Actions can have unforeseen consequences, and without careful inspection of the possibilities, these consequences can shape the world in unanticipated ways.

This was the overarching message on Jan. 28 in Dr. Rashid Khalidi’s lecture on his new book “Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East.” Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University and his lecture was sponsored by the Casper Professorship.

“One of the things I’ve wanted to do is bring in leading scholars in Middle East studies,” said Dr. John Calvert, a history professor who holds the Casper Professorship. “Rashid Khalidi is one of the preeminent scholars in Middle East history, maybe the preeminent American scholar of Middle East history, and he’s someone I’ve thought of bringing to campus for a couple of years.”

Khalidi did not become interested in Middle Eastern conflicts until he was teaching at the American University of Beirut during the Cold War.

“The entirety of the literature I have been able to look at, mainly American sources but also Soviet sources, was entirely from the perspective of Washington [D.C.] or sometimes from Moscow, never from the perspective of the Middle East,” Khalidi said. “Never did I find a reflection of what was actually happening in and to the Middle East as a result of the Cold War rivalry.”

Khalidi went on to discuss the six main themes of his book, the first of which was that the interactions between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War created or enhanced enduring patters in the Middle East that are still around today.

“Some people think, Cold War ends, 1990; it’s a brand new world,” Khalidi said. “In the words of President George Herbert Walker Bush, there’s going to be a new world order. The pages turn, and there’s absolutely no impact of what has passed before. This is completely and utterly false. Things don’t happen that way. Even when you turn the page, the old page is still there. And that’s the case in the Middle East.”

Khalidi also addressed the presence of the U.S. in the Middle East since the end of the Cold War. In the majority of the 20th century, the U.S. had very little military presence in this region, even with the Soviet Union right next door. In the 21st century, however, this region comprises the country’s largest military presence.

Why the U.S. and the Soviet Union were so invested in the Middle East was Khalidi’s third topic. He narrowed it down to two reasons: its supply of energy resources, mainly oil, and its “vital, strategic position” in the world.

Khalidi also spoke on how the presence of the U.S. and the Soviet Union only exacerbated already existing tensions in the region – mainly between Israel and Palestine, civil wars within Lebanon and the Iran/Iraq war.

One of the main causes of this was what Khalidi called a “war by proxy,” namely that the U.S. and Soviet Union supplied these regional states with weapons to fight each other instead of coming to blows themselves.

The place of justice, freedom and democracy in the efforts of both the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the Middle East was another of Khalidi’s topics. Instead of backing leaders who could potentially bring democracy and freedom to the area, Khalidi argued, both super powers instead backed authoritarian regimes that would align themselves with either country.

Khalidi’s final topic was what he called a “mini Cold War” between the U.S. and Iran that was created under President George W. Bush.

“After the demise of the Soviet Union, after the end of the Cold War, the United States lacked a global challenger; the United States lacked an ideological mission; and the United States lacked a struggle that would justify a gargantuan defense budget – the largest defense budget on the earth,” Khalidi said.

Khalidi argued that Iran provided a solution to all three problems, with “Islamo-fascism” replacing communism as the ideological enemy.

In wrapping up, Khalidi again stressed his main point.

“Countries in this region, people in this region, cannot simply be reduced to being used as pawns during the Cold War with the Soviets or during this mini Cold War with the Iranians—” Khalidi said. “But that is exactly what the reductionist logic of the Cold War mentality, which we’ve lived with for 45 years, did to this region.”