Middle East Policy articles from June 2000

Middle East Policy archives from June 2000

EDITORS'S NOTE.
June 1, 2000... After this journal went to press, Syrian President Hafiz Asad died, prompting speculation over the fate of negotiations with Israel. Fortuitously, Prime Minister Ehud Barak had already put the Syrian track on hold two weeks earlier by pulling...

THE PEACE BEYOND THE PEACE: WHAT ROLE FOR IRAN AND IRAQ?
June 1, 2000... The following is an edited transcript of the twenty-first in a series of Capitol Hill conferences convened by the Middle East Policy Council. The meeting was held on May 4, 2000, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building with Chas. W. Freeman, Jr.,...

FALLACIES, SMOKE AND PIPE DREAMS: FORCING CHANGE IN IRAN AND IRAQ.
June 1, 2000... Foreign-policy goals invariably combine objectives that are achievable with those reachable only in theory or over a vastly extended time frame. There must be a balance. We seek to change other nations' undesirable behavior with sanctions,...

TRIBALISM IN IRAQ, THE OLD AND THE NEW.
June 1, 2000... There has been extensive speculation among government analysts and academics over the role and relevance of tribalism in modern Iraqi politics and decisionmaking. Little information is available on who the prominent tribal leaders are and how...

ELECTIONS IN IRAN: A NEW MAJLIS AND A MANDATE FOR REFORM.
June 1, 2000... A historian once observed that revolutions devour their own children. Last February in Iran, the children of the Islamic Revolution did just the reverse. After a campaign marked by bitter factional rivalries and unprecedented public liberties,...

KUWAIT'S UNHAPPY ANNIVERSARY.
June 1, 2000... On August 2, 1990, Iraqi soldiers invaded Kuwait. The speed with which the invaders took over the country was shocking; it seemed an excessive response to a conventional understanding of the grounds for the conflict between Iraq and Kuwait....

SAUDI ARABIAN-YEMENI RELATIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. POLICY.
June 1, 2000... For years, relations between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, two friends of the United States, have been marked by opportunity and promise interrupted by intermittent conflicts and tension. The most significant dispute has involved border demarcation....

THE POLITICAL ELITE AND THE INTRODUCTION OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN OMAN.
June 1, 2000... This study focuses on the role of the Omani traditional political elite (the elite) in the introduction of political participation in Oman. Elite analysis is one of the best methodologies for the study of political processes in the states of...

CASPIAN SEA INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS.
June 1, 2000... Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and distinguished members of this Subcommittee, it is a pleasure to come before you today to address such a timely and critical issue for many companies in the oil and gas industry. My name is J. Robinson West, and I...

CHINA AND THE MIDDLE EAST: CROSS-INVESTMENT IN THE ENERGY SECTOR.
June 1, 2000... BACKGROUND China experienced double-digit economic growth in the first half of the 1990s and a growth of 7-8 percent in 1996-98. The Asian financial crisis dampened Chinese growth, even though the country's foreign-exchange rates were...

QUESTIONING THE WATER-WAR PHENOMENON IN THE JORDAN BASIN.
June 1, 2000... Since the early to mid-1980s, it has been argued that the scarcity of shared fresh water resources in the Jordan River basin would be a primary issue threat to the region's security. This view is reflected in the rapidly growing volume of...

TURKISH-ISRAELI-IRANIAN RELATIONS IN THE NINETIES: IMPACT ON THE MIDDLE EAST.
June 1, 2000... This paper examines the complex relations that have developed among Turkey, Israel and Iran since the Gulf War in 1990 in terms of the political balances in the region, armament and human rights problems, the question of the Palestinians, and...

ISRAEL WITHDRAWS FROM LEBANON: MAY 24TH AND BEYOND.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2000... At 6:45 a.m. local time on May 24, 2000, the last Israeli tank rolled out of Lebanon, and, according to the Associated Press, "Israeli soldiers padlocked the metal barrier behind them." An occupation older than many of the Israeli and Hezbollah...

ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY: THE 1999 PALACE COUP IN SUDAN.
June 1, 2000... In December 1999, Gen. Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, briefly stole the headlines in the West when he orchestrated a palace coup and ousted Hassan al-Turabi, speaker of the parliament. Maneuvers of this sort are nothing new in Africa,...

The Sword and the Olive: A Critical History of the Israeli Defense Force.(Review)
June 1, 2000... The Sword and the Olive: A Critical History of the Israeli Defense Force, by Martin Van Creveld. New York: Public Affairs, 1998. 320 pages. $27.50, hardcover. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, there has been a radical transformation...

Knives, Tanks and Missles: Israel's Security Revolution.(Review)
June 1, 2000... Knives, Tanks and Missles: Israel's Security Revolution, by Eliot A. Cohen, Michael Eisenstadt and A.J. Bacevich. Washington, DC: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1998. 154 pages. $16.95, paperback. At the dawn of the...

Israel and the Bomb.(Review)
June 1, 2000... Israel and the Bomb, by Avner Cohen. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 478 pages. $17.95, paperback. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, there has been a radical transformation in Israel's conception of its national-security...

Rabin and Israel's National Security.(Review)
June 1, 2000... Rabin and Israel's National Security, by Efraim Inbox. Washington, DC: The Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1999. 276 pages. $32.00, hardcover. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, there has been a radical transformation in Israel's...

National Security: The Israeli Experience.(Review)
June 1, 2000... National Security: The Israeli Experience, by Yisrael Tal. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2000. 216 pages. $55.00, hardcover. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, there has been a radical transformation in Israel's conception of its...

Brother Against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics from Altalena to the Rabin Assassination.(Review)
June 1, 2000... Brother Against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics from Altalena to the Rabin Assassination, by Ehud Sprinzak. New York: Free Press, 1999. 384 pages. $27.50, hardcover. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, there has...

The Transformation of Palestinian Politics: From Revolution to State-Building.(Review)
June 1, 2000... The Transformation of Palestinian Politics: From Revolution to State-Building, by Barry Rubin. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999. 299 pages, with notes and index. $29.95, hardcover. The Transformation of Palestinian Politics is a...

Separate and Unequal: The Inside Story of Israeli Rule in East Jerusalem.(Review)
June 1, 2000... Separate and Unequal: The Inside Story of Israeli Rule in East Jerusalem, by Amir S. Chesin, Bill Hutman and Avi Melamed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999. 251 pages, with notes, maps and index. $27.95, hardcover. The authors...

Islamic Politics in Palestine.(Review)
June 1, 2000... Islamic Politics in Palestine, by Beverly Milton-Edwards. London: I.B. Tauris, 1999. 256 pages. $22.50, paperback. After reading this book, one has to conclude that of all the current Islamic revivalist movements around the world, the...

Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege.(Review)
June 1, 2000... Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege, by Amira Hass. New York: Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt & Co, 1999 (originally published in Hebrew under the title Lishtot mehayam shel 'Aaza in 1996). 379 pages with index....

The Israeli-Syrian Peace Talks: 1991-96 and Beyond.(Review)
June 1, 2000... The Israeli-Syrian Peace Talks: 1991-96 and Beyond, by Helena Cobban. Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1999. 251 pages with notes and index. $19.95, softcover. Helena Cobban is a serious scholar, skilled writer and...

Bring Down the Walls. Lebanon's Post-War Challenge.(Review)
June 1, 2000... Bring Down the Walls. Lebanon's Post-War Challenge, by Carole H. Dagher. St. Martin's Press, 2000. 235 pages, with notes, bibliography and index. $39.95. There may be confusion in many quarters as to what the lengthy Lebanese civil war was...

Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia.(Review)
June 1, 2000... Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia, by Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac. Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 1999. 634 pages, with index, maps and photos. $35.00, hardback. Not only do oil and...