New issue of Middle East Report out now - The US in the Middle East
The latest issue of the excellent quarterly magazine Middle East Report is out now. Ok, I'm biased, being the photo editor, but it is widely respected for its analysis and I do think the photos are fantastic overall.
Photographers whose work appears in this issue include: Karim Ben Khelifa, Balazs Gardi, Eros Hoagland, Luiz Maximiano and Stephanie Keith.
In this issue be sure to check out the illuminating book review by Waleed Hazbun on US foreign policy towards the Middle East.
If you're going to the Middle East Studies Association conference in Washington, DC this weekend, stop by the MERIP booth in the book exhibit to say hello (and get issues of the magazine).
[Subscribe to Middle East Report or order individual copies online.]
Middle East Report 249
Winter 2008
SHRINKING CAPITAL: THE US IN THE MIDDLE EAST
The Bush administration entered office in 2000 determined to extend the
global dominion of the United States into "a new American century." Yet as
President George W. Bush prepared to depart the White House, the National
Intelligence Council released a report surmising that Washington "will have
less power in a multipolar world than it has enjoyed for many decades." The
winter 2008 issue of Middle East Report, "Shrinking Capital: The US in the
Middle East," examines the Bush-era changes in US regional policy -- and the
continuities with the past -- that have left Washington's clout diminished.
As Yahya Sadowski writes, the Bush administration's go-it-alone spirit --
and refusal even to speak to regional actors it does not like -- wound up
sparking a rash of diplomatic initiatives undertaken by US allies without US
approval or participation. Political scientist Waleed Hazbun situates the
Bush failures, which have caused such great damage to the Middle East, in
the historical sweep of US grand strategy and identifies a worrisome lack of
fresh thinking on the subject in the tomes of the Democratic foreign policy
establishment.
It is important to recall the legacies of the Philippines and Vietnam, as
Laleh Khalili writes, when evaluating the newness of Bush-sanctioned torture
and, for that matter, the US military's current focus on counterinsurgency.
Jason Brownlee finds more disturbing echoes of Vietnam in the 2008 field
manual covering "stability operations" -- occupation and militarized nation
building by another name. And, as sociologist Louise Cainkar demonstrates,
the draconian post-September 11 program of detention and deportation of
Arabs and Muslims could not have occurred so easily without the history of
anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment in the US.
Cultural historian Melani McAlister offers a different lesson in her essay
on the global engagement of American evangelicals: Their adoption of the
language of human rights to highlight persecution of Christians in Africa,
Asia and the Middle East has simultaneously drawn upon Islam-bashing themes
and pushed the activism of many evangelicals in a more liberal and less
parochial direction.
Also featured: Sandra Beth Doherty looks at why so many women in Lebanon go
under the knife; Tamir Sorek reviews Aziza Khazzoom's Shifting Ethnic
Boundaries and Inequality in Israel; and more.
---
Middle East Report is published by the Middle East Research and Information
Project (MERIP), a progressive, independent organization based in
Washington, DC. Since 1971 MERIP has provided critical analysis of the
Middle East, focusing on political economy, popular struggles and the
implications of US and international policy for the region.
Winter 2008
SHRINKING CAPITAL: THE US IN THE MIDDLE EAST
The Bush administration entered office in 2000 determined to extend the
global dominion of the United States into "a new American century." Yet as
President George W. Bush prepared to depart the White House, the National
Intelligence Council released a report surmising that Washington "will have
less power in a multipolar world than it has enjoyed for many decades." The
winter 2008 issue of Middle East Report, "Shrinking Capital: The US in the
Middle East," examines the Bush-era changes in US regional policy -- and the
continuities with the past -- that have left Washington's clout diminished.
As Yahya Sadowski writes, the Bush administration's go-it-alone spirit --
and refusal even to speak to regional actors it does not like -- wound up
sparking a rash of diplomatic initiatives undertaken by US allies without US
approval or participation. Political scientist Waleed Hazbun situates the
Bush failures, which have caused such great damage to the Middle East, in
the historical sweep of US grand strategy and identifies a worrisome lack of
fresh thinking on the subject in the tomes of the Democratic foreign policy
establishment.
It is important to recall the legacies of the Philippines and Vietnam, as
Laleh Khalili writes, when evaluating the newness of Bush-sanctioned torture
and, for that matter, the US military's current focus on counterinsurgency.
Jason Brownlee finds more disturbing echoes of Vietnam in the 2008 field
manual covering "stability operations" -- occupation and militarized nation
building by another name. And, as sociologist Louise Cainkar demonstrates,
the draconian post-September 11 program of detention and deportation of
Arabs and Muslims could not have occurred so easily without the history of
anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment in the US.
Cultural historian Melani McAlister offers a different lesson in her essay
on the global engagement of American evangelicals: Their adoption of the
language of human rights to highlight persecution of Christians in Africa,
Asia and the Middle East has simultaneously drawn upon Islam-bashing themes
and pushed the activism of many evangelicals in a more liberal and less
parochial direction.
Also featured: Sandra Beth Doherty looks at why so many women in Lebanon go
under the knife; Tamir Sorek reviews Aziza Khazzoom's Shifting Ethnic
Boundaries and Inequality in Israel; and more.
---
Middle East Report is published by the Middle East Research and Information
Project (MERIP), a progressive, independent organization based in
Washington, DC. Since 1971 MERIP has provided critical analysis of the
Middle East, focusing on political economy, popular struggles and the
implications of US and international policy for the region.
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