Recently added articles from Middle East Policy:
Editor's note.
Mar 22, 2009; ... When our last issue went to press, the election of Barack Hussein Obama was the major news story. He is still enjoying strong support, and now we know more about his strategic priorities, healing the sick economy being job one. This is essential to foreign as well as domestic policy. As ...
Statement from Chas. Freeman upon his withdrawal.(Speech)
Mar 22, 2009 ... To all who supported me or gave me words of encouragement during the controversy of the past two weeks, you have my gratitude and respect. You will by now have seen the statement by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair reporting that I have withdrawn my previous ...
Can the two-state solution be salvaged?(Symposium: Can the Two-State Solution be Salvaged?)
Mar 22, 2009; ... The following is an edited transcript of the fifty-fifth in a series of Capitol Hill conferences convened by the Middle East Policy Council The meeting was held on Friday, January 16, 2009, with Chas. W. Freeman, Jr., presiding. CHAS W. FREEMAN, JR.: president, Middle East ...
Maps of occupation.(on Israel's internal security)
Mar 22, 2009; ... Source: The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Jerusalem, July 2007 (www.ochaopt.org) HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The 1995 Israel-PLO Interim Agreement divided the West Bank into three areas: Area A (17.2 percent) over which the Palestinian ...
The Arab peace initiative: an assessment.
Mar 22, 2009; ... In the second half of the 2000s, several unprecedented developments in the Arab-Israeli conflict have highlighted the potential of a dramatic alteration of the Middle East's strategic landscape. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has sponsored a world conference on dialogue among various faiths ...
Gaza, Israel, Hamas and the lost calm of operation cast lead.
Mar 22, 2009; ... A shadow has fallen over the new years of 1430 and 2009 from Israel's air assault and ground invasion of Gaza, Operation Cast Lead. Not that any aspect of the Palestinian experience has been easy or well communicated to the global public, but it does seem that post-9/11 Western discourse ...
Negotiating an Israeli-Palestinian breakthrough.
Mar 22, 2009; ... During more than four decades of occupation, Israeli-Palestinian relations have been replete with intense violence, mutual recrimination and revenge, bringing the two sides on more than one occasion close to the brink of all-out war. Oddly enough, these years have also been characterized ...
Talking with a region: lessons from Iran, Turkey and Pakistan.
Mar 22, 2009; ... The headline-grabbing foreign-policy initiative of Obama's election campaign was that his administration would talk to Tehran "without preconditions." The idea that American diplomacy in the Middle East needs renewal is evident, and the Obama presidency has brought with it hopes that a new ...
Turkish democracy and political Islam.
Mar 22, 2009; ... In a global trend toward democratization, the Middle East has for many years proved to be the exception. Nevertheless, very recently this region has started to come out of its stubborn resistance to democratic change, resulting in the ascendancy of political Islam. In the dominant ...
Is governance a prerequisite for democracy? Insights from the Middle East.
Mar 22, 2009; ... Democracy in the Middle East has been in the spotlight of the world media for a number of years now. Along with the ever-growing international debate on the importance of democratizing political systems around the globe, questions such as how seriously the Arab countries take the calls to ...
Saudi-Russian relations since the Abdullah-Putin Summit.(Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah)
Mar 22, 2009; ... In February 2007, then Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Saudi Arabia, the very first visit by a top Russian leader to the kingdom. The Russian press expressed confidence that Saudi-Russian cooperation was about to increase dramatically. However, similar Russian hopes for Putin's ...
Iran's nuclear program and the future of U.S.-Iranian relations.
Mar 22, 2009; ... Due to its geopolitical prominence, Iran has been the focus of great-power policies during the entire course of modern history. The Russian-British rivalry over Iran that began in the mid-1800's lasted a century. With the end of World War II, Britain's role in the region diminished, and ...
Kurds in Iraq: the struggle between Baghdad and Erbil.
Mar 22, 2009; ... For those interested in ensuring Iraq's stability and territorial integrity, the relationship between Arabs and Kurds is now of paramount importance. Indeed, it is a difficult task to identify any single problem over the forthcoming year that is not influenced in some way by the ...
The Transparent Cabal: The Neoconservative Agenda, War in the Middle East, and the National Interest of Israel.(Book review)
Mar 22, 2009; ... The Transparent Cabal: The Neoconservative Agenda, War in the Middle East, and the National Interest of Israel, by Stephen J. Sniegoski. Light in the Darkness Publications, 2008. 440 pages, including notes and index. $24.95, hardcover. In this well-written, well-organized book, ...
The Hebrew Republic: How Secular Democracy and Global Enterprise Will Bring Israel Peace at Last.(Book review)
Mar 22, 2009; ... The Hebrew Republic: How Secular Democracy and Global Enterprise Will Bring Israel Peace at Last, by Bernard Avishai. Harcourt, 2008. 290 pages. $26.00, hardcover. How can Israel remain Jewish and democratic when its occupation of the West Bank denies Palestinians basic ...
The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower.(Book review)
Mar 22, 2009; ... The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower, by Robert Baer. Crown Publishers, 2008. 268 pages, plus index. $17.13, hardcover. In The Devil We Know, Robert Baer, an ex-CIA operative, attempts to demonstrate how U.S. perceptions of Iran have distorted the realities ...
The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran.(Book review)
Mar 22, 2009; ... The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran, by Hooman Majd. Doubleday, 2008. 272 pages. $24.95, hardcover. At first glance, Hooman Majd, the former executive vice president of Island Records, would appear to have more familiarity with a U2 album than with the ...
Culture and Conflict in the Middle East.(Brief article)(Book review)
Mar 22, 2009; ... Culture and Conflict in the Middle East, by Philip Carl Salzman. Humanity Books, 2008. 224 pages. $34.95. In his new book, Philip Carl Salzman, a professor of anthropology at McGill University, builds on and extends his previous work on what he calls "tribal communities" in Iran ...
Syria: Chess Match at the Borders.(Movie review)
Mar 22, 2009; ... Syria: Chess Match at the Borders, A Film by Amal Hamelin des Essarts, Icarus Films, 2008, $390 (http://icarusfilms.com/new2008/syr.html). While voiced largely in French (with good English subtitles), this film offers a superb panorama of politics in the Near East, centered on ...
Commander of the Faithful: The Life and Times of Emir Abd el-Kader, A Story of True Jihad.(Book review)
Mar 22, 2009; ... Commander of the Faithful: The Life and Times of Emir Abd el-Kader, A Story of True Jihad, by John W. Kiser. Monkfish Book Publishing Company, 2008. 361 pages. $28.95. A 19th century Arab who has a town in rural Iowa named after him; a man who received written thanks from ...