Kapuscinski, Shah of Shahs
Ryszard Kapuscinski, Shah of Shahs (San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1985).
Authoritarian States in the Third World
Clive Thomas, The Rise of the Authoritarian State in Peripheral Societies (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1984).
Anthony D. Smith, State and Nation in the Third World (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983).
The Last Days of ‘Ali Nasir
The full story of the bloody crisis that tore apart the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) in January 1986 has yet to be told, but more information is now becoming available on how President ‘Ali Nasir Muhammad was overthrown and forced to flee the country.
US Raid Haunts Libya
Tripoli, June 1986—Two months after US warplanes bombed Tripoli, piles of rubble lie virtually untouched in the comfortable tree-lined neighborhood of Ben Ashour. An arch has been erected to commemorate the raid, displaying a gaudy painting of war planes on fire as they swoop down on innocent residents. The state radio rarely lets an hour pass without a reference to April 15, the night of “barbaric Atlanticist aggression.” Neither Libya nor its leadership has yet been able to put the raid behind them.
Pakistan and the Central Command
Congress this fall will begin reviewing a new six-year US aid package to Pakistan totaling more than $4 billion. Crucial to the outcome is Pakistan’s military role in the Gulf. Pakistan’s military missions in 22 countries in the Middle East and Africa make it the largest exporter of military manpower in the Third World. Its role in the Gulf has a direct bearing on Washington’s strategy in the region, on the future security role of the Gulf Cooperation Council and on Pakistan’s own internal political dynamic.
Major Kurdish Organizations in Iraq
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)
Major Kurdish Organizations in Iran
Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI)
The Kurds Between Iran and Iraq
The news from Kurdistan is sad and grim. On both sides of the Iran-Iraq border, the central governments have been carrying out violent campaigns to bring the Kurdish districts under control and to wipe out the peshmergas (guerrilla fighters) of the various Kurdish organizations. This entails direct military clashes as well as reprisals against the civilian population. Numerous villages have been destroyed, either by their own government’s forces or in bombings by the neighboring country’s air force or artillery. Summary executions are commonplace.
Changes at the Top
Babrak Karmal was replaced as general secretary of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) six weeks after this series of articles first appeared. It was the first non-violent change in the party’s leadership since it came to power in April 1978.
There is some evidence that the new leader, Major-General Najibullah (the official media shortened his name to Najib a few days later) was not the Soviet Union’s first choice to replace Karmal. Shortly before the leadership change on May 4, the Prime Minister, Sultan Ali Keshtmand, visited Moscow where he was prominently received. Keshtmand had long been known as the number two man in the regime, and his visit was given generous coverage in the Soviet media.
Bull About Kabul
Most British correspondents covering the Falklands war were indignant at the way the Ministry of Defense fed them selected and one-sided reports of the fighting. Supported by colleagues from other countries, they vowed they would never be “used” this way in a war again.
Moscow’s Kabul Campaign
Six years after they invaded Afghanistan and were condemned by virtually the entire international community, Soviet troops with their Afghan government allies have slowly begun to win the war.
Most of the reports received in the West over the last six years have come from journalists travelling with the rebels or from Western embassies in Kabul. It has been a mixed picture of heroism and incompetence, determination and disunity, courage and corruption, but the general tone has usually been upbeat. The mujahidin, it is argued, have right on their side and will ultimately prevail, even though no one knows what kind of government—reactionary, progressive, or Islamic fundamentalist—they would put in place.
From the Editors (July/August 1986)
Governments are fond of small, manageable wars, where victory is assured—such as the invasion of Grenada and the bombing of Libya. Such adventures are ideal for revving up enthusiastic media support for its policies. Some “wars” have the added advantage of never being over. The so-called wars on drugs and on terrorism, for instance, are available to justify any manner of intervention. In late July, the Reagan administration dispatched a large contingent of US military to Bolivia, purportedly to smash that country’s cocaine production facilities.
Letters (May/June 1986)
Read with Caution!
MERIP owes its readers a much more critical review of Alan Hart’s Arafat: Terrorist or Peacemaker? than John Egan’s (MERIP Reports 136/37). Hart’s analytic style is that of a public relations agent. The average reader will doubt the accuracy of his account since he treats every PLO official’s utterance as a pearl of wisdom; the more specialized reader will be put off by his sycophantic tone. Hart’s own self-promotion as the agent of a failed diplomatic mission involving the PLO is a further irritant. Arafat and the PLO need and deserve serious analysis, not hagiographies. Hart’s book should be read with extreme caution.
Ted Swedenburg
Books on Saudi Arabian Economics
Michael Field, The Merchants (London: John Murray, 1984).
John R. Presley, A Guide to the Saudi Arabian Economy (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984).
CERMOC, Mouvements Communautaires et Espaces Urbains au Machreq
Mouvements communautaires et Espaces urbains au Machreq (Beirut: Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Moyen-Orient Contemporain, 1985).
One of the tragic ironies of the protracted Lebanese crisis is the fate of CERMOC and of Michel Seurat, one of the authors represented in this volume. Suerat was kidnapped in May 1985, and the Islamic Jihad group announced in early March that they had executed him as “an enemy of God.” CERMOC, located directly on the Green Line near Beirut’s Museum Crossing, has been unable to function for the last year. Both Seurat and CERMOC are victims of the social crisis which they sought to understand and relate in this important book.
Books on Arab Economies
Samir Amin, The Arab Economy Today (London: Zed Press, 1982).
Ismail-Sabri Abdalla et al, eds., Images of the Arab Future (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983). (Translated from Arabic)
Adda Guecioueur, ed., The Problems of Arab Economic Development and Integration (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1984).
Robert Aliboni, ed., Arab Industrialization and Economic Integration (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1979).
Ekin, Enduring Witness
Larry Ekin, Enduring Witness: The Churches and the Palestinians (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1985).
Klare, American Arms Supermarket
Michael Klare, American Arms Supermarket (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1984).
Findley, They Dare to Speak Out
Paul Findley, They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel’s Lobby (Westport, CT: Lawrence Hill and Company, 1985).
Iran and the Reagan Doctrine
Gary Sick, All Fall Down: America’s Tragic Encounter with Iran (New York: Random House, 1985).
Warren Christopher et al, American Hostages in Iran: The Conduct of a Crisis (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985).
