Letter to the editor: Remembering the Near East

To the Editor:

Like many students and alumni, I was deeply dispirited to learn of the Near Eastern Studies department’s decision not to renew Dr. Michael Barry’s lectureship.

Dr. Barry stands out in my memory as one of the most remarkable teachers under whom I had the honor to study while at Princeton. A polymath and a polyglot, he brought to his classes each week the gift of his roving intellect, his eloquence and good humor, and most importantly his conviction that the Islamic world be studied as a civilization alike in dignity to all others. His lectures on Afghanistan and the discussions that ensued illuminated the subtleties of a foreign land that had once again, for a time, moved from the periphery of the earth to its very center. I enrolled in his course to better understand this country into which the United States had, with the best of intentions, invested such colossal energies while showing so little empathy.

I could not have wished for a more accomplished or inspiring guide than Dr. Barry, who as a child knew Afghanistan before the Soviet catastrophe and who, as a young man, risked his life to deliver humanitarian aid to a people whom he loved and knew intuitively, though they were not his own. In his humanitarian endeavors, he demonstrated a level of compassion for others that was matched only by his erudition. There are, to my knowledge, only a handful of scholars in the world who know what he knows and fewer still who have seen what he has seen. He is irreplaceable.

For Dr. Barry, Afghanistan is not a barren wasteland to be contained and then forgotten, though he possesses the sobriety of mind to recognize that this has been the attitude of the great powers throughout history. It will never be the attitude of anyone whom his teaching and writings have touched.

It is deeply troubling that as America returns to forgetting Afghanistan, Princeton University should set out to forget Dr. Barry.

I credit this teacher with encouraging me to ask deeper questions, to challenge my assumptions and to practice humility in consideration of the world’s challenges. These lessons have led me to pursue a career in foreign policy in which I am reminded regularly of Dr. Barry's perceptive insights and arguments. This is all the more true in the current political climate, which too often treats ignorance and prejudice as virtues. I am confident that many more Princetonians whom he has mentored will share my sentiments, and I would encourage those who have not already done so to petition the relevant authorities to reconsider their shortsighted, though no doubt well-intentioned, decision.

John T. Nelson '10