Middle East Policy articles from September 2002

Middle East Policy archives from September 2002

Editor's note.
September 1, 2002... This summer marks the twentieth anniversary of this journal. The first issue appeared in June 1982 just before the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, a war of choice that was billed as an effort to bring "peace to Galilee." Now another Sharon-led war...

The Abdullah peace plan: offer or ultimatum?(Transcript)
September 1, 2002... The following is an edited transcript of the twenty-ninth in a series of Capitol Hill conferences convened by the Middle East Policy Council. The meeting was held on June 14, 2002, in the Russell Senate Office Building with Chas. W. Freeman,...

"Middle" politics: looking again at the peace process.
September 1, 2002... Before the outbreak of the second intifada, U.S. policy makers were convinced that Yasser Arafat was the only Palestinian leader who could make the compromises Washington believed necessary to secure peace in the Middle East. That such...

Winners and losers in the Middle East: the economics of "peace dividends".(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2002... From the Camp David accords and the first handshake between Israelis and the PLO on the White House lawn in September 1993, supporters of the Oslo agreement had predicted a windfall "peace dividend" for Arabs and Israelis. In the grand thinking...

Egypt: Osama's star is rising.
September 1, 2002... The U.S. "War on Terrorism" may be doing Osama bin Laden more good than harm. As American troops were shelling Al Qaeda hideouts in Afghanistan, his star was rising in the Middle East. Arab citizens have become increasingly disaffected with the...

The swing to the right in U.S. Policy toward Israel and Palestine.
September 1, 2002... U.S. support for Israel has taken a qualitative shift to the right during the past year. While previous administrations have generally supported Israel's negotiating positions, most analysts placed the U.S. position more or less in the center...

The paradoxes of U.S. policy in the Middle East.
September 1, 2002... One important lesson learned from the traumatic events of September 11 was that the terrorist activities leading to the attacks were not just a story about one country. They were a multi-enterprise activity with a global network of deeply...

New Era in American-Libyan relations.
September 1, 2002... America's diplomatic and commercial intercourse with Libya is one of the oldest such relationships in the history of the United States. Concerned with the threat posed by Mediterranean privateers, the U.S. Congress as early as 1784 had...

European perspectives on the gulf: similarities and differences with the U.S.
September 1, 2002... IRAQ To start by stating the obvious, Saddam Hussein's regime is a serious problem. He is a brutal dictator responsible for horrendous wars. He has manufactured weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and has used them against his neighbors as...

Sins of omission: the AJC's project interchange and the creation of American opinion.(American Jewish Committee)
September 1, 2002... In an otherwise barren tourist period, the Dan Panorama Hotel in Israeli West Jerusalem was bustling with American and Russian high-school and college students. A group of wealthy benefactors had created the Birthright Israel program to ensure...

Political succession in the Middle East.
September 1, 2002... The following briefs were presented in a workshop on "Political Succession in the Middle East" at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, September 1, 2001, in San Francisco. Louis J. Cantori, University of Maryland,...

The UAE and Oman: opportunities and challenges in the twenty-first century.
September 1, 2002... Although Oman and the United Arab Emirates (a federation of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Rasal-Khaimah, Ummal-Qaiwan and Fujairah) have been independent since the early 1970s, (1) independence did not bring harmony. In the early 1950s, for...

Security in the Persian Gulf: Origins, Obstacles, and the Search for Consensus.
September 1, 2002... Lawrence G. Potter and Gary G. Sick, eds. New York: Palgrave, 2002. 284 pages, including appendix of contributors and index. $18.95, paperback. Never before has the Persian Gulf region assumed such importance to basic American interests....

Harnessing Trade for Development and Growth in the Middle East.
September 1, 2002... Bernard Hoekman and Patrick Messerlin. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 2002. Available online at http://www.cfr.org/public/resource.cgi?pub!4342. A businessman from a major Arab market recently confided to me that, although his...

Kazakhstan, Unfulfilled Promise.
September 1, 2002... Martha Brill Olcott. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Brookings Institution Press, 2002. 321 pages, with appendices, notes, bibliography and map. $24.95, paperback. Kazakhstan, if only because it is so big (five...

The Politics of Caspian Oil.
September 1, 2002... Bulent Gokay, ed. New York: Palgrave and St. Martin's Press, 2002. 232 pages. $65.00, hardcover. Oil and Geopolitics in the Caspian Sea Region, Michael P. Croissant and Bulent Aras, eds. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999. 305 pages. $74.95,...

Ivory Towers On Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America.
September 1, 2002... Martin Kramer. Washington, DC: Washington Institute for Near East Policy Publication, 2001. 130 pages, with an appendix, page 131, an index to page 137. $19.95, paperback. Martin Kramer's political orientation can be read in the title of...

How Israel was Won: A Concise History of the Arab-Israel Conflict.
September 1, 2002... Baylis Thomas. Boston: Lexington Books, 1999. xviii plus 326 pages. $60.00, hardcover. Robert Brenton Betts Visiting professor of history, The University of Balamand, Tripoli, Lebanon "This is the only book you need in order to...