"Laurie A. Brand" is a professor of international relations at the University of Southern California School of International Relations. Professor Brand specializes in the international relations of the Middle East, including political economy of the region and inter-Arab relations. She received her B.S. in French from Georgetown University, her M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University, and her Ph.D. in Comparative Politics from the same institution. She served as president of Middle East Studies Association of North America in 2004.[http://fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/Bulletin/Pres%20Addresses/Brand.htm]

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Whatever time I promote outside of the classroom toward activism is my own business. I did oppose the war in Iraq. I would do it again.

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To criticize the Middle East would not have made any sense because the speech was about being an academic in the United States, not the Middle East.

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