MER Article Demonstrators, Dialogues, Drones and Dialectics In 2011 Yemenis shared a vision of revolutionary change with protesters in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria demanding the downfall of cruel, corrupt presidential regimes. Today, like many of their cousins, the peaceful youth (shabab silmiyya) of Yemen face a counter-revolutionary maelstrom from withi Sheila Carapico • 8 min read
Current Analysis Of Bodies and Blank Notebooks A man walks into a library and asks the librarian for a book on human rights in Saudi Arabia. The librarian hands him a blank notebook. A woman walks into a bookstore and asks for a tourist guide to Saudi Arabia. The bookseller hands her a blank notebook. A reporter walks into the Saudi embassy an Al Miskin • 2 min read
Current Analysis The Laryngitic Dog Senate hearings to confirm John Brennan as the Obama administration’s appointment to be director of the CIA brought to light [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/06/cia-using-saudi-base-drone-yemen] a heretofore clandestine American military facility in Saudi Arabia near the kingdom’s border wi Sheila Carapico • 4 min read
MER Article Embracing Crisis in the Gulf All claims to the contrary, the Persian Gulf monarchies have been deeply affected by the Arab revolutionary ferment of 2011-2012. Bahrain may be the only country to experience its own sustained upheaval, but the impact has also been felt elsewhere. Demands for a more participatory politics are on th Toby Jones • 9 min read
Current Analysis Operation Lip Service The popular uprising in Bahrain shows no signs of going away. The royal family tried crushing the revolt, importing shock troops from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. It tried jailing important figures in the opposition, such as human rights activist ‘Abd al-Hadi al-Khawaja, who as of early May had been Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis Debunking the Iran "Terror Plot" At a press conference on October 11, the Obama administration unveiled a spectacular charge against the government of Iran: The Qods Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had plotted to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, right in Washington, DC, in a plac Gareth Porter • 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
Current Analysis Washington Still Refuses to Learn an Obvious Lesson Back in 2004, three years into the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the 9/11 Commission report made its debut to the gushing admiration of the Washington press corps. The report was everything that the mainstream media adores: bipartisan, devoid of divisive finger-pointing, full of conventional wisdom. Tak Chris Toensing • 2 min read
MER Article Pitching the Princes Robert Lacey, Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia (Viking, 2009). Robert Vitalis • 8 min read
MER Article Saudi Alchemy The abundance of oil in Saudi Arabia is staggering. With more than 250 billion barrels, the kingdom possesses one-fifth of the world’s oil reserves, affording it considerable influence Toby Jones • 14 min read
Current Analysis The Shi‘a of Saudi Arabia at a Crossroads Deep in the morass of YouTube lies a disturbing video clip recorded in late February at the cemetery of al-Baqi‘ and on surrounding streets in Medina, Saudi Arabia. An initial caption promises images of “desecration of graves.” Al-Baqi‘, located next to the mosque of the prophet Muhammad in the seco Toby Matthiesen • 16 min read
MER Article Separating Image from Substance in Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, its image in need of polishing in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, has opened itself up to foreign scrutiny of its notoriously poor human rights record. Members of Congress now make regularly scheduled stops in the kingdom; in February 2008, the Saudis welcomed a second two- Christoph Wilcke, Clarisa Bencomo • 9 min read
