Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Colonialism and Third World Quarterly

I am rather shocked about the controversy regarding the pro-colonialism article in Third World Quarterly.  I met the editor of TWQ, Shahid Qadir, when I was still a graduate student at Georgetown University.  I received support and encouragement from Shahid who struck me as a progressive thinker who wanted to bring attention to Middle East issues and causes.  He also invited me to contribute to the annual Third World Affairs.  I never doubted his commitment to "Third World" issues.  But I always got the impression that he exercises editorial authority beyond the powers of a regular editor of an academic journal, which makes him doubly responsible for the publishing of that piece.