Middle East Policy articles from December 2006

Middle East Policy archives from December 2006

Correction to Vol. XIII, No. 3.(Correction notice)
December 22, 2006... Walter Posch, author of "Staying the Course: Permanent Bases in Iraq?" was misidentified. He is at the Institute for Security Studies in Paris, not Vienna.

Editor's note.
December 22, 2006... The Gulf Cooperation Council, an effort at Arab unity that was generated by Britain's colonial retreat, is 25 years old. Some of the first articles on the fledgling GCC were published in this journal in 1983: one by Abdulla Bishara, the first...

Are we trapped in the war on terror?(Symposium)(Middle East Policy Council)
December 22, 2006... The following is an edited transcript of the forty-sixth in a series of Capitol Hill conferences convened by the Middle East Policy Council The meeting was held on November 3, 2006, at the Independent Institute, with Chas. W. Freeman, Jr.,...

Terrorist recruitment and radicalization in Saudi Arabia.
December 22, 2006... In studies of the contemporary Middle East, Saudi Arabia is often seen as a source of Muslim extremism. Much has been written--rightly and wrongly--about Saudi Arabia's alleged role as an exporter of recruits, ideology and money to violent...

A war-crimes commission for the Hizbollah-Israel war?
December 22, 2006... On August 11, 2006, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Res. 1701 calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities between Hizbollah and Israel and setting out the principles and elements for a permanent ceasefire and long-term...

Israel as a U.S. "strategic asset": myths and realities.
December 22, 2006... If asked to point to the main victims of the recent crisis in the Middle East, most objective observers might express sympathy for the innocent Israeli and Lebanese civilians killed or injured in the fighting between the Israeli military and...

A plea for Palestinian self-criticism.
December 22, 2006... What is happening to Gaza? Why is she sad, steeped in misery and bruised, her blood continuing to be spilt and her tears shed? Why are the streets dirty, heavy with the odor of despair, breathing out anguish and disgust? Why is Gaza moaning...

Presbyterians, Jews and divestment: the church steps back.
December 22, 2006... In 2004, the Presbyterian General Assembly (GA) voted to initiate a process of "phased selective divestment in multinational corporations operating in Israel" and "to make appropriate recommendations to the General Assembly Council for action."...

Putin, Ahmadinejad and the Iranian nuclear crisis.(Mahmoud Ahmadinejad)(Vladimir Putin)
December 22, 2006... Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has presented Moscow with both opportunities and challenges. This article will examine Russian policies toward and views of Iran since his election in June 2005 with regard to the most prominent issue in...

Dances with wolves: Russia, Iran and the nuclear issue.
December 22, 2006... Western countries, led by the United States, helped the Iranian nuclear program and facilitated the export of nuclear technology to Iran under the shah's regime. After the Islamic revolution in 1979, the U.S. administration withdrew its support...

The GCC at 25: a Tour d'horizon.(Gulf Cooperation Council)
December 22, 2006... The Gulf Cooperation Council began in a time of crisis 25 years ago. Since then the GCC has passed through many stressful strategic environments. It was, after all, formed to cope with the challenges that caused Americans first to declare the...

Fiasco, the American Military Adventure in Iraq.(Book review)
December 22, 2006... Fiasco, the American Military Adventure in Iraq, by Thomas E. Ricks. Penguin Press, 2006. 496 pages. $27.95. A plethora of books now exist about Iraq, Afghanistan and related themes such as the Bush administration's decision-making...

Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in Iraq.
December 22, 2006... Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in Iraq, by Ahmed S. Hashim. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006. 482 pages. $29.95 hardcover, $14.95 paperback. Ahmed S. Hashim's Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in Iraq is the best book...

Al Qaeda Now: Understanding Today's Terrorists.(Book review)
December 22, 2006... Al Qaeda Now: Understanding Today's Terrorists, edited by Karen Greenberg, Cambridge University Press, 2005.257 pages, including index. $60.00, hardcover. This volume is based on a one-day seminar convened in December 2004 by the New...

The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq.(Book review)
December 22, 2006... The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq, Brendan O'Leary, John McGarry and Khalid Salih, eds. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.355 pages. $45.00, hardcover. This is a timely collection of thirteen essays by eleven different authors...

Two Birthdays in Baghdad.(Book review)
December 22, 2006... Two Birthdays in Baghdad, by Anna Prouse. Translated by Elizabeth Griffith. Compass Press, 2005. 252 pages. $11.56, paperback. The invasion of Iraq and its aftermath have so far been about the evil Bush administration, the evil Saddam...

The Three Occupied UAE Islands: The Tunbs and Abu Musa.(Book review)
December 22, 2006... The Three Occupied UAE Islands: The Tunbs and Abu Musa, by Thomas R. Mattair. Abu Dhabi: The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, 2005. 591 pages. In the fall of 1971, when Britain withdrew from the Persian Gulf after more...

Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope.(Book review)
December 22, 2006... Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope, by Shirin Ebadi, with Azadeh Moaveni. Random House, 2006.232 pages. $24.95, hardcover. Americans are challenged today by the need to understand and deal with the country of Iran. We recognize...

The New Lion of Damascus: Bashar al-Asad and Modern Syria.(Book review)
December 22, 2006... The New Lion of Damascus: Bashar al-Asad and Modern Syria, by David W. Lesch, Yale University Press, 2005.288 pages. $30, hardcover. In 1988, Patrick Seale wrote Asad: The Struggle for the Middle East, the book that defined Syria's...

One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.(Book review)
December 22, 2006... One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, by Ali Abunimah. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2006. 240 pages. $23.00, hardcover. Ali Abunimah, the increasingly prominent 34-year old Palestinian-American activist and...

Structuring Conflict in the Arab World: Incumbents, Opponents, and Institutions.(Book review)
December 22, 2006... Structuring Conflict in the Arab World: Incumbents, Opponents, and Institutions, by Ellen Lust-Okar. Cambridge University Press, 2005. 296 pages. $75, hardcover. The stunning victory of llamas in the Palestinian parliamentary elections has...

George A. Naifeh, 1924-2006.(Middle East Policy Council's chairman)(In memoriam)(Brief article)
December 22, 2006... [Mr. Naifeh], of Aiken, SC, died on November 9, 2006, at University Hospital, Augusta, GA. He was born August 19, 1924, in Kiefer, OK, the youngest of six children of Shahada and Saida Naifeh. On graduating from high school, he joined the...