Michael Doran on Western Elites and the Middle East
The Tikvah Podcast
Tikvah
4.8 • 658 Ratings
🗓️ 14 June 2016
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this podcast, Michael Doran, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and prominent scholar and commentator on Middle Eastern affairs and world politics, talks with Tikvah's Eric Cohen about a classic essay excoriating Western elites for misunderstanding the passions that drive the Middle East. Elie Kedourie's 1970 manifesto, "The Chatham House Version," examined the confusions of Arnold Toynbee and other British mandarins: confusions over pan-Arabism, over the links between the Israeli-Arab conflict and other situations of unrest, over the role of the West in Arab discontent, and much else. The political, religious, and ideological fault lines of the Middle East often go back at least a century, so it is a mistake for Westerners to explain the Middle East in the categories of Western social arrangements. Kedourie is not as widely read as he should be, but his influence on leading scholars like Michael Doran is profound. One modest hope of this podcast is that the discussion might awaken listeners to his immense body of work.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Tikva podcast on Great Jewish Essays and Ideas. |
| 0:12.2 | I'm your host, Eric Cohen. |
| 0:14.2 | Our subject today is a classic 1970 essay by the great Middle East scholar, Ellie Kedori, called |
| 0:20.3 | the Chatham House version. The modern Middle East |
| 0:23.3 | poses Americans, Jews, and all friends of Western civilization with a remarkable set of challenges. |
| 0:29.1 | It is ever-changing, and today seems to be radicalizing. And yet the political, religious, and ideological |
| 0:35.2 | fault lines often go back at least a century, |
| 0:38.3 | probably further. |
| 0:40.2 | Elie Kedore was one of the few people, often standing alone in his sober yet contrarian views, |
| 0:45.7 | who saw this region in full. |
| 0:48.6 | His influence on many of the leading scholars of today was immense, including on our guests. |
| 0:53.9 | And yet he is not as well known |
| 0:55.4 | or widely read today as he should be, and our modest hope is that today's discussion might |
| 1:00.1 | awaken listeners to his immense body of work, beginning with today's essay, which many see as his |
| 1:05.5 | great intellectual manifesto. To explore this topic, I'm very pleased to be joined by my friend Mike Duran, |
| 1:12.6 | a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and prominent scholar and commentator on Middle Eastern |
| 1:17.0 | Affairs and World Politics. He's also a frequent teacher in many of TIFA's advanced |
| 1:22.2 | institutes and seminars and a beloved teacher at that. Mike, thanks for being here. |
| 1:26.5 | Thanks for having me. So before we get to |
| 1:28.9 | the essay itself, the Chatham House version, let's start with Ellie Cadorey. Who was he? Why was he |
| 1:35.0 | such an important scholar? And what made him a unique thinker in the world of Middle Eastern |
| 1:39.3 | studies? Well, Cadoury was first and foremost, he was a Jew from Baghdad, born in the 20s, and he died in the early 90s. |
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