MER Article Fischer and Abedi, Debating Muslims Michael M.J. Fischer and Mehdi Abedi, Debating Muslims: Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and Tradition (Wisconsin, 1990). In the older literature on the Middle East and the Muslim world, Islam almost invariably appeared as a religion of fanaticism: austere in its outlook, menacing in its prosely Vinay Lal • 4 min read
MER Article Sadowski, Political Vegetables? Yahya Sadowski, Political Vegetables? Businessman and Bureaucrat in the Development of Egyptian Agriculture (Brookings, 1991). Robert Springborg • 6 min read
MER Article The Other Palestinians Responding both to the Palestinian intifada and long-term developments within their community, Arab citizens of Israel have increasingly asserted their national identity as Palestinians. Israeli nationality is not an option for them, as this is not a recognized legal category. The Israeli bureaucracy officially acknowledges the Arab nationality of the (Author not identified) • 3 min read
MER Article Qashqa'i Nomads and the Islamic Republic The Qashqa’i, an important tribal confederacy of approximately 400,000 people in the Zagros Mountains of southwestern Iran, are one of Iran’s national minorities. They speak Turkish and are Shi‘i Muslims. The nomads’ low-altitude winter pastures and high-altitude summer pastures are separated by hundreds of kilometers, and Lois Beck • 13 min read
MER Article The News Industry Over the past few months, a couple of stories have crossed our desk that merit more attention than they got. These stories tell us some important things about how the US news industry operates, especially its willingness to follow the administration’s cues on major issues. Al Miskin • 4 min read
MER Article Discriminate Intervention NATO, long the linchpin of Western military operations in Europe, should be prepared to intervene “out-of-area” -- in the Third World, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. This was the message delivered in February by Michael Legge, NATO’s assistant secretary-general for defense planning policy and author of the Mariano Aguirre • 15 min read
MER Article Shock Troops for the New Order The various components of a modern military establishment are like gamblers at a casino. Every now and then someone gets hot and goes on a roll. In recent years the military equivalent of a winner on a roll has been US Special Operations Forces. During the 1980s, special operations, along David Isenberg • 10 min read
MER Article Making War Difficult: Cooperative Security in the Middle East John Steinbruner is director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. Joe Stork and Yahya Sadowski spoke with him in March 1992. Could you describe the concept of cooperative security? How is it different from collective security? They are not mutually exclusive, b Joe Stork, Yahya Sadowski • 9 min read
MER Article Reversing the Middle East Nuclear Race “The Middle East has entered the nuclear age,” said Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens in October 1991, as he surveyed the region’s strategic environment in the aftermath of the Gulf war and just days before the opening session in Madrid of the Arab-Israeli peace talks. [1] Arens may merely have b Yezid Sayigh • 17 min read
MER Article Scuds versus Butter Contrary to the common wisdom in Washington, most Arabs are poor, rational and interested in arms control. Declining oil prices, rising population, economic mismanagement and foreign policy adventurism have wreaked havoc with the economies of the Middle East, while local arms races have steadily raised the price of providing for Yahya Sadowski • 34 min read
MER Article From the Editors In the pages that follow, our authors envision a set of compelling scenarios that could halt and reverse the ratchet wheel of militarization in the Middle East. Yahya Sadowski sees in the worsening material circumstances of most states of the region an unusual opportunity for arms control, as governments seek The Editors • 2 min read
