As a Political Science student who studies peace-building in the Middle East, I want to start with something a scholar named Edward Said taught us: pay attention to the language first.

Not the bombs, not the speeches about “peace,” not the media event. The language. Because power rarely calls itself power. It often arrives as expert advice, as management, as a “solution” imposed on people who are portrayed as unable to govern themselves.

This is the core of what Said called Orientalism: a way of thinking that draws a hard line between “the West” and “the East” then uses that line to justify control. It is not only stereotypes—it is also policy: who is treated as rational, who is treated as dangerous, and who is treated as a “problem” that must be fixed.

The West presents itself as the standard

There is also a related idea called Eurocentrism: the West sees itself as advanced, mature, and reasonable, while seeing others as behind, childish, or underdeveloped.

This is not new. It appears clearly in the vision of Friedrich Hegel – German Philosopher: human progress starts in the East but is only completed in the West. That idea creates a hierarchy: West = completion and leadership; East/South = delay and dependency.

Trump’s Middle East policy fits inside this same old hierarchy. It is not something new. It is just a louder, less polite version of the same colonial thinking.

Trump’s Middle East policy fits inside this same old hierarchy. It is not something new. It is just a louder, less polite version of the same colonial thinking.

 From CIVILIZING people to MANAGING them

Said’s point is not just that the West misunderstands the East. His point is........

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