Middle East Policy articles from September 2003

Middle East Policy archives from September 2003

Editor's note.
September 22, 2003... Shocked, if not awed, the Bush administration is now taking body blows from critics and erstwhile friends on its war tactics and strategy in Iraq. Despite official happy talk during the week of July 24 about the killing of Saddam Hussein's two...

Aftershocks of the Iraq war: what purposes have been fulfilled?
September 22, 2003... The following is an edited transcript of the thirty-third in a series of Capitol Hill conferences convened by the Middle East Policy Council. The meeting was held on June 20, 2003, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building with Chas. W. Freeman,...

Peace and development in post-war Iraq.
September 22, 2003... Now that Iraq is ostensibly under control by U.S. and coalition forces, the focus of effort has shifted to the process of reconstruction. This entails rebuilding society in the aftermath of conflict (or other catastrophe). The extent of the...

A monetary/exchange-rate strategy for the reconstruction of Iraq.
September 22, 2003... As the military conflict for Iraq concluded, a new battle began over the best way to rebuild the Iraqi economy. On the one side are those who believe that, by establishing proper institutions and rules, the Iraqis will be able to rebuild their...

Playing the angles: Russian diplomacy before and during the war in Iraq.
September 22, 2003... In the lead-up to and during the American-led intervention in Iraq this year, the Putin administration had several goals: * To work in partnership with other nations, especially France and Germany, to prevent the United States from acting...

"Modernity and economic development": the "new" American messianism.
September 22, 2003... Discussions of "modernity" are back in style. Ever since 9/11, we have been inundated with commentary on the "failure of modernization" in the Middle East. Implicitly, and often explicitly, we hear statements such as "the Middle East is...

Prospects for Muslim democracy: the role of U.S. policy.
September 22, 2003... Democratization is rapidly becoming the U.S. policy of choice to meet the challenge of anti-Americanism and the radicalization of Muslims, especially in the Middle East. Both the government and experts in the American foreign-policy community...

Jordan, the al-Aqsa intifada and America's "war on terror".
September 22, 2003... Throughout its contemporary history, Jordan has been heavily influenced by external events. The modern state itself was the result of British imperial ambitions in the Middle East. Anxious to create a land bridge between British-controlled oil...

Commerce and conflict: U.S. effort to counter terrorism with trade may backfire.
September 22, 2003... There is an old joke about the business acumen of the Arabs: A teacher asks a Lebanese boy, "What does two plus two equal?" And the boy responds, "Are you buying or selling?" The Bush administration is currently placing a good deal of faith in...

I told you so: Syria, Olso and the al-Aqsa intifada.
September 22, 2003... Approximately one month into the outbreak of the al-Aqsa intifada, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa was asked whether the Syrian government was acting in coordination with the Palestinian leadership. In response, Sharaa stressed that...

Syria at the crossroads.
September 22, 2003... The "pacification of Syria" represents an important stepping stone towards the final destination charted in President Bush's Middle East Roadmap. While, in essence, the much-talked-about plan is aimed at solving the longstanding...

Libya and the United States: elements of a performance-based roadmap.
September 22, 2003... The Qaddafi regime today is widely seen as a former rogue state attempting to come in from the cold. It appears in the best interests of the U.S. government to encourage and promote this metamorphosis. A number of articles have appeared over...

Pro-U.S. fatwas.
September 22, 2003... In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 10, 2003, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Woltbwitz hailed a recent proclamation by Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Najaf, Iraq, as "history's first pro-U.S. fatwa." (1) This claim was...

From Arab Nationalism to OPEC: Eisenhower, King Saud, and the Making of U.S.-Saudi Relations.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... From Arab Nationalism to OPEC: Eisenhower, King Saud, and the Making of U.S.-Saudi Relations. Nathan J. Citino. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002. 245 pages, including abbreviations, maps, notes, bibliography and index. $39.95,...

Leap of Faith.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... Queen Noor. New York: Hyperion, 2003. 480 pages. $25.95, hardcover. The Arab world and Jordan, in particular, are fortunate to have an interpreter of their history and culture in the person of Queen Noor al-Hussein, the beautiful,...

Second Class: Discrimination against Palestinian Arab Children in Israel's Schools.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... Second Class: Discrimination against Palestinian Arab Children in Israel's Schools, Human Rights Watch, 2001. x + 187 pages. $18.50, paperback. Overlooking Nazareth: The Ethnography of Exclusion in Galilee, Dan Rabinowitz. Cambridge...

Peace Fire: Fragments from the Israel-Palestine Story.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... Ethan Casey and Paul Hilder, eds. Free Association Books, 2002. 357 Pages. $19.95, hardcover. While Bill Clinton, Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak were holding peace talks at Camp David with the world press waiting with bated breath outside, a...

Egypt and American Foreign Assistance 1952-1956.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... Jon Alterman. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. 268 pages. $55.00, hardcover. Even though Egypt has been a recipient of a great deal of American economic and military assistance over the past 25 years, the history of this aspect of...

Iran's Rivalry with Saudi Arabia between the Gulf Wars.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... Henner Furtig, with a Foreword by Anoushiravan Ehteshami. Reading, PA: Ithaca Press, 2002. xviii + 288 pages, including index. $49.59, hardcover. Revolutions are bittersweet moments in history that change a society mostly by bloodshed. As...