Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

Jochen Hippler

Jochen Hippler, a contributing editor of this magazine, is a Political Scientist at the University of Duisburg-Essen and its Institute for Development and Peace (INEF), specializing in regional conflicts and interventionism.

MER Article

Iraq's Military Power: The German Connection

Even before the current confrontation in the Gulf, Iraq was an extremely militarized country, preoccupied with internal and external “security threats. ” When I traveled to Iraq in early 1990, I was struck by the extent of militarization in parts of the country. The whole of Iraqi Kurdistan was cove

Jochen Hippler • 14 min read

MER Article

Report from Afghanistan

The last Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan have gone home, clearing the stage around Kabul and other cities for a major showdown between Soviet-supported government forces and their American-supported guerrilla rivals, the mujahideen. Conventional wisdom has it that the mujahideen are now in position t

Jochen Hippler, Steven Galster • 13 min read

MER Article

NATO Goes to the Persian Gulf

In the last half of 1987, some 75 US, French, British, Italian, Belgian and Dutch warships steamed into the Persian Gulf in what became the largest peacetime naval operation since World War II. Six NATO countries had joined efforts specifically to police the Gulf, considerably increasing the longsta

Jochen Hippler • 10 min read

MER Article

Low-Intensity Warfare

The US Navy calls it “violent peace.” One of its foremost academic boosters says it means “to fight without appearing to fight.” They are talking about low-intensity conflict. This is the term the US government uses to describe a strategy of fighting small, relatively cheap wars. Few US troops are i

Jochen Hippler • 16 min read