Middle East Policy articles from June 2007

Middle East Policy archives from June 2007

Editor's note.
June 22, 2007... As this goes to press, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has just announced his impending retirement from office, to take place at the end of June. He leaves behind a legacy tainted by his enabling of the Bush administration's Iraq War. By...

When we meet with Syria, what should we say? What should we hope to hear?(Symposium: Syria)
June 22, 2007... The following is an edited transcript of the forty-eighth in a series of Capitol Hill conferences convened by the Middle East Policy Council. The meeting was held on April 10, 2007, in the Gold Room of the Rayburn Building with William A. Rugh...

Dancing with wolves: the importance of talking to your enemies.(Speech)
June 22, 2007... The following is the text of a lecture by the Rt. Hon. Michael Ancram, a member of the British Parliament and a former shadow foreign secretary, presented at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC, April 2007. It is often a better use...

A federation of Palestine and Jordan: a chance for peace?
June 22, 2007... There is increasing pressure to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict. The fundamental issue has been the form of the Palestine entity: an independent sovereign state, an "autonomous" region under Israeli sovereignty or an integral part of a...

The global terrorist threat: is Al-Qaeda on the run or on the march?
June 22, 2007... Five-and-a-half years ago, 19 terrorists hijacked four airplanes and changed the course of history. Just as we underestimated al-Qaeda then, we risk repeating the same mistake now. Al-Qaeda today is frequently spoken of as if it is in retreat:...

The war on terror: forgotten lessons from World War II.
June 22, 2007... President George W. Bush has likened the war on terror to the struggles Americans faced in World War II, explaining that today's terrorist enemies are "successors to Fascists, to Nazis... and other totalitarians of the 20th century."(1) Yet...

Are the Shia rising?(Saudi Arabia)
June 22, 2007... In an article published in The Washington Post on November 29, 2006, a security adviser to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia stressed the inevitable necessity for a "massive Saudi intervention" (1) to shield the kingdom's Sunni brethren against any...

Iranian national-security debates: factionalism and lost opportunities.
June 22, 2007... Iran's national-security policy is a victim of the factional debates and disagreements that characterize the Islamic Republic's political system. There are currently three main factions in Iran--the radicals, the traditionalist conservatives...

Iran and Azerbaijan: a contested neighborhood.
June 22, 2007... After the fall of the USSR in 1991, there appeared a new player in the South Caucasus whose role in this region used to be of great importance. Iran, once forced to retreat as a consequence of the Russian army's march to the south, has after...

Mutual threat perceptions in the Gulf.(MESA Roundtable: Mutual Threat Perceptions in the Gulf)
June 22, 2007... F. Gregory Gause, III, Mark Gasiorowski, Thomas R. Mattair and James A. Russell The following articles stemmed from presentations at a roundtable that was held at the Middle East Studies Association meeting in Boston in November 2006....

Threats and threat perceptions in the Persian Gulf region.(MESA Roundtable: Mutual Threat Perceptions in the Gulf)
June 22, 2007... States act in the international arena on perceptions of threats (and perceptions of opportunities, but that is another subject). Sometimes those perceptions are correct; your perceived enemy really is out to get you. Sometimes those perceptions...

The new aggressiveness in Irans's foreign policy.(MESA Roundtable: Mutual Threat Perceptions in the Gulf)
June 22, 2007... Iran's foreign policy has displayed a new aggressiveness in recent years, causing great concern in Washington and European capitals and among many of Iran's neighbors. The biggest concern has focused on Iran s nuclear program, which is widely...

Mutual threat perceptions in the Arab/ Persian Gulf: GCC perceptions.(MESA Roundtable: Mutual Threat Perceptions in the Gulf)
June 22, 2007... The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states are concerned about threats from several quarters: terrorism, Iraq, Iran and U.S. policy in the region. The Sunni Arab GCC regimes are concerned that Sunni Arab extremist followers of al-Qaeda pose a...

Whither regional security in a world turned upside down?(MESA Roundtable: Mutual Threat Perceptions in the Gulf)
June 22, 2007... Veteran Middle Eastern analyst and former Clinton administration official Martin Indyk recently characterized the Middle East as having been turned "upside down" in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. (1) It is hard to argue with his...

Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy.(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy, by Andrew Cockburn. Scribner, 2007. 247 pages. $25.00, hardcover. On a visit to Iraq in December 2004, the secretary of defense was confronted by a national guardsman who wanted to know why...

Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now.(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now, George McGovern and William R. Polk. Simon and Schuster 2006.142 pp. with index. $15.00. Out of Iraq presents an impassioned appeal for a rapid American withdrawal from that tortured...

What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat.(Book review)
June 22, 2007... What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat, by Louise Richardson. Random House, 2006.312 pages. $25.95, hardcover. Admittedly this reviewer approached What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the...

Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, Al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today.
June 22, 2007... Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, Al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today, by Marc Lynch. Columbia University Press, 2006. 252 pages. $19.36. Can an Arab public sphere meaningfully be said to exist? If so, how is this sphere relevant...

The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977.(Book review)
June 22, 2007... The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977, by Gershom Gorenberg. Henry Holt and Company, 2006. 454 pages. $30.00, hardcover. On May 7, 2006, approximately 700 Israeli policemen, backed by 1,000 soldiers,...

Aid, Diplomacy and Facts on the Ground: The Case of Palestine.(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Aid, Diplomacy and Facts on the Ground: The Case of Palestine, by Michael Keating, Anne Le More and Robert Lowe. Chatham House Publishers, 2006.232 pages. $69.95, hardcover. In August 2005, I was in Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian...

Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad.(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad by Matthew Levitt. Yale University Press, in cooperation with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2006. 324 pages, $26.00, hardcover. Author's Note: This...

Academic Freedom after September 11.(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Academic Freedom after September 11, edited by Beshara Doumani. Zone Books, 2006. 250 pages. $21.95. "Palestine," "Judea and Samaria," "Palestinians," "War of 1948," War of "Independence," "October War," "Ramadan War," "Yore Kippur War":...

Cities of God and Nationalism: Mecca, Jerusalem, and Rome as Contested World Cities.(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Cities of God and Nationalism: Mecca, Jerusalem, and Rome as Contested World Cities, by Khaldoun Samman, Boulder & London: Paradigm Publishers, 2006. Index, 249 pages. $72, hardcover. In this unusual study, a comparison is made between the...

Sea of Faith: Islam and Christianity in the Medieval Mediterranean World.(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Sea of Faith: Islam and Christianity in the Medieval Mediterranean World, by Stephen O'Shea. Walker & Company, 2006.411 pages. $26.95, hardcover. For the general reader as well as the specialist, for Westerners as much as Arabs, Stephen...