MER Article The CIA Looks Back at the 1953 Coup in Iran The 200-page CIA official history of the 1953 coup in Iran, obtained recently by the New York Times, adds considerably to our understanding of the coup. The history, written strictly for the US intelligence community by the late Donald Wilber, a well-known scholar who wrote many books about Iran, chr Mark J. Gasiorowski • 5 min read
MER Article Ahmad Shamlu Ahmad Shamlu, leading Iranian poet, died in Tehran on July 23, 2000 at the age of 74. In many ways, he embodied the Iranian intellectual movement of his generation: an adept adapter of Western ideas, yet often unfamiliar with their underpinnings; steeped in his native tradition, yet poised uncomfort Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak • 2 min read
MER Article Hanna Batatu Along with his many students, friends, colleagues and relatives, MERIP mourns the death of Hanna Batatu. He died at the age of 74 on June 24, 2000 at Winsted, Connecticut after a struggle with cancer. Batatu, a former MERIP contributing editor, was also the dissertation adviser and long-time colleag Garay Menicucci • 3 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Fall 2000) As the western and southern United States sizzled in record heat this summer, a broad swath of the Middle East was suffering through the worst drought in memory. Through June and July, Middle Easterners sweltered in unusually high temperatures. In Morocco, where half the population works in agricult The Editors • 3 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Summer 2000) Banipal Magazine of Modern Arab Literature 7 (Spring 2000). B'Tselem. Builders of Zion: Human Rights Violations of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories Working in Israel and the Settlements (Jerusalem: September 1999). B'Tselem. Legislation Allowing the Use of Physical Force and Mental Coerc The Editors • 1 min read
MER Article Le lute de Bagdad Given the rich lyricism and pointed social quality of contemporary Arabic poetry, it's no accident that politically motivated Arab music is usually vocal rather than instrumental. The close collaborations between Marcel Khalife and Mahmoud Darwish or Egyptian singer Shaykh Imam and Egyptian poet Ahm Elliott Colla • 4 min read
MER Article Betwewen Iraq and a Hard Place The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 triggered the most comprehensive regional realignment since the Sadat peace initiative of 1977. Most Arab states, including Egypt, Syria and all the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), opposed Iraq and joined the US-led coalition. But noticeably absent from that coalition was Curtis Ryan • 9 min read
MER Article Shaykhs and Ideologues The reconstruction and state manipulation of tribes and tribalism are prominent features of contemporary Middle Eastern politics, notably in Jordan and Iraq. Under the totalitarian Ba'thist regime in Iraq, two major patterns have developed. One may be called etatist tribalism -- a process in which tribal lineages and Faleh A. Jabar • 14 min read
MER Article Letter from Kuwait Some ten years after a sudden, brutal occupation, Kuwait gives, at first sight, the appearance of having returned to normal. Virtually all the damage done to buildings has been repaired, the oilfields are functioning and the state has normal diplomatic relations even with states such as Jordan, Yemen and Sudan Fred Halliday • 9 min read
MER Article What About the Incubators? It feels oddly like being at a wake in a funeral home. Our Fellowship of Reconciliation delegation members speak very quietly with one another as we wait for a hospital official to brief us about conditions at the al-Mansour Children's wing of the Saddam City Medical Center. Dr. Mekki, the director, Kathy Kelly • 4 min read
MER Article Americans Against the Sanctions As US policy supporting the continuation of sanctions on Iraq becomes ever more isolated abroad, domestic criticism of sanctions also mounts. Opponents of sanctions gained new visibility in February 1998 at Ohio State University, when pointed questions from the audience disrupted the Clinton adminis (Author not identified) • 7 min read
MER Article Elusive Justice Saddam Hussein's regime has long been one of the world's worst human rights violators. But the international community largely ignored Iraq's record of human rights abuse -- brutal repression of internal dissent, atrocities during the eight-year war with Iran -- until after Hussein crossed the red l Joost Hiltermann • 9 min read
