Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

Joe Stork

Joe Stork was the editor of Middle East Report until 1995 and deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division from 1995 to 2017. He is currently chair of the advisory board of the Gulf Center for Human Rights.

MER Article

Eric Rouleau

Eric Rouleau (1926-2015) enjoyed an extraordinary career as one of the premier international correspondents writing about the Middle East. From 1955 to 1985 he wrote primarily for Paris-based Le Monde. Rouleau was a good friend of MERIP, and contributed articles and reviews to Middle East Report in

Joe Stork • 2 min read

MER Article

Lackner, Why Yemen Matters

Helen Lackner, ed., Why Yemen Matters (London: Saqi, 2014). The essays in Why Yemen Matters, though written prior to the stunning takeover of much of the country by Ansar Allah, otherwise known as the Houthis, provide an excellent primer on the political and economic crises that underlie those stil

Joe Stork • 3 min read

MER Article

Maxime Rodinson Looks Back

Maxime Rodinson (1915-2004) was a pioneering scholar of Islam and the Middle East, as well as a prominent Marxian public intellectual. A product of classical Orientalist training, he was professor of Old Ethiopic and South Arabian languages at the Sorbonne. His scholarly sensibility was historical-m

Joan Mandell, Joe Stork • 23 min read

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Sojourners and Settlers: An Introduction

The full moon over Mecca marked the end of the holy month of pilgrimage. Ten thousand miles away in California, a Yemeni work crew gathered around a pickup truck with its precious cargo of sheep destined for sacrifice. A group of cowboys looked on, bewildered. These farmworkers are part of a two-dec

Jonathan Friedlander, Joe Stork • 2 min read

MER Article

Fred Halliday

The death of Fred Halliday, a contributing editor of this magazine since 1977, leaves an enormous void in the lives of many of us who were part of MERIP’s first decades. He also served on the editorial board of New Left Review from 1969-1983, and taught international relations at the London School o

Joe Stork • 5 min read

MER Article

Marsha Pripstein Posusney

MERIP mourns the passing of Marsha Pripstein Posusney (1953-2008), a stalwart member of the editorial committee of Middle East Report from 1989-1994, a MERIP program committee member from 1996-2001 and our friend. An experienced teacher, Marsha was professor of political science at Bryant University

Diane Singerman, Elliott Colla, Joe Stork • 6 min read

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Samih Farsoun

We mourn the passing of Samih Farsoun on June 9, 2005 and offer our heartfelt condolences to his partner Katha Kissman, his daughter Rudi, and his other family and friends. A long-time professor of sociology at American University in Washington, DC, Samih was one of the earliest members of the Middl

Lisa Hajjar, Joe Stork • 2 min read

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Maxime Rodinson

Maxime Rodinson died on May 24, in Paris, at the age of 89. He was a contributing editor of this magazine from 1988 to 2000, and was honored for his pioneering work at MERIP’s fifteenth anniversary celebrations in Washington in 1986.

Joe Stork • 1 min read

MER Article

Mahfoud Bennoune

Mahfoud Bennoune died on May 17, succumbing finally to amyloidosis, an auto-immune disease he had battled since 1990. Mahfoud authored numerous pieces on colonial and post-colonial Algeria and Maghribi workers in Europe for Middle East Report (then MERIP Reports) beginning in the mid-1970s. He was s

Joe Stork • 1 min read

MER Article

Eqbal Ahmad

The death of Eqbal Ahmad on May 11 was an occasion of great sadness for those who had the privilege of knowing and working with him. Eqbal was associated with MERIP for many years as a contributing editor, but this affiliation hardly conveyed the key role he played in MERIP’s formative years. If we

Joe Stork • 2 min read

MER Article

Constructing an International Criminal Court

From June 15 until July 17, 1998, diplomats from around the world are assembling an International Criminal Court (ICC). Complementing the International Court of Justice in the Hague, which hears disputes between governments, the ICC would investigate and try individuals accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. An

Joe Stork • 6 min read

MER Article

Bahrain's Crisis Worsens

Since early June 1997, an upsurge of crude firebombings, street demonstrations and heavy repression has added some nine deaths and an unknown number of arrests and injuries to the toll of the ongoing unrest in Bahrain. The troubles erupted there three years ago with demonstrations over unemployment, discrimination and the

Joe Stork • 11 min read