As global powers double down on militarism and defense, Daniel Zoughbie argues that the most transformative force in the Middle East has always come from citizen diplomacy.
A complex-systems scientist and diplomatic historian, Zoughbie joins Mark Labberton to explore how twelve US presidents have "kicked the hornet's nest" of the modern Middle East. Drawing on his work in global health and his new book Kicking the Hornet's Nest: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East from Truman to Trump, Zoughbie contrasts the view from refugee camps and micro-clinic networks with the view from the Oval Office, arguing that American security rests on a three-legged stool of defence, diplomacy, and development.
He explains why Gerald Ford stands out as the lone president who truly leveraged diplomacy, how the Marshall Plan model of enlightened self-interest can guide policy now, and why nationalism, not mere economics, lies at the heart of Gaza's future. Throughout, he presses listeners toward "citizen diplomacy" that resists pride, militarism, and fatalism.
Episode Highlights
• "We've constantly ignored diplomacy."
• " You don't have to be enemies with people to get them to do what is in their own self-interest."
• "You can build skyscrapers in Gaza. You can build the Four Seasons in Gaza and it's not going to work. You're just going to have another war until you address that core issue of nationalism."
• "These three D's, defense, diplomacy, development, are the three-legged stool of American security and we know how important diplomacy and development are."
• "From Truman to Trump, only one president, and that is Gerald Ford, surprisingly the only unelected president, gets this right."
• "Pride—national pride, the pride of any one individual—is toxic. It's toxic to the individual. It's toxic to the nation. It's toxic to the world."
• "Foreign policymaking is not just something for secretaries of state and those in power. All of us in a democracy have a role to play."
Helpful Links and Resources
• Kicking the Hornet's Nest: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East from Truman to Trump https://www.simonandschuster.com/book...
• American University of Beirut (founded as Syrian Protestant College), a key example of long-term educational diplomacy https://www.aub.edu.lb
• Al-Ahli Arab (Gaza Baptist) Hospital in Gaza City https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ahli...
• Max Weber, "Politics as a Vocation" https://dn790009.ca.archive.org/0/ite...
• Quaker Friends School, Ramallah: https://www.rfs.edu.ps/en
• Amman Baptist School: https://baptist.edu.jo/
• American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem founding in the Husseini Estate by the author of "It is Well" https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/american... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America...
• Foreman Christian College, Pakistan (Presbyterian) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forman_...
• American University of Cairo (Presbyterian) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America...
About Daniel Zoughbie
Daniel E. Zoughbie is a complex-systems scientist, historian, and expert on presidential decision-making. He is associate project scientist at UC Berkeley's Institute of International Studies, a faculty affiliate of the UCSF/UCB Center for Global Health Delivery, Diplomacy, and Economics, and principal investigator of the Middle East and North Africa Diplomacy, Development, and Defense Initiative. He is the author of Kicking the Hornet's Nest: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East from Truman to Trump and of Indecision Points: George W. Bush and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. His award-winning research has appeared in journals such as PLOS Medicine, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, and Social Science and Medicine. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of UC Berkeley, he studied at Oxford on a Marshall Scholarship and completed his doctorate there as a Weidenfeld Scholar.
Show Notes
Middle East Background and Micro-clinic Origins
• Daniel Zoughbie recalls visiting the Middle East as a child—"frankly horrified" by what he saw
• UC Berkeley protests over the Iraq War and post-9/11 US policy in the region
• Metabolic disease and type 2 diabetes as an overlooked "greatest killer in the region."
• Neighbours in the West Bank sharing food, medicine, and blood-pressure cuffs—leads to the "micro-clinic" concept
• Good health behaviours, like bad ones and even violence, can be contagious through social networks
Social Networks, Anthropology, and Security
• Social anthropology, political science, and international relations
• Medica...
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