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Issue 9 August 1999
Editor, Prof. Barry Rubin
Issue 9 August 1999
Editor, Prof. Barry Rubin
MERIA NEWS TABLE OF CONTENTS
IMPORTANT NEWS: MERIA Journal, Vol. 3, No. 3; MERIA in print; New Journal of Turkish Politics and Foreign Policy; MERIA Research Guide; Staff Addition.
SPECIAL REPORT: Eric Watkins, Researching Yemen (MERIA Research Guide)
Additions to bibliography on Turkish-Israel Relations
3. FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS TO E-MAIL PUBLICATIONS
4. FUNDING/FELLOWSHIPS/WRITING OPPORTUNITIES
5. RESEARCH QUERIES-PLEASE HELP
6. SCHOLAR'S AND AUTHOR'S ALERTS (people report on their books, articles, and activities)
7. ANNOUNCEMENTS OF MEETINGS, CONFERENCES, LECTURES
MERIA Journal, Vol. 3, No. 3 (September 1999)
The next issue of MERIA Journal will contain a number of timely articles.
In "The Enigma of Political Stability in the Persian Gulf Monarchies." Daniel L. Byman and Jerrold D. Green of the RAND corporation examine all the reasons why the Gulf monarchies should be unstable yet then explain how these governments have maintained stability. This is an excellent discussion of the tools governments possess in trying to maintain power.
Prof. Hooman Estelami of Fordham University, in "The Evolution of Iran's Responses to U.S. Economic Sanctions," explains the different stages of American sanctions and how Iran has sought to counter them, with varying degrees of success.
Speaking of economic issues, Prof. Ali R. Abootalebi, University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, looks at factors retarding the development of Arab states in, "Middle East Economies: A Survey of Current Problems and Issues." He discusses reasons why Arab states have lagged behind in terms of structural reform and productivity.
This issue of MERIA Journal also contains a special section of three articles on Islamist movements:
In "Liberal Islam: Prospects and Challenges," Prof. Charles Kurzman, University of North Carolina, discusses a growing trend among some Islamic thinkers toward embracing liberal and modernist trends. We include in this posting a lecture by Prof Dale F. Eickelman of Dartmouth University, "The Coming Transformation of the Muslim World," (reprinted from the Foreign Policy Research Institute Wire) which develops similar themes.
Covering a different type of Islamic movement, David Zeidan from the University of London examines, "The Ideology of Two Radical Egyptian Movements, Jama`t al-Muslimin (takfir wal-Hijrah) and Jama'at al-Jihad, to point out the different ideas and strategies held by revolutionary groups in Egypt. Especially interesting is his discusson on how the views of radical "fundamentalist" movements differ from those of historic and mainstream Islam.
Prof. Nilufer Narli of Marmara University, in "The Rise of the Turkish Islamist Movement," provides a detailed history and analysis of the various successive Islamist parties, their political base, reasons for growth and decline, and their effect on Turkish politics.
Finally, in "U.S. Foreign Policy and Rogue States," Barry Rubin, of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, analyzes the role of the rogue concept and finds it a central concept in the history of American foreign policy. This approach amplifies and explains contemporary U.S. policy toward such states as Iran, Iraq, and Libya.
As always, all MERIA readers will receive these articles in separate postings. If you do not receive all of them by the end of the series of postings, please request a copy of any item from: <besa@mail.biu.ac.il.
MERIA IN PRINT
We are seriously exploring the idea of publishing a print edition of MERIA Journal for libraries, institutions, and interested readers. The Journal would also compile useful bibliographic and informational material from MERIA News. If you might like to subscribe to such a publication, write: <besa@mail.biu.ac.il.
NEW: THE JOURNAL OF TURKISH POLITICS AND FOREIGN POLICY
The Journal of Turkish Politics and Foreign Policy will be published by Frank Cass publishers, covering politics, history, and foreign policy during the era of the Turkish republic. Relevant articles in the fields of political science, international relations, history, economics and others will be considered. The journal will be edited by Barry Rubin.
Vol. 1 No. 1: Deadline, November 1999, publication March 2000): The New Turkish Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War Era
Vol. 1 No. 2: Deadline, May 1999, publication September 1999: A Survey on the Current State of Studies About Modern Turkey
All issues will also include book reviews, documentation, and reviews of recent periodical literature. We welcome the submission of articles, documents, materials for review, and requests for information on subscriptions. If you are interested in a subscription or in participating, write: <besa@mail.biu.ac.il.
MERIA RESEARCH GUIDE
This issue contains the first item in our new Research Guide, on how to research Yemen. The goal is to produce a brief account of how to use contemporary sources to research countries and topics on the Middle East. We will publish individual items in MERIA News, put them on our webpage, and eventually distribute a booklet collecting these items. We recommend you save these items for your future needs. So far, we have commissioned articles on Yemen, Sudan, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates. To propose a contribution on a country or topic, write: <besa@mail.biu.ac.il>.
STAFF ADDITION
As MERIA and related projects continue to grow, we are expanding our staff. We are pleased to announce the appointments of Linda Sharaby as assistant editor of MERIA (editorial) and Cameron Brown as assistant editor of MERIA (management).
By Eric Watkins
Yemen News tries to give readers a broad, balanced, and objective coverage of one of the least reported countries on earth. Toward that end, we consult a wide variety of web sources and, on a daily basis, email our findings free to subscribers.
One of the best sites we have found is that run by the American Institute for Yemeni Studies <http://www.aiys.org>. This is a mastersite which contains links to some 200 other websites devoted to Yemen. Looked at from the standpoint of news gathering, the AIYS site has some useful contributions to make, though of varying quality.
Go to the site and click on its link to Yemen Webdate. That will take you to several other choices, including Yemen News (no relation to us!). Click that and you will find an array of news sources to look at. Here is where you will find the variations in quality.
AIYS sends you to a preset search engine with a very long address: <http://www.newsindex.com/cgi-bin/process.cgi?query=Yemen&mode=any>. We have examined a lot of news search engines and this is not one of the better ones. We suggest you go instead to <http://isleuth.com> or to even to <http://headlines.yahoo.com/Full_Coverage/World/Yemen>, both of which provide a much better selection of news items. And, when we seek out very specialized information, we regularly go to <http://www.google.com/> -- a new and extremely versatile search engine.
AIYS also directs you to <http://www.arabicnews.com/> -- a useful site which we often consult, largely because of its Arab sourcing and because of its sense of insider reporting. Another site AIYS points to is <http://www.al-bab.com>. This site gets a mixed review: while it appears to be comprehensive, balanced, and objective, it actually is fairly selective, follows the Yemeni government line, and avoids anything tending toward criticism.
The AIYS site also links to a number of leading Yemen newspapers, whether government controlled, opposition controlled or independent. Of the independents, Al-Ayyam is by far the best. Among the English-language newspapers, AIYS offers three: The Yemen Observer (opposition-run) at <http://www.theyemenobserver.ndirect.co.uk>, Yemen Observer (government-run) <http://yemenobserver.com.ye/> and The Yemen Times (independent) <http://www.yementimes.com>.
Finding up-to-date news on Yemen is for us a daily job. Filtering through the thousands of web pages devoted to Yemen is time-consuming and not always rewarding. But, when looking for good background material on almost any subject to do with Yemen, we find the AIYS site a good place both to start and to end up. In our book, it gets a five-star rating.
Eric Watkins is a London-based commentator, specializing in the Middle East and Central Asia. He also edits Yemen News. To subscribe to Yemen News, write: <eric.watkins@virgin.net>.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: TURKISH-ISRAEL RELATIONS
In the last MERIA News, we posted a list of useful materials but neglected to thank Brent Sasley, Bulent Aras, and Joshua Paul for their help. The following additional material is contributed by Daniel Pipes, Editor of the Middle East Quarterly.
Bulent Aras, "The Place of the Palestinian-Israeli Peace Process in Turkish Foreign Policy," Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Winter 1997
Michael Eisenstadt, "Turkish-Israeli Military Cooperation:An Assessment," Washington Institute for Near East Policy Policywatch, 24 July 1997
Neill, Lochery, "Israel and Turkey:Deepening Ties and Strategic Implications, 1995-98," Israel Affairs, Autumn 1998.
Alan Makovsky, "Israeli-Turkish Relations:A Turkish "Peripheral Strategy?" in Henri J. Barkey, ed., Reluctant Neighbor:Turkey's Role in the Middle East (Washington:United States Institute of Peace, 1996).
Carol Migdalowitz, "Turkish-Israeli Relations," for CRS; excerpts in CIDC, September 1998.
Daniel Pipes, "A New Axis:The Emerging Turkish-Israeli
Entente." National Interest. Winter, 1997/98, pp. 31-38. Reprinted in
Turkish Times (Washington), 1, 15 February 1998.Reprinted as "T?rkiye-Israil
Ekseni," Yeni Safak (Istanbul), 10-11 September 1998.
"The Birth of a New Middle East Alliance."Washington Times, 5 January 1998.
Dov Waxman, "Turkey and Israel," The Washington Quarterly Winter, 1999.
1. PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST
A Human Rights Watch report on Middle East governments restriction of the internet by Declan McCullagh can be found online at: <http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/20616.html>. The report states that one million people are now online in the Arab world.
A number of publications are available from the Armenian Center for National and International Studies. these include short monographs on the Caucasus, the Black Sea, and Azerbaijan's oil industry; a white paper on Nagorno Karabagh; and the monthy Center News. To request: <root@acnis.am>.
The Iranian Times <times@iranian.com> is now selling and special ordering books directly from Iran. To buy or order a book, Write <times@iranian.com> or see: <www.iranian.com/Times/1999/Juned/Paveh/books.html>.
Harvard University Press has announced the publication of Barry Rubin, "The Transformation of Palestinian Politics: From Revolution to State-Building." To order copies or obtain additional information, please see: <www.hup.harvard.edu> or call 800-448=2242.
Two new books from Ithaca Press: Neil Lochery, The Difficult Road to Peace: Netanyahu, Israel, and the Middle East Peace Process, 368 pages. Neil Qulliam, Syria and the New World Order; May Kassem, In the Guise of Democracy: Governance in Contemporary Egypt. To order: <orders@garnet-ithaca.demon.co.uk>.
"The Arabs : Myth and Reality", by Gerald Butt (St Martins Press, ISBN=1860641571)
"Challenging Environmental Issues: Middle Eastern Perspectives", by Joseph G. Jabbra and Nancy Walstrom Jabbra (E J Brill, ISBN=9004108777)
"Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel", by Michael T. Benson (Praeger, ISBN=0275958078)
"Militarism in Arab Society: An Historiographical and Bibliographical Sourcebook," by John Walter Jandora and Robin Higham (Greenwood Publ., ISBN=0313293708)
2. WEBSITES/GROUPS ONLINE
Al-Mashriq, a very helpful site <http://almashriq.hiof.no/base/others.html> includes links to the Oslo Accords <http://almashriq.hiof.no/general/300/320/327/oslo.html> and reports on Gaza and West Bank <http://almashriq.hiof.no/general/300/320/327/fafo/reports/index.html>. It also links to another interesting site, the Digital Documentation Center of the American University in Beirut, which includes some interesting essays in its Politics section <http://almashriq.hiof.no/ddc/index.html>.
Middle East Newsline, the new regional internet service, now has a site updated daily with the latest Middle East news,a diary of events, and special reports: <www.menewsline.com>.
A. Gulf-related sites:
Coverage of Kuwaiti Elections can be found at: <http://www.idrel.com.lb/idrel/shufme/archives/current.htm>.
Iranian Institute for Political and International Studies is now online at: <http://www.iran-ipis.org/index_english.html>
B. Lebanon
Lebanon Online is at: <http://www.lebanon-online.com/>.
A new Lebanese news site called Morning Morning is online at: <http://www.mmorning.com/>. The Lebanese newspaper, The Daily Star, is now online at: <http://www.dailystar.com.lb/>. American Friends of Lebanon is now online at: <http://www.aflnet.com/>. The Lebanese newspaper L'Orient Lejour at: <http://www.lorient-lejour.com.lb/>.
<http://www.lebanese-forces.org/> for that group, though only the "what's new" link seems to work.
C. Others now online
Terrorism Research Center: <http://www.terrorism.com/>.
A reference guide to world leaders: <http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1058/rulers.html>
Information on Middle East minorities: <http://www.assyrianinfo.com/>.
A new newsfeed in Arabic: <http://www.afp.com/>.
The Middle East Security Report: <http://www.me-dialogue.demon.co.uk/index.html>.
The Center for Defense Information: <http://www.cdi.org/>.
The Jordanian National Assembly: <http://www.parliament.gov.jo>.
Bulak Information Agency and Bookstore: <http://www.bulak.com.tr>.
Oxford Analytica: <http://www.oxan.com/>.
American Institute for Maghreb Studies (AIMS): <http://www.la.utexas.edu/research/mena/aims/>.
The Emglish newspaper "Cairo Times": <http://www.cairotimes.com/>.
International Peace Research Association (IPRA) from the Danish COPRI Institute:<http://www.copri.dk/ipra/ipra.html>.
Politicsweb: <http://www.jahnke.net/politicsweb/>.
The Al-Mashriq website: <http://almashriq.hiof.no/base/others.html>.
Jerusalemites is a new site on "the human dimension of Palestinian history": <http://www.jerusalemites.org>.
A website devoted to the Irgun (Etzel): <http://www.etzel.org.il/english/>.
For the Popular Front for the liberation of Palestine: <http://members.tripod.com/~freepalestine/>
3. FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS TO E-MAIL PUBLICATIONS
For information about Yemen News, contact Eric Watkins at: <eric.watkins@virgin.net>.
The Iraq-L list has moved to Onelist.Com. <http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/Iraq_L>.
4. FUNDING/SCHOLARSHIPS/FELLOWSHIPS/WRITING OPPORTUNITIES
International Association for the Study of Persian-speaking Societies announces its Travel Fellowship Program. Contact Said Arjomand: <sarjoman@notes.cc.sunysb.edu>.
The Israeli Ministry of Science offers Eshkol Scholarships for Druse, Arabs, and Circassians: <http://www.most.gov.il/forms/stpar2000.doc> or contact Mrs. Leah Markovitz at: <leah@most.gov.il>.
Search for Common Ground announces a new annual award to Middle East Journalists. For more information: <http://www.sfcg.org> or contact: <twerner@sfcg.org>.
The Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research offers scholarships for Masters and Doctoral students: <http://tau.ac.il/peace>, or contact: <steinmet@ccsg.tau.ac.il>.
6. SCHOLAR'S AND AUTHOR'S ALERTS
Latif Abul-Husn, The Lebanese Conflict: Looking Inward, Lynne Rienner Publishers. The author, a Lebanese diplomat, focuses on the role played by domestic factors in Lebanon's civil war. Conflictual tendencies within Lebanese social structure have generated long¸ term cleavages and disharmonies. While such problems are inevitable in pluralist societies, the Lebanese system did not develop the adaptive mechanisms and strategies necessary to contain destructive responses. Abul-Husn suggests the solution is to use conflict¸ resolution strategies based on flexible, consociational principles. 174 Pages ISBN: 1-55587-665-X HC $42.00 LC: 97-36617.
7. ANNOUNCEMENTS OF MEETINGS, CONFERENCES, LECTURES [This only lists new entries. For additional items, see MERIA News past issues on our homepage. We welcome submissions of events.]
September 25-26, Tehran, Iran,The Center for the History of Diplomacy Studies Seminar on "Iran and World War II"
November 16, 1999, London, England, British Society for Middle East Studies Annual Lecture, Derek Hopwood, "Close Encounters of the Imperial Kind: The British, sex and the Arabs," 6pm, Main Lecture Theatre, SOAS, University of London.
Awards: Lycos, Top 5% Site; Arab E-Journal, Publication of the month; Selection, Scout Report for Social Sciences; Award, Newsbytes news wire; LinksGo Key Resource Award//Thanks, Philip Slomovitz Fund/Center for International Communication. MERIA is indexed in Cambridge University's Index Islamicus and in Columbia University International Affairs Online (CIAO) project.
Staff: Barry Rubin, editor; Linda Sharaby, Assistant Editors: (editorial); Cameron Brown (management). London representative: Lawrence Joffe. Malaika Martin helps produce MERIA News.
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