America’s fought a losing Middle East war for 34 years, new MOOC argues

Here’s something you probably don’t know: the United States has been fighting a losing war for 34 years. We can’t win it, and getting out will require a shift in mind-set, with Americans seeing things from the eyes of those who are variously our enemies and our allies in this war.

Didn’t see this epochal and confusing conflict in the headlines? Then you might be interested in the next course on BU’s MOOC menu, War for the Greater Middle East, launching tomorrow. Many students may not agree with the premise of a failed, multigenerational war put forth by Andrew Bacevich, a College of Arts & Sciences and Pardee School of Global Studies professor emeritus of history and of international relations. But he picked a choice moment to argue for a Middle East policy reboot, coming just two weeks after President Obama vowed to launch airstrikes and other measures intended to roll back the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Bacevich, who retired from BU last month, hopes the class persuades students to rethink the history of the 20th century so as to be better prepared for the 21st.

“What we understand as history, the story that history tells, is inadequate,” he says. The American version of 20th-century history is of triumph over evil, from the Nazis to the Soviets, but citizens of the Islamic world have a very different version, Bacevich says. Starting in 1980, when President Jimmy Carter declared the Persian Gulf a vital American interest because of its oil, the past 34 years have been a history of US military involvement in the Middle East—the war of his course title—that has failed to produce stability or democracy, he says.

Where does that leave us in the fight against ISIS? “The threat it poses to the United States is not great—probably less than the Ebola virus,” Bacevich says. “Both cases call for an identical response: erect effective defenses.” While ISIS is a greater threat to key Middle Eastern nations such as Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, “those nations are far better positioned to deal with that threat directly.” Bacevich suggests we assist them with “intelligence, arms, perhaps advice and training, all based on the capacity and willingness of the recipient to make effective use of what we offer.”

As for MOOCs—massive open online courses—whose value compared with a traditional classroom setting is the subject of debate among educators, Bacevich professes himself an “agnostic.”

“It’s an experiment worth trying,” he says. “Let’s wait and see what results we get.”

More than 9,500 students have enrolled for his MOOC, offered through the online platform edX. BU’s MOOCs are available, for free and without credit, to students globally, who can do the course work at their own pace and convenience. They can opt either to audit the class or to pursue a completion certificate.

Two other MOOCs—The Art of Poetry, taught by Robert Pinsky, a CAS English professor, and Alien Worlds: The Science of Exoplanet Discovery and Characterization, taught by Andrew West, a CAS assistant astronomy professor—will debut September 30 and October 31, respectively. A fifth, AP Physics 1, launches in January, while a sixth, Differential Equations, is in development. BU’s first MOOC, Sabermetrics 101, drew almost 17,000 students when it launched last spring.

Register for Andrew Bacevich’s MOOC, War for the Greater Middle East, here.