MER Article

Hanging by a Thread—The Red Sea Blockade and Jordan's Fragile Garment Industry

Houthi attacks have revealed an industrial paradox.

Katharina Grüneisl, Taher Labadi • 15 min read

MER Article

Laundering Carbon—The Gulf’s ‘New Scramble for Africa’

Carbon offsets are changing the relationship between the Middle East and the African continent.

Adam Hanieh • 10 min read

MER Article

Bitcoin Cannot Free Palestine

Could the use of Bitcoin allow Palestinians to escape Israeli control over the economy and money in the West Bank and Gaza Strip? Hadas Thier examines the arguments of the crypto enthusiasts and finds serious problems with their vision of liberation via Bitcoin. Thier talks to political economist Sa

Hadas Thier • 13 min read

Current Analysis

Bitcoin Cannot Free Palestine

Could the use of Bitcoin allow Palestinians to escape Israeli control over the economy and money in the West Bank and Gaza Strip? Hadas Thier examines the arguments of the crypto enthusiasts and finds serious problems with their vision of liberation via Bitcoin. Thier talks to political economist Sa

Hadas Thier • 13 min read

Current Analysis

Labor Activists, the Living Wage and State Law in Iran

Fruzan Afshar traces the contested politics and complex law of setting the minimum wage and cost of living figures in Iran. She shows how Iranian labor activists are making innovative use of the state's labor laws to secure political inclusion and a platform to voice demands.

Fruzan Afshar • 13 min read

Current Analysis

Ambivalence and Desire in Revolutionary Syria

Daniel Neep reviews Lisa Wedeen's book Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria and finds it a "serious, powerful work operating on multiple levels: it speaks to an impressive range of debates in the Anglophone academy and the Syrian artistic field without losing sight

Daniel Neep • 8 min read

MER Article

Consequences of US Financial Warfare in the Middle East

When the COVID-19 pandemic spiked in Iran in March 2020, calls for lifting financial restrictions to allow the import of much needed medical supplies fell on deaf ears in President Donald Trump’s administration. The White House had no intention of putting the brakes on an increasingly forceful tool of

Hicham Safieddine • 10 min read

Covid-19 Coverage

The Challenges of a Public Health Approach to COVID-19 Amid Crises in Lebanon

Lebanon's highly privatized system of health care is presenting challenges to implementing a public health approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the country already suffering from multiple political and economic crises, containment of the coronavirus has been more effective than expected. But seri

Jocelyn DeJong • 11 min read

MER Article

Rebels, Reformers and Empire

For 20 years leading up to the uprisings of 2010-2011, Egypt and Tunisia suffered the ill effects of neoliberal economic reform, even as the international financial institutions and most economists hailed them as beacons of progress in the Arab world. For ten years preceding the revolts, workers and

Karen Pfeifer • 21 min read

Current Analysis

Seltzer Colonialism

Early each morning, dozens of workers from Jaba’ walk up a narrow set of stairs with trash strewn on either side to reach a bus stop on Highway 60, which bisects the West Bank on its way from Nazareth to Beersheva. As they climb the stairs, the workers pass a tunnel that once allowed villagers conve

Michael Fin, Callie Maidhof • 8 min read

MER Article

Center-Periphery Relations in Morocco

In Nador, a regional capital located on the Mediterranean Sea at the eastern end of the Rif Mountains in Morocco, coffee shop talk often turns to the relationship with the capital city, Rabat, a five-hour car ride or a nine-hour train or bus ride to the west. Nadoris are sensitive about their status

David McMurray • 13 min read

MER Article

Small Farmer Uprisings and Rural Neglect in Egypt and Tunisia

“We should make it up to the peasants,” Muhsin al-Batran, erstwhile head of the economic affairs unit in Egypt’s Ministry of Agriculture, told the official daily al-Ahram two months after the toppling of Husni Mubarak in 2011. “Make it up” -- why? And what is it that needs to be made up?

Habib Ayeb, Ray Bush • 14 min read