David D. Kirkpatrick, "Into the Hands of the Soldiers"

David D. Kirkpatrick discusses his book, "Into the Hands of the Soldiers", at Politics and Prose on 8/10/18.

Now based in London, Kirkpatrick was The New York Times Cairo bureau chief from 2011 through 2015. He arrived in Egypt on the eve of the January Revolution, and his comprehensive account of the Egyptian revolt explains what set off the uprisings and why the democratic election was overturned by a military coup, as well as illuminating America’s role in all this. Juxtaposing events in Egypt with the Obama administration’s debate over how to respond to the turmoil, Kirkpatrick shows that the U.S. could better have handled the situation by rejecting the conventional wisdom that sees authoritarianism as the only way to reign in simmering sectarian tensions. Rather, Kirkpatrick argues, authoritarianism is itself the cause of those extremist passions.

Kirkpatrick is in conversation with Lulu Garcia-Navarro, multiple-award winning NPR foreign correspondent, known for her work covering the Arab Spring, and current host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday.

David D. Kirkpatrick is an international New York Times correspondent based in London. From 2011 through 2015 he was the Cairo bureau chief. He has also been a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and a contributing editor for New York magazine. This is his first book.

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Produced by Tom Warren