Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

Fred H. Lawson

Fred H. Lawson, a contributing editor of this magazine and James Irvine professor of government at Mills College is author of Why Syria Goes to War (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996).

MER Article

Private Capital and the State in Contemporary Syria

Throughout the late 1980s, Syria’s economy suffered persistent difficulties. Shortages of imported machinery and spare parts led to underproduction and quality control breakdowns in the country’s larger factories. External indebtedness rose to some $4.9 billion by 1988; payments on foreign loans fel

Fred H. Lawson • 16 min read

MER Article

Karsh, The Soviet Union and Syria

Efraim Karsh, The Soviet Union and Syria: The Asad Years (London: Routledge, 1988.)

Fred H. Lawson • 2 min read

MER Article

US-Arab Economic Trends in the Reagan Period

US economic relations with the Arab states have entered a new phase in the last two years, one that reproduces many of the features that characterized the end of the Carter administration. US exports to the region rose by about 13 percent from 1986 to 1987 with shipments to Iraq, Egypt and the Unite

Fred H. Lawson • 7 min read

MER Article

Peterson, Defending Arabia

J. E. Peterson, Defending Arabia (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986).

Fred H. Lawson • 1 min read

MER Article

Nonneman, Iraq, the Gulf States and the War

Gerd Nonneman, Iraq, the Gulf States and the War (London: Ithaca Press, 1986).

Fred H. Lawson • 1 min read

MER Article

Hussain, Political Perspectives on the Muslim World

Asaf Hussain, Political Perspectives on the Muslim World (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984).

Fred H. Lawson • 1 min read

Class and State in Kuwait

Over the past five years, Kuwait’s rulers have confronted a variety of crises. Declining oil revenues have forced the regime to engage in deficit spending, which may jeopardize both the state’s extensive system of social welfare programs and its efforts to encourage diverse industrial development pr

Fred H. Lawson • 20 min read

MER Article

Stookey, South Yemen

Robert Stookey, South Yemen: A Marxist Republic in Arabia (Boulder: Westview Press, 1982).

Fred H. Lawson • 1 min read

MER Article

Davis, Challenging Colonialism

Eric Davis, Challenging Colonialism: Bank Misr and Egyptian Industrialization, 1920-1941 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983). Eric Davis intends his study to answer a wide range of questions concerning capitalism and industrialization in the Middle East. Two issues in particular are cent

Fred H. Lawson • 5 min read

The Reagan Administration in the Middle East

Under the Reagan administration, the United States has waged “the second Cold War” with particular forcefulness in the Middle East. Washington has moved combat forces into the region repeatedly since 1981: to engage first Libyan warplanes over the Gulf of Sidra, then Lebanese militias and Syrian for

Fred H. Lawson • 23 min read

Books on Syria

John F. Devlin, Syria: Modern State in an Ancient Land (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1983). Robert Olson, The Baath and Syria, 1947-1982 (Princeton, NJ: The Kingston Press, 1982). Umar F. Abd-Allah, The Islamic Struggle in Syria (Berkeley, CA: Mizan Press, 1983).

Fred H. Lawson • 5 min read

MER Article

Social Bases for the Hama Revolt

During the first week of February 1982, serious fighting broke out in Syria between residents of the north-central city of Hamah and the government’s armed forces. A Syrian army raid on a number of buildings that were suspected of being hideouts for local cells of the Muslim Brothers precipitated th

Fred H. Lawson • 18 min read