As wars, repression, and social upheavals continue to reshape the Middle East, philosopher Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies argues that the region’s dominant intellectual traditions failed to grasp the needs and priorities of the societies they sought to interpret. For decades, leading Arab thinkers focused on questions of identity and heritage while citizens were confronting repression, economic hardship, and crumbling political structures. The 2011 uprisings exposed how wide this gap had grown—and the devastation of Gaza, Kassab warns, has made it impossible to ignore.