Hello. Thanks for stopping by. My name is Derek Davison and I’m a writer and analyst who deals primarily in US foreign policy and the Middle East. I’ve spent several years studying those subjects, and it’s been my privilege to share what I know and my perspectives on world events for the past several years at outlets including, LobeLog, Jacobin, Alhurra TV, Newsy, and on a variety of podcasts.

For many years the main outlet for my writing was here, at “and that’s the way it was.” Nowadays I’m producing a newsletter covering international affairs at Substack, called Foreign Exchanges. There you’ll find all of the content I used to produce here: world news updates, stories from Islamic history, guest pieces, podcasts, and exclusive content for subscribers including essays and weekly “ask me anything” discussions.

This site is now dormant, or at least mostly dormant. I’ve left untouched a selection of the blog’s content, though I’ve removed pieces that were heavily contemporary (i.e., that wouldn’t make much sense anymore) and/or just silly. I haven’t deleted them, they’re just not as easy to find as they used to be. Some pieces that I’ve moved to Foreign Exchanges have been excerpted with links there. I imagine I might pop back in now and then if I feel like venting on topics that aren’t really germane to Foreign Exchanges. My goal, however, is to maintain attwiw.com as a home for reference works. I have a few of these sorts of projects in mind but they’ll be rolled out over time as I have a chance to work on them. In the meanwhile, please enjoy what’s already here and I hope you’ll visit me at Foreign Exchanges!