MER Article Responsibilities of the US Peace Movement Once again the American peace movement faces the threat of war. In the 1960s and 1970s it was Vietnam, in the 1980s Central America and the nuclear threat, and now it is Arabia. This dangerous moment calls for a major change of direction for peace and anti-intervention forces. Activities underway be David Cortright • 3 min read
MER Article The Pentagon's New Army Sitting comfortably in his living room in Arlington, Virginia, some two years ago, Gen. Edward C. Meyer reflected on the American military and the transformations it has undergone in the last two decades. “This isn’t the American military of World War II, or even Tet,” he said. “This is a totally di Mark Perry • 6 min read
MER Article Iraq Since 1986: The Strengthening of Saddam In June 1986, we wrote that the situation in which Iraq found itself “underlines the vital need for the establishment of democracy...however broadly this may be defined.” Four years later, this plea has become more urgent; the regime has become even more powerful and repressive and has now extended Marion Farouk-Sluglett • 15 min read
MER Article Continuity and Change in Soviet Policy The day after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and US Secretary of State James Baker announced what they termed “an unusual step.” They issued a communique “jointly urging the international community to join them and suspend all supplies of arms to Iraq on an in Alain Gresh • 18 min read
MER Article From the Editors The world is fortunate that it has taken the Pentagon nearly three months to dispatch a quarter million troops and the requisite heavy hardware to Arabia. The interval seems to have allowed for some salutary second thoughts about why they are there in the first place. But the logic of war still prev The Editors • 5 min read
MER Article Botman, Rise of Egyptian Communism Selma Botman, The Rise of Egyptian Communism, 1939-1970 (Syracuse, 1988). The Rise of Egyptian Communism, 1939-1970, one of several recent books that offer new insights on the experience of Marxism in Egypt before and during the Nasser era, provides an extensive account of the membership, organizat Marsha Pripstein Posusney • 1 min read
MER Article Halliday, From Kabul to Managua Fred Halliday, From Kabul to Managua: Soviet-American Relations in the 1980s (Pantheon, 1989). To give an account, in a mere 163 pages, of Soviet-American competition in the Third World is no mean feat. After all, this rivalry has lasted nearly half a century and its form has varied considerably. M Rajan Menon • 2 min read
MER Article Editor's Bookshelf Najda: Women Concerned About the Middle East, a national organization based in Berkeley, California, has been developing educational materials and conducting teacher training workshops on the Middle East for nearly 30 years. Najda has established a strong reputation among social studies teachers and Joel Beinin • 4 min read
MER Article Al Miskin Shut Up! From the Wall Street Journal of March 22, 1990: “More than half of Cairo’s 12 million residents use sleeping pills and other sedatives to escape the city’s deafening noise, the semi-official al-Ahram newspaper said. The incessant blare of car horns and loudspeakers at mosques has forced 62 Al Miskin • 4 min read
MER Article Human Rights Briefing What has been the performance of human rights organizations during the first two years of the intifada? A fresh look at eight organizations surveyed prior to the uprising (MER 150) shows that overall coverage has increased, as one might expect based on the intensity and duration of the uprising, but Nabeel Abraham • 3 min read
MER Article Washington Watch SUPERCOMPUTERS Some chips in the bargaining between Washington and Tel Aviv prior to the Gulf crisis were two-year-old Israeli requests to buy supercomputers -- mainframes that perform scientific and mathematical calculations with great speed, enabling scientists to accomplish rapidly tasks such as Joe Stork • 5 min read
