MER Article The Problem with "Hearts and Minds" in Afghanistan US strategy in Afghanistan sits upon a precipice. Eight years after the United States invaded the Taliban-controlled portion of Afghanistan in response to the horrific events of September 11, 2001, Washington and its allies find themselves waging a war of unknown character, for unclear purposes, against an ill-defined enemy. As B. D. Hopkins • 13 min read
MER Article The New (and Old) Classics of Counterinsurgency Two weapons today threaten freedom in our world. One -- the 100-megaton hydrogen bomb -- requires vast resources of technology, effort and money. It is an ultimate weapon of civilized and scientific man. The other -- a nail and a piece of wood buried in a rice paddy -- is deceptively simple, the wea Laleh Khalili • 21 min read
MER Article "Culture as a Weapon" At the fourth Culture Summit of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) in April 2010, Maj. Gen. David Hogg, head of the Adviser Forces in Afghanistan, proposed that the US military think of “culture as a weapon system.” [1] The military, Hogg asserted, needs to learn the culture of the l ROCHELLE DAVIS • 19 min read
MER Article Iraq Moves Backward The easiest way to understand the dramatic changes in Iraqi politics from 2009 to 2010 is to look at shifts in the discourse of politicians belonging to the Da‘wa Party of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Reidar Visser • 16 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Summer 2010) During his second term, his approval rating heading stubbornly south, President George W. Bush was fond of comparing himself to Harry Truman. The dour Missourian, too, was “misunderestimated” -- lightly regarded when thrust onto the world stage and then raked over the coals for strike breaking and a The Editors • 5 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Spring 2010) Baer, Marc David. Honored by the Glory of Islam: Conversion and Conquest in the Ottoman Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). Baer, Marc David. The Dönme: Jewish Converts, Muslim Revolutionaries and Secular Turks (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2009). Bayat, Asef. Life as Poli The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article Mohamed el-Sayed Said Mohamed el-Sayed Said, a long-time contributing editor of this publication, died at the age of 59 on October 10, 2009. He was buried in his native Port Said. The intellectual elite of Egypt attended his funeral. Jason Brownlee, Joshua Stacher • 2 min read
MER Article Peleg, Israeli Culture Between the Two Intifadas Yaron Peleg, Israeli Culture Between the Two Intifadas: A Brief Romance (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2008). Rebecca L. Stein • 4 min read
MER Article Pitching the Princes Robert Lacey, Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia (Viking, 2009). Robert Vitalis • 8 min read
