In his book, Mugged by Reality: The Liberation of Iraq and the Failure of Good Intentions, Dr. John Agresto, who formerly served as the senior advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority for Higher Education and Scientific Research, offers a frank, on-the-ground look at the situation in contemporary Iraq. He offers an account of what he sees as America’s failure so far to understand the true legacy of Saddam’s brutal rule on ordinary Iraqis, our failure to grasp human nature and human motivations and their implications for politics, security, and religious fanaticism, and our failure to understand the social preconditions of democracy and freedom. In this way, the book offers a revealing meditation on Iraqi culture and politics—as well as our own.
Prior to his service with the CPA in Iraq, Agresto was, for eleven years, the president of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Widely published in the areas of politics, law, and education, Agresto has also taught at the University of Toronto, Kenyon College, Duke University and the New School University. During the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, he served as both administrative and policy head of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He currently is Director of Higher Education Programs for the Philanthropy Roundtable, and lectures widely on Iraq.
This discussion will be moderated by Hillel Fradkin, a Hudson Institute senior fellow and director of the Center on Islam, Democracy and the Future of the Muslim World.
