The Middle East: Theater of ConflictThe Middle East: Heartland of Islam Country Reports
Algeria (Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria)
Bahrain (State of Bahrain)
Egypt (Arab Republic of Egypt)
Iran (Islamic Republic of Iran)
Iraq (Republic of Iraq)
Israel (State of Israel)
Jordan (Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan)
Kuwait (State of Kuwait)
Lebanon (Lebanese Republic)
Libya (Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya)
Morocco (Kingdom of Morocco)
Oman (Sultanate of Oman)
Qatar (State of Qatar)
Saudi Arabia (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)
Sudan (Republic of the Sudan)
Syria (Syrian Arab Republic)
Tunisia (Republic of Tunisia)
Turkey (Republic of Turkey)
United Arab Emirates
Yemen (Republic of Yemen) Articles from the World Press1. Lifting the Veil: Understanding the Roots of Islamic Militancy, Henry Munson, Harvard International Review, Winter 2004.
Feelings of impotence, rage, and humiliation pervade the Islamic world today. The author presents findings from recent public opinion polls taken in the Middle East. He concludes that defeating terrorism requires diluting the rage that fuels it. 2. The Syrian Dilemma, David Hirst, The Nation, May 2, 2005.
The assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and Syria’s forced withdrawal from Lebanon has political implications for both countries. Lebanon’s politics are in turmoil and this may spill over into Syria. The U.S. hard line against Syria may also contribute to political pressure on Bashar al-Assad’s regime. 3. A City Adorned, John Feeney, Saudi Aramco World, January-February 2005.
At one end of old Cairo lies the mosque of Ibn Tulun, as vast and horizontal in its design as the desert that once surrounded it. Not far away, in the cosmopolitan center of the medieval city, rises the mosque of Sultan Hasan, as grandly soaring as a Gothic cathedral. Built more than 500 years apart, they mark the resplendent beginning and the magnificent end of a half-millennium of construction that adorned the city with architectural treasures. 4. Iran in Iraq’s Shadow: Dealing with Tehran’s Nuclear Weapons Bid, Richard L. Russell, Parameters, Autumn, 2004.
As the old military adage has it, no good deed ever goes unpunished. And so it would seem with American security interests in the Persian Gulf. 5. The Dying of the Dead Sea, Joshua Hammer, Smithsonian, October 2005.
The ancient salt sea is the site of a looming environmental catastrophe. 6. The World of His Choice (Wilfred Theisiger), Lee Lawrence, Saudi Aramco World, May/June 2005.
At his death in 2003, Wilfred Theisger left the Pitt Rivers Museum some 38,000 photographs spanning the period from his Empty Quarter expeditions of the late 1940’s to his later years in Kenya. Unlike more selective books or exhibitions, the lifetime scope of the Thesiger collection, fully catalogued, now allows his work to be studied whole. 7. Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East, Bernard Lewis, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2005.
To speak of dictatorship as being the immemorial way of doing things in the Middle East is simply untrue. It shows ignorance of the Arab past, contempt for the Arab present, and lack of concern for the Arab future. Creating a democratic political and social order in Iraq or elsewhere in the region will not be easy. But it is possible, and there are increasing signs that it has already begun. 8. Preemption and Just War: Considering the Case of Iraq, Franklin Eric Wester, Parameters, Winter 2004/2005.
This article demonstrates that the use of military force by the Bush Administration against the regime of Saddam Hussein does not meet the ethical criteria for “preemptive war” set forth in the classical Just War tradition. It considers ethical questions raised by the US-led attack against Iraq as part of the war against global terrorism and argues that the doctrine of preemptive war as applied in the case of Iraq fails crucial ethical tests. 9. Does Israel Belong in the EU and NATO?, Ronald D. Asmus and Bruce P. Jackson, Policy Review, February/March 2005.
Over the course of the past year, a debate has started over whether Israel should rethink its relationship with the core institutions of the Euro-Atlantic community, namely NATO and the EU, and if so, how. 10. Iraq’s Resilent Minority (the Kurds), Andrew Cockburn, Smithsonian, vol. 36, no. 9, December 2005.
“Victims of genocide under Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Kurds have put aside old rivalries to consolidate their political power in the war-torn nation… Kurds like to tell people that they are the largest nation in the world without a state of their own. There are roughly 25 million of them, predominantly non-Arab Muslims practicing a tolerant variant of Islam. Most live in the region where Iraq, Turkey and Iran meet… Although the United States helped free the Kurds from Saddam's rule, it now discourages Kurdish independence to preserve Iraqi unity and to avoid offending America's allies in Turkey. 11. The Seas of Sindbad, Paul Lunde, Saudi Aramco World, vol. 56, no. 4, July/ August 2005.
Since the third millennium BC, the Arabian Gulf had been a corridor between Mesopotamia and India suitable for the small boats of the earliest traders. In the early Islamic era, the discovery of the sea route from the Gulf to China was as epoch-making as the much later discovery by the Portuguese of the sea route around the Cape to India. 12. Letter from Iran, Afshin Molavi, Smithsonian, March 2005.
Perhaps the most striking thing about anti-Americanism in Iran today is how little of it actually exists. Nearly three-fourths of the Iranians polled in a 2002 survey said they would like their government to restore dialogue with the United States. Though hard-line officials urge “Death to America” during Friday prayers, most Iranians seem to ignore the propaganda.
