MER Article Descent into Disaster? On October 19, 2001, Iran agreed to build camps to accommodate new refugees fleeing US bombing and internal chaos in Afghanistan. This was the first piece of good news for relief workers concerned that Operation Enduring Freedom is accelerating the descent of Afghanistan's decades-old refugee crisis Margaret Emery, Hiram Ruiz • 5 min read
MER Article Afghanistan in the Balance In the first few days after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it became clear that the United States was going to seek out allies in the region to assist efforts to destroy al-Qaeda bases and networks of support in Afghanistan. Very quickly that objective was expan Patricia Gossman • 16 min read
MER Article Hamas Stands Down? When Osama bin Laden evoked the Palestinian cause in his widely viewed statement October 7, he split Palestinians between those who appreciated the support and those who were horrified by the association. At the same time, the new world “coalition against terror” has deployed the Palestinian Authori Charmaine Seitz • 9 min read
MER Article first writing since I there have been no words. i have not written one word. no poetry in the ashes south of canal street. no prose in the refrigerated trucks driving debris and dna. not one word. today is a week, and seven is of heavens, gods, science. evident out my kitchen window is an abstract reality. Suheir Hammad • 6 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Winter 2001) The hijackings and mass murders of September 11 were horrible and momentous, but the world did not suddenly change on that crystal-clear morning. Existing cracks in the US-led world order widened and deepened, and lurking insecurities strode forth from the shadows. Chris Toensing, Elliott Colla • 9 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Fall 2001) Books Booth, Marilyn. May Her Likes Be Multiplied: Biography and Gender Politics in Egypt (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001). B’Tselem. Tacit Consent: Israeli Law Enforcement on Settlers in the Occupied Territories (Jerusalem, March 2001). Charrad, Mounira M. States and Women’s (Author not identified) • 1 min read
MER Article Iran and the Middle East The external relations of the Islamic Republic of Iran are, in large measure, dependent on politics within that country, and on the slow and often interrupted process of post-revolutionary change which Iran is undergoing two decades after the fall of the Shah. As has been widely reported over the past Fred Halliday • 16 min read
MER Article Syrian Regional Policy Under Bashar al-Asad Throughout the rule of Hafiz al-Asad (1970-2000), analysts widely agreed that Syria’s regional policies were mainly driven by a sometimes crude interest in national and regime security. Ideology, such as Asad’s famously stubborn rejection of “normal” relations with Israel, did not drive his regional and international foreign policies, Volker Perthes • 16 min read
MER Article The Iraqi Klondike Talk of a "new Middle East" was very much in vogue in the early 1990s. With a seeming Pax Americana reigning over the region after the Gulf war, and with Israel and its neighbors apparently nearing a comprehensive settlement, it looked as if economic interests, not political rivalries, (Author not identified) • 14 min read
MER Article Euro-Med Most Americans and many Arabs, Israelis, Turks and Europeans think of Uncle Sam as the superpower in the Middle East -- an avuncular hegemon, waging peace and war, picking favorites and ostracizing errants, disbursing guns here and butter there. Certainly, this image of a Goliath casting a shadow from the Sheila Carapico • 12 min read
MER Article The Decline (But Not Fall) of US Hegemony in the Middle East Americans who voted for “compassionate conservatism” in the November 2000 presidential election have been disappointed. George W. Bush has proven to be much more radical than his moderate campaign rhetoric implied. In the area of environmental policy, Bush’s moves to lift regulations on pollutants, promote the use of nuclear Fareed Mohamedi, Yahya Sadowski • 32 min read
MER Article Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, one of the most significant and articulate Palestinian-American intellectuals of his generation, died on May 23, 2001 at his home in Ramallah, Palestine, at the age of 72. A scholar, educator, activist and institution builder in both North America and the Middle East, Abu-Lughod Deborah J. Gerner • 3 min read
