as a whole is an “impressionistic painting” of the events that have shaped the modern Middle East. This site is designed to be useful for both professional scholars and the public, and we are attempting to create a database of material devoted to the study of the post-war events happening in the region after the decade-long conflict. If there is an article, photograph, or book that you feel should be included in our online library — but which has not — please send the link and any copyright information, as well as your name and contact information, to postwarwatch@gmail.com.
We are a student publication, very often with a skeleton-staff, and with no institutional financial support. Therefore, we cannot pay for any articles or interviews we receive. Our mission is to facilitate dialogue on issues of pressing concern, and we hope our contributors are equally inspired by this goal as we are.
All opinions expressed are those of the author or interviewee, and not of the Post-War Watch or its editors unless otherwise and explicitly stated.
