Gen Petraeus' Thesis advisor, Professor Stephen M. Walt
Given the kerfuffle over CENTCOM Commander Gen. David Petraeus’ presentation before the Senate Armed services Committee , it is interesting to note that one of his Princeton thesis advisors was Professor Stephen M. Walt. Walt holds the endowed Belfer Chair at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and is co-author with John J. Mearsheimer of the controversial book,
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.US Gen. David Petraeus charged Tuesday that the Arab-Israeli conflict hurts America’s ability to advance its interests in the Middle East, fomenting anti-American sentiment and limiting America’s strategic partnerships with Arab governments.
Petraeus called the conflict one of the “root causes of instability” and “obstacles to security” in the region – which aids al-Qaida – and argued that serious progress in the peace process could weaken Iran’s reach, as it uses the conflict to fuel support for its terror group proxies.
Petraeus, commander of the US military’s Central Command, a zone that ranges from Egypt to Pakistan, but excludes Israel and the Palestinian Authority, offered the assessment in a prepared testimony for the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“The enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests,” he said in the written testimony. “Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of US partnerships with governments and peoples in the [Middle East] and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world.”
Achieving a two-state solution is obviously in America's strategic interest as well, because it would remove one of the major sources of anti-Americanism in the Arab and Muslim world. The vast majority of Muslims reject al Qaeda and its murderous methods, for example, but they share its harsh views about U.S. policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A two-state solution won't solve all of our problems in the region, of course, but it would make a lot of them easier to address. It's clear that the U.S. military, which now has a lot of experience in the region, thinks so too. As CENTCOM commander General David Petraeus told the Armed Services Committee
earlier today
Gen. Petraeus’ thesis is available on-line at the
History News Network website –
see here. It is entitled “The American military and the Lessons of Vietnam: A Study of Military Influence and the Use of Force in the Post-Vietnam Era.” My thanks to Andy Bostom who found the link to the Petraeus thesis after we had discussed the reference to Walt as Petraeus' thesis advisor I found in a comment on-line.
On p. iii of his thesis under Acknowledgements, Petraeus lavishes praise on Walt. He notes:
Professor Stephen Walt also deserves my gratitude. As my second faculty adviser – replacing Professor Barry Posen during the writing of my dissertation – Professor Walt offered numerous sound suggestions and comments. Like Professor Ullman, he displayed tremendous competence not only as an academic, but as a teacher as well.
Gen. Petraeus appears to have adopted the American Arabists’ and Saudis’ line that the solution to Middle East conflicts with Iran and between Israelis and the Palestinians lies in Jerusalem. It would appear that he agrees with the comments of his former thesis advisor, Professor Walt of Harvard.
It will be interesting to see the relevance of Gen. Petraeus’ thesis comments about Post-Vietnam conflicts and counter-insurgency strategies applied to current Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. That’s for a later post.
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