Issue 4/April 1999 

Editor, Prof. Barry Rubin

MERIA NEWS TABLE OF CONTENTS

2. WEBSITES/GROUPS ONLINE

3. FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS TO E-MAIL PUBLICATIONS

4. FUNDING/SCHOLARSHIPS/FELLOWSHIPS/WRITING OPPORTUNITIES

5. RESEARCH QUERIES-PLEASE HELP

6. SCHOLAR'S ALERTS (personal news); AUTHOR'S ALERTS

7. ANNOUNCEMENTS OF MEETINGS, CONFERENCES, LECTURES

VERY IMPORTANT NEWS ANNOUNCING:
A. ANNOUNCING THE GLOBAL JOURNAL PROJECT
The MERIA project's success has inspired us to undertake an ambitious effort to create the most important international affairs journal of the 21st century. This project, called Global Journal, will eventually include six journals and other services modeled on MERIA, though each adapted to its own part of the world.

We plan to establish later this year the Asia Review of International Affairs (ARIA, see below), followed by the Europe Review of International Affairs (ERIA). We plan to then produce a publication focusing on U.S. foreign policy. Eventually, we hope to add Latin American and African journals as well. People can subscribe for free to any module.

We are convinced that this approach is what is both needed and wanted for studying different countries and regions around the world. We hope to involve people in dozens of countries to work and contribute to these projects.

If you would like to participate in one of them, please write Barry Rubin, the editor: besa@popeye.biu.ac.il.

B. THE ASIA REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (ARIA)
We are preparing to launch a new publication, the Asia Review of International Affairs (ARIA), edited by Barry Rubin. ARIA will cover modern and contemporary developments in east and south Asia, including India and Pakistan, Japan and China, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, and other countries. ARIA will have an editorial board of regional experts.

The project will start with two specific products:
--A moderated email list for news items, debate and discussion, etc.
--A refereed quarterly journal similar to MERIA Journal.
To participate or reserve a free subscription, write: besa@popeye.biu.ac.il

C. SPECIALIZED LISTS ON ISRAEL AND ON TURKEY
We are preparing our two new email lists to begin operations around June 15. We have already received subscription requests from over 200 people. If you want to receive one or both service, write besa@popeye.biu.ac.il:

1. The Turkish Politics and Foreign Policy List. Subscribers will receive articles concerning contemporary developments in Turkey. They will also be able to send in announcements of conferences, books, or articles; information on jobs; research queries; discussion of current issues; etc. Materials will be accepted in Turkish or English.

2. The Israel Studies list. Subscribers can discuss issues in all areas and send information regarding academic and policy studies on modern Israel. Among items to be included: announcements of meetings or conferences, calls for papers, new publications, book and other reviews, announcements of relevant websites, jobs, scholarship or fellowship opportunities, discussion of issues, articles or papers, queries, exchanges on relevant issues at a proper level of discussion.

D. MERIA JOURNAL, VOL. 3 NO. 2: CALL FOR ARTICLES

The next MERIA Journal will be published in June 1999. We still have space for some articles so please submit manuscripts to besa@ashur.cc.biu.ac.il. Articles should be 3,000 to 8,000 words in length. We also welcome queries on topics of interest.

1. NEW PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST

Arab-Israeli conflict and Israel-related items:
Patrick Clawson and Zoe Danon Gedal, "Dollar Diplomacy: The Impact of U.S. Economic Initiatives on Arab-Israeli Negotiations" at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy: http://washingtoninstitute.org.

The U.S. State Department 1998 Human Rights Report: Israel and the Occupied Territories can be obtained free from: res_tlv@usis-israel.org.il.

Itamar Rabinovich, "The Brink of Peace-Israeli Syrian negotiations," Princeton University Press.

Gordon Thomas, "Mossad's Secret Warriors--Gideon's Spies," Macmillan.

Ben Halpern & Jehuda Reinharz, "Zionism and the Creation of a New Society," Oxford University Press.

Brother against brother - Violence and Extremism from Altalena to the Rabin Assassination by Ehud Sprinzak, New York Free Press.

Abraham Ben-Zvi, Decade of Transition--Eisenhower, Kennedy and the Origins of the American-Israeli Alliance , Columbia University Press.

Palestinians
Leila Farsakh, "Palestinian Employment in Israel 1967-1997: A Review." To order: MAS@planet.edu.

Countdown to Statehood - Palestinian state formation in the West Bank and Gaza by Hillel Frisch, SUNY, Albany, 1998
Regional Overviews:
Etel Solingen, Regional Orders at Century's Dawn, Princeton University Press). For information, contact Etel Solingen at etelsol@ucla.edu.

Gerd Nonneman, editor, "The Middle East and Europe: The Search for Stability and Integration" To order: +44-(0)171-799 28 18.

Martin Sherman, "The Politics of Water in the Middle East: An Israeli perspective on the hydro-political aspects of the conflict," Macmillan (and St Martin's Press in US), 1999.

Bassam Tibi, "Conflict and War in the Middle East--from interstate war to new security", 2nd edition, Routledge, (St Martin's Press in US) (paperback).

Gadi Wolfsfeld, "Media and political conflict: news from the Middle East," Cambridge University Press.

"U.S. Foreign Affairs on CD-Rom, January 1993-March 1998, volume 6, number 1, a compilation of documents from the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, Washington DC. To order: KISERJA@panet.us-state.gov.

Abba Eban, "Diplomacy for the next century," Yale University Press, 1998, 16.50

Bibliography of Women's Literature in the Modern Arab world by Dr. Joseph T. Zeidan has recently been published. Contact the author at: zeidan.1@osu.edu.

Amos Elon, "A Blood-Dimmed Tide: Dispatches from the Middle East." Contact Matthew Larson: ML582@columbia.edu.

"Arab-Iranian Relations", edited by Khair el-Din Haseeb. Contact: ihr@sfu.ca or see: http://www.sfu.ca/ihr.

"NATO's Mediterranean Initiative: Policy Issues and Dilemmas" by F. Stephen Larrabee, Jerrold Green, Ian O.Lesser and Michele Zanini at RAND. To order: order@rand.org.

"Saudi Arabia and the United States: Birth of a Security Partnership" by Parker T. Hart. To order, contact: iuporder@indiana.edu

Iranian Studies has devoted a special issue, Volume 31, No. 1, Winter 1998, to Iranians in America. Contact Kambiz Eslami: keslami@phoenix.princeton.edu.

"The Cambridge Survey of World Migration", edited by Robin Cohen, Cambridge University Press.

Women, the State and Political Liberalization - Middle East and North African experience by Laurie A Brand, NY: Columbia University Press, 1998

2. WEBSITES/GROUPS ONLINE

A. Gulf-related sites:

Bahrain TV is available at: http://moci.arabian.net/tv.ram. Official news from Bahrain: http://www.gna.gov.bh/gnanews/gnaenglish/gna-e.html (in Arabic).

B. Maghreb-related sites: Morocco's "Green March": http://maghreb.net/morocco/history/marche.html. A site devoted to Moroccan women in the U.S.: http://maghreb.net/usunfm/.

C. Israel
The Peacewatch website at http://www.ariga.com/peacewatch has been updated.

The Israel Inter-University Library Network general homepage has moved to: http://libnet.ac.il/~libnet/net/.

The Israel Union List of Serials for books in Western languages (BASE ULS): http://libnet.ac.il:4555/ALEPH//start/uls01.

The group Red Line--Leave Lebanon at: http://www.angelfire.com/il/FourMothers/.

Israel-related websites in French: A Memorial Itzhak Rabin is online at: http://www.israelfr.com/memorial/inrabin.html.

An Israel chat group: http://www.israelfr.com/discus/.

D. Palestinians
Two New Directories for Palestinian Web Sites: http://www.i-us.net/jumplist/Get_It_@.ius?jl=980HR61S796T2D00 and http://www.i-us.net/jumplist/Get_It_@.ius?jl=24W80CXRSV8C6RJ8.

"A Reevaluation of the Border Industrial Estates Concept" can be found at: http://www.ipcri.org.

"Committee to Protect Journalists: Country Report: The Palestinian National Authority as of December 31, 1998: http://www.cpj.org/countrystatus/1998/mideast/Pna.html.

E. Other
EDA/ DFAE, Swiss unit on the human dimension of the Middle East peace process: http://www.dfae.admin.ch/site/e/aussenpolitik/humanit/friedensprozess.h tml.
They publish press releases at: http://www.dfae.admin.ch/site/e/publikationen/pm.html.

Middle East Free Trade Zone Environment Monitor Newsletter: http://www.foeme.org/mftz.

The Center for Defense Information's Russia Weekly Newsletter is catalogued online at: http://www.cdi.org/russia/.

The Middle East Studies Center (MESC) of U Ghent, Belgium is now online at: http://allserv.rug.ac.be/~sdconinc/CTWS/MESC.

Research Institute on European Studies (RIES) has updated its homepage at: http://www.itel.gr/riies.

Cafe Lebanon, discussions on Lebanese issues, is at: http://www.cafelebanon.com.

3. FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS TO E-MAIL PUBLICATIONS

Middle East Free Trade Zone Environment Monitor Newsletter: mftz@foeme.org.

To receive a one-time free copy of Challenge, a journal offering investigative reporting and in-depth analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Oslo process, contact: oda@netvision.net.il.

To subscribe to the Center for Defense Information's Russia Weekly Newsletter, contact David Johnson: djohnson@cdi.org.

4. FUNDING/SCHOLARSHIPS/FELLOWSHIPS/WRITING OPPORTUNITIES

The Canadian Committee of the Middle East Studies Association (CANMES) offers travel grants to graduate students planning to attend academic conferences in North America. Contact James Reilly: james.reilly@utoronto.ca.

The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies announce a post-doctoral Junior Research Fellowship in Israel Studies. Deadline: May 10, 1999. Contact Eugene Rogan: eugene.rogan@oriental-institute.oxford.ac.uk.

The Itzhak Rabin Center for Israel Studies is offering a research scholarship. Deadline: May 13, 1999. See: http://www.rabincenter.org.il.

Binational Israel-US Science Foundation invites applications from post-docs for conference support. Deadline: June 1, 1999. Contact Yaacov Bartura: bsf@vms.huji.ac.il.

The MacArthur Foundation supports research and dialogue on the effects of human population shifts and consumer demand on tropical coastal and marine ecosystems. See: http://www.macfdn.org/programs/gss/gss_pce.htm.

The EU is offering grants for workshops, seminars and conferences with Mediterranean and Developing countries. Deadline: July 16, 1999: http://www.cordis.lu/inco2/calls/199906.htm.

European Commission's 5th Framework Program is offering post-doctoral fellowships. See: http://www.cordis.lu/improving/calls/mcfi_199901.htm.

The Peace Mega Site needs technical people, writers, translators, artists, and policy makers. Contact Yehoshua Zamir at: yzamir@eindor.org.il.

The Middle East Children's Alliance offers North American youth its Volunteers for Peace in Palestine project. Contact Shirabe Yamada: shirabe@globalexchange.org or see: http://www.peacenet.org/meca/.

The Iranian Studies Organization is accepting abstracts for its November 19-22 conference until September 30, 1999: http://www.iranian-studies.org/organization.html.

Chapters are being sought for a book analyzing Israel's 1999 elections. Deadline: October 1, 1999. Contact Asher Arian crgaa-2@idt.net or Michal Shamir m3600@post.tau.ac.il.

American U in Beirut offers history and archaeology MA programs. Application deadine: May 31, 1999: http://www.aub.edu/lb.

5. RESEARCH QUERIES-PLEASE HELP

Please send a copy of responses to besa@ashur.cc.biu.ac.il so we can share the answers with all our readers. Previous queries and responses are posted on our homepage.

Murat Akcanbas makcanbas@hotmail.com seeks information on the size of the Abu Nidal, Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist groups and their budgets for propaganda, arms, etc.

Rico 9506522g@student.gla.ac.uk is trying to find public opinion data on attitudes towards EU mediation attempts in the Middle East Peace process.

Kemal Kirisci kirisci@umich.edu seeks help in relocating literature on the actual drawing of state boundaries in the Middle East after the First World War.

Abdulalim Nassir nassira@citrine.indstate.edu seeks information about the corruption of administrative systems in Middle East.

Elaine E. Cooke ecooke@stapleford-centre.org seeks information on Moshe Dayan's contribution to the peace process during the 1960s and 1970s.

6A. AUTHOR'S ALERTS

Ori Golan, has published "Israel Towards 2000: A House of Visions and Divisions"; Published by Lancaster University. Contact Gerd Nonneman: g.nonneman@lancaster.ac.uk.

Michael Barnett has published "Dialogues in Arab Politics: Negotiations in Regional Order"; Columbia University Press, $17.50. Contact the author at: mbarnett@polisci.wisc.edu.

Neill Lochery has published "The Difficult Road to Peace: Netanyahu, Israel and the Peace Process, 1996-98", Ithaca Press, Reading. To order: uclhnel@ucl.ac.uk.

6B. SCHOLAR'S ALERTS

Here's some news from UCLA about its faculty and graduates working on the Middle East:

Nikkie Keddie keddie@history.ucla.edu is writing a book for the American Historical Association on women in ME history and a conference paper on "Empathy and Criticism in the Study of Middle Eastern Women." If anyone has ideas or bibliography on either topic she would welcome them.

Kamran Scot Aghaie (Ph.D. 1996) teaches Islamic Studies at U Texas Austin.

Beth Baron, Ph.D. 1988, Associate Professor, History Department, City College and Graduate School, CUNY, Director of Middle Eastern Studies program.

Houri Berberian, Ph.D., 1997 is Assistant Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at California State University, Long Beach.

Maziar Behrooz, Ph.D. History, 1993, Lecturer at UC Berkeley, Stanford, and San Francisco State University Book: Rebels With A Cause: The Failure of the Left In Iran (I.B. Tauris, 1999). Afshin Marashi, Ph.C., 1998, Dissertation Fellowship: Mellon Foundation/UCLA Center for Social Theory and Comparative History, Dissertation Title: "Nationalism and the Making of Modern Iran, 1921-41."

Afshin Matin-asgari, Ph.D. 1993, teaches world history, Middle East history, and religious studies at California State University, Los Angeles and Long Beach. Book: Radicals at Home and Abroad: Iranian Student Opposition to the Shah (1960-75), Mazda, 1999.

Rudi Matthee, Ph.D. 1991, Asociate Professor, Middle East History, University of Delaware. Book, 1999, Cambridge University Press: Iranian Silk and the Safavid Political Economy: Silk for Silver, 1600-1730. Guest editor, special issue, Iranian Studies,"Historiography and Representation in 16th-18th-century Iran," vol. 31 (1999), with article in it.

Hisae Nakanishi, Ph.D. 1994, is associate professor at the Graduate School of International Development at Nagoya University, Japan, where she will teach Middle East International Relations and Women and Development.

Monica Ringer Ph.D. Middle East History 1998, is a research fellow at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington DC. She holds a Mellon Foundation grant to do research at the Library of Congress on nineteenth century Iranian "Safarnameh" literature.

Dr. Jasamin Rostam-Kolayi is now a fellow, UC Humanities Research Institute, collaborative research project, "Gender and Citizenship in Muslim Communities", Winter-Spring 1999.Co-edited with Nikki Keddie, special issue on women in religiopolitical movements in the Journal of Women's History, Feb. 1999, and authored a review article in it. A.

Holly Shissler: Ph.D. 1995, is currently Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern History at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, PA

7. ANNOUNCEMENTS OF MEETINGS, CONFERENCES, LECTURES
(For previous listed items, see earlier issues of MERIA News on our webpage and our Global Events Calendar there)

April 26. Jerusalem, Israel, Truman Center, Hebrew U, "Human Rights and Conflict Resolution...in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," Edy Kaufman and Ibrahim Bisharat mstruman@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il.

April 27. Washington DC, Georgetown U, "Between Babylon and Jerusalem: Israel, Iraq and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1948-1998." Amatzia Baram. RSVP: (202) 687-5958.

April 28. Washington DC, Georgetown U, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, "Saudi Arabia One Hundred Years Later: Critical Reflections", RSVP before April 23 to: ccasinfo@gunet.georgetown.edu.

May 2. Jerusalem, Israel, Hebrew U, Israeli-Palestinian Peace Education Forum. RSVP before April 25. Contact: Ruth Firer: msfirer@mscc.huji.ac.il.

May 4. Tel Aviv, Israel, BESA Center for Strategic Studies, Edward Luttwak, "Military Intervention by Great Powers." 5pm, Mexico Building, Room 320. browne@ashur.cc.biu.ac.il

May 10. Tel Aviv, Israel, Dayan Center, Tel Aviv University, Sabri Sayari, Turkish Democracy Prospects for the 21st Century, 6:15 PM, Gilman Building, Room 496.

May 23-25. American U, Washington D.C., Association for Israel Studies 15th Annual Meeting: ais@american.edu.

May 26-27. Tunis, Tunisia, Atlas 99 Symposium, "Arabic Translation and Localization": http://www.ccl.umist.ac.uk/staff/harold/atlas/program.html.

June 20-25. Galilee, Israel, International Congress on Conflict Resolution Through Culture and Literature: http://tx.technion.ac.il/~ada/home.html.

June 22-23. Tehran, Iran, The Institute for Political & International Studies, "The Caspian Sea: Opportunities & Obstacles": http://www.dci.co.ir.

July 23-24. Sydney, Australia, Australasian Middle East Studies Association (AMESA), 18th Annual Conference. Dr. Ahmad Shboul: ahmad.shboul@semitic.usyd.edu.au or Dr. Christine Asmar: C.Asmar@ctl.usyd.edu.au.

September 27-29. U of Ghent, Belgium, EURAMES Conference: http://allserv.rug.ac.be/~sdconinc/CTWS/MESC/.

November 19-22. Washington, DC, Annual MESA Conference: http://www.iranian-studies.org/organization.html.

December 2-4. Hamburg, Germany, Annual Congress of the German Middle East Studies Association (DAVO): http://www.geo.uni-mainz.de/davo.

May 28-30, 2000. Bethesda, Maryland, US. biennial conference on Iranian Studies: http://www.iranian-studies.org/Conference3rd.html.

MERIA is indexed in Cambridge University's Index Islamicus and in Columbia University International Affairs Online (CIAO) project.

Help from: Cameron Brown, Lawrence Joffe, Malaika Martin.

MERIA offers you discounts on books and publications. We welcome special arrangements for our readers. To propose articles, items for publication, give others free subscriptions, or other correspondence, write:besa@popeye.cc.biu.ac.il

 

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