Middle East Policy articles from October 1998

Middle East Policy archives from October 1998

SYMPOSIUM: WHAT ARE THE COSTS OF NO PEACE?
October 1, 1998... The following is an edited transcript of the sixteenth in a series of Capitol Hill conferences convened by the Middle East Policy Council. The meeting was held on October 2, 1998, in the Hart Senate Office Building. CHAS. W. FREEMAN, JR.,...

USAMA BIN LADEN: THE NATURE OF THE CHALLENGE.
October 1, 1998... On August 20 the United States launched Tomahawk missile attacks against training camps allegedly operated by Usama Bin Laden in the Khowst region of Afghanistan and against a pharmaceutical factory in North Khartoum which the United States...

SAUDI ARABIA AND THE GCC: EXPLORING FOR GROWTH IN A TROUBLED GLOBAL ECONOMY.
October 1, 1998... Separately and together, the Arabian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain -- are considering how to cope with low oil prices and diminished prospects for...

OFFSETS IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
October 1, 1998... The requirement that sellers of military equipment agree to "offsets" has been a feature of defense procurement contracts for almost forty years.(1) Despite numerous criticisms of the practice of offsets,(2) their use has continued and even...

PEACE, BREAD AND RIOTS: JORDAN AND THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND.
October 1, 1998... For most indebted countries in the Middle East and throughout the "Third World", a recurring theme is that of economic adjustment and liberalization, often at the behest of the dominant economic and financial institutions of the global...

THE PEACE PROCESS, UNCERTAINTY AND PRIVATE INVESTMENT IN THE WEST BANK AND GAZA STRIP.
October 1, 1998... In September 1993 Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Governing Arrangements, which outlined the gradual handover to the Palestinian Authority of responsibility over the West...

KHATAMI'S IRAN, ONE YEAR LATER.
October 1, 1998... Celebrating the first anniversary of his May 1997 upset election victory, Iran's President Mohammad Khatami proudly told a throng of his young supporters, "Today your Islamic Republic and your country, enjoy more prestige and respect at the...

IRAN'S SEARCH FOR THE NEW PRAGMATISM.
October 1, 1998... Several developments have promoted increasingly pragmatic, tolerant and thus cosmopolitan policies on the part of Iranian foreign-policy makers in recent years. First, the May 1997 landslide victory of Hojatolislam Mohammad Khatami, a moderate...

THE POST-REVOLUTIONARY IRANIAN ECONOMY: A POLICY APPRAISAL.
October 1, 1998... Since the Revolution of 1979, the stability and growth of Iran's economy have been hindered by many obstacles, both internal and external, and sometimes self-imposed. While these impediments to economic recovery and prosperity accompany...

MIXED MESSAGES AND CARPET DIPLOMACY: OPPORTUNITIES FOR DETENTE WITH IRAN.
October 1, 1998... In a CNN interview broadcast January 8, 1998, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami spoke with surprising warmth of the "great American people" and suggested cultural exchanges as a means of dissipating the mistrust existing between Iran and the...

REPAIRING U.S.-IRANIAN RELATIONS.
October 1, 1998... After twenty years of harsh confrontation, we may at last be reaching a strategic turning point in our relations with Iran. Both sides are weary of demonization. Even more important, Tehran and Washington both now recognize that each side is...

U.S. POLICY IN THE CASPIAN: PIPELINES, PARTNERSHIP AND PROSPERITY.
October 1, 1998... The Caspian and Black Sea regions are tremendously important to U.S. interests, not just because of oil and gas wealth. In fact, as important as energy is, our goals go beyond earning money for producing countries and profits for U.S....

THE U.S. IN THE CASPIAN: THE DIVERGENCE OF POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL INTERESTS.
October 1, 1998... The claim that the Caspian region is tremendously important to U.S. interests requires some examination. First, which U.S. interests are we talking about: commercial or political? Second, the area is large, with the northern Caspian comprising...

HARIRI'S LEBANON: SINGAPORE OF THE MIDDLE EAST OR SANAA OF THE LEVANT?
October 1, 1998... Prior to its civil war -- and much before it became fashionable to speak of "the challenge of globalization" -- Lebanon was the most "globalized" country in the Arab world. It served as the principal commercial entrepot and banking center for...

PRESIDENT LAHOUD'S RISE TO POWER.
October 1, 1998... The scale of the restoration of central Beirut -- that part of the city that once straddled the Green Line and across which the combatants of a multitude of factions, warlords, militias, zealots, mercenaries and armies battled each other for...

INTERVIEW: ZINE EL ABIDINE BEN ALI.
October 1, 1998... President Ben Ali came to power in Tunisia in November 1987. This interview was conducted in March 1998 by Georgie Anne Geyer, a nationally syndicated columnist for Universal Press Syndicate. It was originally published in The Washington...

INTERVIEW: SULTAN BIN ZAYED AL NAHYAN.
October 1, 1998... Sheikh Sultan is deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. This interview, originally published in Arabies Trends, was conducted between July and August 1998 by Joseph A. Kechichian, a member of the National Advisory Committee of the...

Through Secret Channels.
October 1, 1998... Through Secret Channels, by Mahmoud Abbas. (Abu Mazen). Reading, UK: Garnet Publishing Ltd., 1995. 224 pages. Appendices to page 246. Index to page 252. $19.95 paperback. Almost five years have passed since Israel and the PLO concluded...

Making Peace with the PLO: The Rabin Government's Road to the Oslo Accord.
October 1, 1998... Making Peace with the PLO: The Rabin Government's Road to the Oslo Accord, by David Makovsky. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996. 163 pages. Appendices to page 233. Chronology to page 239. $16.95 paperback. Almost five years have passed...

The Process: 1,100 Days that Changed the Middle East.
October 1, 1998... The Process: 1,100 Days that Changed the Middle East, Uri Savir. New York: Random House, 1998. 315 pages. Index to page 336. $27.95 hardcover. Almost five years have passed since Israel and the PLO concluded secret negotiations at Oslo...

The Middle East Peace Process: Interdisciplinary Perspectives.
October 1, 1998... The Middle East Peace Process: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, edited by Ilan Peleg. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998. 300 pages, with notes and index. The breakthrough in the Arab-Israeli conflict at Oslo in 1993 after...

Druze and Jews in Israel -- A Shared Destiny?
October 1, 1998... Druze and Jews in Israel -- A Shared Destiny? by Zeidan Atashi, Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic Press, 1995. xvi & 207 pages, one map & 12 photographic illustrations, notes, bibliography and index. The Druze are unique among the...

The Remaking of Saudi Arabia: The Struggle between King Saud and Crown Prince Faysal, 1953-1962.
October 1, 1998... The Remaking of Saudi Arabia: The Struggle between King Saud and Crown Prince Faysal, 1953-1962, by Sarah Yisraeli. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Papers No. 121, 1997. 219 pages,...

Saddam's Word: Political Discourse in Iraq.
October 1, 1998... Saddam's Word: Political Discourse in Iraq, by Ofra Bengio. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. 266 pages, with notes and index. $49.95, hardcover. One of the distinguishing features of the Iraqi Baath regime has been its surprising...

The Resurgence of Central Asia: Islam or Nationalism.
October 1, 1998... The Resurgence of Central Asia: Islam or Nationalism, by Ahmed Rashid. Karachi: Oxford University Press, and London and New Jersey: Zed Books, 1994. x plus 252 pages; appendix: data and chronologies, bibliography and index to p. 278. Paperback....