MER Article Editor's Picks (Spring 2014) Abunimah, Ali. The Battle for Justice in Palestine (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2014). Adib-Moghaddam, Arshin. A Critical Introduction to Khomeini (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014). Aidi, Hisham D. Rebel Music: Race, Empire and the New Muslim Youth Culture (New York: Random House, 2014). (Author not identified) • 1 min read
MER Article The Sociologist Has Left the Building “Here in Iran, Professor Wallerstein, you are a dangerous man.” So an adviser of President Hassan Rouhani counseled the 83-year old sociologist, and he was correct. It was March, and Immanuel Wallerstein had just arrived for a three-city lecture tour. It was as if the Islamic Republic had granted a Kevan Harris • 9 min read
MER Article China and the Sudans It wasn’t supposed to be like this. South Sudan and Sudan had agreed to share oil revenue, oil was flowing again and, despite considerable problems, relations appeared headed in a slightly better direction. Both governments were drawn to China as a key provider and practical enabler of economic assi Daniel Large • 13 min read
MER Article The Moral Panic Over Chinese in Egypt On a brisk autumn evening in 2010, male coffee shop patrons in the upscale Cairo neighborhood of Zamalek were treated to the sight of young Chinese women in miniskirts circulating to hand out brochures for a new massage parlor. It was an unusual sight indeed for Egyptian public space -- both the wom Jessica Winegar • 8 min read
MER Article Arabs in Yiwu, Confucius in East Beirut The September 11, 2001 attacks marked the beginning of large-scale trade between the Middle East and mainland China in the modern era. New visa restrictions in the United States -- until then the number-one trading partner of Arab countries -- forced Arab merchants to find business destinations in v Roschanack Shaery • 6 min read
MER Article DragonMart, the Mega-Souk of Today's Silk Road In 1998, a shipwreck was discovered off the coast of Indonesia. It turned out to be the remains of an early ninth-century dhow from the Gulf that had been headed back from China with a cargo of over 70,000 items, primarily ceramics, produced in different Chinese regions. The goods varied in style an JACQUELINE ARMIJO • 9 min read
MER Article China's Strategic Middle Eastern Languages Though the People’s Republic of China has extensive commercial ties in the Middle East, its three strategic partners in the region are Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey. It is not surprising, therefore, that the major Middle Eastern language programs in China today are Arabic, Persian and Turkish. The g Haiyun Ma, I-wei Jennifer Chang • 5 min read
MER Article Prospects for China's Expanding Role in the Middle East In the autumn of 2011, as the international outcry against Bashar al-Asad intensified, it was impossible for the government of China to avoid being drawn into the conflict in Syria. After China joined Russia in October of that year in vetoing a UN Security Council resolution condemning the brutality Kyle Haddad-Fonda • 12 min read
MER Article Mao in a Muslim Land In the coming years, China is expected to invest some $18 billion in an “economic corridor” crossing Pakistan to the Arabian Sea at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The latest installment is the development of the Pakistani port of Gwadar. The port scheme is a strategic move linked to the restoration Kamran Asdar Ali • 4 min read
MER Article Iranian Maoism As in most other countries, Maoism in Iran emerged in the mid-1960s when Sino-Soviet disputes split the ranks of international communism. But Iranian communism and its Maoist variant were also rooted in domestic developments. During the 1940s, the pro-Soviet (Tudeh) communist party had made signific Afshin Matin-Asgari • 4 min read
MER Article Hadi al-`Alawi, Scion of the Two Civilizations In the 1950s, the People’s Republic of China began to host a small community of Arab scholars and journalists, recruited mostly through “revolutionary” channels like the FLN, the PLO, and the Iraqi and Sudanese Communist Parties. These experts were brought to China with the explicit purpose of editi Mohammed al-Sudairi • 6 min read
MER Article The China-Africa Axis in Relation to Other Regional Axes China and Africa grosso modo are often seen as standing at two ends of the spectrum of developing countries, the former having acquired enormous industrial capacity in short order, and the latter not. In this view, a great potential for exchange exists between the two: manufactures and infrastructur Engseng Ho • 11 min read
