Many of the problems at American educational institutions are the result, as Eric Cohen explains, of decades-long intellectual trends. But there are also more immediate causes, chief among them the influx of money from hostile Middle Eastern countries.

Today’s item in our ongoing series on Qatar’s malign influence looks more closely at how the country directs its funds to undermine America. The effects of petrodollars on Middle East-studies departments have been covered extensively; this report by the Philos Project looks at some areas that have received less attention but might be even more consequential. Take the Gulf emirate’s intimate relationship with Texas A&M University, which also has a campus in Doha:

The main Texas A&M campus has contracts related to the maintenance of American nuclear weapons. This could pose a security risk because, according to reports, there are unsecured communications and data systems between them and Texas A&M Qatar (TAMUQ). Additionally, Qatar openly leverages TAMUQ for its military development.

Given Qatar’s open relationship with Iran, the Iranian regime could infiltrate the campus systems or resources and extract information to benefit their military programs. In response to recent backlash, Texas A&M has promised to close the Doha campus by 2028, but that does not alter the intellectual-property agreements.

Nor are Qatari efforts limited to higher education:

Early in 2024, a public school in New York City displayed a Middle East map that had erased Israel and replaced it with “Palestine.” The map appeared as part of an “Arab Culture Arts” curriculum financed by Qatar Foundation International, a philanthropic group supported by the country’s ruling class. From 2019 to 2022, the organization donated over $1 million to the New York City Department of Education, nearly doubling its contributions in 2022.

As Israel moves closer to dismantling Hamas’s rule in Gaza, it will soon have to start implementing an alternative form of local governance. To do so it will likely draw on a confidential report produced by a team of Israeli scholars that has been circulating in the highest ranks of the government and military for the past few weeks.

One of the report’s authors, Netta Barak-Corren, discussed some of its suggestions recently with Dan Senor, addressing what can be learned from what the U.S. got right in Japan and Germany after World War II, and got wrong in Iraq and Afghanistan: