Writing in Foreign Affairs, David C. Engerman calls for the creation of a new academic discipline: Jihadology. He would model it on the Cold War field of Sovietology.
That's a great idea, except that we've already tried it. For decades, the federal government has invested millions of dollars into "area studies," including Middle Eastern studies. The result is a collection of left-wing academics who regard Edward Said as their intellectual hero. They are anything but the tough-minded analysts that Engerman envisions. This was the subject of my first major article for NR in the aftermath of 9/11. The real expert on the subject is Martin Kramer; his monograph Ivory Towers on Sand (pdf here) lays bare the corruption and betrayal of the professoriate.
We often joke about political correctness on campus. Its excesses are often as hilarious as they are repugnant. The sad case of Middle Eastern studies, however, is no laughing matter. In the interests of American national security, we tried to enlist the academic expertise of America's colleges and universities. They failed us utterly. Call it a human-intelligence disaster.
So as much as I like Engerman's theory, I'm afraid it has already failed in practice.