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Martin Kramer

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Martin Kramer
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Martin Kramer

Martin Kramer (b. 1954, Washington, DC) is an American scholar of the Middle East at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. His focus is on Islam and Arab politics.

Contents

Education

Kramer began his undergraduate degree under Itamar Rabinovich in Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University and completed his B.A. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. He earned his Ph.D. in Princeton as well, under Fouad Ajami, L. Carl Brown, the late Charles Issawi, and Bernard Lewis, who directed his thesis. He also received a History M.A. from Columbia University.[Martin Kramer/Juan Cole: Oppo Research]

Career

During a 25-year career at Tel Aviv University, Martin Kramer directed the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies; taught as a visiting professor at Brandeis University, the University of Chicago, Cornell University, and Georgetown University; and served twice as a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. He currently holds the Wexler-Fromer Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

He is a senior and past editor of the Middle East Forum's Middle East Quarterly.[MESA Culpa], by M. Kramer, Fall 2002 Kramer has also published columns in the National Review magazine[Hijacking Islam], by M. Kramer, National Review, September 19, 2001[From Afghanistan to Araby], by M. Kramer, National Review, December 10, 2001 and on the websites of the History News Network[Is Sharansky Right? Does Everyone Want to Be Free?], by M. Kramer, History News Network, June 22, 2005, martinkramer.org[Ignatieff's Empire], by M.Kramer, martinkramer.org, January 5, 2003 and bitterlemons.org.[Power will not moderate Hamas], by M. Kramer, bitterlemons.org, March 27 2006 (Front Page Magazine publishes selected pieces of Kramer's on its website[Martin Kramer's Columns])

Political activities

Kramer supported Columbia University students who, in 2005, alleged that they had been intimidated by anti-Israel faculty in the Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures department.[Columbia University: The Future of Middle Eastern Studies at Stake], address delivered on March 6, 2005 Kramer has also been supportive of Daniel Pipes' controversial Campus Watch (another initiative of the Middle East Forum).[Thought Control for Middle East Studies], by Joel Beinin, Right Web, March 31, 2004][The War on Academic Freedom], by Kristine McNeil, The Nation, November 11, 2002

Kramer is a member of two think tanks: the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and Middle East Forum, both have been linked to the neoconservative movement. His advocacy of Campus Watch and his promotion of bill HR 3077 in the United States have been viewed as major neoconservative-backed initiatives.[Neocons Lay Siege to the Ivory Towers], by Saree Makdisi, reprint from The Los Angeles Times, May 4, 2005[Osama University?], by Michelle Goldberg, reprint from Salon.com, 2005

Martin Kramer was an early advocate of attacking Saddam Hussein in the wake of 9/11, arguing in December 2001 that regardless of a possible involvement, he posed a threat to the entire Middle East.[From Afghanistan to Araby] by M. Kramer, National Review, December 10, 2001 However, he was critical of the shifting rationale for the war in October 2002, questioning the United States' "tools of social engineering" needed to promote an eventual democracy process in the Arab world.[When I Hear "Arab Democracy," I Reach for My Seat Belt] by M. Kramer, October 11, 2002

Criticism

In early 2006, Kramer was criticised in a working paper entitled The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by political scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, who accuse him of a "transparent attempt to blacklist and intimidate scholars" in relation to his involvement in Campus Watch.Mearsheimer, John J. and Walt, Stephen. [The Israel Lobby], London Review of Books, Volume 28 Number 6, March 22, 2006. Accessed March 24, 2006. Kramer has since responded. [Stephen Walt's World], Martin Kramer, March 17 2006.[A Powerful Lobby], Martin Kramer, April 3 2006.

Bibliography

Books

Journal Papers

Martin Kramer on American scholars of the Middle East

References

External links

 

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