CHARLIE ROSE: Rashid Khalidi is here. He is the Edward Said professor of modern
Arab studies at Columbia University. No historian has explored the history
of Palestinian nationalism as deeply and passionately as he has. His new
book is called "Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the
Middle East." I’m pleased to have him back at this table.
We have much to do here, so let’s get with it. This book was informed
by your experience in Beirut in the ‘70s?
RASHID KHALIDI: That is correct.
CHARLIE ROSE: How so?
RASHID KHALIDI: Well, I was living in a capital that was one of the
cockpits of the Cold War in the Middle East. I was living in Beirut, and
the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in this fierce rivalry.
And people take it for granted. They think of the Cold War as
something that took place in Berlin or something that had to do with the
Korean War, but the Middle East was one of the major arenas of American-
Soviet competition, and it was getting hotter and hotter in the time I was
there. And I realized this as I was working on this book, that this was
the angle that I wanted to take.
Read the full transcript here. View the entire interview here. See also: The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood
, Charlie Rose - Rashid Khalidi & Martin Indyk / Ken Mehlman (January 16, 2008)
, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness
, Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East
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