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 Patrick Seale: A Remembrance “It is as a mirror of rival interests on an international scale that Syria deserves special attention,” a young Anglo-Irish journalist wrote in 1965. “Indeed, her internal affairs are almost meaningless unless related to the wider context, first of her Arab neighbors and then of other interested pow Adam Shatz • 16 min read
Current Analysis Using and Abusing Memory A firestorm broke out unexpectedly on my Facebook feed yesterday morning. Shira Robinson • 4 min read
Current Analysis In Egypt, Nasty Business as Usual Egypt certainly has a penchant for tragicomedy. A week after prosecutors in the terrorism case against Al Jazeera employees [http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/22/al-jazeera-trial-media-ejected-inaudible-recordings-egyptian-judge-journalist] introduced a video of sheep farming -- among other (Author not identified) • 3 min read
Current Analysis A Guide for the Perplexed You have reached the village of Kafr Bir‘im. Enjoy the clean air of the Upper Galilee. Listen to the mountain silence. Observe the elegance of the stone construction in front of you; it is left standing after the 1948 occupation of the village and its consequent destruction. And realize as well that Samera Esmeir • 18 min read
Current Analysis "Progress" in Afghanistan, Then and Now I recently came across a document in the archives, a reminder that the march of “progress” in Afghanistan sometimes seems more reminiscent of a never-ending marching band reliably circling a parade ground [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLJ8ILIE780]. The martial metaphor here isn’t accidental: As el Darryl Li • 4 min read
Current Analysis Southern Yemeni Activists Prepare for Nationwide Rally For the first time, a Million-Person Rally [https://www.facebook.com/South.Arabia.2014] or milyuniyya will be held in Yemen’s oil-rich eastern province of Hadramawt.[/sites/default/files/dahlgren1.png] It is being called milyuniyyat al-huwiya al-junubiyya or the Million-Strong Rally for Southern Ide Susanne Dahlgren • 2 min read
Current Analysis Six Questions for Mouin Rabbani Yesterday in Gaza representatives of Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization announced a blueprint for talks about forming a government of national consensus (Arabic text here [http://www.maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=692256]). Hamas and the PLO’s dominant Fatah faction have been at l The Editors • 8 min read
Current Analysis Seven Questions for Ammar Basha Ammar Basha is a Yemeni filmmaker. His documentary films include Breaking the Silence [http://womensvoicesnow.org/watchfilm/breaking_the_silence1], about the discrimination faced by working women of African descent in Yemen, and a series called Days in the Heart of the Revolution, about the 2011 Yem Sheila Carapico • 6 min read
Current Analysis A Loveless Diplomatic Marriage with No Future Among the would-be therapists of the foreign policy world, the alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia is a textbook case of a “loveless marriage.” Though the values of the two states are at odds, or so the thinking goes, the great democracy and the absolute monarchy are bound together Amanda Ufheil-Somers • 2 min read
Current Analysis Learning from the Past in the Iranian Nuclear Dispute The controversy over the Iranian nuclear program is in many ways a product of the US-Iranian conflict. The United States and Iran are in the grip of mutual negative perceptions that, in turn, have been reinforced by the escalatory dynamics of the nuclear dispute. After years of seeming diplomatic de Tytti Erästö • 19 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
