The Middle East Journal articles from March 2008

The Middle East Journal archives from March 2008

Editor's note.
March 22, 2008... This issue offers a cross-section of the sorts of articles which have long characterized the Journal, ranging from a good summary of Russian-Iranian relations, to an analysis of the current ethnosectarian stresses in Iraq, to an argument...

Russian-Iranian relations in the Ahmadinejad era.(Mahmoud Ahmadinejad)
March 22, 2008... Russia and Iran share a common hostility toward the United States. There have, however, been important differences between Moscow and Tehran--especially over nuclear issues. Relations seemed to improve, though, with Vladimir Putin's October...

The unraveling of Iraq: ethnosectarian preferences and state performance in historical perspective.(Essay)
March 22, 2008... This article argues that the ethnosectarian chaos of today's Iraq is a consequence of state policies and capacity. The same ethnosectarian problems have existed since the birth of the Iraqi state in 1921. However, unlike the post-2003 period...

Occultation in perpetuum: Shi'ite messianism and the policies of the Islamic Republic.(Essay)
March 22, 2008... This article examines the assertion, widespread in both media and academia, that the Islamic Republic of Iran--and especially the current government under Mahmud Ahmadinejad--is actuated by a powerful, Shi'ite-based messianism. Much evidence...

How favoritism affects the business climate: empirical evidence from Jordan.(Essay)
March 22, 2008... This article, based on research conducted in Jordan, discusses how favoritism affects the business climate. Jordan's business climate is mediocre in international and regional comparison, making it insufficient in light of the country's small...

Militarizing welfare: neo-liberalism and Jordanian policy.
March 22, 2008... Jordan's seemingly successful economic and political reforms have been used to advertise the American vision of societal transformation in the Middle East. The imposition of net-liberal economic policies removed a key source of welfare for the...

Chronology: October 16, 2007-January 15, 2008.
March 22, 2008... Arab-Israeli Conflict See also Israel, Palestinian Affairs Oct. 17: Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers killed Basem Hamis Mustafa Abu Suria, a senior member of the Tanzim organization, in a raid on the West Bank city of Nablus. The...

Schooling and curricular reforms in Arab and Muslim societies.(Teaching Islam: Textbooks and Religion in the Middle East; Islam and Education: Myths and Truths)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Islam and Education: Myths and Truths, ed. by Wadad Kadi and Victor Billeh. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2007. 212 pages. Index to p. 223. $25. Teaching Islam: Textbooks and Religion in the Middle East, ed. by Eleanor...

The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History, by David W. Lesch, Oxford, UK and New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. xi + 460 pages. Figures. Maps. Gloss. to p. 466. Chron. to p. 472. Further reading to p. 480. Index to p. 495. $38.95 paper. ...

Pyramids and Nightclubs: A Travel Ethnography of Arab and Western Imaginations of Egypt, from King Tut and a Colony of Atlantis to Rumors of Sex Orgies, Urban Legends about a Marauding Prince, and Blonde Belly Dancers.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Pyramids and Nightclubs: A Travel Ethnography of Arab and Western Imaginations of Egypt, from King Tut and a Colony of Atlantis to Rumors of Sex Orgies, Urban Legends about a Marauding Prince, and Blonde Belly Dancers, by L.L. Wynn. Austin, TX:...

Rethinking Global Sisterhood: Western Feminism and Iran.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Rethinking Global Sisterhood: Western Feminism and Iran, by Nima Naghibi. Minneapolis, MN and London, UK: University of Minnesota Press, 2007. xxx + 148 pages. Notes to p. 166. Works cited to p.179. Index to p.187. $22.50 paper. At a...

Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S., and the Twisted Path to Confrontation.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S., and the Twisted Path to Confrontation, by Barbara Slavin. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2007. ix + 227 pages. Appendix to p. 231. Notes to p. 243. Sel. bibl. to p. 246. Index to p. 258. $24.95. ...

The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Iraq.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Iraq, by Tareq Y. Ismael. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007. xi + 321 pages. Index to p. 338. $85. Unfortunately, the number of scholarly books on political parties in Iraq is...

The State and Kurds in Turkey: The Question of Assimilation.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... The State and Kurds in Turkey: The Question of Assimilation, by Metin Heper. Houndmills, UK and New York: Palgrave Macmilllan, 2007. x + 186 pages. Notes to p. 224. Works cited to p. 239. About the author to p. 240. Index to p. 249. $74.95. ...

Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence, by Aliza Marcus. New York: NYU Press, 2007. xii + 305 pages. Timeline to p. 311. Notes to p. 342. Index to p. 349. $35. The Kurds are often described as "the world's largest...

Globalization and Business Politics in Arab North Africa: A Comparative Perspective.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Globalization and Business Politics in Arab North Africa: A Comparative Perspective, by Melani Claire Cammett. Cambridge, UK and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. xix and 218 pages. Appends. to p. 231. Bibl. to p. 254. Index to p....

The Politics of the Palestinian Authority: From Oslo to al-Aqsa.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... The Politics of the Palestinian Authority: From Oslo to al-Aqsa, by Nigel Parsons. New York and London, UK: Routledge, 2005. xxx + 319 pages. Appendix to p. 341. Notes to p. 394. Bibl. to p. 411. Index to p. 429. $130. One regrets Nigel...

Dissident Syria: Making Oppositional Arts Official.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Dissident Syria: Making Oppositional Arts Official, by Miriam Cooke. London, UK and Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007. viii + 166 pages. Notes to p. 175. Bibl. to p. 185. Index to p. 196. $74.95 cloth; $21.95 paper. Dissident Syria...

Intimate Outsiders: The Harem in Ottoman and Orientalist Art and Travel Literature.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Intimate Outsiders: The Harem in Ottoman and Orientalist Art and Travel Literature, by Mary Roberts. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008. xiv + 155 pages. Notes to p. 176. Sel. bibl. to p. 185. Index to p. 195. $84.95 cloth; $23.95 paper....

Foundations of Modern Arab Identity.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Foundations of Modern Arab Identity, by Stephen Sheehi. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2004. 198 pages. Notes to p. 222. Sel. bibl. to p. 230. Index to p. 256. $59.95. Foundations of Modern Arab Identity is an interesting and...

The Greater Middle East and the Cold War: US Foreign Policy Under Eisenhower and Kennedy.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... The Greater Middle East and the Cold War: US Foreign Policy Under Eisenhower and Kennedy, by Roby C. Barrett. London, UK, and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2007. xxvi + 327 pages. Notes to p. 456. Bibl. to p. 472. Index to p. 494. $95. A former...

Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World, by Amaney A. Jamal. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. xiii + 138 pages. Illust. Appends. to p. 151. Bibl. to p. 164. Index to p. 173. $35....

American Policy toward Israel: The Power and the Limits of Beliefs.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... American Policy Toward Israel: The Power and the Limits of Beliefs, by Michael Thomas. London, UK and New York: Routledge, 2007. viii + 192 pages. Notes to p. 222. Refs. to p. 244. Index to p. 253. $150. Michael Thomas' contribution to the...

The Zionist Masquerade: The Birth of the Anglo-Zionist Alliance, 1914-1918.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... The Zionist Masquerade: The Birth of the Anglo-Zionist Alliance, 1914-1918, by James Reston. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. xi + 155 pages. $69.95. James Reston has written a powerfully argued and well-researched book that examines...

World's Marginalization and International Security after 9/11)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... The United States and Persian Gulf Security: The Foundations of the War on Terror, by Steven Wright. Reading, UK: Ithaca Press, 2007. v + 208 pages. Bibl. to p. 231. Index to p. 242. $54.50. Turning Point: The Arab World's Marginalization...

Democratizing The Hegemonic State: Political Transformation in the Age of Identity.(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Democratizing The Hegemonic State: Political Transformation in the Age of Identity, by Ilan Peleg. Cambridge, UK and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. viii + 240 pages. $76. In Democratizing The Hegemonic State: Political...

No Man's Land: Dispatches from the Middle East.(ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... No Man's Land: Dispatches from the Middle East, Richard Crowley. Dublin and West Chester, PA: Liberties Press and Dufour Editions, 2007. 251 pages. $26.95 paper. Richard Crowley is a senior journalist with the Irish RTE news and since 2001, has...

The Psychology of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.(ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... The Psychology of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, by Moises F. Salina. Westport, CT and London, UK: Praeger Publishers, 2008. xxviii + 127 pages. Appends. to p. 161. Index to p. 166. About the author. $49.95. Moises Salinas approaches the...

Pens and Swords.(ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Pens and Swords, by Marda Dunsky. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. x + 395 pages. Notes to p. 437. Index to p. 444. $79.50 cloth; $27.50 paper. In anticipation of the expected increase in media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian...

Oil, Islam and Conflict Central Asia since 1945.(Central Asia)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Oil, Islam and Conflict Central Asia Since 1945, by Rob Johnson. London, UK: Reaktion Books, 2007. 242 pages. Refs. to p. 253. Sel. bibl. to p. 264. Index to p. 272. $25 paper. In this book, Rob Johnson undertakes a thorough examination of the...

Swimming up the Tigris.(IRAQ)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Swimming up the Tigris, by Barbara Nimri Aziz. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2007. xx + 287 pages. Map. Notes to p. 306. Sel. bibl. to p. 310. Index to p. 314. $24.95. During the 1990s, Barbra Nimri Aziz was a frequent traveler...

What Did We Do to Deserve This? Palestinian Life Under Occupation.(PALESTINE AND PALESTINIANS)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... What Did We Do to Deserve This? Palestinian Life Under Occupation, by Mark Howell. Reading, UK: Garnet Publishing, 2007.237 pages. Color photos. Bibl. to p. 238. Sources to p. 239. Acknowledgments. $34.95. Journalist and freelance photographer...

The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur.(SUDAN)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur, by Daoud Had. New York: Random House, 2007. 178 pages. Acknowl. Appendix to p. 200. $23 paper. In this poignant book, Daoud Had, a native of the Darfur region of Sudan, takes readers on a journey...

From Baghdad to Bedlam.(AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIRS)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... From Baghdad to Bedlam, by Maged Kadar. London, UK and San Francisco, CA: Saqi Books, 2007. 168 pages. $14.95 paper. From Baghdad to Bedlam is a short yet intimate memoir of an Iraqi immigrant to Britain. Maged Kadar opens a window into his...

Mubarak Al-Sabah: Founder of Modern Kuwait, 1896-1915.(BIOGRAPHY)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Mubarak Al-Sabah: Founder of Modern Kuwait, 1896-1915, by B.J. Slot. Lancaster, UK: Gazelle Books, 2006. xvii + 434 pages. Abbrevs. Maps. Illust. Bibl. to p. 442. Index to p. 461. $54. Far from a simple "Arab sitting on the edge of the desert,"...

Dark Hope: Working for Peace in Palestine.(CONFLICT RESOLUTION)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Dark Hope: Working for Peace in Palestine, by David Shulman. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2007. 220 pages. Gloss. to p. 223. $22. Dark Hope chronicles the work of the Israeli-Palestinian peace group Ta'ayush, of which the...

An Invitation to Laughter: A Lebanese Anthropologist in the Arab World.(CULTURE AND SOCIETY)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... An Invitation to Laughter: A Lebanese Anthropologist in the Arab World, by Fuad I. Khuri. Ed. by Sonia Jalbout Khuri. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2007. xxv + 178 pages. Appends. to p. 187. $48 cloth; $19 paper. Fuad I. Khuri's...

Shari'a: Islamic Law in the Contemporary Context.(LAW)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Shari'a: Islamic Law in the Contemporary Context, ed. by Abbas Amanat and Frank Griffel. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007. viii + 181 pages. Notes to p. 236. About the authors to p. 242. Index to p. 249. $45. In this work, editors...

The Many Faces of Political Islam.(MODERN HISTORY AND POLITICS)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... The Many Faces of Political Islam, by Mohammed Ayoob. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 2007. xii + 169 pages. Bibl. to p. 204. Index to p. 213. 65 cloth; $22.95 paper. The Many Faces of Islam is an in-depth analysis of the...

American Arabs and Political Participation.(MODERN HISTORY AND POLITICS)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... American Arabs and Political Participation, ed. by Philippa Strum. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, 2006. 155 pages, n.p. This collection of ten essays is the first volume to examine the state of political...

The Islamic Shield: Arab Resistance to Democratic and Religious Reforms.(MODERN HISTORY AND POLITICS)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... The Islamic Shield: Arab Resistance to Democratic and Religious Reforms, by Elie Elhadj. Boca Raton, FL: Brown Walker Press, 2006. 225 pages. Refs. to p. 241. Index to p. 249. $29.95. In The Islamic Shield, Eli Elhadj argues that the US-led...

Terror, Insurgency, and the State: Ending Protracted Conflicts.(MODERN HISTORY AND POLITICS)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Terror, Insurgency, and the State: Ending Protracted Conflicts, ed. by Marianne Heiberg, Brendan O'Leary, and John Tirman. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. viii + 426 pages. Notes to p. 475. Contribs. to p. 478. Index...

The Last Crusade: Americanism and the Islamic Reformation.(MODERN HISTORY AND POLITICS)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... The Last Crusade: Americanism and the Islamic Reformation, by Michael A. Palmer. Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, Inc., 2007. x + 247 pages. Bibl. to p. 259. Index to p. 272. $26.95. Americanism, Michael Palmer writes, guided by the ideals of...

Middle Eastern Terrorism.(MODERN HISTORY AND POLITICS)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... Middle Eastern Terrorism, by Mark Ensalaco. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. 274 pages. Notes to p. 300. Bibl. to p. 305. Index to p. 315. $39.95. In this book, University of Dayton Professor Mark Ensalaco aims to...

The Path to Paradise.(MODERN HISTORY AND POLITICS)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... The Path to Paradise, by Anat Berko. Westport, CT and London, UK: Praeger International Security, 2007. xv + 175 pages. Notes to p. 178. Gloss. to p. 180. Sel. bibl. to p. 183. Index to p. 194. $49.95. In this study, Anat Berko, a former...

The Historical Muhammad.(PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, AND SCIENCE)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... The Historical Muhammad, by Irving M. Zeitlin. Oxford, UK: Polity, 2007. viii + 164 pages. Notes to p. 169. Bibl. to p. 174. Index to p. 181. GBP 50 cloth; GBP 16.99 paper. In The Historical Muhammad, Irving M. Zeitlin scrutinizes the vast...

The Pasha: How Mehemet Ali Defied the West, 1839-1841.(PRE-20TH CENTURY HISTORY)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2008... The Pasha: How Mehemet Ali Defied the West, 1839-1841, by Letitia W. Ufford. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007. x + 238 pages. Photos. Maps. Chron. Notes to p. 248. Bibl. to p. 254. Index to p. 261. $45 paper. In The Pasha, Letitia W. Ufford...

Communications.(Letter to the editor)
March 22, 2008... 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...