DAVID FARIS

David Faris writes, "Who makes American foreign policy in the Middle East? While it may seem like the president's foreign policy team conceptualizes and carries out policy, the range of legitimate options available to any policymaker is much more limited. Proximity and organizational ties are much more important in these discourses than the actual range of expertise that is available to policymakers. An analysis of experts invited to testify before Congress, as well as the roster of guests on news programs, suggests that small group of people is referenced and invited repeatedly. The primacy of a small number of DC-based think tanks with a small range of acceptable policy ideas tends to reduce the number of possible policies with respect to the Middle East. It also tends to reproduce status-quo policymaking in the region, which is uniquely militarized and leads to patterns of American involvement -- from direct military intervention to arms sales -- that have led to sub-optimal policy outcomes."

David Faris is the author of Dissent and Revolution in a Digital Age: Social Media, Blogging and Activism in Egypt and co-editor of Social Media In Iran: Politics and Society After 2009.  He is a contributing writer at The Week and a frequent contributor to Informed Comment, and his work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, the Christian Science Monitor and Indy Week. Professor Faris teaches political science at Roosevelt University.