Cole Bunzel
@colebunzel
Hoover Fellow @HooverInst | History & politics of Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Islamism | Author of Wahhabism @PrincetonUPress (May 2023) | Soon @ufhamilton
"Refounding the Kingdom: Saudi Arabia from Islamism and Wahhabism to ‘Moderate’ Islam" | New article by me on MBS's repudiation of the Sahwa & distancing the kingdom from the legacy of Wahhabism, including by forging an alternate historical narrative tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
SCOOP Preparations underway for a landmark visit by the Crown Prince of #Saudi Arabia to Washington DC this Fall. The visit, a first since 2018, will mark a highpoint in US - Saudi relations years after KSA was deemed toxic & dubbed a pariah. It's set to be quite a come back.
Our picks feature: Book on regionalism by Arang Keshavarzian Analysis by @AndrewMLeber, @drtalalalemadi, @Dr_Ulrichsen, , @_NaserAlsayed, @Dr_J_Calabrese, Metehan Durmaz, Robert Mogielnicki, Tim Callen and Justin Alexander, Phillip Cornell. Podcast: @fawazfarooqui Research:…
No, anyone may evaluate isnads according to the evidence presented them and their own conscience, regardless of their degree(s) or lack thereof. The vague appeals to colonialism merely veil a hatred of free inquiry and a will to protect the monopoly of ulama and their power.
Oxford University graduates are not qualified to evaluate isnads. Someone who has not participated in Hadith transmission has no business commenting on the veracity of prophetic traditions, let alone questioning the epistemological basis of historical transmission - the…
My magnum opus has arrived. Magnum as in 1249 pages, 800 illustrations, most in color, 75 maps, well over a hundred extracts from primary sources, chronologies and lists of key terms. I wrote Volume 1, from the ancient Greeks to the Renaissance, and my oldest friend in academe,…
An explainer I've written on Israeli policy towards Syrian Druze. Is declared concern for Syrian Druze genuine & in contradiction w/Israel's general vision of what Syria should look like? I explain using the context of prior Israeli policy during the war aymennaltamimi.com/p/israel-and-t…
I’m concerned the Israelis may have fallen into a trap on this one. This chain of events asks me to believe that after al-Sharaa traveled to Baku and met with Israelis there, he then chose to provoke a conflict with them over the Druze. Really? I’m skeptical. An alternative…
🚨 Breaking: Israel 🇮🇱 destroys the Chief of Staff headquarters of Syrian 🇸🇾 military in Damascus 👇 Israel is intervening to stop the massacre of the Druze in Syria, which nobody else cares about.
#Syria: Israeli airstrike bombed the Defense Ministry in #Damascus. The strike was caught live.
Breaking. Strong explosion in #Damascus following an Israeli airstrike.
#Syria's SW province of #Suwayda has seen 5 days of chaotic, complex conflict now -- but as with previous bouts of hostilities in recent months, the information space has been plagued by disinformation, conflicting information & fast-changing developments. What's happened, a 🧵:
My response to the Manhattan Statement on Higher Education
lawliberty.org/reform-higher-… @Harvard @cafharvard
Most academics in my circles—mostly moderate right, center, and moderate left—will agree with much of this statement, if not all. It’s an excellent starting point for the long process of returning universities to their core missions: seeking the truth and teaching how to think.
We’re proud to unveil the Manhattan Statement on Higher Education, which recapitulates the crisis of the universities and calls on President Trump to enact six principles for reform. The time for decisive action is now. thefp.com/p/the-presiden…
Rereading @colebunzel Wahhabism, for research purposes. It’s a remarkable piece of sober, meticulous piece of scholarship, there’s nothing like it in English or even unfortunately in Arabic.
Delighted to share my new article: "Understanding Qatar’s Relationship with Hamas: A Critical Exploration of State Sponsored Terrorism." First 50 copies are free using this link tandfonline.com/eprint/UAGZWN4…
Podcast: Robert Satloff @robsatloff on Revitalizing Middle East Studies (and new MA program in Mideast Policy Studies) mosaicmagazine.com/observation/hi…
It's a bit late now. @Harvard could have established its own @HooverInst many years ago. There were discussions and willing donors. But my understanding is that the idea was brushed aside. Such an institution, created today under duress, would have no credibility whatsoever.
Harvard moving towards ideological segregation over ideological pluralism: wsj.com/us-news/educat…
NYT: "By creating incentives for professors & students to have and maintain certain political positions, such a policy would discourage curiosity & reward narrowness of thought." 🤣🤣🤣 Who wants to tell Prof. Morton?
NYT: "By creating incentives for professors & students to have and maintain certain political positions, such a policy would discourage curiosity & reward narrowness of thought." 🤣🤣🤣 Who wants to tell Prof. Morton?
Scoop: A secret White House meeting between Steve Witkoff, Netanyahu's confidant Ron Dermer, and a Qatari envoy on Tuesday led to significant progress in the negotiations over the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal. My story on @axios axios.com/2025/07/09/gaz…
“Get the university’s money to do the work you wanna do to dismantle the university within … We want to abolish the university as it is … the colonizing, racial capitalist, white supremacist institution that pays my salary” How embarrassing @Princeton would hire such a person
Here are all the clips I made of @Princeton’s Lorgia García Peña from Socialism 2025 — yes, this is really an Ivy League professor. 🧵 Watch, share, and send this thread to a Princeton student or alum 🐯