Conservative Casual Friday--Middle Eastern School Ties

Experienced political analyst and writer Pratik Chougule has written a fascinating new book on the history of American higher education efforts in the Muslim-majority countries of Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and Qatar. In American Universities in the Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy: Intersections with American Interests, Chougule details the record of American university foundings in the wider Middle East, from the Christian missionaries who established the American University of Beirut in 1866 to the 21st-century attempts begun under President George W. Bush to bring higher education to Afghanistan and Iraq as part of nation-building efforts during the Global War on Terror. As Chougule documents, international politics in the Muslim world always complicates the free spirits of liberal intellectual inquiry. Chougule will join show host Andrew E. Harrod to discuss.