MER Article

Bird Markets, Artisanal Pigeons and Class Relations in the Middle East

On a dark, empty lot along Garden Street in Amman, Jordan stands an illuminated sign for Victors Café, a subterranean game space advertising pinball, pool and snooker, where pigeon breeders in the know secretly gather every Friday at 9pm for one of the best bird auctions in the capital.

Bridget Guarasci • 12 min read

MER Article

Gaza's Tunnel Complex

For an informal smuggling route, the tunnel complex underneath Gaza’s border with Egypt is remarkably formal. A security cordon of chicken-wire fencing surrounds the Gazan side of the site, barring entrance from Rafah town a few hundred meters away. At each exit a squad in military fatigues monitors

Nicolas Pelham • 18 min read

MER Article

The Illegal Oil Trade Along Turkey's Borders

According to a 2005 report from the Turkish parliament, approximately 3.75 billion liters (or 1 billion gallons) of smuggled oil enter Turkey every year. [1] This volume makes up 18 percent of the national oil market; the smuggling costs the state $3 billion in lost tax revenue. Oil smuggling

Firat Bozcali • 15 min read

MER Article

Extra-Legality

A large, sinister pair of eyes stares out from the cover of the February 2011 Wired magazine, above the heading “The Underworld Exposed.” The rest of the face is darkened, melding with the shadows. At the top of the shadows reside the words “Counterfeit Ferraris, Sex Syndicates, Darknets, Secret Soc

Carolyn Nordstrom • 11 min read

MER Article

A Modern-Day Pirate's Port of Call

Not far from Fort Jesus, the sixteenth-century fort erected by the Portuguese to mark their violent entry into the world of Indian Ocean commerce, is a small office near the old port of Mombasa. Scattered inside are copies of Seatrade and other maritime trade magazines. An old desktop computer displ

Jatin Dua • 7 min read

MER Article

On Piracy and the Afterlives of Failed States

Until the resurgence of naval predation in the late 2000s, pirates were confined to the realm of the fantastic -- novels, films and stage productions. Since Western states last worried about pirates in the eighteenth century, the intrinsic, man-bites-dog interest of contemporary pirates for the popu

George R. Trumbull • 14 min read

Current Analysis

Mystery Surrounds Tashkent Explosions

Four days of mysterious explosions in Uzbekistan, from March 28 to April 1, have once again belied the country's desired image as an island of stability among the post-Soviet republics of Central Asia. For some years, in fact, Uzbekistan has been one of the least stable and secure

Alisher Ilkhamov • 11 min read

MER Article

Gray Money, Corruption and the Post-September 11 Middle East

Graft, smuggling and kickbacks in the Middle East create huge sums of money requiring concealment in a secretive banking system. Al-Qaeda has simply used existing mechanisms for hiding cash. Regime and elite corruption, not pervasive regional sympathy with Osama bin Laden, are the main factors inhib

John Sfakianakis • 21 min read

MER Article

Networks of Discontent in Northern Morocco

What are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale? What are criminal gangs but petty kingdoms? A gang is a group of men under the command of a leader, bound by a compact of association, in which the plunder is divided according to an agreed convention. If this villainy wins so many recruits

James Ketterer • 13 min read

MER Article

The Menace and Appeal of Algeria's Parallel Economy

In March 1994, fighting between Algerian security forces and armed Islamist guerrillas reached a critical intensity around Blida, about 90 miles east of Algiers. A commercial strike to protest army killings of young men became the target of yet another military action. Blida is a center for private

Deborah Harrold • 11 min read

MER Article

Squatters and the State

The early 1990s saw a period of renewed urban popular uprisings in Iran, unprecedented since the 1979 revolution. From August 1991 to August 1994, six major upheavals took place in Tehran, Shiraz, Arak, Mashhad, Ghazvin and Tabriz, and there were frequent minor clashes in many other urban centers. M

Asef Bayat • 14 min read