Middle East Policy articles from March 2001

Middle East Policy archives from March 2001

Editor's note.(Israel-Arab conflicts)
March 1, 2001... The ink was not yet dry on the last editor's note when the Oslo process imploded, though negotiators soldiered on for a time, Ross-less in Taba, trying to stave off the election of Ariel Sharon as Israel's prime minister -- or at least...

U.S. policy toward Iran: time for a change? The following is an edited transcript of the twenty-third in a series of Capitol Hill conferences convened by the Middle East Policy Council. The meeting was held on December 12, 2000, in the Hart Senate Office Building with Chas. W. Freeman, Jr., moderating. (Symposium: U.S. Policy toward Iran).
March 1, 2001... CHAS. W. FREEMAN, JR., president, Middle East Policy Council We're here to discuss a country with which the United States has, in a very brief span of time, had relationships of vastly different characters. A quarter century ago, Iran was...

Iran's post-revolution planning: the second try.Dr. Amuzegar, an international economic consultant, was minister of commerce and finance in the shah's regime.(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... Iran's Second Development Plan (1995-2000) came to an end on March 20, 2000, leaving behind an economy mired in tepid growth, high inflation, high unemployment, a weakened national currency, a widening income gap between rich and poor, and an...

The role or Iran in the new millennium: a view from the outside: the following is the text of an address by (emeritus) Professor Ramazani of the University of Virginia on September 4, 2000, at the United Nations.
March 1, 2001... President Mohammad Khatami, ladies and gentlemen: When I was invited to speak bout the role of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the new millennium in fifteen minutes, I said that I am no academic astrologer, but agreed to think it over for a...

Iran and Chechnya: realpolitik at work.
March 1, 2001... Article 3 of Iran's constitution says that the Islamic Republic "has the duty of directing all its resources" to several goals, the sixteenth of which is "fraternal commitment to all Muslims, and unsparing support to the freedom fighters of the...

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict: the following is the edited text of a discussion held November 28, 2000, at the Sadat Forum at Brookings, cohosted by Richard Haass, vice-president and director of Foreign-Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, and Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland.
March 1, 2001... SHLOMO GAZIT, former chief of Israeli Military Intelligence I will begin with a summation: First, I am an optimist. The way I see it, the peace process -- the political process -- is not dead. On the contrary, what we see now in the recent...

The second Palestinian uprising: cause for optimism?
March 1, 2001... The recent Middle Eastern violence has produced much pain for Palestinians and some Israelis, but it is also creating new opportunities for an equitable peace. Although it may take years before a lasting treaty is finally reached, fall 2000 is...

Behind the Palestinian-Israeli violence and beyond.
March 1, 2001... The tragic conflagration between Israel and the Palestinians has led not only to the loss of nearly 400 lives, but, more tragically and ominously, it has shattered the basic premise of mutual trust, security and reconciliation that both sides...

The next expulsion of the Palestinians: one step closer?
March 1, 2001... A few weeks before the outbreak of the al-Aqsa intifada, Israeli ex-Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, in typically straightforward language in an interview on the Leon Charney show, gave an American TV audience a clear view of the strategy of the...

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon: implantation, transfer or return?
March 1, 2001... The situation of Palestinians in Lebanon, always the least secure of the Arab host countries, has become palpably more tense since mid-1999. The mysterious assassination of four judges in Sidon (June 1999), blamed on the outlaw Abu Mehjan who...

Israel's retreat from South Lebanon: internal and external implications.
March 1, 2001... Machiavelli judiciously warned that only fools speculate on contemporary politics. The irony of history is that political actions often produce unintended effects. This dictum sheds light on the importance of the role of the human will in...

The one true U.S. strategic interest in the Middle East: energy.(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... The one major exception to the failure of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to compete on a global level has been its energy exports, almost solely because its vast energy reserves have given it a huge natural advantage. This is also an...

The Russo-Chechen war: a threat to stability in the middle east and Eurasia?
March 1, 2001... While ethno-confessional conflict has broken out in several of the newly independent republics of the former USSR since the devolution of Soviet power in 1991, none of the conflicts in the Commonwealth of Independent States has had the...

Between Memory and Desire: The Middle East in a Troubled Age. (Book Reviews).(Review)
March 1, 2001... Between Memory and Desire: The Middle East in a Troubled Age, by R. Stephen Humphreys. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. xxii + 297 pages, with notes and index. $29.95, hardcover. This book aims to offer a general survey of...

Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948. (Book Reviews).(Review)
March 1, 2001... Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948, by Meron Benvenisti, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. 366 pages, with notes, index, 2 maps and 23 plates. $35.00, hardcover. Both these books are...

Jerusalem in History. (Book Reviews).(Review)
March 1, 2001... Jerusalem in History, edited by K. J. Asali, with an introduction by Rashid Khalidi. New York: Olive Branch Press, 2000. xxi + 303 pages, with index, notes and bibliography. Numerous maps and diagrams. $18.95, paperback. Both these books...

Countdown to Statehood: Palestinian State Formation In the West Bank and Gaza. (Book Reviews).(Review)
March 1, 2001... Countdown to Statehood: Palestinian State Formation in the West Bank and Gaza, by Hillel Frisch. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.221 pages with notes, bibliography and index. $19.95, paperback. This well-researched book...

Rogue States and U.S. Foreign Policy: Containment After the Cold War. (Book Reviews).(Review)
March 1, 2001... Rogue States and U.S. Foreign Policy: Containment After the Cold War, by Robert S. Litwak. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2000. 290 pages. $18.95, paperback. In what is probably the most comprehensive study of U.S. policy...

Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein. (Book Reviews).(Review)
March 1, 2001... Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein, by Andrew Cockburn and Patrick Cockburn, New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1999. 286 pages. Postscript to page 290. Notes to page 309. Index to page 322. $26.00, hardcover. At the moment of...

The Oil Kingdom at 100: Petroleum Policymaking in Saudi Arabia. (Book Reviews).(Review)
March 1, 2001... The Oil Kingdom at 100: Petroleum Policymaking in Saudi Arabia, by Nawaf E. Obaid. Washington, DC: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2000. xxi + 136 pages, including executive summary and appendices. $19.95, paperback. Saudi...