MER Article Qashqa'i Nomads and the Islamic Republic The Qashqa’i, an important tribal confederacy of approximately 400,000 people in the Zagros Mountains of southwestern Iran, are one of Iran’s national minorities. They speak Turkish and are Shi‘i Muslims. The nomads’ low-altitude winter pastures and high-altitude summer pastures are separated by hundreds of kilometers, and Lois Beck • 13 min read
MER Article The News Industry Over the past few months, a couple of stories have crossed our desk that merit more attention than they got. These stories tell us some important things about how the US news industry operates, especially its willingness to follow the administration’s cues on major issues. Al Miskin • 4 min read
MER Article Discriminate Intervention NATO, long the linchpin of Western military operations in Europe, should be prepared to intervene “out-of-area” -- in the Third World, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. This was the message delivered in February by Michael Legge, NATO’s assistant secretary-general for defense planning policy and author of the Mariano Aguirre • 15 min read
MER Article Shock Troops for the New Order The various components of a modern military establishment are like gamblers at a casino. Every now and then someone gets hot and goes on a roll. In recent years the military equivalent of a winner on a roll has been US Special Operations Forces. During the 1980s, special operations, along David Isenberg • 10 min read
MER Article Making War Difficult: Cooperative Security in the Middle East John Steinbruner is director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. Joe Stork and Yahya Sadowski spoke with him in March 1992. Could you describe the concept of cooperative security? How is it different from collective security? They are not mutually exclusive, b Joe Stork, Yahya Sadowski • 9 min read
MER Article Reversing the Middle East Nuclear Race “The Middle East has entered the nuclear age,” said Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens in October 1991, as he surveyed the region’s strategic environment in the aftermath of the Gulf war and just days before the opening session in Madrid of the Arab-Israeli peace talks. [1] Arens may merely have b Yezid Sayigh • 17 min read
MER Article Scuds versus Butter Contrary to the common wisdom in Washington, most Arabs are poor, rational and interested in arms control. Declining oil prices, rising population, economic mismanagement and foreign policy adventurism have wreaked havoc with the economies of the Middle East, while local arms races have steadily raised the price of providing for Yahya Sadowski • 34 min read
MER Article From the Editors In the pages that follow, our authors envision a set of compelling scenarios that could halt and reverse the ratchet wheel of militarization in the Middle East. Yahya Sadowski sees in the worsening material circumstances of most states of the region an unusual opportunity for arms control, as governments seek The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article Document: One World, No Rivals Excerpts from the Pentagon’s February 18, 1992 draft of the Defense Planning Guidance for Fiscal Years 1994-1999. DEFENSE STRATEGY OBJECTIVES Our first objective is to prevent the reemergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on t (Author not identified) • 2 min read
MER Article How Bush Backed Iraq An ongoing House Banking Committee’s investigation into US policy toward Iraq, led by chair Henry Gonzalez (D-TX), sheds new light on the role of George Bush in pressing for strong US support of the Baath regime in Iraq. Documents released by the committee reveal that at critical moments Bush interv Jack Colhoun • 7 min read
MER Article Letters to the Editor CALLING ARAB FEMINISTS I am gathering materials for an anthology of writings by Arab feminists. If you are Arab-American, Arab-Canadian or of Arab/Middle Eastern origin and now living in the US or Canada, please consider contributing to this book. It will be published by Kitchen Table: Women of Col (Author not identified) • 2 min read
MER Article Omissi, Air Power and Colonial Control David Omissi, Air Power and Colonial Control: The Royal Air Force, 1919-1939 (Manchester, 1990). In the recent war with Iraq, US air superiority was crucial in minimizing the US (and other allied) casualties, preparing the ground for a swift advance by land forces. The Middle East, and particularly Vinay Lal • 3 min read
