Across America — if not the wider world — there is a growing appetite for anyone who can offer a single, satisfying answer to the geopolitical chaos of the Middle East. Genuine expertise, something that might otherwise simply be called “competence,” has become rare enough that those who possess it feel almost like an endangered species.

Enter Roy Gutman, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist known for his reporting from conflict zones in the Middle East and the Balkans, who delivered a lecture at Oakland University on April 14.

Gutman stood before the crowd as something of an emblem of that rarity. Not only for his depth of knowledge of regions that, to many Westerners, register as distant and incomprehensible, but also as a relic of a different era. A time when a newsroom was a physical place, not a Zoom link or a podcast feed.

What did he do with that rare moment?

He delivered something closer to a presidential briefing than a lecture.

He began with the modern history of Afghanistan — an untamed, mountainous country that drew the attention of a declining empire.

“That day in February 1989, when Russian forces departed Afghanistan,” Gutman told the audience, his tone measured, almost clinical, “champagne corks were popping at Langley — for the CIA, across the government. But something was missing in that euphoria.”

In celebrating the collapse of their Cold War rival, American officials failed to fully account for the power vacuum left behind. Soviet weapons and munitions remained scattered across the country — eventually falling into the hands of insurgent groups, some of whom had previously been armed and trained by the United States.

From there, Gutman traced the region’s trajectory forward through the fall of the Shah in Iran and into the contemporary conflicts shaping Iran and Lebanon today.

Two main lessons emerged from the lecture. The first is that the search for a simple or tidy solution to the Middle East is futile; the region’s history has never allowed for such clarity.

Consider Iran — one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations, with a history stretching across multiple empires, religions, and cultural renaissances. Long before the first kingdoms of England or Russia had taken shape, complex societies had already risen and fallen repeatedly in Mesopotamia.

That creates a relationship with the land. A similar phenomenon was observed in America’s failure in Vietnam. It is impossible to know the placement of every cave in an ancestral homeland better than those whose ancestors are often buried in those caves.

The second lesson Gutman emphasized was not limited to the Middle East. It applies internationally: the importance of reliable reporting and understanding local realities.

Gutman finished his career with reporting from Syria in the mid-2010s. At an age when most men just want to be a grandfather, Gutman embedded himself in a war zone to broadcast the facts.

Why risk a bullet instead of enjoying retirement?

“It can happen in any county … certain charges, corruption comes in, and betrayals and treasons also occur,” Gutman said.

He paused for a moment.

“That is why you need that voice,” Gutman said. “You need that perfect reflection. Unique, honest journalists who are willing to take a risk — and risk their reputation, in fact — getting stories.”