Middle East Policy articles from February 1999

Middle East Policy archives from February 1999

DEVELOPING GCC STOCK MARKETS: THE PRIVATE-SECTOR ROLE.(Gulf Cooperation Council)
February 1, 1999... Driving a car on a highway for a 1,000-mile trip doesn't really require much expertise (assuming you keep your eyes open and read the road signs), but reaching your final destination in the center of a big city takes more advanced skills. This...

SYMPOSIUM: AFTER SADDAM, WHAT THEN FOR IRAQ?(Saddam Hussein)(Transcript)
February 1, 1999... The following is an edited transcript of the seventeenth in a series of Capitol Hill conferences convened by the Middle East Policy Council. The meeting was held on January 28, 1999, in the Hart Senate Office Building. CHAS. W. FREEMAN...

APRES SADDAM, LE DELUGE? SPECULATING ON POST-SADDAM IRAQ.(Saddam Hussein)
February 1, 1999... Short- and long-range planning on Iraq is based on the premise that Saddam Hussein will remain in power for the foreseeable future. Though a reasonable working assumption, some thought should be given to the possibility, however remote, that...

HOW SADDAM ALMOST BUILT HIS BOMB.(Saddam Hussein)
February 1, 1999... What the aftermath of Operation Desert Storm did for those who follow such events was to stir the recurrent nightmare of a major Israeli-Arab conflict involving nuclear weapons. This scenario continues to haunt strategists on both sides of the...

THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS AND ECONOMIC REFORM IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
February 1, 1999... "The caravan passes while the dogs bark" -- Egyptian proverb What is the likely impact of the current international financial crisis on the trajectory of reform of governments in the Middle East and North Africa? A process of economic...

OIL MONARCHIES WITHOUT OIL: OMANI & BAHRAINI SECURITY IN A POST-OIL ERA.
February 1, 1999... Steven David's term "omnibalancing" refers to the tendency of so-called Third World governments to balance internal and external threats to their rule.(2) In the Arab Gulf states, the so-called oil monarchs have successfully placated opponents...

IS SYRIA READY FOR PEACE? OBSTACLES TO INTEGRATION IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY(1).
February 1, 1999... Good harvests in the 1990s produced a tremendous grain (mostly wheat) surplus in Syria in recent years. When traveling around the country during this time, one immediately noticed the mountains of sacks of grain sitting out in the open at...

THE ISRAEL-SYRIA TRACK.
February 1, 1999... This essay examines the stalled Middle East peace process, focusing especially on the Israeli-Syrian track. It argues that for ideological and strategic security considerations the Likud government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is...

POST-HANDSHAKE POLITICS: ISRAEL/PALESTINE AND SOUTH AFRICA COMPARED.
February 1, 1999... Five years ago it was easy to be cautiously optimistic about Israeli-Palestinian peace. The 1993 Declaration of Principles signed by Israel's Labor party government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was a largely unanticipated...

BROOKINGS-SADAT FORUM: ALGERIA.
February 1, 1999... The following is the edited text of a discussion at the Sadat Forum hem at the Brookings Institution on September 10, 1998. The cosponsors are the Brookings Foreign Policy Program and the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the...

CHINA'S INTERESTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: PRESENT AND FUTURE.
February 1, 1999... The earliest communication between China and the Middle East can be traced back to the Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago. Since its founding in 1949, the People's Republic of China has been eager to develop friendly relations with the...

The European Union: time for a place at the table?(Middle East peace talks)
February 1, 1999... Since the Clinton administration came to office in 1993, it has carried out a Middle East policy that is a descending spiral, a squandering of priceless American assets, credibility above all. Can this policy be saved? Maybe, but it will...

Concept paper: the Palestinian refugee problem and the right of return.
February 1, 1999... This "concept paper" by Joseph Alpher and Khalil Shikaki, was written with the participation of the following members of the Joint Working Group on Israeli-Palestinian Relations: Gabriel Ben-Dor, Ibrahim Dakkak, Yossi Katz (MK), Ghassan Khatib,...

Inside Terrorism.(Review)
February 1, 1999... Inside Terrorism, by Bruce Hoffman. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. 288 pages, with index and bibliography. $24.95, hardcover. Bruce Hoffman's well-written book provides useful insights into the tactics and technologies used by...

Decade of Transition: Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the Origins of the American-Israeli Alliance.(Review)
February 1, 1999... Decade of Transition: Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the Origins of the American-Israeli Alliance, by Abraham Ben-Zvi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. 139 pages. Notes to page 191. Selected bibliography to page 204. Index to page 219....

Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness.(Review)
February 1, 1999... Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, by Rashid Khalidi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. 325 pages, xvi + 209, notes to 265, bibliography to 285, index to 309. $29.50, hardcover; $16.50, paperback....

The Dream Palace of the Arabs: A Generation's Odyssey.(Review)
February 1, 1999... The Dream Palace of the Arabs: A Generation's Odyssey, by Fouad Ajami. New York: Pantheon Books, 1998. 344 pages, with notes and index. $26.00, hardcover. Part political essay and part cultural critique, The Dream Palace of the Arabs...

Saudi-Iranian Relations 1932-1982.(Review)
February 1, 1999... Saudi-Iranian Relations 1932-1982, by Saeed M. Badeeb. London: Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies, 1993. 164 pages including appendices, notes and index. As Saudi scholar Saeed M. Badeeb points out in the introduction to this book,...

Monuments of Syria: An Historical Guide.(Review)
February 1, 1999... Monuments of Syria: An Historical Guide, by Ross Burns. London: I.B. Tauris, 1992 (hardcover) and 1994 (paperback). xvii plus 297 pages. $1 10.00, hardcover; $25.00, paperback. The appearance in affordable paperback of The Monuments of...

Syria Today.(Review)
February 1, 1999... Syria Today, by Jean Hureau; translated by Philip Parks and Melissa Thackway. 3rd edition. Paris: Les Editions du Jaguar, 1995. 247 pages. The appearance in affordable paperback of The Monuments of Syria is welcome news indeed to all...

Central Asia Meets the Middle East.(Review)
February 1, 1999... Central Asia Meets the Middle East, edited by David Menashri. Portland, OR: Frank Cass Publishers, 1998. 240 pages, with map, notes and index. $49.50, hardcover; $24.00, paperback. The body of this work consists of nine separate essays by...

TO THE EDITOR,.
February 1, 1999... Guilain Denoeux's and Robert Springborg's article "Hariri's Lebanon: Singapore of the Middle East or Sanaa of the Levant?" (Middle East Policy, October 1998) presents a scathing attack on former Prime Minister Hariri's economic model in...