Middle East Policy articles from March 2006

Middle East Policy archives from March 2006

Editor's note.
March 22, 2006... What can a nation reasonably expect from an ally? Take, for instance, the relationship between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Not long ago, in September 2005, the Bush administration was worried/panicked about the spiking...

Saudi Arabia's accession to the WTO: is a "revolution" brewing?(World Trade Organization)(Discussion)
March 22, 2006... The following is an edited transcript of the forty-second in a series of Capitol Hill conferences convened by the Middle East Policy Council The meeting was held on January 13, 2006 in the U.S. Capitol Building, with Chas. W. Freeman, Jr.,...

Document: terms of Saudi Arabia's accession to the WTO: this material is a summary prepared by Loeffler Tuggey Pauerstein Rosenthal LLP on behalf of the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia.(World Trade Organization)
March 22, 2006... In the course of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's accession to the WTO, The Kingdom significantly liberalized its markets and, at the same time, restructured its legal regimes and expanded fundamental economic goals. These changes, all of which...

Saudi Arabia: friend or foe in the war on terror?
March 22, 2006... Let me begin my testimony with an important caveat. Saudi Arabia is no more perfect than any other country. Like us, Saudi Arabia has made many mistakes in dealing with terrorism, in foreign policy, and managing its domestic affairs. There are...

After Shaikh Zayed: the politics of succession in Abu Dhabi and the UAE.(United Arab Emirates)
March 22, 2006... The United Arab Emirates commands nearly 10 percent of the world's proven oil reserves and over 16 percent of OPEC's total reserves--a share higher than Kuwait's and almost comparable with Iraq's. (1) As a result of this enormous source of...

Oman's progress toward participatory government.
March 22, 2006... One hears a lot these days about promoting the spread of democratic institutions in the Arab world. In evaluating these efforts some observers seem to imply that the standard by which they should be judged is the degree to which practices or...

Exiting Iraq: competing strategies.
March 22, 2006... Finding an exit for U.S. troops from Iraq is becoming an urgent enterprise. Some plans call for virtually immediate withdrawal, some for withdrawal according to varying timetables, and some for withdrawal with no fixed schedule. MORE IS...

Forging a new security order for the Persian Gulf.
March 22, 2006... Past approaches to regional security in the Persian Gulf have failed. Therefore, new approaches and policy options must be duly considered and given equal weight to the status quo. The goal of this article is to lay out the broad parameters for...

The Kurdish question and Turkey's justice and development party.
March 22, 2006... After the defeat and consequent breakup of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, the European powers divided Turkey into several pieces. They also agreed, at the Treaty of Sevres in 1920, to establish an independent Kurdistan--a sort of...

The American interest in Islamic schooling: a misplaced emphasis?
March 22, 2006... In his recent book Our Posthuman Future, Francis Fukuyama argues that advances in genetic engineering, neuroscience and psychopharmacology threaten us with frightening new potentials for physical and mental control that might undermine the very...

Sandstorm: Policy Failure in the Middle East.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Sandstorm: Policy Failure in the Middle East, by Leon Hadar. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. 180 pages. $24.95, hardcover. Leon Hadar's stated purpose for this book is to stimulate a long-overdue debate in this country over U.S. policy...

Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq, by Larry Diamond. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2005. 335 pages. Notes, Acknowledgments and Index to page 369. $25.00, hardcover. In...

Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam, by Robert Dreyfuss. Metropolitan Books, 2005. 388 pages. $27.50, hardcover. This provocative book is about America's sometimes shortsighted and ill-informed alliances...

The Road Ahead: Middle East Policy in the Bush Administration's Second Term.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... The Road Ahead: Middle East Policy in the Bush Administration's Second Term, edited by Flynt Leverett. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 2005.107 pages. $17.95 paperback. Rarely does one find such clarity and focused reasoning as...

My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope, by L. Paul Bremer III with Malcolm McConnell. Simon & Schuster 2006.419 pages. $27.00, hardcover. A wag once said, "We didn't invade Iraq. We invaded the Iraq of our dreams" [L....

The Great Syrian Revolt and the Rise of Arab Nationalism.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... The Great Syrian Revolt and the Rise of Arab Nationalism, by Michael Provence. University of Texas, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005. 209 pages, including notes and index. $21.95, paperback. The comparison is nowhere made explicitly,...

Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad, by Natana J. Delong-Bas. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.384 pages. $35.00, hardcover. In Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global dihad, Natana J. Delong-Bas raises...

Reframing Anti-Semitism: Alternative Jewish Perspectives.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Reframing Anti-Semitism: Alternative Jewish Perspectives, Jewish Voice for Peace, eds. Oakland California, 2004.92 pages. $9.00, paperback. Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is said to be the largest American Jewish peace organization; its...

Parting Ways: The Crisis in German-American Relations.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Parting Ways: The Crisis in German-American Relations, by Stephen F. Szabo. Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2004. 196 pages, with a chronology of German-American relations from 9/11/01 to 3/20/03, index. $24.95, hardcover. ...