Abu Aardvark

Endings and Beginnings

At long last I'm free to publicly announce what some of you already know:  this will be my last semester teaching at Williams College.  This fall, I take up a new position at George Washington University, where I will have a joint appointment in the Political Science Department and the Elliott School of International Affairs.   GW offers a near perfect combination for me.  It's a first rate academic institution, with great strengths in International Relations and International Security.  I'll be closely involved in a brand new Middle East Center launching next year.  GW's School of Media and Public Affairs is strong in the area of public diplomacy (Alberto Fernandez will be in residence next year).  And, of course, it's in Washington DC, which - housing market aside - is a phenomenally exciting place for the kind of work that I do. 

I'll miss some things about Williams, where I've been for nine years.  I've had some great colleagues, and will always remember the camaraderie around the G-level tier of Stetson (which isn't long for the world anyway, since Stetson will soon be demolished and replaced with a new building).   I know that I'll never again enjoy a three minute commute between home, office, and child care.  I deeply regret that my kids will never have the chance to take advantage of the amazing new child care facility which I spent many long hours helping design (though I will not in the least miss the absurdity I experienced during several years chairing the committee on child care).  Most of all, I'll miss teaching the astonishingly gifted, engaged, and often brilliant Williams students... though it will be some consolation to see some of my former students at GW over the next few years!   

What will this mean for Abu Aardvark?  Other than temporary disruptions during moving, I expect to keep running the blog.   But really, who knows... extra commuting time, new responsibilities, it all could take a toll.  But that would be true with or without the move.  This blog has been running at a fairly consistent pace for over four years now, which is a long time.  But I'm committed to the kind of public contributions which Abu Aardvark lets me make, and I can't imagine not doing it at least in some form. 

The bottom line is just that I'm absolutely thrilled about this change.  It's the perfect move at the perfect time, both professionally and personally.   I've got a lot of friends in the DC area, and to be perfectly honest I'm looking forward to being back in a city after nine years in the Berkshires... and the less snow I see, the better.       

Nate Krissoff

I just got back in town from DC and NY, and found my email inbox swamped by some email virus - over 5,000 messages worth of bounced mail, spam filter warnings, and undeliverable messages.  And then, in the middle of the chaos, I stopped and stared:

To Faculty and Staff,

I am very sad to report that Nathan Krissoff '03 died this weekend while serving as a U.S. Marine in Iraq.

Many on campus will recall him as a political science major and a member of the water polo team and swim team, which he captained his senior year.

I recall Nate.   I remember him in discussion sections in Introduction to World Politics - was he a freshman?  a sophomore?  He had intense eyes and a sudden, quirky grin, along with a head of bushy hair which made even more startling the shaved head he sported the last time he came through Williamstown.    Over three classes in four years, I watched Nate grow - developing a serious interest in international security issues, and gaining the self-confidence to ask uncomfortable questions.   He loved to chat after class about international politics and the latest news from the war on terror.  He was determinedly independent in his thinking, even a bit obstinate... and I can still conjure a vivid image of that sudden half-smile which would flash across his face when he realized he'd lost an argument. Barely a year after those classroom debates he was the counterintelligence officer for a battalion in Anbar province.  And now he's gone.      

More and more of my students go into the military after graduation, and every time they do I feel the same combination of admiration - for their courage and their spirit of dedication, self-sacrifice, and service - and a gut-wrenching fear for their safety.  I know all too well the toll the Iraq war is taking on these young men and women.   That men and women like Nate - graduates of an elite liberal arts college who could do anything or go anywhere - volunteer in full knowledge of what awaits them speaks endlessly of their character.  I'm proud of Nate, and devastated for his family and friends. 

I can only send out my deepest condolences, and a prayer that I not have to write eulogies for any more of my students any time soon. 

UPDATE:  you can find other memories of Nate Krissoff at Ephblog.   The flag is, indeed, flying at half mast.

out of town

I'll be out of town and probably without regular computer access until Wednesday.  Try to survive without me!

... I'm pretty sure that my toothpaste did not represent a threat to national security.  Tom's of Maine... doesn't even have frickin' flouride in it. 

How I spent my Saturday

Filming a TV pilot.  Really.  I'd like to say more about it, but I need to get permission from the producer first - not sure what the confidentiality rules were, but I'll find out. 

UPDATE: .. okay, John and company said it was okay to spill, so I will.  The TV show is a really interesting experiment, sort of "deliberative democracy meets reality TV."  Group of ordinary citizens brought together to a house where they learn about a contentious political issue (in this case, American policy towards Iraq), talk about it, listen to experts, deliberate, try to come to some agreement, and eat bugs.   At any rate, I can't even play an ordinary citizen on TV, alas, so I had to be an "expert."  My contribution was to visit the house for an hour and a half, and answer questions from the assembled citizens about Iraq, along with Mary Habeck from SAIS (who participated via a conference call).  Then I left, so I have no idea what the assembled citizens decided.  I'm a big fan of deliberative democracy experiments, so I was very intrigued by the whole concept -  I really hope the pilot gets picked up, and not just for selfish reasons!    Sorry, no Aardvark high-concept action scenes, guest shots by David Duchovny or Kristen Bell, or vampires to slay... though who knows what the future might bring?

 

MESA

I'm off this weekend to the Middle East Studies Association annual meeting, conveniently located in sort-of-nearby Boston this year.  I'll be speaking at a panel discussion on "Blogging and Middle East Studies" along with Juan Cole, Asad AbuKhalil, Josh Landis, Helena Cobban, and Leila Hudson (who organized it).  I'll let you know what I said once I say it - and since I'm speaking last, and all the good lines will probably already have been taken, what I say will probably be a last-second decision!  Also,  I was on the Malcolm Kerr dissertation award committee this year, given by MESA to the best dissertation in the humanities and social sciences.  Since I don't believe the winner has been announced yet, I'll hold off on talking about it - but I promise to do so once it's made public.  Finally, I'll be scheming with various co-conspirators about the future direction of Qahwa Sada.  Blogging will depend almost entirely on the quality of wireless internet access offered by the Boston Marriott.   If you're going to be at MESA, hope to see you there! 

what I did this weekend

I spent the weekend at a really interesting conference about the regional impacts of the Iraq war, hosted by MIT, Brandeis, BU and BC.  It brought together a good mix of academics and former policy people, including most of those you'd expect from the host institutions. I wish I could say something about the conversations and the participants, but alas it was closed to the public and off the record and I'm not 100% sure what I can mention without annoying somebody so I'll hold off for now.   Most likely a conference report will be issued eventually (I'll post a copy of my own memo about Jordan on my personal website later, at least until the edited version comes out in whatever form down the road.)   

Meanwhile, here's a couple of aardvark media appearances which came out while I was on the road, in case anyone cares:

• A segment about the Arab media's take on the US elections, on NPR's On the Media.   I can't figure out a permalink to the segment itself, but this link should work for a while if you want to listen to an mp3 version.
• A nice feature on the ABC News webpage on the same topic (Arab views of the US elections), based on an interview recorded while driving down Rt 2 towards Cambridge.  Good thing it wasn't snowing. 
• And today I'm quoted by Hassan Fattah in a NY Times piece on al-Jazeera International.   On the big questions about AJI, I've been telling all the reporters who have called me that at this point we just have to wait and see what the product looks like - we've been speculating for a long time now about which faction will win out, how they will tailor the product, how it will do with various audiences - now we'll finally start getting some actual evidence.   If I ever get the time, I'm working up my own take on al-Jazeera's 10th anniversary, drawing primarily on the station's own series of retrospectives (most of its major talk shows have done a ten year retrospective - the best was Faisal al-Qassem's The Opposite Direction, which just showed a series of 'greatest hits' clips - and the station also produced a series of anniversary programs about itself). 

Finally, I submit as a candidate for stupidest statement of the week, made by me to my wife as I set out from Cambridge yesterday around 3:00:   "There shouldn't be much traffic on the Mass Pike on a Sunday afternoon."  Four hours, three traffic accidents, several construction sites, and many miles of bumper to bumper ten mile per hour traffic later, I stood humbled.  At least I got home before my daughter's bed time, which is all that really matters. 

a sign of things getting out of hand..

Princeton was a great experience, a small luncheon with an unusually distinguished group of academics and former diplomats in attendance.  Since it was a closed event I won't write about the talk or the discussion (other than that I quite enjoyed it).  But I can say that the single moment which most floored me was when Michael Cook, the distinguished historian of Islam and author of the magisterial Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought (condensed and affordable version here), introduced me not only as the author of Voices of the New Arab Public and associate professor at Williams College, but also as the blogger Abu Aardvark.  And Bernard Lewis nodded along.   This blogging thing really might be getting out of hand....

mailing list?

Too frazzled dealing with the beginning of the semester and a household of sick aardvarks (evil, evil stomach flu) to do much.  But a question for readers:  a Middle East studies colleague of mine emailed me the other day suggesting that a listserv of some kind would be a useful addition to Abu Aardvark, since lots of people interested in the stuff can't remember or find the time to check out blogs but do pay attention to things showing up in their email.   This could look a couple of ways:  emailing out the posts when they are posted, or (more likely) a digest every fixed period (couple of days, weekly).  It could include the whole text, or just summaries and links.  It could include or not include the sidebar Arab media links.   The problems:  listservs aren't a blog, and aren't as conducive to comments and discussion;  not everyone actually wants more email flooding their inbox;   I don't know where to find the software to make a real listserv run;  and I definitely don't need anything which is going to add serious amounts of work to my life right now.  What do people think?  Feel free to comment here or by email at the new google email address.

UPDATE:  okay, following Andy's advice, I've set up a Feedburner email subscription service.  The subscription form is at the top of the left sidebar.  We'll see how this works out, and how many people really want this feature, but I can't really see the harm since it's fully automated.

Upcoming local appearances

A couple of upcoming appearances to note for locals:

On Monday, September 11, I will be taking part in a discussion about 9/11 and five years of the war on terror at the Jewish Religious Center here at Williams.  It's scheduled to start at 7:30;  other 9/11 memorial activities will no doubt be publicized soon.

On Tuesday, September 12, I will be taking part in a panel discussion organized by the International Studies Program on "The Future of Preventative War."  My co-panelist will be the distinguished historian David Kaiser, who is visiting Williams this year from the Naval War College, who knows far more about "preventative war" than I do, and who - believe it or not - also has a blog.  What are the odds?  It's at the Center for Development Economics from 2:45-3:45. 

See you there!

A long time ago...

Bob Dylan:  a long time ago, I used to be a big fan, but I haven't thought of him lately at all.   

Until a stroke of good fortune hit yesterday:   my friend's daughter got sick, hurray! (sorry, M, feel better soon sweet-heart), one of her parents had to stay home, and I found myself with a ticket to an outdoor Dylan show.   I went with somewhat mixed feelings.  I had last seen Dylan in Syracuse in 1994, with Aimee Mann opening, and he had been pretty fabulous.   That wasn't a bad last memory to have of the old man... better than what I feared would be an embarrassing, Rolling Stones-bad, performance by a doddering old guy who really should have known when to retire.   On the other hand, how could I turn down the chance to see him? 

So off I went to see the old man play in Pittsfield, Massachussetts... thinking how depressing it might be to be a rock and roll legend older than my parents playing to a Saturday night crowd in a minor league stadium in Pittsfield, Massachussetts.  The two opening acts were utterly forgettable (one reviewer termed one of the acts "blessedly short" - amen to that).   So were Dylan's first two songs.  The third (Tweedledum and Tweedledee) at least showed that the old man was having fun that night, always a good sign - and so was his band. 

Then he did "Just Like a Woman," and I was thinking, here we go, Embarrassment City... but it didn't turn out like that.  As the song unfolded, he almost seemed to be making fun of the song and the crowd, in that lovely nasty Dylan way, putting the beats just off-center, screwing with the melody and the pacing, so that you could almost hear him sneering "yeah, get out your lighters now you maroons" (some people actually did, but they soon put them away in some confusion).   It was great.  But then he made the song (never one of my favorites) into more than a joke, and about halfway through the song he and the band seemed to catch fire... and they never cooled back down.   

If you just saw the set list, you'd think it was just one of those staid greatest hits shows done for the money:  Stuck Inside of Mobile, Desolation Row, Million Miles, I'll Be Your Baby, Don't Think Twice, I Shall Be Released, Like a Rolling Stone, Rainy Day Woman, and others.  But it wasn't like that at all - he has so thorougly deconstructed and rebuilt these songs that they actually sound new and exciting, and not just annoying the way they did at some Dylan shows I remember from 15 years ago.   The old man's voice is way stronger and clearer than it was in 1994, the band more musically interesting, and the arrangements more complex and unpredictable.  The opening chords of each song were so completely random that it got to be a running joke - thirty seconds in to each song, I would say "it's Like a Rolling Stone!  or else Mr Tambourine Man!" - so that by the time he actually did play Like a Rolling Stone, I wasn't even bothering to make the joke (or see it coming, since the opening chords were again so random that it sounded like it was going to be, I don't know, Masters of War or something).  At the end of the show, midway through the encore, he even deigned to say a few words to the audience - "thank you," or something equally pithy. 

Anyway, this post is pretty much pointless - just to say that it's darn inspiring to see the old man making such great music and sounding so focused, amused, and good.     When was the last time that someone really exceeded your expectations like that?   Oh, and if you ever liked Dylan and he comes to town, you might want to check it out - especially since his show just the previous night seems to have had an entirely different set-list and sound, and to have turned out just as good - and  the new album due out next week would make a fine gift for anyone, including aardvarks...