Ian Lustick

Ian Steven Lustick (born 1949) is an American political scientist and specialist on the modern history and politics of the Middle East.

Lustick completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley in 1976 with a dissertation titled Arabs in the Jewish State: a study in the effective control of a minority population (A book adapted from the dissertation was published in 1980, see below). He has previously taught at Dartmouth College, and is the Bess W. Heyman Professor of Political science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a founder and past president of the Association for Israel Studies and past president of the American Political Science Association Politics and History Section. Lustick is well known for his 2006 book Trapped in the War on Terror in which he argues that the War on Terrorism is an irrational policy for fighting America's enemies. He argues that the War on Terrorism was initially conceived of by neo-conservatives at the Project for a New American Century who were determined to shift the direction of U.S. foreign policy towards unilateralism. But because of political features unique to the US system, Lustick argues, the War on Terror has ultimately turned into something beyond anyone's control.