Middle East Policy articles from December 2001

Middle East Policy archives from December 2001

Editor's note.
December 1, 2001... On September 11, 2001, crimes against humanity were carried out through coordinated terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by means of airborne gasoline bombs. With 4,500 innocents murdered -- men, women and children from...

Bin Laden and the new age of global terrorism. (Essays).
December 1, 2001... When hijacked planes were crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, people reacted in many different ways. However, most speculated that the acts were the work of religious fanatics. A number of commentators...

At war with Utopian fanatics. (Essays).
December 1, 2001... On September 11 the United States was attacked by utopian fanatics, followers of a movement inspired by an exceptionally narrow interpretation of Islam. Why does this movement enjoy so much sympathy in the Middle East? The answer, of course, is...

America and the war on terror. (Essays).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... As the United States responds to the horrifying attacks of September 11, ordinary American citizens have been hearing two quite different messages. On the one hand, there has been much talk of war; of a crusade to end evil in the world; to...

New friends, new enemies and oil politics: causes and consequences of the September 11 terrorist attacks. (Essays).
December 1, 2001... The post-September 11 anti-terrorist alliances being forged by the United States reveal the centrality and fragility of our relationships in the Middle East. U.S. and global energy security dictates that we maintain our ties to oil-producing...

The political requirements of victory. (Essays).
December 1, 2001... American-led military action in Afghanistan is, unfortunately, fully justified. The attacks of September 11 required recognition of the state of war that exists between the al-Qaeda organization and its allies and the American people. If our...

The new global threat: transnational Salafis and Jihad.
December 1, 2001... The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies - civilians and military - is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosques from...

Interview with Ezzeddin Ibrahim.(cultural advisor, United Arab Emirates)(Interview)
December 1, 2001... Dr. Ibrahim was the chancellor of Al Ain University in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and is the cultural advisor to the Presidential Court. The following interview, conducted by Erik R. Peterson, the former editor of this journal, on...

Negotiating Middle East peace: can the past be a guide to the future? (Symposium).
December 1, 2001... The following is an edited transcript of the twenty-sixth in a series of Capitol Hill conferences convened by the Middle East Policy Council. The meeting was hem on September 20, 2001, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building with Chas. W....

The United States and the breakdown of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
December 1, 2001... Since the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at Camp David in the summer of 2000 and the subsequent Palestinian uprising, details have emerged that challenge the Clinton administration's insistence -- reiterated by leaders of both...

After nineteen years: Sabra and Shatila remembered.(refugee camps of Lebanon, site of September 1982 massacre)
December 1, 2001... "Justice, justice you shall pursue." -- Deuteronomy 16:19-20 Nineteen years ago I volunteered to go to Beirut to work as a nurse. I wanted to use my profession to help the Lebanese and Palestinians who had been wounded in Israel's invasion...

Will the next Mideast war go nuclear?
December 1, 2001... It is now more than a month after the horrific destruction of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. As U.S. bombing of Afghanistan continues, few observers doubt that President Bush will hesitate to pursue a wider war should the...

Syria: Islam, Arab nationalism and the military.
December 1, 2001... One of the Syrian Islamic movement's most obvious characteristics is its limited impact on a populace obsessed with defining its national destiny. More than any other Arab country, Syria has always debated its future, its ideal political system...

Women in Iran: an online discussion.
December 1, 2001... This debate on the role of women in the Islamic Republic of Iran was conducted early in 2001 as part of the Gulf/2000 project at Columbia University, directed by Gary Sick. Normally these online discussions are reserved for members, but this...

Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil & Fundamentalism in Central Asia. (Book Reviews).
December 1, 2001... Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil & Fundamentalism in Central Asia, by Ahmed Rashid. New York: Yale Nota Bene, 2000. 279 pages with notes, appendices and index. $14.95, paperback. As the events of September 11 continued to replay in homes and...

Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban. (Book Reviews).
December 1, 2001... Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban, by William Maley, ed. London: Hurst & Company, 1998. 242 pages. $19.50, paperback. As the events of September 11 continued to replay in homes and offices across the nation, the United...

The Taliban: War, Religion, and the New Order in Afghanistan. (Book Reviews).
December 1, 2001... The Taliban: War, Religion, and the New Order in Afghanistan, by Peter Marsden. New York: Zed Books Ltd., 1998. 153 pages. $19.95, paperback. As the events of September 11 continued to replay in homes and offices across the nation, the...

The Taliban Phenomenon: Afghanistan 1994-1997. (Book Reviews).
December 1, 2001... The Taliban Phenomenon: Afghanistan 1994-1997, by Kamal Matinuddin. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 283 pages with notes, glossary and bibliography. $20.00, hardcover. As the events of September 11 continued to replay in homes and...

An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan. (Book Reviews).
December 1, 2001... An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan, by Jason Elliot. New York: Picador, 1999. 473 pages. $18.00, paperback. As the events of September 11 continued to replay in homes and offices across the nation, the United States discovered it...

Succession in Saudi Arabia. (Book Reviews).
December 1, 2001... Succession in Saudi Arabia, by Joseph A. Kechichian. New York: Palgrave, 2001. xiii + 287 pages, including 17 appendices, notes, bibliography and index. $49.95, hardcover. The tragic events of September 11 once again underscore the vital...

Religion and Culture in Medieval Islam. (Book Reviews).
December 1, 2001... Religion and Culture in Medieval Islam, by Richard G. Hovannisian and Georges Sabagh, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. viii + 120 pages. Text to p. 115, index to p. 119. $49.95, hardcover. This volume embodies the...

Iran at the Crossroads. (Book Reviews).
December 1, 2001... Iran at the Crossroads, by John L. Esposito and R. K. Ramazani, eds. New York: Palgrave, 2001. 237 pages, with index. $49.95, hardcover. Iran is a country truly at a crossroads of history. The intricacies of its politics and the paradoxes...

Religious Minorities in Iran. (Book Reviews).
December 1, 2001... Religious Minorities in Iran, by Eliz Sanasarian. Cambridge University Press, 2000. xix + 228 pages, 4 tables, 9 illustrations, notes, bibliography and index. $59.95, hardbound. Dr. Sanasarian's study of the non-Muslim minorities of Iran...

Comprehensive History of the Jews of Iran. (Book Reviews).
December 1, 2001... Comprehensive History of the Jews of Iran, by Habib Levy, translated from the Persian by George Maschke. Maza Publishers, 1999. xix + 597 pages, illustrations, glossary, bibliography and index. $45.00, hardbound. Dr. Sanasarian's study of...

Turkey's Transformation and American Policy. (Book Reviews).
December 1, 2001... Turkey's Transformation and American Policy, by Morton Abramowitz, ed. New York: The Century Foundation Press, 2000. x + 298 pages, with notes and index. $24.95, paperback. Turkey at the outset of the twenty-first century has to decide...

Syria and the Palestinians: The Clash of Nationalisms. (Book Reviews).
December 1, 2001... Syria and the Palestinians: The Clash of Nationalisms, by Ghada Hashem Talhami. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2001. 257 pages, with notes, bibliography and index. $55.00, hardcover. At a summit meeting of the Arab League...

Out of Place. (Book Reviews).
December 1, 2001... Out of Place, by Edward W. Said. New York: Vintage Books, 1999. 295 pages. $14.00, paperback. The title of Edward Said's autobiography, Out of Place, states the theme of this intimate and honest work. Concentrating on childhood and...