This Sunday, April 14, the “Democracy, Security and Justice” lecture and discussion series at Yale will sponsor a lecture, titled “Democracy, Legitimacy and Succession in the Middle East,” by renowned Islamicist Bernard Lewis.
Lewis, a professor emeritus at Princeton University, is the author of more than two dozen books on the Middle East and Islam. His most recent, the best-seller “What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response,” advances his thesis that September 11 represents a civilization trying to recapture the world dominance it hasn’t enjoyed since the Dark Ages of Europe. In “What Went Wrong,” he writes:
“If the peoples of the Middle East continue on their present path, the suicide bomber may become a metaphor for the whole region, and there will be no escape from a downward spiral of hate and spite, rage and self-pity, poverty and oppression, culminating sooner or later in yet another alien domination… .”
Lewis’ lecture is the 16th and final event in the year-long series. It was conceived following the September 11 attacks as a forum for the expression of differing views on controversial topics by Yale faculty members John Gaddis, the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History; and Cynthia Farrar, the director of Urban Academic Initiatives in the Office of New Haven and State Affairs and lecturer in the political science department.
The series opened on October 2 with an address by former U.S. Senator and national security adviser Gary Hart. Notable speakers in the series have included Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria and Yale professors Donald Kagan and Paul Kennedy. Most recently, Jean Bethke Elshtain, professor of social and political ethics at the University of Chicago, discussed politically and ethically balanced responses to terrorism.
The lecture begins at 7 p.m. and will take place in the Levinson Auditorium at the Law School, 127 Wall Street. For further information, visit the Democracy, Security and Justice website at www.yale.edu/dsj.
