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Augustus
Richard (Dick) Norton passed away after a long illness on February 20, 2019. At the time of his passing, Dick was Professor
of Anthropology and International Relations emeritus
in the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, and Director of the Institute
for Iraqi Studies, Boston University; and Fellow, in the Oxford Centre for
Islamic Studies, Oxford University. He was also co-editor, with Dale Eickelman, of the distinguished series, Princeton Studies on Muslim Politics.
As is well
known, Dick was a pillar of Middle East studies and US foreign policy analysis in
the MENA region. Over the span of many
decades, Dick published numerous books and articles which helped expand and
deepen our understanding of Middle East politics. His military background enabled him to
formulate foreign policy positions which were well informed and often critical
of US policy in the MENA region.
Dick and I
both received our Ph.D. degrees in political science from the University of
Chicago where we studied with the late Leonard Binder. However, Dick was also trained in
anthropology. This unique combination of political science and anthropology
enabled Dick to conduct research that was often “outside the (analytic) box.”
I first met Dick in the early 1980s. The School of Education at the University of Michigan had received a grant from the Exxon Education Foundation to have a number of American universities, including Rutgers, engage in simulations of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Dick arrived at Rutgers to head the simulation's "Operations Center." In this role, he was charged with reviewing any diplomatic or military effort proposed by one of the student teams - representing the many parties to the conflict - and deciding whether the proposed action was realistic in nature. Seeing Dick in action, I knew right away that this was someone who took Middle East politics seriously.
I first met Dick in the early 1980s. The School of Education at the University of Michigan had received a grant from the Exxon Education Foundation to have a number of American universities, including Rutgers, engage in simulations of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Dick arrived at Rutgers to head the simulation's "Operations Center." In this role, he was charged with reviewing any diplomatic or military effort proposed by one of the student teams - representing the many parties to the conflict - and deciding whether the proposed action was realistic in nature. Seeing Dick in action, I knew right away that this was someone who took Middle East politics seriously.
Having
served in Vietnam, Dick joined the United Nations Truce Supervision Force in Lebanon (UNTSO) in
Lebanon in 1981. This position enabled Dick to
gain an in-depth understanding of the difficult lives and suffering experienced by the population
of South Lebanon, particularly the Shica who have been consistently
neglected but the central government in Beirut and were also caught between
Israel and the PLO, which used southern Lebanon as a base of operations against Israel.
While
maintaining a critical analytic perspective, Dick developed a deep empathy for
the Shica who were caught between economic and social neglect and
the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon after the 1982 invasion. At the time of his research and publication,
Shica politics had not yet captured the attention of political scientists
working on Middle East politics. Here Dick’s
work was clearly cutting edge.
Dick’s first
work on the Shica of Lebanon examined the Amal movement which had
been formed to address government neglect of the south. This book, Amal and the Shica: Struggle for the Soul of
Lebanon, published by the University of Texas Press in 1987. Arabic edition,
Beirut: Dar Bilal, 1988,
was later
followed by, Hezballah: A Short Introduction,
published in 2007, and in multiple updated editions, by Princeton University
Press. This prescient study has become a classic for the study of Hizballah, whose
importance in Lebanese and Levantine politics has only increased over time, especially
due to its role in the ongoing Syrian civil war and ties to Iran.
Following his
UNTSO service in Lebanon. Dick taught at West Point from 1981 to 1993, offering
the military academy’s only anthropology course. As Dick told me, he encountered difficulty in his ability to
comment on US policy in the MENA region – a policy with which he increasingly
disagreed - teaching at West Point. Thus, he left Academy to join the faculty at Boston University, having resigned
from the US military with the rank of colonel.
At BU, he taught courses on Middle East politics, anthropology and international
relations.
Before the
concept became popular, Dick convened an important conference on the role of
civil society in Middle East politics in the early 1990s, with a 3 year grant from the Ford Foundation. The two-volume study he edited, Civil Society in the Middle East, EJ Brill, 1995, which emerged from the conference, continues to be cited in
numerous studies since it was first published in 1995.
Dick
Norton’s publications were by no means limited to his many books. The list of articles, book chapters and occasional
papers in his CV runs to several pages. One of my favorite pieces, which I use in courses on Middle East politics, is his “Thwarted
Politics: The Case of Egypt’s Hizb al-Wasat,” which appeared in, Remaking Muslim Politics: Pluralism,
Contestation, and Democratization, which was edited by Robert Hefner, and published by Princeton
University Press in 2005.
This ethnography, which entailed year-long interviews of party
officials, presents a study a serious effort to establish a truly democratic
Islamist party in Egypt, one which opened its doors to Egypt’s Coptic Christian
community. Even though it was thwarted
by the Mubarak regime, the model offered by the Hizb al-Wasat provides a vision
of what could be when Islam and democracy establish a tolerant and synergistic relationship.
In 2006,
Dick was invited to join the Iraq Study Group, chaired by former Secretary of
State, James Baker and former Representative and Wilson Center director, Lee
Hamilton. Needless to say, Dick was
highly disappointed, but not surprised, that the Study Group’s suggestions for
policy changes in Iraq were ignored by the Bush administration.
After the
2003 US invasion of Iraq, Dick was able to obtain funding and establish the Institute
for Iraqi Studies at Boston University. I had the privilege of attending a
number of the conferences sponsored by the Institute, including one which took
place in the midst of Boston’s lockdown following the Boston Marathon bombings. These conferences brought many scholars from Iraq, Europe and the US to BU. Dick asked me to wrote a precis of my
book-length study, Taking Democracy Seriously
in Iraq, which was published by the Institute.
Dick was
co-founder and chair of the Conference Group on the Middle East which convened
panels at the American Political Science Association meetings each year. The
Conference Group was indicative of Dick’s efforts to promote younger scholars of
Middle East politics through offering them the opportunity to showcase innovative
research.
Following
the publication of Memories of State: Politics, History and Collective
Identity in Modern Iraq, Dick invited me to lecture on my study at his senior undergraduate
seminar at BU. Both during the class and
reception that followed, the extent to which his students
respected him and held him in high esteem was abundantly clear. Unlike some academics, who treat their students in an imperial manner,
Dick offered an admirable role model – one which taught students not to fear
their instructor, while encouraging them to be creative and think on their
own.
Dick
Norton was a mensch in the best sense
of that word. He treated everyone as an
equal. Rather than spending time
criticizing the work of others, he focused on original research and new ways
of thinking about US foreign policy in the MENA region. Indeed, in the many years I knew him, I never recall him uttering a gratuitous insult of a colleague in the field political
science or Middle East studies.
Dick Norton at his retirement ceremony at Boston University in 2017 |
Through
the high quality of his research and writing (devoid of social science jargon), the excellent instructional and mentoring skills he exhibited, and the decency he demonstrated
in his inter-personal relations, Dick Norton achieved exemplary success in his life
and professional career. Would that we all
could emulate his example.
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