A "Miracle" Made in Moscow and Washington If the intifada has been an Israeli nightmare, upsetting a reality with which most Israelis had grown comfortable, the immigration wave of Soviet Jews to Israel which began in December may turn into a “miracle” that will lift the morale of many Israelis for years to come. The Soviet immigration wave Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi • 4 min read
MER Article Karsh, The Soviet Union and Syria Efraim Karsh, The Soviet Union and Syria: The Asad Years (London: Routledge, 1988.) Fred H. Lawson • 2 min read
MER Article Soviet Perceptions of Iraq From the Soviet point of view, Iraq under the Baath Party has been a troubling enigma, in terms of its place in the Third World generally and its political position in Middle East diplomacy. In the first respect, Iraq during the 1970s did not manage to consolidate itself as one of the USSR’s dependa Roderic Pitty • 19 min read
MER Article Moscow's Crisis Management In January 1986, a major crisis broke out within the leadership of the Yemeni Socialist Party, the ruling party in the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen. In two weeks of fighting many thousands of people lost their lives, and afterward between 30,000 and 70,000 fled to neighboring North Yemen. Fred Halliday • 16 min read
MER Article The Middle East and Soviet Military Strategy The Middle East, the Persian Gulf and the eastern Mediterranean are of particular strategic concern to Moscow because of their proximity to the Soviet Union. In addition, the Soviets view the Middle East in the second half of the 20th century as akin to the Balkans at the turn of the century: they c Michael McGwire • 22 min read
MER Article The USSR and the Gulf War In the seven years since the Iran-Iraq war began, Soviet policy toward the conflict has been quite constant. Moscow regards the war as “senseless” and has repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire and return to the status quo ante, as outlined in the 1975 Algiers Agreement between Iran and Iraq. Fred Halliday • 5 min read
MER Article Changes at the Top Babrak Karmal was replaced as general secretary of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) six weeks after this series of articles first appeared. It was the first non-violent change in the party’s leadership since it came to power in April 1978. There is some evidence that the new lead Jonathan Steele • 2 min read
MER Article Baku's Shaikh-ul-Islam Shaikh-ul-Islam Pashazada Allahshukur Hummatoglu is chairman of the Board of Management of Caucasian Muslims. Fred Halliday and Maxine Molyneux interviewed him in Baku in July 1984. How are Soviet Muslims organized? There are four separate Islamic religious bodies in the Soviet Union. Three of the Maxine Molyneux, Fred Halliday • 3 min read
MER Article Letter from Baku Baku, the capital of Soviet Azerbaijan, lying on the west coast of the Caspian, embodies many suggestive contrasts with other areas of the Soviet Union and with the neighboring countries of Iran and Turkey. On the esplanade running along the seashore, restaurants sell kebabs, local pancakes (kutab) Maxine Molyneux, Fred Halliday • 7 min read
MER Article The Gulf Between the Superpowers Anthony Cordesman, The Gulf and the Search for Strategic Stability: Saudi Arabia, the Military Balance in the Gulf, and Trends in the Arab-Israeli Military Balance (Boulder: Westview Press, 1984). Occasionally, when an important head of state arrives in Washington for consultation without a previou Scott Armstrong • 11 min read
MER Article Steele, Soviet Power Jonathan Steele, Soviet Power: The Kremlin’s Foreign Policy -- Brezhnev to Andropov (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983). This is the sixth book on international events from one of Britain’s most senior and experienced journalists. His previous works on the USSR and Eastern Europe have shown him to Karen Dawisha • 1 min read
MER Article Current Soviet Policy and the Middle East This report summarizes impressions of Soviet foreign policy gained during a study visit to the USSR in July 1982. During this visit, under the auspices of the Oriental Institute of the Academy of Sciences, I was able to meet a wide range of experts working in the institute, as well as journalists an Fred Halliday • 14 min read
