American Neoconservatism and Its Neo-Orientalist Constructions of Islam and the Arab Muslim World
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People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research Mentouri University of Constantine 1 Faculty of Letters and Languages AMERICAN NEOCONSERVATISM AND ITS NEO-ORIENTALIST CONSTRUCTIONS OF ISLAM AND THE ARAB MUSLIM WORLD A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF LETTERS AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTORAT ES SCIENCES IN AMERICAN CIVILIZATION Submitted by Supervised by - Salim KERBOUA - Prof. Brahim HAROUNI - Prof. Pierre GUERLAIN (co-) Board of Examiners: - Chair: Dr. MAGHERBI Nacereddine; Mentouri University Constantine 1 - Rapporteur: Prof. HAROUNI Brahim; Mentouri University Constantine 1 - Examiner: Prof. BENDJEDOU Mohamed Yazid; Badji Mokhtar University Annaba - Examiner: Prof. BOUREGBI Salah; Badji Mokhtar University Annaba - Examiner: Prof. TOLGUI Eladi; University of Guelma - Examiner: Prof. ELAGOUN Abdelhak; University of Guelma 2017 MENTOURI UNIVERSITY OF CONSTANTINE 1 AMERICAN NEOCONSERVATISM AND ITS NEO-ORIENTALIST CONSTRUCTIONS OF ISLAM AND THE ARAB MUSLIM WORLD By Salim KERBOUA A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF LETTERS AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTORAT ES SCIENCES IN AMERICAN CIVILIZATION © 2017 Salim KERBOUA ii Dedication To the memory of my father To my family: Mom, Sihem, Hadil, Mouatezbillah, Roumeissa, Chima, and my sister Fatima To my two brothers To my brothers-in-law Adel and Hamoudi i Acknowledgements My sincere thanks and deep respect are due to all the people along the path that has led me here. First and foremost, I am indebted to my supervisors, Professor Brahim Harouni, of Mentouri University of Constantine 1, and Professor Pierre Guerlain, of Université Paris Ouest, Nanterre; two men from whom I have learned greatly in the course of writing this dissertation. Both of them have helped and guided me in my research these past few years, and I am sincerely grateful. Both have spent amounts of their precious time talking with me, reading and commenting my work, and I am better off because of it. Professor Harouni‘s intellectual rigor and patience are inspiring, and his example is one against which I fall embarrassingly short, yet nevertheless strive for. Professor Guerlain’s indispensable advice, constructive critique, and attention to the big picture and the key details have made him an ideal supervisor. His intellectual insights will guide me long in years ahead. Both of them combined constructive criticism and encouragement for my research project, and their help has been an invaluable and personally illuminating part of my journey. I also wish to thank the members of the board of examiners, Prof. Nacereddine Magherbi, Prof. Mohamed Yazid Benjeddou, Prof. Salah Bouregbi, Prof. Eladi Tolgui, and Prof. Abdelhak Elagoun who have kindly accepted to take from their precious time to evaluate this dissertation and make insightful comments on it. Special thanks are also due to Professor Cornelius Crowley, Head of the Centre de Recherches Anglophones (CREA) at Université Paris Ouest for his precious help, his warm welcome to the CREA, and his valuable advice during our conversations. I also thank Professor John J. Mearsheimer, of the University of Chicago, who was very kind in giving me his opinions and in answering my questions during my short stay in the US. I am also indebted to Professor Laura Sjoberg, of the University of Florida, who provided me with many valuable sources. I am grateful to my friends and colleagues, Dr. Fatima Hamadouche, Dr Ahmed Chawki Hoadjli and Dr Ramdane Mehiri for their encouragement that mattered much more than they know. Many thanks also go to all the people of the English Division at Biskra University, and especially Dr Boudiaf Naima and Ms ii Nachoua Hassina, for their professional and personal support. I should also thank all the people of the Department of Letters and English Language at Mentouri University, Constantine, for their help during my graduate studies. Finally, these acknowledgements would be incomplete without mentioning my wife Sihem who has helped and encouraged me in more ways that I can possibly list here. iii Abstract Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, new representations of Islam and Muslims have invaded the American and Western public spaces. These representations construct Islam-related social objects as the source of Western ontological insecurity. The present dissertation examines the emergence of American Neoconservatism as one of the sources of those constructions; constructions that are embodied in a twenty-first century neo-Orientalism. The thesis of the dissertation looks into the neoconservative movement and reconsiders it as an identity and ideologically motivated school of thought. Based on a set of interdisciplinary approaches, the dissertation contends that since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the neoconservative school of thought has been imposing a new foreign policy and international (and intercultural) relations paradigm that is mainly inspired from Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations thesis. This imposed paradigm is a framework of thinking that operates according to a renewed (or neo-) Orientalism. It constructs Islam, Muslims, and the Arab-Muslim World as existential threats to Western civilization and as the sources of its ontological insecurity. The neoconservative discourse generates biased knowledge; and its Manicheism, its essentialism, and its conflation of issues such as terrorism, Islamism, Islam, and Muslims in the West and in Muslim societies, have been some of the constructed causes of contemporary intersubjective suspicion and hatred towards Muslims in the West and in the Muslim World. Additionally, the dissertation argues that this twenty-first century neo-Orientalism is relayed and propagated in the American (and Western) public space by pro-Israeli actors, mainly neoconservatives and their like-minded allies. This neoconservative neo-Orientalism is thus essentially instrumental for it espouses the pro-Israeli narrative in its antagonism towards the peoples of the region, and it aims at promoting Israel’s agenda in the Near and Middle East. iv Résumé La présente thèse étudie le néoconservatisme américain comme source principale d’un néo-orientalisme contemporain. En se basant sur une recherche et des approches interdisciplinaires, la thèse analyse cette école de pensée et maintien qu’elle est essentiellement identitaire et idéologiquement motivée. La thèse soutient que depuis le début du vingt-et-unième siècle, l’école de pensée néoconservatrice s’attache à tenter d’imposer un nouveau paradigme dans les domaines de la politique étrangère, et des relations internationales et interculturelles. Ce paradigme s’inspire essentiellement de la thèse du clash des civilisations telle que formulée par Bernard Lewis et Samuel Huntington. Il s’agit d’un schéma de pensée qui opère selon un orientalisme renouvelé – un néo-orientalisme – qui construit l’Islam et le monde arabo-musulman comme menace existentielle et comme source d’insécurité ontologique du monde occidental. Le néoconservatisme développe un discours manichéen, essentialiste et amalgamant sur les questions du terrorisme, de l’Islam, de l’islamisme, et des musulmans en occident et dans le monde arabo-musulman. Ce discours produit un savoir biaisé qui est l’une des principales causes intersubjectives et construites du sentiment de suspicion et/ou de haine envers le musulman, qu’il soit résident en occident ou dans le monde arabo-musulman. Enfin, la thèse maintient que ce discours néoconservateur et néo-orientaliste est principalement relayé et propagé dans l’espace public occidental par des réseaux pro-israéliens (tout particulièrement les réseaux néoconservateurs aux Etats Unis et en Europe). Ce néo-orientalisme néoconservateur est donc essentiellement instrumental en ce sens qu’il adopte le récit pro-israélien et qu’il a pour but d’imposer la vision et l’agenda israéliens au Proche et Moyen Orient. v ملخص تدرس هذه اﻷطروحة المحافظين الجدد باعتبار فكرهم مصدرا رئيسيا لﻻستشراق الجديد المعاصر. وبناء على دراسة متعددة المقاربات, اﻷطروحة تفحص هذه المدرسة الفكرية على أنها مبنية على الهوية وان دوافعها أيديولوجية بحتة. كما تبين هذه اﻷطروحة أنه منذ بداية القرن الواحد وعشرون ومدرسة المحافظين الجدد تحاول فرض نموذج فكري جديد في مجال السياسة الخارجية والعﻻقات الدولية والعﻻقات الثقافية. حيث يستند هذا النموذج على فكرة اصطدام الحضارات كما قدمها برنارد لويس وصموئيل هنتنغتون، ويتمثل في نمط من التفكير يعمل كاستشراق جديد والذي يجسد اﻹسﻻم والعالم اﻹسﻻمي على أنه تهديد وجودي ومصدر ﻻنعدام اﻷمن اﻷنطولوجي في العالم الغربي. المحافظون الجدد يصنعون خطاب مانوي )أي مؤسس على ثنائية الخير والشر او باﻻحرى تصادم الحضارات(، ماهوي يخلط بين قضايا اﻹرهاب، اﻹسﻻم والمسلمين في العالم العربي اﻹسﻻمي وفي الغرب. هذا الخطاب هو أحد اﻷسباب الرئيسية لﻹحساس بالشك والكراهية الذاتية المشتركة اتجاه اﻵخر(المسلم) ، سواءا كان مقيما في العالم العربي اﻹسﻻمي أو في الغرب. وتؤكد اﻷطروحة كذلك أن هذا الخطاب المحافظ، اﻹستشراقي الجديد متناقل ومنتشر في فضاء العام الغربي من طرف شبكات المحافظين الجدد في الوﻻيات المتحدة اﻷمريكية وأروبا. هذا اﻻستشراق الجديد هو في اﻻساس أداة، ﻷنه يتبنى الرواية اﻹسرائيلية وهدفه فرض الرؤية واﻷجندة اﻹسرائيلية السياسية في الشرق اﻷوسط. vi Contents Dedication i Acknowledgements ii Abstracts (En-Fr-Ar) iv Contents vii List of Figures x List of Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 Background and Research Problem Research Aims Research Gap and Originality Sources and Methodology Structure of the Dissertation Chapter 1: 11 Thinking about Constructivism and Culturalism: