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Abu Aardvark
@abuaardvark.bsky.social

Marc Lynch. GW Professor, POMEPS commander, Brewers fan. The one true Abu Aardvark. AMERICA’S MIDDLE EAST. Find me at https://abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io

Marc Lynch is a Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University, where he is also director of both the Institute for Middle East Studies and the Middle East Studies Program. .. more

Political science 59%
Sociology 30%
Pinned
“An excellent, unflinchingly honest account of what every Arab knows: America's policies and dominance in the Middle East have provoked untold disasters based on a deep-rooted culture of racism and colonialism. The world needs this book now more than ever." Fida Jiryis
www.amazon.com/Americas-Mid...
America's Middle East: The Ruination of a Region
America's Middle East: The Ruination of a Region - Kindle edition by Lynch, Marc. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading America's Middle East: The Ruination of a Region.
www.amazon.com

Thanks to the University of Copenhagen for hosting me today for a talk on my new book America’s Middle East - great turnout during final exams, great questions, provocative discussions. Plus the city dresses up beautifully for Christmas.

www.amazon.com/Americas-Mid...
Pleased to contribute to this free collection of modern MENA primary sources

humanities-collections.exeter.ac.uk/dame/s/en/it...
Global Histories of MENA in the 20th Century - A Primary Source Collection - Digital Archive of the Middle East
humanities-collections.exeter.ac.uk

Reposted by Marc Lynch

Over 1 million Gazans lack adequate shelter as winter storms flood makeshift camps. UN satellite data shows 81% of structures destroyed or damaged—123,000 buildings razed, 75,000 damaged. Raw sewage overflows whilst aid remains restricted. 🎁
Gazans Living Among Ruins Now Contend With Floods, Overflowing Sewage
Foul weather has worsened conditions among the more than one million people lacking adequate shelter.
www.wsj.com

Reposted by Marc Lynch

‘We’re living in terror’: fears in southern Syria over Israel’s growing occupation

Residents say incursions and raids have increased since forces first entered country a year ago after fall of Assad

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
‘We’re living in terror’: fears in southern Syria over Israel’s growing occupation
Residents say incursions and raids have increased since forces first entered country a year ago after fall of Assad
www.theguardian.com

Cease-fire lol
Breaking News: Israel said it killed a top Hamas commander in Gaza, in what would be the highest-profile killing of a Hamas leader since the cease-fire began two months ago.
Israel Says It Killed Senior Hamas Commander, Despite Cease-Fire
Hamas said the attack on Saturday was a breach of the truce. The militant group did not comment on Israel’s claim to have killed one of its members.
nyti.ms

For at least the next three years nothing released by the US government should be treated as true, reliable or authoritative. Reviewers take note - reliance on “official” sources should be grounds for desk rejection.

Problem from hell really
“I worked hand-in-glove with the UAE on the situation in Gaza. They were as constructive a partner as you could have…The idea that that same country is backing the Janjaweed [in Sudan] to be conducting mass rape & murder...& not being held accountable, including by the way by the Biden admin,"

ChatGPT is full spectrum terrible! Gemini is I am very stupid terrible! Grok is fun drunk uncle terrible! Which of these are we supposed to be so scared of??
Every time I try to use the big AI platforms for something useful or interesting I’m baffled as to why people think these things are so important.

Every time I try to use the big AI platforms for something useful or interesting I’m baffled as to why people think these things are so important.

Reposted by Marc Lynch

From a former prominent civil rights litigator at the ADL: "Whether intentionally or ignorantly, ADL is providing cover to people who intend great harm to our nation." www.haaretz.com/us-news/2025...
Top ADL civil rights law leader quits, accusing group of being 'useful idiot' for Trump
Former Anti-Defamation League Top Lawyer Joe Berman's Scathing Resignation Letter Said the Organization Has Failed to Respond Aggressively to Antisemitism on the Right, Straying From Its Mandate of De...
www.haaretz.com

This should be 400+ members of congress

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/u...
House Democrat Seeks to Impeach Kennedy for Undercutting Public Health
www.nytimes.com

I know this is a small slice of my followers but I’ll be doing talks in Copenhagen Monday and Oslo Wednesday if that’s where you live. Happy to send details if needed. Didn’t expect those locations to be warmer than where I’m coming from 😂
A drone strike on a U.N. facility in war-torn Sudan left six peacekeepers dead, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
UN chief says 6 peacekeepers killed in drone strike on a UN facility in Sudan
A drone strike on a U.N. facility in war-torn Sudan left six peacekeepers dead, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
bit.ly

Reposted by Marc Lynch

"Only 37% say their institution rewards applying research outside academia through tenure or promotion; 30% say they receive no recognition at all." Ht @petersuber.bsky.social
Do social scientists care if they make societal impact?
A new Sage white paper, “Do social scientists care if they make societal impact?”, shows that social and behavioral science researchers want their work to make societal impact, but don’t perceive thei...
www.sagepub.com
Israel said it killed a top Hamas commander in Gaza, in what would be the highest-profile killing of a Hamas leader since the cease-fire began two months ago.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/13/w...
Israel Says It Killed Senior Hamas Commander, Despite Cease-Fire
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Marc Lynch

I truly do not think these moves are going to have the effect that the people pushing for them are hoping for.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/u...
Harvard Replaces Leader of Health Center Said to Have Focused on Palestinians
www.nytimes.com
Breaking News: Israel said it killed a top Hamas commander in Gaza, in what would be the highest-profile killing of a Hamas leader since the cease-fire began two months ago.
Israel Says It Killed Senior Hamas Commander, Despite Cease-Fire
Hamas said the attack on Saturday was a breach of the truce. The militant group did not comment on Israel’s claim to have killed one of its members.
nyti.ms

Reposted by Marc Lynch

An American delegation was visiting Palmyra to meet with military leaders from the interim Syrian government, and toured the ruins there. A single ISIS member ambushed them, before being killed by "partner forces." taskandpurpose.com/news/two-us-...
Two US soldiers killed in ambush in Syria
An ISIS gunman attacked an American delegation in Palmyra, Syria, killing the soldiers and an American interpreter and leaving more injured.
taskandpurpose.com

Reposted by Marc Lynch

Terrible

Reposted by Marc Lynch

“I worked hand-in-glove with the UAE on the situation in Gaza. They were as constructive a partner as you could have…The idea that that same country is backing the Janjaweed [in Sudan] to be conducting mass rape & murder...& not being held accountable, including by the way by the Biden admin,"
So, El Fasher looks like one of the worst single event atrocities to happen this century so far, but the evidence has come in such a trickle it seems to only now be getting verified
At least 60,000 murdered in Sudanese city, which resembles ‘a slaughterhouse’
Satellite evidence shows extent of paramilitary massacre in El Fasher
www.irishtimes.com

The original Star Wars. I was very young. The power went out just as Luke Skywalker began his Death Star run. I didn’t find out how it ended until my dad took me back the next weekend.
Raising the always fun question: What are your most memorable theater-going experiences?

Mine also include The Matrix, Blair Witch, and being way too stoned in Belgium when Fellowship of the Ring was sold out so we sat in the back row for Mulholland Drive instead.
It was hands-down one of the most memorable theater-going experiences I can remember, a collective 30-minute butt-clench/armrest-grab for the final climb. And we knew he lived! Wild.
Raising the always fun question: What are your most memorable theater-going experiences?

Mine also include The Matrix, Blair Witch, and being way too stoned in Belgium when Fellowship of the Ring was sold out so we sat in the back row for Mulholland Drive instead.
It was hands-down one of the most memorable theater-going experiences I can remember, a collective 30-minute butt-clench/armrest-grab for the final climb. And we knew he lived! Wild.

A throwback for real.

I’m not sure that’s the biggest problem here 😂

Google scholar results are getting weirder

Reposted by Marc Lynch

Read Rana B. Khoury's "The Question of Return" in POMEPS Studies 57: Syria After Assad!
pomeps.org/the-question...
The Question of Return - Project on Middle East Political Science
Rana B. Khoury, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [1]   For more than a decade, most Syrian refugees have not reached a “durable solution” to their displacement: neither resettlement in a third ...
pomeps.org

Interesting take on what the UAE is up to in recent Yemen moves
The Southern Transitional Council is betting that if the South can be united under its leadership it can cordon the South off from the Houthis in the North, utilize oil and gas revenue, and create a stable and functioning state. – Gregory D. Johnsen agsi.org/analysis/the...
The New South Yemen - AGSI
The Southern Transitional Council is betting that if the South can be united under its leadership it can cordon the South off from the Houthis in the North, utilize oil and gas revenue, and create a s...
agsi.org

Recorded the first two episodes of the Middle East Political Science podcast season which launches in January and I am psyched. I love talking to good scholars about their research. Love it.

Reposted by Jillian Schwedler

Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization is a bad idea because it isn’t one. As if little things like truth or reality still matter when there are rabid partisan extremists to feed and nurture.

abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/the-muslim-b...
The Muslim Brotherhood still isn't a terrorist organization
I have a new piece out in Foreign Policy (gift link) arguing against the Trump administration's executive order designating branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations. It was a stra...
abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io