Britain’s wartime stake in the Middle East founded its Oriental studies school

Evidence

The country’s direct wartime stake in the Middle East gave ammunition to those who had been campaigning for the establishment in London of a specialist institution for the teaching of Oriental languages and cultures. … In 1917 the School of Oriental Studies in Finsbury Circus was opened in the presence of Lord Curzon and the War Cabinet. Though it was established by the government, it was not well funded and successive directors struggled to make ends meet and keep the institute afloat. — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 387

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the recurring tension between imperial/strategic sponsorship and underfunding of academic institutions.

Related

• British leaders explicitly framed Oriental studies as necessary imperial infrastructure. (similarity 0.81)
• American Middle East studies depended on recruited British and European Orientalists (similarity 0.79)