MER Article From the Editors (Spring 1996) The first month of 1996 saw election monitors and “democratization” consultants falling over each other in the West Bank. Along with the flood of media witnesses, they certified that, in former President Jimmy Carter’s words, “The Palestinian people had an historic opportunity to choose their leader The Editors • 4 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (November/December 1995) Aburish, Said. The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall of the House of Saud (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995). Afkhami, Mahnaz, ed. Faith and Freedom: Women’s Human Rights in the Muslim World (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1995). African Rights. Great Expectations: The Civil Roles of th The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article Revisiting the New World Order Fran Hazelton, ed. Iraq Since the Gulf War: Prospects for Democracy (London: Zed Books, 1994). Phyllis Bennis and Michel Moushabeck, eds. Altered States: A Reader in the New World Order (New York: Olive Branch Press, 1993). John O’Loughlin, Tom Mayer and Edward S. Greenberg, eds. War and Its Conse Simon Bromley • 6 min read
MER Article Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon Palestinians have endured military occupation, deportation, torture, land confiscation, massacre, siege, aerial bombardment and internecine conflict but until this year they had been spared the experience of being boat people. That has now changed with the recent odyssey of a boatload of some 650 Pa Muhammad Ali Khalidi • 8 min read
MER Article Shari'a of Civil Code? Egypt's Parallel Legal Systems Egyptian courts have increasingly become a site of political struggle between Islamists and secularists. In a state that restricts political parties and open political debate, courts are now one of the main venues for political expression for groups such as the Muslim Brothers. In the last few years Karim El-Gawhary • 7 min read
MER Article Column: Own a Piece of Moroc? For many ordinary investors, the dream of cashing in on the market revolution sweeping the globe turned sour following last year’s collapse of the Mexican peso. But if you have some capital to spare and are in search of the elusive next big boom, take a chance on Foreign and Colonial Emerging Middle Al Miskin • 3 min read
MER Article Nuclear Counterproliferation in the Middle East The United States and France are developing strategies for using nuclear weapons in developing countries, ostensibly to counter proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical and biological). The Middle East in particular has become a testing ground for nuclear war games. [1] This w Hans M. Kristensen, Joshua Handler • 13 min read
MER Article Keeping Up with the French Foreign policy insiders in Washington are fond of describing France as a uniquely amoral weapons-trafficking nation that will sell anything to anyone. This harsh judgement seemed to be confirmed last August, when the latest Congressional Research Service report on arms transfers revealed that France William D. Hartung • 3 min read
MER Article The Middle East Arms Bazaar After the Gulf War In the course of a March 1991 “victory tour” of the Middle East after the US-led defeat of Iraq, James Baker, then secretary of state, piously proclaimed the hope that Desert Storm might be “the last great battle” in the region. Whatever credence this forecast may get from recent agreements Joe Stork • 13 min read
MER Article Iran and the Virtual Reality of US War Games The year is 2002. Saddam Hussein has been assassinated, and Shi‘i forces in Basra have declared their independence from Baghdad. Iran, the dominant regional power, invades Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to gain regional hegemony, control the price of oil, finance its military buildup “and ameliorate its so William M. Arkin • 9 min read
MER Article Gun Belt in the Beltway On August 22 and 23, 1993, Saudi Arabia’s finances received rare front-page coverage in the New York Times, inaugurating a period of hand wringing inside the Beltway and among the academy’s consulting class over the kingdom’s future. This is a tradition going back decades, to the 1940s, when the Sau Robert Vitalis • 3 min read
MER Article The Most Obscure Dictatorship The camera avoids faces, except those of the plainclothes police. The black-and-white images are hazy, jumpy. They evoke the antiquated style of negatives that have escaped the censor and customs searches. “This could be any country,” says the commentator -- Chile under Gen. Pinochet, or Burma under Alain Gresh • 16 min read
