The Middle East Institute is proud to host MEI scholar Andrea Rugh for
a discussion about Middle Eastern culture and her most recent book,
Simple Gestures: A Cultural Journey Into the Middle East. Since US
involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, the importance of culture has
become all too clear. Yet, although most scholars agree on its
importance, few address culture in ways that provide better
understanding to audiences who might benefit, such as policy makers,
the media and the American public.


For more than a decade Dr. Rugh has been trying to insert the cultural
element back into discussions about the larger Middle East. Rugh will
discuss her two most recent books, Simple Gestures: A Cultural Journey
Into the Middle East (2009) and The Political Culture of Leadership in
the United Arab Emirates (2007). In The Political Culture book Rugh
examines the 200 year history of the seven Emirates of the UAE and
illustrates how political behaviors were shaped by cultural
expectations about the way rulers should rule. While many scholars on
the Gulf focus on Western political and strategic interests, and the
impact of oil, Rugh instead looks at the patterns of interpersonal
behavior among rulers and their constituents to show how the political
system transformed from an egalitarian to an authoritarian one in a
very short time.

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