Current Analysis Why Not Jordan? The November 13 withdrawal of fuel and electricity subsidies has sparked vigorous demonstrations [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/11/13/protests-break-out-in-jordan-mention-king-by-name/] in Jordan, prompting renewed speculation about whether the wave of Arab uprisings that be Pete Moore • 4 min read
Current Analysis My 50 Minutes with Manaf During one of my regular visits to Syria, I was with a group of friends at one of the bustling new restaurant-bars that dotted Damascus’ old city, around Bab Touma. Some places were more popular than others, frequented by internationals and a particular stratum of Damascene society that included som Bassam Haddad • 8 min read
MER Article Gulf Juggernaut Adam Hanieh, Capitalism and Class in the Gulf Arab States (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). Karen Pfeifer • 6 min read
Current Analysis Washington's Bahrain in the Levant Despite sharing some of the socio-economic and political problems that propelled uprisings in other Arab countries, Jordan remains an exception to the trend. And if it can be kept that way, much of the world inside the Beltway will celebrate. Pete Moore • 2 min read
MER Article Why Does the Occupation Continue? Shir Hever, The Political Economy of Israel’s Occupation (Pluto, 2010). There is a latter-day tendency to see the 44-year Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories as the organic outward growth of the Zionist idea -- as though the aspiration to hold the entirety of the land, embedded in Lab Max Ajl • 12 min read
MER Article The Syrian Regime's Business Backbone Nearly one year into the Syrian uprising, with more than 7,500 Syrians dead, the protracted conflict is not very well understood or reported despite a deluge of writings. Most track fast-moving events without pausing for sober analysis of Syrian politics and society. Early on, the dominant argument Bassam Haddad • 6 min read
MER Article Egypt's Generals and Transnational Capital Before and after the ejection of Husni Mubarak from office, the size of the Egyptian army’s share in the economy has been a subject of great debate. The army is known to manufacture everything from olive oil and shoe polish to the voting booths used in Egypt’s 2011 Joshua Stacher, Shana Marshall • 19 min read
MER Article Petrodollars at Work and in Play in the Post-September 11 Decade What does one do with a $1.3 trillion windfall? That was the cumulative value of current account surpluses that flushed into the Arab region from 2000 to 2008, according to the International Monetary Fund. The main source was hydrocarbon export revenues, thanks to the rise in demand for oil Karen Pfeifer • 21 min read
MER Article Striking Back at Egyptian Workers Mainstream narratives of the ongoing 2011 Egyptian revolution center around a “crisis of the state.” Among the elements of the crisis were the utter failure of top-down political reform, as shown in the shamelessly rigged 2010 legislative elections; mounting corruption and repression; emerging opportunities for collective action offered by networking Hesham Sallam • 17 min read
MER Article Understanding the Political Economy of the Arab Revolts The revolts sweeping the Arab Middle East and North Africa in early 2011 have been characterized as uprisings against neoliberal economic policies as well as authoritarian rule. But while there is widespread agreement on the political dimension of the revolts, there has been some confusion regarding Omar S. Dahi • 10 min read
Current Analysis Algeria's Rebellion by Installments In mid-February, with autocratic rulers deposed in Tunisia and Egypt, and another tottering in Libya, the National Coordination for Change and Democracy took to the streets in the capital of Algeria. The organization, which was created on January 21, following a series of riots in several cities acr Azzedine Layachi • 8 min read
Current Analysis Jordan's Balancing Act When anti-monarchical revolution swept the Middle East in the 1950s, Jordan was one of the few populous Arab states to keep its king. King ‘Abdallah II, son of Hussein, the sole Hashemite royal to ride out the republican wave, has all the credentials to perform a similar balancing act. Aged 49, he h Nicolas Pelham • 12 min read
