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* Robert Williams: 'Dark Money Nightmare': How Qatar Bought the Ivy League
* Amir Taheri: 2024: Where Does the Pendulum Swing?


** 'Dark Money Nightmare': How Qatar Bought the Ivy League ([link removed])
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by Robert Williams • December 31, 2023 at 5:00 am
* "At least 100 American colleges and universities illegally withheld information on approximately $13 billion in undocumented contributions from foreign governments, many of which are authoritarian.... Speech intolerance—manifesting as campaigns to investigate, censor, demote, suspend, or terminate speakers and scholars—was higher at institutions that received undocumented money from foreign regimes." — ISGAP report, "The Corruption of the American Mind," November 2023.
* Qatar makes it possible for Ivy League universities to claim that they receive no funds from the Qatari state, because the donations are funneled through the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, a not-for-profit organization established in 1995 by the Emir of Qatar. This ensures that the foundation can identify itself as a private organization, which enables Qatar to conceal its state funding as private donations.
* "At the time of writing, the State of Qatar contributes more funds to universities in the United States than any other country in the world, and raw donation totals omit critical, concerning details about the nature of Qatar's academic funding." — ISGAP report, "Networks of Hate," December 2023.
* "We would pay them [journalists]... Some of them have become MPs now. Others have become patriots.... We would pay [journalists] in many countries. We would pay them every year. Some of them received salaries. All the Arab countries were doing this. If not all, then most of them." — Former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim, February 2022.

The hapless testimony by three Ivy League university presidents from Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce can be traced to Qatar and its insidious campaign to buy itself influence in US academia. Pictured L-R: Claudine Gay, President of Harvard University, Liz Magill, President of University of Pennsylvania, Professor Pamela Nadell of American University, and Sally Kornbluth, President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, testify before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce on December 5, 2023. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

The hapless testimony by three Ivy League university presidents from Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce can be traced to Qatar and its insidious campaign to buy itself influence in US academia.

Qatar, oil-rich and with an estimated population of only 2.5 million, is the largest foreign donor -- that we know about -- to American universities, with at least $4.7 billion donated between 2001 and 2021. Many of those billions went unreported to the Department of Education, according to research done by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP). Under federal law, colleges and universities that receive donations from foreign sources that total at least $250,000 must disclose such transactions to the Department of Education.

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** 2024: Where Does the Pendulum Swing? ([link removed])
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by Amir Taheri • December 31, 2023 at 4:00 am
* Another case of the pendulum swinging in the opposite direction concerns the United Nations and diplomacy in general. The UN Security Council is likely to remain inoperative for the foreseeable future, while the Secretary-General, having tripped over the Gaza war, has lost much of his authority as arbiter of international conflicts.
* A broader and potentially more important pendulum swing in 2024 would be away from the mushy consensus formed during the golden days of globalism.
* Finally, the pendulum looks likely to swing in favor of small- and/or medium-sized nations capable of adopting non-ideological and effective policies in the interest of their people. After all, no nation is small or medium as such; it's the leadership that makes a country small or great.

(Image source: iStock/Getty Images)

If there is a pendulum that regulates world affairs, it is important to know which way it may be swinging in the year that is about to start.

Seen from one angle, the pendulum looks like swinging towards uncertainty. In 2024, many countries with major roles in international affairs are facing dicey elections.

The United States looks set for what could be the most difficult election season in its history. Will President Joe Biden, with his physical and mental fitness questioned by some, be able to run the final mile to his party's nomination? Or will his Democrat Party be forced to rally around Kamala Harris at the last moment and out of desperation?

The Republicans face an even less predictable prospect.

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