MER Article The Kurds Between Iran and Iraq The news from Kurdistan is sad and grim. On both sides of the Iran-Iraq border, the central governments have been carrying out violent campaigns to bring the Kurdish districts under control and to wipe out the peshmergas (guerrilla fighters) of the various Kurdish organizations. This entails direct Martin Van Bruinessen • 31 min read
MER Article Changes at the Top Babrak Karmal was replaced as general secretary of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) six weeks after this series of articles first appeared. It was the first non-violent change in the party’s leadership since it came to power in April 1978. There is some evidence that the new lead Jonathan Steele • 2 min read
MER Article Bull About Kabul Most British correspondents covering the Falklands war were indignant at the way the Ministry of Defense fed them selected and one-sided reports of the fighting. Supported by colleagues from other countries, they vowed they would never be “used” this way in a war again. Jonathan Steele • 3 min read
MER Article Moscow's Kabul Campaign Six years after they invaded Afghanistan and were condemned by virtually the entire international community, Soviet troops with their Afghan government allies have slowly begun to win the war. Most of the reports received in the West over the last six years have come from journalists travelling wit Jonathan Steele • 17 min read
MER Article From the Editors (July/August 1986) Governments are fond of small, manageable wars, where victory is assured—such as the invasion of Grenada and the bombing of Libya. Such adventures are ideal for revving up enthusiastic media support for its policies. Some “wars” have the added advantage of never being over. The so-called wars on dru The Editors • 3 min read
MER Article Letters (May/June 1986) Read with Caution! MERIP owes its readers a much more critical review of Alan Hart’s Arafat: Terrorist or Peacemaker? than John Egan’s (MERIP Reports 136/37). Hart’s analytic style is that of a public relations agent. The average reader will doubt the accuracy of his account since he treats every P (Author not identified) • 5 min read
MER Article Books on Saudi Arabian Economics Michael Field, The Merchants (London: John Murray, 1984). John R. Presley, A Guide to the Saudi Arabian Economy (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984). Christian Huxley • 3 min read
MER Article CERMOC, Mouvements Communautaires et Espaces Urbains au Machreq Mouvements communautaires et Espaces urbains au Machreq (Beirut: Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Moyen-Orient Contemporain, 1985). One of the tragic ironies of the protracted Lebanese crisis is the fate of CERMOC and of Michel Seurat, one of the authors represented in this volume. Suerat wa (Author not identified) • 2 min read
MER Article Books on Arab Economies Samir Amin, The Arab Economy Today (London: Zed Press, 1982). Ismail-Sabri Abdalla et al, eds., Images of the Arab Future (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983). (Translated from Arabic) Adda Guecioueur, ed., The Problems of Arab Economic Development and Integration (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 198 Sharif Elmusa • 3 min read
MER Article Ekin, Enduring Witness Larry Ekin, Enduring Witness: The Churches and the Palestinians (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1985). Dale Bishop • 2 min read
MER Article Klare, American Arms Supermarket Michael Klare, American Arms Supermarket (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1984). (Author not identified) • 2 min read
MER Article Findley, They Dare to Speak Out Paul Findley, They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel’s Lobby (Westport, CT: Lawrence Hill and Company, 1985). Beshara Doumani • 4 min read
