Cole Gives Insight Into Middle East Affairs

Juan Cole, prominent history professor and creator of the award winning blog Informed Comment, shared his thoughts on the current situations in the Middle East and North Africa with the CSULB community Thursday inside the Beach Auditorium.

Cole, who teaches history at the University of Michigan, gave those in attendance insight into what has come to be known as the “Arab Spring,” a wave of protests, demonstrations, and revolutions that has swept across much of the Arab world, including Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya.

Having spent much time in that part of the world, Cole noted that the transitions in power have been largely peaceful, at least on the part of the protestors.

“The transition has gone remarkably well (in Tunisia),” he said. “I remember a lot of people wondering ‘will there be chaos in the streets?’ but actually, I was in Tunisia this summer and nothing in particular was going on.”

The Administration of long time president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced from power on January 14, 2011. The demonstrations were set into motion after Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor, set himself on fire after having his goods confiscated and being subjected to harassment by municipal officers.

“You have to say that this transition in Tunisia went just about as well as you could possibly imagine,” he said.

Cole also put much of the blame for what has transpired in the Middle East on the United States.

“The American government was complicit in all that’s happened in the Middle East, and not just one government, all of them,” he said. “Jimmy Carter was complicit, and (Ronald) Reagan was complicit, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr., and Obama. They were all complicit.”

He noted that the Arab Spring has put the Obama administration in a “really tough spot,” particularly since the U.S. was very invested in the Hosni Mubarak regime of Egypt.

“The Obama administration is trying to manage this transition in the same way as the countries of the Middle East,” he said. “They all want to manage these transitions out of the authoritarian regimes and towards a new order.”

According to the New York Times, Cole, who was a harsh critic of the George W. Bush administration and the Iraq War, was targeted by the C.I.A. after the White House told them to find damaging personal information in an effort to discredit him. Spying on American citizens inside the U.S. is against the law. “They must have been dismayed at what a boring life I lead,” he told the Times.

Overall, Cole believes the Arab Spring has been good for all involved. “A move to parliamentary democracy is the way to make everybody happy in the new situation,” he said. “The western countries are happy about it, and the middle classes in Tunisia and Libya are happy about it.”

Cole, who earned his doctorate from UCLA in 1984, is also a noted author and has published a number of books, most recently Engaging the Muslim World. He has appeared on a number of talk shows, including ABC Nightly News, Nightline, and the Colbert Report.