Osamah Khalil is a historian of U.S. foreign relations and the modern Middle East. He is the author of "America’s Dream Palace: Middle East Expertise and the Rise of the National Security State" (Harvard University Press, 2016), which examines the influence of U.S. foreign policy on the origins and expansion of Middle East studies and expertise from World War I to the Global War on Terror. It was reviewed widely, including in the London Review of Books, Al Ahram, Publishers Weekly, the CIA’s Studies in Intelligence, Commonweal, and was named by Foreign Affairs as a Best Book of 2017.

He has also been a frequent media commentator and contributor, including for the Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Hill, Al Akhbar, and Al Jazeera. He teaches courses on the history of U.S. foreign relations, the Cold War, the history of international relations, America and the Middle East, and the Vietnam War and popular culture. In 2018, he received the Chancellor’s Citation for Faculty Excellence and Scholarly Distinction.

Syracuse University, Appleby-Mosher Research Grant, 2012-2013, 2014-2015

Books

A World of Enemies: America's Wars at Home and Abroad from Kennedy to Biden (Harvard University Press, 2023)

Editor, United States Relations with China and Iran: Towards the Asian Century (Bloomsbury Academic, July 2019, Updated Paperback, December 2020)

America's Dream Palace: Middle East Expertise and the Rise of the National Security State (Harvard University Press, 2016).

Articles

"History, Silence, and Mythmaking Twenty Years On," SHAFR Passport, September 2023, 76-81.

“Cold War Twilight: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Middle East in the American Imagination, 1981–1988,” The Maghreb Review, Vol 45, No. 3 (2020): 522-535.

“The Radical Crescent: The United States, the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and the Lebanese Civil War, 1973-1978” Diplomacy & Statecraft Vol. 27, 3 (September 2016): 496-522. 

“The Crossroads of the World: U.S. and British Foreign Policy and the Construct of the Middle East,” Diplomatic History Vol. 38, 2 (April 2014): 299-344. 

“Pax Americana: The United States, the Palestinians, and the Peace Process, 1948-2008,” New Centennial Review Vol. 8, 1 (2008): 1-38.

Edited Volumes

“The Counterrevolutionary Year: The Arab Spring, the Gulf Cooperation Council, and U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East," in American Studies Encounters the Middle East, edited by Alex Lubin and Marwan Kraidy (University of North Carolina Press, September 2016): 286-301.

"Arab Spring or new Arab Cold War?: Revolutions, Counter-revolutions, and U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East,” in Shifting Borders: America and the Middle East & North Africa, Conference Proceedings Volume (American University of Beirut Press, 2014): 253-261.

Encyclopedia

“American Orientalism.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. Oxford University Press, 2014—. Article published December 21, 2022. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.985

Book Reviews

Review of Seth Anziska, Preventing Palestine: A Political History from Camp David to Oslo Princeton University Press, 2018) H-Diplo Roundtable (December 2019).

Review of Jorgen Jensehaugen, Arab-Israeli Diplomacy under Carter: The US, Israel, and the Palestinians (I.B. Tauris, 2018) H-Diplo Roundtable (May 2019).

Review of Matthew Shannon, Losing Hearts and Minds: American-Iranian Relations and International Education during the Cold War (Cornell University Press, 2017) American Historical Review Vol. 124, 2 (April 2019): 710-711.

Review of Gershon Shafir, A Half Century of Occupation: Israel, Palestine, and the World's Most Intractable Conflict (University of California Press, 2017) H-Diplo (Nov. 2017).

Review of Salim Yaqub, Imperfect Strangers: Americans, Arabs, and U.S.–Middle East Relations in the 1970s (Cornell University Press, 2016) SHAFR Passport Roundtable (September 2017)

Review of Douglas Little, Us versus Them: The United States, Radical Islam, and the Rise of the Green Threat (University of North Carolina Press, 2016) Cold War History Vol. 17, 3 (September 2017): 323-325.

Review of James Stocker, Spheres of Intervention: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Collapse of Lebanon, 1967-1976 (Cornell University Press, 2016) H-Diplo Roundtable, April 2017

Review of Keith David Watenpaugh, Bread from Stones: The Middle East and the Making of Modern Humanitarianism (University of California Press, 2015), Diplomatic History (September 2016). 802-805

Review of Paul Thomas Chamberlin, The Global Offensive: The United States, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the making of the Post-Cold War Order (Oxford University Press, 2012) Journal of American Studies Vol. 48, 1 (February 2014).348-350

Review of Andrew Preston, Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith (Alfred A. Knopf, 2012) and Religion and the Cold War edited by Philip E. Muehlenbeck (Vanderbilt University Press, 2012). Journal of Interdisciplinary History Vol. 44, No. 2 (Autumn 2013). 282-286

Review of Steven Kull, Feeling Betrayed: The Roots of Muslim Anger at America (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2011). Journal of American Studies Volume 47, 1 February 2013. 

Review of Menachem Klein, The Shift: Israel-Palestine from Border Conflict to Ethnic Struggle (Columbia University Press, 2010). International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 44, 2 May 2012. 

Review of As’ad Ghanem, Palestinian Politics After Arafat: A Failed National Movement (Indiana University Press, 2010).  H-Levant, January 2011.

Organizer and Chair, “The Prize?: Energy, Security, and Expertise,” American Historical Association, 2017 Annual Meeting.

Organizer and Chair, “The Prize?: Energy, Security, and Expertise,” Middle East Studies Association, 2017 Annual Meeting.

Organizer, “The Prize?: Energy, Security, and Expertise,” Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, 2017 Annual Meeting.

Presenter, "America's Dream Palace: Middle East Expertise and U.S. Foreign Policy from Wilson to Trump," LeMoyne College, April 2017

Presenter, "America's Dream Palace: Middle East Expertise and U.S. Foreign Policy from Wilson to Trump," Temple University, April 2017

Presenter, "America's Dream Palace: Middle East Expertise and U.S. Foreign Policy," Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service, Qatar, March 2017

Presenter, “A Time of National Emergency: U.S. Foreign Policy and Middle East Expertise,” Middle East Studies Association, 2016 Annual Meeting. 

Presenter, "America's Dream Palace: Middle East Expertise and U.S. Foreign Policy," Colgate University, October 2016

Presenter, "America's Dream Palace: Middle East Expertise and U.S. Foreign Policy," Syracuse University, Maxwell School, October 2016

Presenter, “Badlands: Geography, Mythology, and U.S. Foreign Policy in the ‘Greater Middle East’,” Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, 2016 Annual Meeting.

Panel Organizer, "Rule of Experts?: Revolutions, Doctrines, and Interventions in the Middle East," and Presenter, "Modernizing the Arab Mind: Constructing Traditional Society and Expertise in the Middle East, 1951-1973," Middle East Studies Association, 2014 Annual Meeting.

Panel Organizer, "Rule of Experts? U.S. Foreign Policy and the Politics of Knowledge," and Presenter," Modernizing the Arab Mind: Constructing Traditional Society and Expertise in the Middle East, 1951-1973," The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, 2014 Annual Meeting.

Presenter, "America's Sheet Anchors: U.S. Foreign Policy and American Universities in the Middle East, 1940-1950," University of California, Berkeley, February 21, 2013.

Presenter, "The Radical Crescent: The United States, the PLO, and the Lebanese Civil War, 1975-1978," Michigan State University, February 7, 2014.

Chair and Discussant, “The ‘State of Palestine’ and the Crisis of the Oslo Accords,” Middle East Studies Association, 2013 Annual Meeting.

Panel Organizer and Discussant, "Empire, Revolutions and Expertise," Middle East Studies Association, 2013 Annual Meeting.

Presenter, "America's Sheet Anchor: The American University of Beirut and U.S. Foreign Policy from World War to Cold War," AUB: 150th Anniversary Conference, May 2013. 

Panel Organizer, "America and the Middle East: The End of the American Century?," and Presenter, "The Crossroads of Empire: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Construct of the Middle East, 1902-2012," American Historical Association, 127th Annual Meeting, January 2013.

Panel Organizer and Discussant, "America and the Middle East: The End of the American Century?," Middle East Studies Association, 2012 Annual Meeting.

Presenter, "Who are You?: The Politics and Limits of Representation and Accountability," Panel sponsored by the Institute for Palestine Studies, Middle East Studies Association, 2012 Annual Meeting.

Presenter, "A Time of National Emergency: The National Security Establishment, Academic Institutions and the Origins of Middle East Studies, 1947-1957," Temple University, Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy, September 24, 2012.

Presenter, "Constructing Interests and Expertise: The OSS and the Origins of Middle East Studies, 1940-1945," Wartime Intelligence, the Birth of Area Studies and World Knowledge-making in the 1940s, Heyman Center for the Humanities, Columbia University, April 13, 2012.

Presenter, "Arab Spring or new Arab Cold War?: Revolutions, Counter-revolutions, and U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East," Shifting Borders: America and the Middle East & North Africa, American University of Beirut, January 13, 2012.

Presenter, "The New World Order: The Decline of Middle East Studies and the Rise of the Think Tanks, 1971-2001," Middle East Studies Association, 2011 Annual Meeting.

Presenter, "The Crossroads of the World: U.S. Foreign Policy Doctrines and the Construct of the Middle East, 1902-2002," Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, 2009 Annual Conference.