Middle East Policy articles from March 2003

Middle East Policy archives from March 2003

Editor's note.(Editorial)
March 22, 2003... In the last 17 months, two disasters have brought Americans together in mourning: the 9/11 attacks and the crash of the space shuttle Columbia. Authorities at the highest level are trying to understand each case in order to serve the best...

In the wake of war: geo-strategy, terrorism, oil and domestic politics.
March 22, 2003... The following is an edited transcript of the thirty-first in a series of Capitol Hill conferences convened by the Middle East Policy Council. The meeting was held on January 10, 2003, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building with Chas. W. Freeman,...

Is it a war for oil?(Iraq War)
March 22, 2003... Despite the claims of anti-war activists worldwide, there is no validity in the allegation that oil is the prime U.S. motivation, or even a major factor, in a U.S. decision to invade Iraq. Of course, oil will continue to be Iraq's primary...

Libyan-American relations.
March 22, 2003... The United States has become very good at breaking off diplomatic relations with small countries of which we disapprove; it has not been very good at restoring these relations when circumstances have changed. As a result, we have cut ourselves...

Time for making historic decisions in the Middle East.(regional political strategy for Gulf states)
March 22, 2003... It has become common knowledge that, after September 11, the geopolitical landscape changed to the detriment of the Gulf region in general and of Saudi Arabia in particular. However, the depth of the implications of this reality for the future...

Islam's missing link to the west.(Turkey)
March 22, 2003... The Turks are secular Muslims," said Recep Tayyip Erdogan. For centuries they have "lived in peace with different cultures." His Justice and Development party, known by its Turkish initials AKP, stood for justice for all Turkish citizens...

Iran's theocracy under siege.
March 22, 2003... In a Newsweek commentary four years ago, a knowledgeable observer of global politics described Iran as "ripe for counterrevolution" and wondered if the July 1999 students' uprising was the "beginning of the end" of the Islamic Republic. (1)...

The long road to Palestinian reform.
March 22, 2003... Although Palestinian political reform lately has become the subject of intense discussion in Washington, the subject is hardly a new one. Reform has been an interest of the Palestinians dating from "Black September" and the eviction of the...

Hawala: the terrorist's informal financial mechanism.
March 22, 2003... Since 9/11, investigations into the al-Qaeda financial network have led to several notable successes in the United States and Europe. Much of this achievement in the United States has resulted from strengthening the financial investigatory...

A History of Saudi Arabia.(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... Madawi Al-Rasheed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 255 pages, including illustrations, maps, tables, chronology, glossary, bibliography and index. $55.00, hardback. The rise and consolidation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has...

Al-Jazeera: How the Free Arab News Network Scooped the World and Changed the Middle East.(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... Mohammed El-Nawawy and Adel Iskandar. Cambridge, MA: Westview Press, 2002. 228 pages, including notes, sources and references and index. $24.00, hardcover. All of us live in controlled informational environments. The most basic element of...

The Dynamics of Middle East Nuclear Proliferation.(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... edited by Steven Spiegel, et. al. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2001. 374 pages. $119.95, hardcover. Of the principal foreign-policy challenges facing the Bush administration, namely terrorism, promoting democracy, expanding free...

Dying in the Land of Promise: Palestine and Palestinian Christianity from Pentecost to 2000.(The Body and the Blood: The Holy Land's Christians at the Turn of a New Millennium, A Reporter's Journey)(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... Dying in the Land of Promise: Palestine and Palestinian Christianity from Pentecost to 2000, by Donald Wagner. London: Melisende, 2001. 277 pages, plus appendices (pp. 278-284), bibliography (pp. 285-288) and index (pp. 289-299). The Body...

China's Relations with Arabia and the Gulf 1949-1999.(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... by Mohamed Bin Huwaidin. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002. 352 pages. $80.00, hardcover. An examination of the evolution of China's foreign policy in the decades that followed the Communist revolution in 1949 shows how the PRC...