MER Article Editor's Picks (Fall 2003) Barzilai, Gad. Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2003). Cortright, David, et al. Toward a Strategy for Success in Iraq (Goshen, IN: Fourth Freedom Forum, August 2003). Dallal, Marwan. October 2000: Law and Politics Before the Or Commission Inquiry (Shafa (Author not identified) • 1 min read
MER Article Seeking a "Social Contract" for Saudi Arabia For most of its history, the royal family of Saudi Arabia has maintained public order by exercising absolute, at times brutal, control over the people of the country. The House of Saud has tolerated neither resistance nor the questioning of its authority. But in the mayhem of 2003, with war Toby Jones • 19 min read
MER Article Fragile Glasnost on the Tigris Sitting in Baghdad’s packed Café Shahbandar on a Friday afternoon in June of 2003, I was overwhelmed by the atmosphere of open discussion and genuine freedom. Drawn by the open-air used book market on nearby al-Mutanabbi Street, the patrons -- old journalists, professors and hip artists with shoulder-length hair Keith Watenpaugh • 9 min read
MER Article A Clean Slate in Iraq Iraq has the world’s second largest oil reserves, but before the 2003 war its human development indicators placed it only just ahead of Sudan and Bangladesh. [1] The war and its ongoing aftermath have left Iraq further shattered. At the most basic level, diseases of poverty are again sweeping Colin Rowat, Justin Alexander • 14 min read
MER Article Monumental Disrespect Somewhere in east Baghdad there is a brick wall bearing the names of the Iraqi soldiers who died in the Iraq-Iran war, launched by the regime of Saddam Hussein in September 1980. There is no reliable tally of the casualties to date, but the number of dead is estimated to Sinan Antoon • 7 min read
MER Article "Iraq Is Not a Lost Battle" Isam al-Khafaji, a contributing editor of Middle East Report, is an Iraqi social scientist. As a young faculty member and a left-wing intellectual, he was forced to leave Iraq in 1978 during campaigns of forced Baathification in higher education and repression of the left. Between that year and the fall Paul Aarts • 11 min read
