MER Article Two Faces of Janus Eight years after the end of the war in Lebanon, the discrepancy between free minds and free markets is growing ever sharper. Since 1992, Lebanon’s billionaire prime minister, Rafiq al-Hariri, has been the individual most responsible for outlining an economic program for the post-war era. The prime Michael Young • 10 min read
MER Article "Sanctions Have an Impact on All of Us" The following comments are excerpted from a speech delivered on Capitol Hill on October 6, 1998 by Denis Halliday, former UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, shortly after he resigned his post in protest over the sanctions’ devastating impact on the Iraqi people. Denis Halliday • 2 min read
MER Article Arcs of Crises Between the confrontations with Iraq in February and November, and the Cruise missile salvos directed at Afghanistan and Sudan in August, 1998 has been rather busy for the gunboat section of the US diplomatic corps. Twice, the UN secretary-general averted US military action by securing promises that The Editors • 6 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Fall 1998) Arab Resource Center for the Popular Arts. al-Jana (Special Issue on Oral History Among Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon) (Beirut, 1998). Article 19 and Kurdish Human Rights Project. State Before Freedom: Media Repression in Turkey (1998). Beinin, Joel. The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Po (Author not identified) • 1 min read
MER Article Historical Road Maps for the "New World Order" Peter Gran, Beyond Eurocentrism: A New View of Modern World History (Syracuse University Press, 1996). Chris Toensing • 8 min read
MER Article From Alliance to the Brink of All-Out War In the arid, mountainous, north-eastern corner of Africa, two of the world&’s poorest but best armed states -- Eritrea and Ethiopia, allies until a short while ago -- are on the brink of all-out war. Shuttle diplomacy by a succession of would-be mediators has failed to provide an exit from potential Dan Connell • 9 min read
MER Article Protesting Sanctions Against Iraq Aida Dabbas is program officer for the Jordanian-American Binational Fulbright Commission in Amman. She has been an active opponent of the sanctions against Iraq and of the US arms buildup in the region. Jillian Schwedler, an editor of this magazine, spoke with her by telephone in June. You recentl Jillian Schwedler • 6 min read
MER Article Short-Circuiting the Media/Policy Machine Media coverage of the February 1998 showdown with Iraq highlighted subtle but significant changes in the relationship between the mainstream media and US foreign policymaking. Although the major media -- despite some alleged soul searching by media professionals [1] after the Gulf war -- have change Sam Husseini • 10 min read
MER Article Points of Difference, Cases for Cooperation In discussions between American and European scholars about Western policies towards the Middle East -- an issue of increasing importance for trans-Atlantic relations -- Europeans are often asked to explain why their policymakers and pundits criticize US Middle East policies instead of accepting a f Volker Perthes • 9 min read
MER Article Between Clash and Cooptation As the specter of Communism has receded with the end of the Cold War, few international developments have generated more anxiety in US public imagination than the perceived threat of "Islamic fundamentalism" in the Middle East and elsewhere. Samuel Huntington’s warning of a coming “clash of civilizations” Steve Niva • 12 min read
MER Article Arab Perspectives on US Hegemony in the Middle East Since the Gulf war, the Arab Middle East has experienced a sustained trauma. The Arab world is back where it began a century ago, when Great Britain was the uncontested master of the Arabs’ destiny. Today, the United States dominates the region and bluntly dictates its will to most Arab Georges Corm • 8 min read
MER Article Oil and the Middle East The contemporary international political economy of oil presents a puzzle: political instability in regions where oil is found coexists with steadily falling prices. This combination of continuing political conflict and uncertainty in the Middle East (particularly the Gulf), and the continuing slide Simon Bromley • 13 min read
