Fordham University Masthead Logo DigitalResearch@Fordham Senior Theses International Studies Spring 5-19-2018 Impact of the West on the Middle East and North Africa: American Exceptionalism? Mackenzie Voke Fordham University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://fordham.bepress.com/international_senior Part of the Islamic World and Near East History Commons Recommended Citation Voke, Mackenzie, "Impact of the West on the Middle East and North Africa: American Exceptionalism?" (2018). Senior Theses. 8. https://fordham.bepress.com/international_senior/8 This is brought to you for free and open access by the International Studies at DigitalResearch@Fordham. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Theses by an authorized administrator of DigitalResearch@Fordham. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Impact of the West on the Middle East and North Africa: American Exceptionalism? Mackenzie Voke Track: Global Affairs Advisor: Dr. John Entelis
[email protected] 201-390-5528 1 Preface The role of the United States in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has had a problematic history alternating dramatically from a foreign power idealized in the pre-World War II period to one viewed by both elites and masses with distrust and enmity after the war, and especially since the establishment of Israel in 1948. Yet in one critical area of Arab development and modernization, America has remained an object of admiration and influence – institutions of higher learning. What explains this apparent paradox in Arab-American relations? Through a critical analysis of competing explanatory approaches – fusion, exclusion, liberal, and instrumental – this study hopes to explain and resolve this paradox with particular focus on the two leading American institutions of higher learning in the Arab world – the American University of Beirut (Lebanon) and the American University in Cairo (Egypt).