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 Changing Modes of Political Dialogue Across the Middle East and East Asia, 1880-2010 East Asia’s relationship with the Middle East today is based mainly on economics and is devoid of grand political projects of solidarity and intellectual dialogue. Countries such as China, Japan and Korea present the Middle East with a model of neoliberal economic development. At the same time, the Cemil Aydin • 14 min read
Current Analysis Chez Vous, Gitmo to Guangzhou We at MERIP are excited about the issue of Middle East Report on China and the Middle East coming out next week, featuring the work of two of my mentors, Engseng Ho [http://www.merip.org/author/engseng-ho] and MER editor Cemil Aydın [http://history.unc.edu/people/faculty/cemil-ayden/]. The issue wil Darryl Li • 4 min read
Current Analysis Jordan, Morocco and an Expanded GCC A recent report suggests [http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140414/DEFREG04/304140018/] that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) may be looking to expand…again. The report says that, during a March summit, the group of six Arab petro-princedoms extended invitations to both Jordan and Morocco to jo Curtis Ryan • 4 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Summer 2013) The problems of Christians in the Middle East are often not discussed forthrightly, either in the region or in writings about it. One reason is that, in many ways, the problems of Christians are everyone’s problems -- Israeli occupation hurts Christian and Muslim Palestinians alike, as does second-c The Editors • 3 min read
MER Article Culture, State and Revolution The Arab uprisings have brought major challenges, as well as unprecedented opportunities, to the culture industries. According to a flurry of celebratory news articles from the spring of 2011 onward, protest art is proliferating in the region, from graffiti in Egypt to hip-hop in Morocco to massive Sonali Pahwa, Jessica Winegar • 15 min read
MER Article The New Arab Cold War and the Struggle for Syria In his classic study, The Arab Cold War, Malcolm Kerr charted the machinations of inter-Arab politics during an era dominated by Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser. In another renowned work, The Struggle for Syria, Patrick Seale documented the links between Syria’s tumultuous domestic politics and Curtis Ryan • 10 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Spring 2012) Are the upheavals in the Arab world revolutions? Uprisings? Revolts? Perhaps all these terms are misnomers, because they imply an end point, a moment when the event will be over, its historical task finished, if not completed. It is increasingly apparent, however, that the Arab world is witnessing The Editors • 2 min read
Current Analysis A Year After Tahrir In the mid-1990s, the Iraqi intellectual Isam al-Khafaji published a brace of articles lamenting the decay of “Arab thought in a dismal age.” Al-Khafaji glumly surveyed the Arab cultural scene, which, though bubbling with vitality at the edges, was dominated by the stolid priesthood of the “ultra-nationalist state.” In country Chris Toensing • 7 min read
Current Analysis A New Clarity for Washington Conventional wisdom holds that Washington is one of the big losers in the 2011 upheavals across the Arab world. Two long-time allies, Tunisia’s Ben Ali and Egypt’s Mubarak, have fallen, and in their place elections have empowered Islamists, precisely as the deposed dictators had warned for decades. Another Chris Toensing • 3 min read
MER Article Kuran, The Long Divergence Timur Kuran, The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East (Princeton, 2011). Readers looking at the title of Timur Kuran’s new book might be forgiven for thinking it had come from some pre-Orientalism time warp where it was still possible to make essentialist generalizations about Roger Owen • 4 min read
