Current Journal
Editor's Note - Spring 2020
As we go to press, the world is bereft of one of its most admired leaders: Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman, an enlightened monarch who ruled for nearly 50 years. His Majesty was an example of emulation for his own people and the wider international public. He was the sole Arab leader not to sever relations with Egypt over President Sadat’s accord with Israel in 1978.
Remembering His Majesty Sultan Qaboos
Richard J. Schmierer
The Sultanate of Oman is a unique country and, in many ways, one uniquely blessed. Its most recent good fortune has been in having at its helm for almost 50 years the most enlightened leader of the modern era, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos.
Symposium — U.S.-Iranian Confrontation: Domestic, Regional and Global Implications
Suzanne Maloney, Douglas A. Silliman, Joyce Karam, John Limbert
The following is an edited transcript of the ninety-ninth in a series of Capitol Hill conferences convened by the Middle East Policy Council. The meeting was held on January 17, 2020, in the Russell Senate Office Building with Ambassador Richard J. Schmierer moderating and Executive Director Thomas R. Mattair, PhD, serving as discussant.
The New Arab Uprisings: Lessons from the Past
Marina Ottaway and David Ottaway
A second wave of uprisings broke out in Algeria, Sudan, Lebanon and Iraq during 2019 and gives no sign of abating. There is no doubt it will have important repercussions for the affected countries, just as the first wave did. The question is whether the outcome will be what the protesters would like or, as happened in the case of the first wave in 2011, the consequences will prove deeply disappointing and leave these countries mired in worse authoritarianism than before, even in chaos.
“Lebanonization”: Framing Policy for the Puzzles of the Middle East Preview
Eric Bordenkircher
Decentralization in Libya After the Arab Spring Preview
Leonid Issaev and Andrey Zakharov
Jerusalem and Jordan: Rapprochement between the Kingdom and the Ikhwan? Preview
Nur Köprülü
The October 2019 Turkish Incursion into Kurdish Syria: Its Background & Broader Implications Preview
Michael M. Gunter and M. Hakan Yavuz
Global Oil-Market Strategies of Saudi Arabia and Iran Preview
Sang Yoon Shin and Ceyhun Mahmudlu
Islamic Banking in Oman: Laying the Foundations Preview
Kris Babicci and Winai Wongsurawat
Russia and the UAE: An Ideational Partnership
Samuel Ramani
Russia’s re-emergence as an influential diplomatic actor on the Arabian Peninsula after more than a quarter-century in the geopolitical wilderness has startled the U.S. foreign policy community and countered expectations of a sustained Russia-Gulf rift over Moscow’s military support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The crowning achievement of Russia’s diplomatic outreach to the peninsula was Moscow’s June 2018 ratification of a strategic-partnership agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is often described as the most trusted U.S.
Incessant Interest: Tsarist, Soviet And Putinist Mideast Strategies Preview
Mark N. Katz
A Tale of Four Worlds: The Arab Region After the Uprisings
In their collaborative new work, Woodrow Wilson International Center scholar Marina Ottaway and her husband, David Ottaway, the Washington Post’s former Middle East correspondent, provide an insightful and at times quite personal account of developments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Paradigm Lost: From Two-State Solution to One-State Reality
Ian Lustick is professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a Jewish activist who had for years supported a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, though he has recently abandoned that goal because he no longer sees it as possible.
The Caliphate of Man: Popular Sovereignty in Modern Islamic Thought
Populism is a powerful force in contemporary politics around the world. Populist movements provide mass support for anti-democratic authoritarianism and rightist nationalism as well as for pro-democracy movements to overthrow dictators and authoritarian systems.
The Peace Process between Turkey and the Kurds: Anatomy of A Failure
This pithy study examines why the Turkish-PKK peace process between January 2013 and July 2015 failed.
Book Review Essay — Crony Capitalism in the Middle East: Business and Politics From Liberalization to the Arab Spring
It has been almost 20 years since the term “crony capitalism” began to be applied to Middle Eastern political economies and the initial qualitative research undertaken to describe the phenomenon. Cronyism predated neoliberal economic reforms in the Middle East associated with the wave of globaliz