DOUBLE CROSSED: The Missionaries Who Spied for the United States During the Second World War

Primary author: Matthew Sutton

Primary college/unit: Arts and Sciences
Campus: Pullman

Abstract:

In DOUBLE CROSSED: The Missionaries Who Spied for the United States During the Second World War (Basic Books 2019), historian Matthew Avery Sutton draws upon never-before-seen archival materials to show how missionary activists proved to be true believers in Franklin Roosevelt’s crusade for global freedom of religion. Sutton focuses on four missionaries, William Eddy, a warrior for Protestantism who was fluent in Arabic; Stewart Herman, a young Lutheran minister rounded up by the Nazis while pastoring in Berlin; Stephen B. L. Penrose, Jr., who left his directorship over missionary schools in the Middle East to help build the American intelligence apparatus; and John Birch, a fundamentalist missionary in China. Working for eternal rewards rather than temporal spoils, they proved willing to sacrifice and even to die for their country during the conflict, becoming some of the US’s most loyal secret soldiers.

Acutely aware of how their actions conflicted with their spiritual calling, these spies nevertheless ran covert operations in the centers of global religious power, including Mecca, the Vatican, and Palestine. In the end, they played an outsized role in leading the US to victory in WWII. After the war, those who survived helped launch the CIA, so that their nation, and American Christianity, could maintain a strong presence throughout the rest of the world.

Surprising and absorbing at every turn, DOUBLE CROSSED is an untold story of World War II spycraft and a profound account of the compromises and doubts that war forces on those who wage it.

Tribes and Terror: The Impact of Tribalism on (Counter) Terrorism in Iraq

Primary author: Mohammad Ghaedi
Faculty sponsor: Martha Cottam

Primary college/unit: Arts and Sciences
Campus: Pullman

Abstract:

Most terrorist organizations are created and grow in tribal countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. From the literature in social psychology, we know that groups impact individuals’ behavior, therefore, tribes, as critical groups in the region, might influence their members’ participation in (counter) terrorism. What is the relationship between tribes and terrorism in Iraq? The literature of terrorism has covered various ideational, institutional, and individual variables. But there is a gap regarding tribes. This research attempts to fill this gap. It hypothesized that, in Iraq, given tribal social identity, tribal values (such as sharaf, manhood, and bravery), tribal cohesion (asabiah), tribal conformity, obedience from tribe leaders (sheikhs), and tribe members’ perception of positive response (like support) or negative response (like ostracism) to conformity and obedience, tribe members are likely to participate in (counter) terrorism. To test the hypotheses, 26 in-depth interviews, with tribesmen in the south of Iran and Iraq, were conducted. This study found that Iraqi tribesmen are likely to participate in (counter) terrorism upon their tribes’ demand. This study is important because it is exploratory and theory building, and also contains policy implications for practitioners and policymakers in deterring terrorism. In the future, this theory should be tested by quantitative data. Also, data should be collected from other tribal countries, like Afghanistan, to examine the theory’s capacity to travel to other places.