MER Article Recession Hits Saudi Oil Sector A visitor to the kingdom might be startled to hear Saudis speak of a “recession” here. Non-oil growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) is proceeding at a 6 percent clip. Unemployment is nil and construction sites still appear to be eating up the desert around every major city. It hardly looks lik A Special Correspondent • 5 min read
MER Article Marxism, the Third World and the Middle East It has become common in the West to question the relevance of Marxism to advanced capitalism, and to suggest that, as a theory, it is in “crisis” and requires substantial revision. Paradoxically, more orthodox versions of Marxist theory and politics seem to retain an appeal in the Third World. Since Maxine Molyneux, Fred Halliday • 12 min read
MER Article Restructuring the World Energy Industry A decade ago, the states that make up the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) took a number of important steps to alter the structure of the world oil industry by encroaching on the prerogatives of the international oil companies. The producers unilaterally increased the “posted pri Michael Renner • 21 min read
MER Article OPEC's Decade No one can deny that the past ten years have witnessed great changes in the international oil industry. A decade ago, the seven largest international oil companies -- Exxon, Shell, British Petroleum, Texaco, Standard of California, Mobil and Gulf -- still dominated the industry in virtually every re Stephen Zorn, Michael Tanzer • 10 min read
MER Article Ten Years After It is still possible, even likely, that history will take note of the remarkable events of late 1973 and early 1974: Egyptian troops crossed the Suez Canal and penetrated the supposedly impregnable Bar Lev line in a matter of hours; the kings and presidents of the Arab oil producing states, led by F Joe Stork • 13 min read
MER Article From the Editors (January/February 1984) For all the other things that 1984 may represent, it marks a time when US policy in the Middle East has come under a new degree of scrutiny here. The events of the last few months have inserted the Middle East onto the agenda of the growing anti-nuclear movement. A number of public forums have been The Editors • 3 min read
MER Article Letters (November/December 1983) I’ve been working for some time on the question of Israeli military sales. I found Esther Howard’s article, “Israel: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” (MERIP Reports 112) invaluable. However, I have uncovered two minor errors which might mislead others using it as a source. (Author not identified) • 3 min read
MER Article Two Books on Jordan Avi Plascov, The Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, 1948-1957 (London: Frank Cass, 1981). Peter Gubser, Jordan: Crossroads of Middle Eastern Events (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1983). Mary C. Wilson • 2 min read
MER Article Khalidi and Mansour, Palestine and the Gulf Rashid Khalidi and Camille Mansour, eds., Palestine and the Gulf (Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1982). Rex Wingerter • 1 min read
MER Article Le Carre, The Little Drummer Girl John Le Carre, The Little Drummer Girl (Random House, 1983). Le Carre has forsaken the world of the Circus and its post-imperial wiles to explore the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, particularly that between the underground agencies of the two sides. The central character is a young E Fred Halliday • 2 min read
MER Article Abu Iyad, My Home, My Land Abu Iyad, My Home My Land: A Narrative of the Palestinian Struggle (with Eric Rouleau) (New York: New York Times Books, 1981). My Home, My Land provides important information on the man who is second in command of Fatah and also presents the largely untold “internal” history of that organization. A John Egan • 3 min read
MER Article Israeli, American Military Confer on Combat Stress On January 2-6, 1983, I attended the Third International Conference on Psychological Stress and Adjustment in Time of War and Peace, sponsored by Tel Aviv University. The first two conferences in the series, convened in 1975 and 1978, were also held in Tel Aviv. According to the organizers, the conf A Special Correspondent • 2 min read
