Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Laleh Khalili

Laleh Khalili is a professor of international politics at Queen Mary University of London.

The Savor of Memory — Kalam pilau. Photo courtesy the author.The two volumes of Ketab-e-Mostatab-e-Ashpazi (The Excellent Book of Cookery) by Najaf Daryabandari and Fahimeh Rastkar.Abgousht with accoutrements. Photo courtesy the author.

Current Analysis

The Savor of Memory

Laleh Khalili draws on memories from childhood, her experience of leaving Iran and her ongoing interest in cooking to review a series of classic and contemporary Iranian cookbooks. Through them she reflects on the politics of identity in the Iranian diaspora and the global circuits of foodways refle

Laleh Khalili • 17 min read

MER Article

Paper Trails Pedagogy

In order to uncover the paper trails of the powerful, one has to first learn how to track down, read and decipher obscure planning documents that are often available in the public sphere.

Laleh Khalili • 4 min read

MER Article

Fighting Over Drones

After drones became the American weapon of choice in Pakistan sometime toward the end of the 2000s, a number of US counterinsurgency experts expressed their discomfort with the killer robots in various military-related forums. For these writers, the non-human nature of drones, their blunt force and

Laleh Khalili • 9 min read

MER Article

The New (and Old) Classics of Counterinsurgency

Two weapons today threaten freedom in our world. One -- the 100-megaton hydrogen bomb -- requires vast resources of technology, effort and money. It is an ultimate weapon of civilized and scientific man. The other -- a nail and a piece of wood buried in a rice paddy -- is deceptively simple, the wea

Laleh Khalili • 21 min read

MER Article

On Torture

BOOKS REVIEWED: Darius Rejali, Torture and Democracy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007). Marnia Lazreg, Torture and the Twilight of Empire: From Algiers to Baghdad (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008).

Laleh Khalili • 18 min read

MER Article

Everyday Orientalism

Bernard Rougier, Everyday Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam Among Palestinians in Lebanon (translated by Pascale Ghazaleh) (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007).

Laleh Khalili • 9 min read

MER Article

A Landscape of Uncertainty

The events following the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri and Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon have not discernibly changed the situation of Palestinians in Lebanon. While a surprising government edict has made it easier for Palestinians to get clerical and manual jobs, calls for disarming them and pe

Laleh Khalili • 14 min read