MER Article Class, State and the Reversal of Egypt's Agrarian Reform On June 24, 1992, the Egyptian People’s Assembly reversed the agrarian relations law, a centerpiece of the 1952 revolution, under which some 1 million families enjoyed quasi-property rights -- secure tenancy at fixed rents -- over more than 1.5 million of Egypt’s 6 million feddans of agricultural Raymond A. Hinnebusch • 10 min read
MER Article Regionalism and Geopolitics in the Maghrib In February 1993, the Arab Maghrib Union (AMU) marked its fourth anniversary. Despite the great hopes that were vested in this regional economic organization, it has not thrived. [1] There have been five summit meetings since the Treaty of Marrakesh was signed to great fanfare, but the heads of stat Robert Mortimer • 8 min read
MER Article The Economic Dimension of Yemeni Unity To the outside world, the unification of the two Yemens in 1990 resembled the German experience in miniature. North Yemen (the Yemen Arab Republic, YAR) was considered a laissez faire market economy, whereas the South (the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, PDRY) was “the communist one.” When, w Sheila Carapico • 17 min read
MER Article Global Economic Integration Conventional definitions imagine world trade as taking places among nations -- international trade, it is called. Convention also holds that everyone is best off when such trade is carried on as freely as possible. Neither the definition nor the polemic of free traders has changed much, except for a Doug Henwood • 7 min read
MER Article A New Post-Cold War System? There was a short period, just after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the shape of the emerging post-Cold war system seemed quite clear. The disintegration of the Eastern Bloc would be complemented by further economic and political integration of Western Europe according to the Maastricht Trea Roger Owen • 11 min read
MER Article From the Editors (September/October 1993) In this issue we consider “new orders” in several senses -- orders of hierarchy, orders of magnitude and marching orders. Ray Hinnebusch succinctly notes the underlying theme: the struggle of capital to dominate labor, internationally via the IMF’s “liberalization” leverage and locally (in this case The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article Rethinking Palestinian Politics During the Gulf war the entire population of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip lived under total curfew for 36 days, with brief and erratic periods of relaxation toward the end of the ordeal. Most inhabitants had no secure supply of food and fuel, no gas masks and no Joel Beinin • 5 min read
MER Article Basri et al, Revision de la constitution marocaine 1992 Driss Basri, Michel Rousset and Georges Vedel, eds., Revision de la constitution marocaine 1992: analyses et commentaires (Imprimerie Royale, 1992). Darrow Zeidenstein • 2 min read
MER Article Fawcett, Iran and the Cold War Louise L’Estrange Fawcett, Iran and the Cold War: The Azerbaijani Crisis of 1946 (Cambridge, 1992). Moyara de Moraes Ruehsen • 3 min read
MER Article Korn, Stalemate David A. Korn, Stalemate: The War of Attrition and Great Power Diplomacy in the Middle East, 1967-1970 (Westview, 1992). In a world conditioned to perceive the rhythm of the Arab-Israeli conflict from the vantage point of downtown Tel Aviv, the Egyptian-Israeli war of attrition of 1969-1970 along t Mouin Rabbani • 2 min read
MER Article Universalism and Solidarity Fatima Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam (Addison-Wesley, 1991). Hisham Sharabi, ed., Theory, Politics and the Arab World: Critical Responses (Routledge, 1990). Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo and Lourdes Torres, eds., Third World Women Barbara Harlow • 7 min read
MER Article ADL's Spy Ring The scandal has not yet received the national media attention it deserves, but West Coast activists are up in arms about revelations that the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith secretly employed a self-styled art dealer named Roy Bullock to collect information on a wide range of individuals and Al Miskin • 4 min read
