MER Article Gray Money, Corruption and the Post-September 11 Middle East Graft, smuggling and kickbacks in the Middle East create huge sums of money requiring concealment in a secretive banking system. Al-Qaeda has simply used existing mechanisms for hiding cash. Regime and elite corruption, not pervasive regional sympathy with Osama bin Laden, are the main factors inhib John Sfakianakis • 21 min read
MER Article Pakistan Between Afghanistan and India Radical Islam and the activities of jihadi groups have been central to Pakistan’s relationship with Afghanistan as well as India. But the Pakistani military was already turning against such groups for internal reasons, before the US assault on al-Qaeda and the Taliban and this winter’s confrontation Hamza Alavi • 18 min read
MER Article The Shape of Afghanistan to Come On a cold January morning, Uzbekistan opened its first mission in its battered neighbor to the south with as much ceremony as weary Afghanistan could muster: generals were in uniforms, bureaucrats in Western suits and delegates from the rugged hinterland wore their traditional pakul. Anthony Shadid • 3 min read
MER Article Victims of Circumstance It was 3 am in Qala Niazi when the drone of US bombers rumbling through the night sky awoke villagers sleeping off a night of festivities last December 29. Within half an hour, a storm of sound and fury unleashed by the warplanes had ended, and the hamlet was no Anthony Shadid • 11 min read
MER Article Controllable Democracy in Uzbekistan Few doubt that the prolongation of the presidential term in Uzbekistan’s January referendum paves the way for presidency for life for Islam Karimov. The Uzbek regime is building a controllable democracy, combining the expansion of democratic-looking institutions with restricted civil liberties and h Alisher Ilkhamov • 6 min read
MER Article Opening the Debate on the Right of Return A decade after Oslo, Palestinian negotiators have reached an impasse in the debate concerning refugee return. The discussion should be opened to creative ideas beyond the sacred positions. New ideas, even those that won’t work, can shake loose new possibilities. Sari Hanafi • 12 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Spring 2002) Outside the Pentagon, the smoking rubble left when one wing of the Defense Department wasdestroyed by a hijacked airliner last September 11 is long since cleared. A scoreboard-sized digital clock counts down the days and hours until this coming September 11, when the Pentagon expects to have fully repaired The Editors • 6 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Winter 2001) Aruri, Naseer, ed. Palestinian Refugees: The Right of Return (London: Pluto Press, 2001). Afshari, Reza. Human Rights in Iran: The Abuse of Cultural Relativism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001). B’Tselem. Standard Routine: Beatings and Abuses of Palestinians by Israeli Securit (Author not identified) • 1 min read
