Middle East Policy articles from June 2004

Middle East Policy archives from June 2004

Editor's note.(Editorial)
June 22, 2004... What kind of people are we? Americans have long wished to believe that our aspirations are higher and our behavior more morally correct than other peoples'. Many of our friends abroad have joined us in wishing this were so. Our leaders were...

The Geneva proposals for peace: still viable?
June 22, 2004... The following is an edited transcript of the thirty-sixth in a series of Capitol Hill conferences convened by the Middle East Policy Council. The meeting was held on April 15, 2004, in the Hart Senate Office Building with Chas. W. Freeman, Jr.,...

Lessons from Wal-Mart and the Wehrmacht: team Wolfowitz on administration in the Information Age.
June 22, 2004... Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Bush administration has introduced a panoply of new techniques of government in the areas of intelligence processing, public relations, data collection and government secrecy. The blueprint that...

Drinking the Kool-Aid.
June 22, 2004... Throughout my long service life in the Department of Defense, first as an army officer and then as a member of the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service, there was a phrase in common usage: "I will fall on my sword over that." It meant...

Victims' justice, victors' justice: Iraq's flawed tribunal.
June 22, 2004... The Iraqi Governing Council (IGC), with the blessing of the Bush administration, announced on December 10, 2003 its plan to establish a national tribunal to prosecute members of Saddam Hussein's regime. Only days later, Saddam himself was...

Khatami: a folk hero in search of relevance.
June 22, 2004... The unbridled euphoria that greeted Hojjatol-Eslam Mohammad Khatami's impressive victory in the 1997 presidential elections is now history; the adoration and reverence that he received as a national hero on that occasion long gone. (1) The...

Iran's democracy debate.
June 22, 2004... Current debates on democracy in Iran are critical not only to Iran but also to developments across the Muslim world. For Iran is where Islamism succeeded in changing the tenor of politics, a trend that soon spread across the Muslim world. It is...

Post-9/11 changes in the Gulf: the case of the UAE.
June 22, 2004... The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon of September 11, 2001, had an immense impact not only on the United States but also on all of the Arab Gulf monarchies. The tragedy became a force for change and a turning point for the...

Oman: three and a half decades of change and development.
June 22, 2004... On July 23, 1970, supporters of Qabus bin Said Al Said stormed al-Hisn, the sultan's seaside palace in Salalah, and forced his father the sultan to abdicate and accept exile. Two weeks later, the new 30-year-old sultan made his first appearance...

Return to democratization or new hybrid Regime?: the 2003 elections in Jordan.
June 22, 2004... "(Democratization) is like the story of the Huba Huba tree. There are two prerequisites for its growth: soil and climate.... If these are not both present, then look for any other tree to emerge... but not the Huba Huba." --Jordanian...

European, Muslim and female.
June 22, 2004... As the European Union moves closer to the integration of the laws, institutions and policies of its constituent members, the fate of its ethnic and religious minorities assumes greater prominence. Ever since the signing of the Maastricht Treaty...

The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisted.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisted, by Benny Morris. Cambridge University Press, 2004. 641 pages with footnotes, appendices and index. $110.00, hardcover; $40.00, paperback. Israeli historian Benny Morris is a peculiar...

The Modern History of Iraq.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... The Modern History of Iraq, by Phebe Marr. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2004. 392 pages with notes, bibliography and index. $100, hardcover; $40.00, paperback. This is a timely and significant book. Even though the author refers to it...

Inventing Iraq: the Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied, by Toby Dodge. Columbia University Press, 2003. 260 pages, with notes, bibliography and index. $24.95, hardcover. A wave of books and articles has appeared in response to...

Seeds of Hate: How America's Flawed Middle East Policy Ignited the Jihad.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Seeds of Hate: How America's Flawed Middle East Policy Ignited the Jihad, Lawrence Pintak. London: Pluto Press, 2003. 340 pages. $65.00, hardcover. Transnational Political Islam: Religion, Ideology and Power, ed. Azza Karam. London, Pluto...

Islamic Political Identity in Turkey.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, by M. Hakan Yavuz. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. xiv + 328 pages. $49.95, hard cover. In recent years, Islamic revivalism in Turkey specifically and the Middle East in general has...

Diplomat's Letters to Blair and Bush.
June 22, 2004... Dear Prime Minister, We the undersigned former British ambassadors, high commissioners, governors and senior international officials, including some who have long experience of the Middle East and others whose experience is elsewhere, have...