The Middle East Journal articles from January 2003

The Middle East Journal archives from January 2003

Editor's note.
January 1, 2003... A quarterly publication cannot and does not attempt to achieve the sort of timeliness typical of the daily or weekly media, and The Middle East Journal, with a (sometimes lengthy) peer review process, can rarely hope to echo the headlines. This...

Saddam Husayn and civil-military relations in Iraq: the quest for legitimacy and power.
January 1, 2003... This article addresses civil-military relations in Iraq under Saddam Husayn over the past thirty years. Historically, the Iraqi armed forces have intervened regularly in the political process of the country. This has been to the detriment of...

Iran at a crossroads.
January 1, 2003... Iran today is a society immersed in a dynamic debate regarding the essence and direction of the Islamic Republic. Six years after the election of the moderate President Muhammad Khatami, his attempt gradually to liberalize the theocracy has...

The landscape of factional politics and its future in Iran.
January 1, 2003... This article offers a schematic overview of factional politics in the Islamic Republic of Iran. In addition to the divisions between those who oppose the Islamic Republic and those who support it, there has come to be a lively debate and...

Pivotal state or energy supplicant? Domestic structure, external actors, and Turkish policy in the Caucasus.
January 1, 2003... Turkish policy in the Caucasus is examined by exploring whether Turkey may be looked upon as a so-called "pivotal state" or "energy supplicant." Employing a domestic structural approach, the impact on policymaking in Turkey of various...

Socio-economic development in Iran through information and communications technology.
January 1, 2003... The impact of technology on social indicators has produced some positive results in both developing and developed countries. This article presents the preliminary findings on the impact of information and communication technology in the US and...

Fighting honor crimes: evidence of civil society in Jordan.
January 1, 2003... During 1999, a group of young Jordanians formed the Campaign to Eliminate So-called Crimes of Honor as a grass-roots signature-collecting effort intent on repealing the law that grants reduced penalties for "honor crimes." Their efforts were...

Chronology: July 16, 2002-October 15, 2002.
January 1, 2003... AN, Arabic News (arabicnews.com) BBC, British Broadcasting Company (www.bbc.co.uk) FT, The Financial Times NYT, The New York Times RU, Reuters (reuters.com) WP, The Washington Post WSJ, The Wall Street Journal Israeli-Palestinian Conflict...

A Concise History of the Armenian People (From Ancient Times to the Present). (Armenia).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by George Bournoutian. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2002. xiii + 499 pages. Text to p. 114. Time-lines, maps, and plates to p. 183. Part II text to p. 380. Time-lines, maps, and plates to p. 452. Bibl. to p. 467. Index to p. 499. $35. ...

Iran's Rivalry with Saudi Arabia between the Gulf Wars. (The Gulf).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Henner Furtig. Reading, UK: Ithaca Press, 2002. xviii + 248 pages. Chron. to p. 263. Bibl. to p. 275. Index to p. 288. $49.50. Iran and Saudi Arabia are two pivotal countries in the Persian Gulf. They have been both rivals and allies at...

Executive Governance in Israel. (Israel).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Asher Arian, David Nachmias, and Ruth Amir. New York: Palgrave, 2002. xi + 160 pages. Bibl. to p. 169. Index to p. 176. $60. This book examines the rise of executive governance in Israel and the Israeli political system's ability to...

From tradegy to triumph: the Politics Behind the Rescue of Ethiopian Jewry. (Israel).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Mitchell G. Bard. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2002. xiii + 205 pages. Sel. bibl. to p. 208. Index to p. 217. $64.95. The Ethiopian Jewish Exodus: Narratives of the Migration Journey to Israel 19771985, by Gadi BenEzer. London, UK...

Libya and the United States: Two Centuries of Strife. (Libya).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Ronald Brace St John. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002. 193 pages. Map. Notes to p. 234. Sel. bibl. to p. 245. Index to p. 253. Acknowledgments. $47.50. For nearly two decades, Ronald Bruce St John has labored to...

Islam and Salvation in Palestine: the Islamic Jihad Movement. (Palestine And Palestinians).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Meir Hatina. The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies: Tel Aviv, 2001.138 pages. Notes to p. 168. Bibl. to p. 174. Index to p. 180. $14.95. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad was established in Gaza in 1981 and while...

A History of Saudi Arabia. (Saudi Arabia).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Madawi Al-Rasheed. Cambridge, UK and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. xvii + 223 pages. Chron. Maps. Tables. Illustrations. Appends. to p. 226. Notes to p. 234. Bibl. to p. 246. Index to p. 255. $55 cloth; $20 paper. The...

Acre: the Rise and Fall of a Palestinian City, 1730-1831. (Syria).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Thomas Philipp. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. 191 pages. Appends. to p. 231. Notes to p. 265. Trans. to p. 275. Bibl. to p. 282. Index to p. 299. $52 cloth; $17.50 paper. Several studies have been written, in Arabic and...

The Rock: a Tale of Seventh-Century Jerusalem.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Kanan Makiya. New York: Pantheon Books, 2002. 347 pages. $26. Kanan Makiya, a trained architect, is a native of Iraq. He has emerged since the 1991 Gulf War as one of the most articulate and non-dogmatic commentators in English on Middle...

Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Kenneth M. Pollack. Lincoln, NE and London, UK: University of Nebraska Press, 2002. xv + 583 pages. Maps. Tables. Notes to p. 653. Sel bibl. to p. 675. Index to p. 698. $69.95. Ken Pollack, the author of the widely quoted book, The...

Islam, the Middle East, and the New Global Hegemony.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Simon W. Murden. Boulder, CO and London, UK: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2002. ix + 210 pages. Bibl. to p. 227. Index to p. 233. $52 cloth; $19.95 paper. Sometimes Simon Murden does not mince his words. "When in power, the performance of...

Decision on Palestine Deferred: America, Britain and Wartime Diplomacy 1939-1945.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Monty Noam Penkower. London, UK and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 2002. x vi + 370 pages. Index to p. 384. $62.50. "Anglo-American drift and delay since September 1939, which left no government policy in place, had only aggravated the...

Jihad: the Trail of Political Islam.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Gilles Kepel. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002. viii + 376 pages. Notes to p. 429. Gloss. to 433. Index to p. 454. $29.95. Few books will so fully and comprehensively intimidate the reader with their...

The Royal Navy and the Palestine Patrol.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Ninian Stewart. Naval Staff Histories. Captain Christopher Page, series editor. London, UK: Frank Cass, 2002. xvi + 175 pages. Notes to p. 180. Annexes and Appends, to p. 204. Sources to p. 209. Index to p. 217. $54.50 cloth; $25 paper. ...

Wedded to the Land? Gender, Boundaries, and Nationalism in Crisis.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Mary N. Layoun. Durham, NC and London, UK: Duke University Press, 2001. xii + 190 pages. Notes to p. 210. Bibl. to p. 220. Index to p. 225. $54.95 cloth; $18.95 paper. Wedded to the Land? Gender, Boundaries, and Nationalism in Crisis is...

Birthing the Nation: Strategies of Palestinian Women in Israel.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA and London, UK: University of California Press, 2002. xvii + 256 pages. Bibl. to p. 275. Index to p. 283. $60 cloth; $24.95 paper. In this path-breaking ethnography, Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh...

Before the Taliban: Living with War, Hoping for Peace. (Afghanistan).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Mary Smith. Chester Springs, PA: Dufour Editions, Inc., 2002. 262 pages. $16.95 paper. Before the Taliban is a book both for and about the women of Afghanistan. It seeks to reveal the life of women in Afghanistan prior to and after the...

Al-Yamama in the Early Islamic Era. (Arabian Peninsula).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Abdullah al-Askar, 2002. Reading, UK: Ithaca Press, in association wit the King Abdul Aziz Foundation for Research and Archives. x + 147 pages. Bibl. to p. 156. Index to p. 165. $49.50 cloth. The modern administrative district of al-Riyadh,...

Russia's Steppe Frontier: the Making of a Colonial Empire, 1500-1800. (Central Asia).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Michael Khordarkovsky. Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 2002. xii + 229 pages. Gloss. to p. 232. List of abbrevs, to p. 234. Notes to p. 268. Bibl. to p. 281. Index to p. 290. This book investigates the three...

The Politics of Caspian Oil. (Central Asia).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... ed. by Bulent Gokay. Houndmills, UK and New York: Palgrave Publishers, Ltd., 2001. x + 215 pages. Sel. bibl. to p. 221. Index to p. 232. $65. This edited volume provides an historical background to the contemporary political and economic issues...

Storm Clouds Over Cyprus: a Briefing. (Cyprus).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Clement Dodd. Second edition. Huntingdon, UK: Eothen Press, 2001. x + 84 pages. Map. Appends. to p. 121. Further reading to p. 123. $19.95. Cyprus has been a vexing issue for the international community since 1963, and even more so after...

All the Pasha's Men: Mehmed Ali, His Army and the Making of Modern Egypt. (Egypt).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Khaled Fahmy. Cairo and New York: The American University in Cairo, 2002. xvi + 318 pages. Illustrations. Bibl. to p. 329. Index to p. 334. $24.50 paper. This book refutes the claim that Mehmed 'Ali was the founder of modern Egypt. Using...

Iran and the Surrounding World: Interactions in Culture and Cultural Politics. (Iran).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... ed. by Nikki R. Keddie and Rudi Mathee. Seattle, WA and London: University of Washington Press, 2002. vii + 374 pages. Contribs. to p. 378. Index to p. 393. $30 paper. This text examines Iran's place in the world, containing a variety of essays...

Iran's Nuclear Policy and the IAEA. (Iran).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Chen Zak. xix + 81 pages. Appends. to p. 94. $19.95 paper. Divided into four sections, this paper examines the efficacy of IAEA's Program 93 + 2 in detecting undeclared nuclear weapons in non-nuclear weapon states. The first part of this...

Twenty Years of Islamic Revolution: Political and Social Transition in Iran since 1979. (Iran).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Eric Hooglund. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2002. xviii + 175 pages. Bibl. to p. 186. Index to p. 193. The product of an Oxford University conference on the 20th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, the nine essays featured in...

Diplomacy and Murder in Tehran: Alexander Griboyedev and Imperial Russia's Mission to the Shah of Persia. (Iran).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Laurence Kelly. London, UK and New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2002. xiii + 204 pages. Maps. Appends. to p. 226. Notes to p. 285. Bibl. to p. 301. Index to p. 314. $45. This book deals with the 19th century author and poet, Alexander...

Ayatollahs, Sufis and Ideologies: State, Religion and Social Movements in Iraq. (Iraq).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... ed. by Faleh Jabar. London, UK and New York: Saqi Books, 2002. 281 pages. Gloss. Contribs. to p. 284. Index to p. 290. $55. Presented as the "first comprehensive study of Islam and Islamism in Iraq," this collection of 17 essays examines the...

Israel: Challenges to Identity, Democracy and the State. (Israel).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Clive Jones and Emma C. Murphy. London and New York: Routledge, 2002. xxv + 136 pages. Tables. Chron. Gloss. Map. Sel. bibl. to p. 141. Index to p. 146. $80 cloth; $23.95 paper. This book examines the modern state of Israel, exploring the...

The Melting Pot in Israel: the Commission of Inquiry Concerning the Education of Immigrant Children During the Early Years of the State. (Israel).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... Zvi Zameret. Albany NY: SUNY Press, 2002. xii + 300 pages. Abbrevs. Book I to p. 160. Notes to Book I to p. 188. Book II to p. 188. Book II to p. 296. Notes to Book II to p. 300. Gloss. to p. 305. Sel. Bios. to p. 320. Bibl. to p. 327. Index to...

The Dawn of a New Era in Syria. (Syria).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Margaret McGilvary. Reading, UK: Garnet Publishing Limited, 2002. 300 pages. $19.50 paper. Part of the Folios Archive Library, this book was first printed in 1920. It documents firsthand the destruction that Syria experienced during World...

Political Leaders and Democracy in Turkey. (Turkey).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... ed. by Metin Heper and Sabri Sayari. Landham, MD, Boulder, CO, New York, and London, UK: Lexington Books, 2002. x + 238 pages. Abbrevs. Sel. bibl. to p. 247. Index to p. 256. Contribs. to p. 259. $75. From the time of Kamal Ataturk, who founded...

The Role of the Bektashis in Turkey's National Struggle: a Historical and Critical Study. (Turkey).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... Hulya Kucuk. Leiden, Koln, and Boston, MA: Brill, 2002. xxii + 272 pages. Abbrevs. Gloss. Illust. Appends. to p. 382. Sources to p. 400. Index to p. 408. $127. This monograph investigates the role of the Bektashiyya, a Sufi order heavily...

The New Geopolitics of Eurasia and Turkey's Position. (Turkey).(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... Bulent Aras. London: Frank Cass Publishers, 2002. viii + 100 pages. Sel. bibl. to p. 103. Index to p. 110. $24.50 paper. This book is an attempt to sort out the emerging and complex dynamics of the politics of Eurasia, with special attention...

Eminence Grise of the Turkish Foreign Service: Numan Menemencioglu.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Yucel Guclu. Ankara: The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2002. 129 pages. Bibl. to p. 142. Appendix. Illust. Index. n.p. Numan Menemencioglu was the longest serving Secretary-General of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in...

The Life and Career of a Turkish Diplomat: Cevat Acikalin.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Yucel Guclu. Ankara: The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2002. 105 pages. Bibl. to p. 118. Illust. to p. 128. Index to p. 136. n.p. Yucel Guclu undertook this biography simply because of the undeserved obscurity the subject, a vital...

Bright Levant.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Laurence Grafftey-Smith. Foreword by Sir James Craig. London, UK: Stacey International, 2002. xiv + 287 pages. Index to p. 295. BP22. This recently republished autobiography highlights the author-subject's career in the famous, and sometimes...

Youssef Chahine.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Ibrahim Fawal. London, UK: BFI Publishing, 2001. 208 pages. Notes to p. 218. Sel. Bibl. to p. 225. Filmography to p. 234. Index to p. 240. $65 cloth; $24.95 paper. This book analyzes Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine's career. It reveals...

Modern and Tradition Irrigation Technologies in the Eastern Mediterranean.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... ed. by Ozay Mehmet and Hasan Ali Bicak. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, LLC, 2002. xi + 193 pages. Appends. to p. 198. $21. This collection of papers addresses the water crisis in the Middle East and North Africa, focusing on the modern and...

They Die Strangers: a Novella and Stories from Yemen.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... Mohhamad Abdul-Wali. Tr. by Abubaker Bagader and Deborah Akers. Austin, TX: The University of Texas Press, 2001. 138 pages. $14.95 paper. This text compiled of 1 novella and 13 short stories is Abdul-Wali's first full-length work to appear in...

I Speak for the Devil.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Imtiaz Dhaker. Tarset, UK and Chester, PA: Bloodaxe Books Ltd./Dufour Editions, 2001. 128 pages. $18.95 paper. This anthology of poetry, divided into three parts, uncovers the cultural, racial, religious and gender-based hardships women...

Orientations: Representations of the Divine in Arabic Poetry.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... ed. by Gert Borg and Ed de Moor. Atlanta, GA: Editions Rodopi b.v., 2001. 239 pages. $42 paper. Orientations identifies both spiritual experiences expressed by poets, and divine ideas inspired and coined by poets' religions, as instances of...

A Revolutionary Year: the Middle East in 1958.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... ed. by Wm. Roger Louis and Roger Owen. London, New York and Washington, DC' I.B. Tauris and Co., Ltd. and Wilson Center Press, 2002. xvii + 301 pages. Contribs. Chron. Sel. bibl. to p. 323. Index to p. 340. $55. Compressed into a single year,...

War Without End: the Rise of Islamist Terrorism and Global Response.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Dilip Hiro. London, UK and New York: Routledge, 2002. xxiv + 434 pages. Maps. Notes to p. 469. Abbrevs to p. 472. Gloss to p. 478. Appends to p. 485. Sel. bibl to p. 490. Index to p. 513. $17.95 paper. Reaching back to the beginnings of...

Understanding September 11.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... ed. by Craig Calhoun, Paul Price, and Ashley Timmer. New York: The New Press, 2002. ix + 384 pages. Notes to p. 432. Contribs to p.434. Index to p. 454. $19.95 paper. This collection of 34 essays, written by some of America's leading social...

Critical Views of September 11--Analyses from Around the World.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... ed. by Eric Hershberg and Kevin W. Moore. New York, NY: The New Press, 2002. viii + 242 pages. Notes to p. 272. Contribs to p. 275. Index to p. 290. $18.95 paper. A companion to Understanding September 11, this volume contains 13 essays that...

Islam and the West: Judgements, Prejudices, and Political Perspectives.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... ed. by Werner Ruf. Munich, Germany: Verlag, 2002. 166 pages, n.p. This book seeks to make a "rational contribution" to what editor W. Ruf describes as an "irrational debate" between and about Islam and the West. The ten contributors' essays,...

Interfaith Dialogue and Peacebuilding.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... ed. by David Smock. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2002. xi + 131 pages. Contribs. to p. 135. Index to p. 150. $14.95 paper. This book examines the role of interfaith dialogue in peacebuilding. Its aim is to inform religious...

The Master and the Disciple: an Early Islamic Spiritual Dialogue.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... ed. and translated by James W. Morris. New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers, in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2002. xiii + 208 pages. Bibl. to p. 216. Arabic text and indexes. $37.50. Editor J. Morris provides both an Arabic...

Prophets in the Quran: an Introduction to the Quran and Muslim Exegesis.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Brannon M. Wheeler. New York: The Continuum Publishing Group, 2002. viii + 333 pages. Gloss. of interpreters and transmitters to p. 361. Further reading to p. 371. Works consulted to p. 374. Index of Qur'an citations to p. 381. Gen. index to...

Longing to Belong: the Cultural Politics of Settlement.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Suzan Ilcan. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2002. x + 120 pages. Refs. to p. 131. Index to p. 140. About the author. $54.95. Drawing on cultural, sociological and anthropological studies, this book analyzes the movement of peoples. The...

Les Femmes iraniennes entre Islam, Etat et famille.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... by Azadeh Kian-Thiebaut. 287 pages. Bibl. to p. 307. Index to p. 318. n.p. This book seeks to underline the importance of women in Iranian society. Azadeh Kian-Thiebaut, professor of political science at the Sorbonne, analyzes the evolution of...

Women and the Politics of Military Confrontation: Palestinian and Israeli Gendered Narratives of Dislocation.(Book Review)
January 1, 2003... ed. by Nahla Abdo and Ronit Lentin. New York: Berghahn Books, 2002. xi + 320 pages. Index to p. 324. $75 cloth; $25 paper. This compilation of the autobiographical narratives of ten Palestinian and seven Israeli women is ground-breaking in two...

Communications.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2003... The JOURNAL welcomes comments from its readers. All communications should be addressed to the Editor and bear the full name and address of the writer. A selection of those received will be published periodically in these columns. When a comment...

Erratum.(Correction Notice)
January 1, 2003... Bruce Rutherford, whose review of Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism by Abdulaziz Sachedina appeared in MEJ 56:4, pp. 732-33, teaches at Colgate University.