Thanks, Ian. I was thinking about you the other evening and wondering how your Arabic studies were going or if you decided to pursue a different course now.
I have not been studying Arabic for the last 18 mo. or so. I do plan on going back to it shortly. I stopped in to check out some free classes offered by someone at George Washington University a few weeks ago, but it was too much of a step back for me. I will probably start taking classes at Georgetown next semester.
Overall, I seem to be on the same general course. I guess I have been focusing more on Foreign Policy as a whole rather than confining myself to counter-terrorism studies. Of course, I'm still mostly interested in the Middle East/South Asia.
I did get to meet with Laura Mansfield a few weeks back when she was in the area (hope it's ok to share that!). It was a good reminder that I should get back into Arabic. ;-)