Middle East Policy articles from October 2000

Middle East Policy archives from October 2000

EDITOR'S NOTE.
October 1, 2000... This is the last issue of Middle East Policy to be published during the Clinton administration, a fateful near-decade for the Middle East. Little more than half a year into it, the Oslo process arrived unbidden from the Rabin-Peres government...

THE CASPIAN REGION AND THE NEW GREAT POWERS.
October 1, 2000... The following is an edited transcript of the twenty-second in a series of Capitol Hill conferences convened by the Middle East Policy Council. The meeting was held on September 15, 2000, in the Capitol Building with Chas. W. Freeman, dr.,...

THE POWER STRUGGLE IN IRAN.
October 1, 2000... Muhammad Khatami's landslide victory in the May 1997 presidential election produced considerable optimism that moderates might finally prevail in the power struggle that has been raging in Iran in recent years. This battle pits a loose...

GOD'S WILL: IRANIAN DEMOCRACY AND THE ISLAMIC CONTEXT.
October 1, 2000... One of the most powerful movements of the post-Cold War period has been the call for political empowerment. From the collapse of petty tyrannies in Latin America to the demise of one-party states in the former Soviet bloc, pro-democracy forces...

THE ROLE OF OUTSIDE ACTORS IN AFGHANISTAN.
October 1, 2000... After nearly a decade of disentanglement from the conflict following the withdrawal of Soviet occupying forces from Afghanistan, major-power interests are once again on the rise in that war-tom country. The United States and Russia, which...

THE MYTH OF IRAQI EXCEPTIONALISM.
October 1, 2000... Long before the present regime came to power, Iraq had been labeled by many Arabs the Prussia of the Arab world. Since 1936, when the first coup d'etat ever to take place in any Arab country succeeded in Iraq, sympathizers were looking for the...

THE GCC AND IRAQ.(Gulf Cooperation Council)
October 1, 2000... The six countries comprising the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates) appear to be publicly contradictory in their dealings with Iraq since the second Gulf crisis of August 1990. In...

THE GEOPOLITICS OF SYRIAN-IRAQI RELATIONS.
October 1, 2000... In the past few decades, intra-Arab conflict has taken many forms including at times armed conflicts. A few of these conflicts have been put off due to external intervention, but negative feelings linger. Attempts to revive Arab solidarity or...

HEMMED IN BY CIRCUMSTANCES: TURKEY AND IRAQ SINCE THE GULF WAR.
October 1, 2000... Ankara's approach to Iraq is influenced entirely by the Kurdish question in northern Iraq and its ramifications for the Kurds in Turkey. All other geopolitical or strategic considerations pale in comparison. Ankara has viewed the reemergence of...

RUSSIA AND IRAQ.
October 1, 2000... Moscow now is far from speaking "with one voice." For the most part I shall follow the line of the Russian diplomatic office, which is not, by any means, shared by all Moscow institutions. Moscow is increasingly disenchanted with the...

FRIENDS IN NEED, FOES TO HEED: THE IRAQI MILITARY IN POLITICS(1).
October 1, 2000... "... With such methods, there is no chance for anyone who disagrees with us to jump on a couple of tanks and overthrow the government." -- Saddam Hussein, 1971, on the Baathization of the Iraqi army "The good military [man] is the good...

SUPPORTING A TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ.
October 1, 2000... It is the policy of the United States to support a transition to democracy in Iraq. These are the precise words of the Iraq Liberation Act, which established that policy in law. Or, as Vice President Gore stated this policy in early July,...

DEALING WITH SADDAM OR HIS CLONE.
October 1, 2000... Saddam Hussein's survival in power seems more likely today than it did in the past. Merely raising the question of the possibility of dealing or cooperating with him affirms that. The prevailing wisdom after the end of the second Gulf war was...

IRAQ: INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS AND WHAT NEXT?
October 1, 2000... At the political level, it is obvious that sanctions have not unseated the government of Iraq. They have not brought about changes in Iraq's leadership or even destabilized the elite. At the same time, sanctions have helped to consolidate a...

U.N. SANCTIONS ON IRAQ: 10 YEARS LATER.
October 1, 2000... The U.N. sanctions on Iraq, now in their tenth year, have fallen short of achieving their political goals and have caused much harm and pain to the Iraqi people. While there are many multilateral and unilateral sanctions imposed worldwide,...

IRAQ AND THE FUTURE OF WORLD OIL.
October 1, 2000... Iraq's dormant oil potential is so huge that once it is activated and released it could cause drastic changes in world oil and energy politics. Iraq's present recoverable reserves, amounting to 112 billion barrels (bbl), are more than enough to...

Stories of Democracy: Politics and Society in Contemporary Kuwait.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Stories of Democracy: Politics and Society in Contemporary Kuwait, by Mary Ann Tetreault. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. 326 pages, with notes, bibliography and index. $47.50, hardback. For the most part, social scientists...

All in the Family: Absolutism, Revolution, and Democracy in the Middle Eastern Monarchies.(Review)
October 1, 2000... All in the Family: Absolutism, Revolution, and Democracy in the Middle Eastern Monarchies, by Michael Herb. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999. xix + 352 pages, including family charts, notes, bibliography and index. $25.95,...

Saddam's Secrets: The Hunt for Iraq's Hidden Weapons.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Saddam's Secrets: The Hunt for Iraq's Hidden Weapons, by Tim Trevan. London: Harper Collins, 1999. 448 pages. $14.95, softcover. The U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) was created in the wake of the second Gulf war to carry out an ambitious...

Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem -- Once and for All.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem -- Once and for All, by Scott Ritter. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. 240 pages. $22.00, hardback. The U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) was created in the wake of the second Gulf war to carry out an...

The Arab Shia: The Forgotten Muslims.(Review)
October 1, 2000... The Arab Shia: The Forgotten Muslims, by Graham E. Fuller and Rend Rahim Francke. New York: Saint Martin's Press, 1999. 190 pages, with notes and selected bibliography. $49.95, hardback. The subtitle of this book is something of an...

A Very Political Economy: Peacebuilding and Foreign Aid in the West Bank and Gaza.(Review)
October 1, 2000... A Very Political Economy: Peacebuilding and Foreign Aid in the West Bank and Gaza, by Rex Brynen. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2000. xxiv + 287 pages, with notes and index. $19.95, paperback. In this book, Brynen...

Water Politics in the Middle East: A Context for Conflict or Cooperation?(Review)
October 1, 2000... Water Politics in the Middle East: A Context for Conflict or Cooperation?, by Mostafa Dolatrar and Tim S. Gray. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: MacMillan Press and New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000. xiv + 219 pages. Bibliography, index to...

Water in the Middle East: A Geography of Peace.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Water in the Middle East: A Geography of Peace, eds. Hussein A. Amery and Aaron T. Wolfe. Peter T. Flawin Series in Natural Resource Management and Conservation. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000. xvii + 261 pages. Appendices, glossary,...

Water Conflict: Economics, Politics, Law and the Palestinian-Israeli Water Resources.(Review)
October 1, 2000... Water Conflict: Economics, Politics, Law and the Palestinian-Israeli Water Resources, by Sharif S. Elmusa. Washington, DC: Institute for Palestinian Studies, 1997. xxii + 362 pages. Appendices, bibliography, index to p. 408. Maps, tables,...

New Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel.(Review)
October 1, 2000... New Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel, ed. Geoffrey Wigoder. New York: Herzl Press/Madison and Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1994. 1521 pages. Two Volumes. $185.00, hardback. This is the second edition of the...

The Oxford History of Islam.(Review)
October 1, 2000... The Oxford History of Islam, ed. John Esposito. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. xiv + 749 pages. $49.95, hardcover. This hefty volume with over 300 lavish illustrations, most in full color, fills the middle ground between a...

Islam and Central Asia: An Enduring Legacy or an Evolving Threat?(Review)
October 1, 2000... Islam and Central Asia: An Enduring Legacy or an Evolving Threat? eds. Roald Sagdeev and Susan Eisenhower. Washington, DC: Center for Political and Strategic Studies, 2000. 255 pages with notes and contributors' biographies. $15 (educational...

THE FUTURE OF IRAQ.
October 1, 2000... Iraq has suffered a catastrophe of major proportions. After two disastrous wars and a decade of sanctions, the people of that country are increasingly impoverished, and society is disintegrating. The traditional middle class is being replaced...