THE END OF AMERICA’S MIDDLE EAST | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation
Date and Time
Nov 5, 2026 6:30 pm
Location
14th & V
2021 14th St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20009
Nov 5, 2026 6:30 pm
14th & V
Join us to learn about a compelling critique of how and why Washington ensnared itself so destructively in the Middle East.
After Hamas’ shocking 2023 attack on Israel, the United States stood firmly behind Israel’s near-genocidal war on Gaza, despite widespread moral outrage and significant damage to Washington’s global agenda. But Gaza is only the latest paradox in thirty-five years of Middle East policy. How did this pattern develop, why can’t policymakers learn from repeated Middle Eastern calamities, and what does Gaza’s destruction mean for America’s place in the world?
Marc Lynch charts the United States’ disastrously failed approach to the post–Cold War Middle East, where aspirations for US leadership and a calm region have only produced war, instability and humanitarian catastrophe. Lynch exposes the failure of each president’s efforts to transform the Middle East in America’s image, or pivot away from the region; Washington’s refusal to take seriously the views of Middle Easterners; and its fantasy of forging a regional order ‘without’ the Palestinian issue.
Moving between American politics and Middle Eastern realities, this incisive account explains why US policy has not changed despite its horrifying human costs, from Iraq, Lebanon and Syria to Iran, Yemen and Libya.
Marc Lynch is joining us on the Busboys stage alongside Negar Mortazavi to share more about this “brilliant, necessary and sorrowing book” (Middle East Eye). Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Lynch will be signing following the program.
This event is free and open to all. Doors open to guests at 5:30pm. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of AMERICA’S MIDDLE EAST will be available for purchase before and after the event.
We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books
Marc Lynch is a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, and the director of the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS). He is the editor of the Columbia University Press series Columbia Studies on Middle East Politics, hosts the Middle East Political Science Podcast, and runs the popular Abu Aardvark Middle East politics blog. His books include The Arab Uprising (2012), The New Arab Wars (2016), and America's Middle East: The Ruination of a Region (2025). He received a Harry F. Guggenheim Distinguished Scholar Award in 2025 to support his current book project, Battle Scars: Violence in the Middle Eastern Warscape, and is also writing a new book on digital authoritarianism and surveillance in the Middle East.
Negar Mortazavi is an award-winning journalist, host of Iran Podcast, as well as a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy and a Nonresident Scholar at the Middle East Policy Council. Mortazavi is a frequent guest analyst on CNN, NPR, BBC, Al Jazeera, and France 24, and her commentary has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times, and Foreign Policy. She regularly speaks at international conferences, policy forums, and academic institutions. Her work and leadership have been recognized by Forbes, New America, CSIS, and the Middle East Policy Council.
BOOK DETAILS
America’s Middle East
The Ruination of a Region
By Marc Lynch
December 01, 2025 | Hardcover, 272 Pages, $34.99
