Issue editors: Waleed Hazbun, Jacob Mundy, Shana Marshall and Pete Moore.

As the United States approaches the 2020 presidential election, now is a critical time for voices on the Left to engage in rethinking US policy in the Middle East and the future of America’s place in the world. This issue of Middle East Report addresses the critical struggles to confront domestic political, economic and ideological structures that must be changed in order to redirect the United States away from imperial relations with the Middle East. Demilitarization in the United States and better chances for peace and security for the people of the region will necessitate limiting the profit-driven influence of the weapons and energy industries. The United States must also come to terms with the impacts of non-military policy tools, such as disastrous economic sanctions and ruinous agricultural, trade and immigration policies that have devastated rural populations overseas and immiserated the working poor at home. And finally, we need to forge new solidarities between diverse political movements in the United States and in the region to challenge the connections between America’s endless foreign wars, its surveillance and repression of Arabs and Muslims and the rise of violence against dissenters at home and abroad.

Note: All the articles are open access and not restricted to subscribers.