How does the government get advice on policy in the Middle East? It's changed over time. America took a much larger role in the region after World War II, and needed more regional experts than it had. The government began funding area studies programs in academia. Yet it didn't like the advice it was getting from universities - and after the campus chaos of the 1960s, the academy wasn't so excited either. Thus, think tanks, often closely tied to the government, stepped in, providing analysis that closely aligned with U.S. goals and priorities and ultimately reifying a Middle East in need of U.S. leadership. 

We spoke with Osamah Khalil, a professor at Syracuse and author of America's Dream Palace: Middle East Expertise and the Rise of the National Security State. You can find the book here and an article by Dr. Khalil on the origins of the idea of a "Middle East" region here.