Comment by paganel
1 year ago
It goes to very recent times, almost all Arabic&Islamic departments in the US universities (the ones that matter, anyway) have a link to either the CIA, the State Department or even the Department of Defense. Needless to say, the same used to apply to Slavic Studies departments (and I bet it still does), see the infamous Victoria Nuland [1]:
> She earned a bachelor of arts degree from Brown University in 1983, where she studied Russian literature, political science, and history
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Nuland#Early_life_and...
> I bet it still does
I'm not sure why anyone would expect otherwise. This also extends to a lot of computer science and engineering departments. Not just through funding research and recruiting graduates, but a formal pipeline for students to get their education paid for in exchange for years of service in a Federal position requiring a security clearance and working on cybersecurity (kind of like ROTC or attending a service academy). It's not at all secret, and should probably be more well-known as an option for current or future college students. Here are the participating universities: https://sfs.opm.gov/Academia/Institutions
I'm also a career Army officer (product of ROTC myself) that has been sent to graduate school, as have many of my peers, with an obligation to bring that education back for additional years of service in positions that require it. At any given time, we have hundreds (thousands?) of active duty officers on college campuses all over the country.
> the same used to apply to Slavic Studies departments
Yes, of course it does, look where the people in the State Department and related positions in foreign policy come from.