Current Analysis False Resolution Looms in EU-Israeli Settlement Trade Dispute George W. Bush's ever more one-sided interventions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, most recently his uncritical backing for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's desired "disengagement" from the Gaza Strip, elicit thinly veiled declarations of dissent from the chanceries of the European Union. "No number Peter Lagerquist • 11 min read
Current Analysis The Newest Jordan: Free Trade, Peace and an Ace in the Hole In the 1950s, Jordan was to kick-start its own modernization through phosphates and potash. In the 1970s, it was to be "the new Beirut"—the banking and financial center of the Arab world. In the 1980s, it was to be "the Hong Kong of the Levant." Pete Moore • 7 min read
Current Analysis On Settlement Trade, Europe Doesn't Stand Tall The transatlantic rift over the war in Iraq, and now post-war reconstruction, builds on growing European disenchantment with muscular US unilateralism. French and German opposition to the war—echoing the sentiments of a majority of the European Union's member states—highlighted seemingly growing dif Peter Lagerquist • 10 min read
Current Analysis The Collapse of WTO Negotiations: Implications for the Middle East The failure of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial meeting to agree to launch a new global trade agreement, amidst protests of the WTO's policies by labor and environmental activists outside the meetings and developing countries' delegates inside, was a major setback for proponents of greater deregulation Robert Naiman, Steve Niva • 6 min read
MER Article The Mediterranean Free Trade Zone The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership is one of the most ambitious socio-economic programs the Mediterranean region has ever witnessed. It promises to rekindle the close economic and cultural ties that historically flourished between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Yet the term “Euro-Mediterranean Partnership” is scarcely known outside of David Katz • 7 min read
Current Analysis Mubarak in Washington Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak visits Washington this week at a time when US-Egyptian relations appear to be harmonious. Yet beneath the surface, relations may not be as cordial as they seem. Particularly discordant notes in the current US-Egyptian relationship concern free trade, regional economi Fareed Ezzedine • 6 min read
MER Article Global Economic Integration Conventional definitions imagine world trade as taking places among nations -- international trade, it is called. Convention also holds that everyone is best off when such trade is carried on as freely as possible. Neither the definition nor the polemic of free traders has changed much, except for a Doug Henwood • 7 min read
