Failure, Defeat, Debacle: U.S. Policy in the Middle East

1984 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-460
Author(s):  
Leonard Binder
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Close Association ◽  
National Defense ◽  
Direct Service ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
The Social ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Education Act ◽  
Social Scientific

Revolution, war, and political stalemate in the Middle East have led many analysts to declare U.S. policy in the Middle East a failure. To a considerable extent this failure is attributed to an unwillingness to use the area experts who have the requisite knowledge. Often, however, knowledge, intelligence, and analysis are conflated. Frequently, expertise and advocacy are confused. In practice it is difficult to separate scientific knowledge from partisan ideological commitment. Hence the close association between government and the social scientific/area studies community may well defeat the purpose of providing objective and institutionally neutral bases for policy making. Despite some recent trends toward linking the enhanced funding of area studies with more direct service of the needs of government agencies, it may actually be more desirable to explore better ways of detaching area studies from the institutional establishment and the policy orientations of the current National Defense Education Act system.

Are Arab Politics Still Arab?

1986 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 611-625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerrold D. Green
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
Arab Politics ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Traditional Area

For many scholars and observers of the Middle East, the uniqueness of the Arabs has proved to be far more interesting than those areas of Arab political life that exhibit similarities with politics elsewhere. Some of the studies reviewed here provide a partial corrective to this gap. They suggest that Arab politics, much like politics in other settings, is concerned with issues of socioeconomic change and conflict, problems of legitimacy, the role of competing ideologies, and elite factionalism. Those of the studies that highlight the weaknesses of pan-Arabism are more persuasive than those that emphasize its vitality. What is needed now is the ability to determine where we can usefully generalize about Arab politics and where politics in the Arab world are in fact unique. The social-scientific approach is deemed more likely to accomplish this analytical goal than the traditional area-studies and policy approaches.

The National Defense Education Act and Exceptional Children

1965 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 172-173
Author(s):  
Morvin A. Wirtz
Keyword(s):  
School Children ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Instructional Materials ◽  
National Defense ◽  
Paper Briefly ◽  
Exceptional Children ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
Title Iii ◽  
Education Act

Two recent amendments to The National Defense Education Act of 1958 enlarged its scope to include the education of exceptional children. The new Title XI allows colleges and universities to plan institutes in critical subjects for teachers of exceptional children. The amended Title III provides for instructional materials to be used for all school children, including the exceptional. This paper briefly presents the Titles' provisions and indicates those who would be eligible.

The Foreign Language Program in 1964

PMLA ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-32
Author(s):  
Donald D. Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Modern Language Association ◽  
National Defense ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
Title Vi ◽  
Education Act

Our major activities this year, as in each of the past five years, have been undertaken either with foundation support or through contracts with the United States Office of Education under the National Defense Education Act. In February John Harmon became Director of the Materials Center, changing places with Glen Willbern, who became Director of Research. Under Mr. Willbern's direction and through a government contract we have just completed a survey of modern-foreign-language enrollments in junior and senior colleges as of the fall of 1963. We are currently negotiating several contracts through Title VI of the National Defense Education Act. The first is to gather statistics on offerings and enrollments in all foreign languages in public and non-public secondary schools. The second is to make a survey of current college enrollments in all foreign languages. Since gathering statistics on the classical languages is not a justifiable expenditure of national defense funds, the Modern Language Association will pay out of its own funds the proportion of the total cost needed to gather the facts on Latin and Greek in schools and colleges.

NDEA support for improved mathematics instruction

1960 ◽  
Vol 53 (6) ◽  
pp. 445-447
Author(s):  
Milton W. Beckmann
Keyword(s):  
Mathematics Instruction ◽  
Financial Assistance ◽  
National Defense ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
Teaching Aids ◽  
Education Act

The National Defense Education Act offers financial assistance for the purchase of teaching aids and the employment of state supervisors of mathematics.

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