The Elusive Quest for a Kurdish State
Kurdish communities in the Middle East have been struggling for independence, autonomy and civil rights since at least the 1880s. While Kurdish movements across the region have suffered from fragmentation, the more formidable obstacle to fulfilling Kurdish aspirations are regional and global geopolitics. Djene Rhys Bajalan explains the many challenges, both historically and in the present day. This article is in Middle East Report, issue 295, “Kurdistan, One and Many.”
Kurdistan, One and Many
A lot of water has flown under a number of bridges since MERIP’s last issue on Kurdish politics in 2008. The emergence and subsequent crushing of Arab uprisings, the beginning and abrupt end of the Kurdish peace process with the entrenchment of authoritarianism in...Looking Beyond the Struggle for Palestinian Statehood
It is difficult to overstate the crisis in which Palestinians find themselves over 100 years after the Balfour Declaration and over 70 years after the Nakba. Palestinians are living as refugees without civil rights in places like Lebanon. Refugees who had lived in...The Muslim Ban and Trump’s War on Immigration
Within one week of taking office, President Donald Trump made good on his campaign promise to implement a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Clothed in the language of national security, Executive Order 13769, issued on January 27,...Consequences of US Financial Warfare in the Middle East
When the COVID-19 pandemic spiked in Iran in March 2020, calls for lifting financial restrictions to allow the import of much needed medical supplies fell on deaf ears in President Donald Trump’s administration. The White House had no intention of putting the brakes...The Enduring Lessons of the Iraq Sanctions
The economic sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United Nations Security Council, from 1990 to 2003, may well lay claim to be the worst humanitarian catastrophe ever imposed in the name of global governance. The unconscionable human damage done by those sanctions is...The Tragedies and Dilemmas of US Intervention in Northeast Syria
At the very beginning of the Syrian uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Asad in 2011, and during the early stages of the slide into civil war, Washington made the serious miscalculation that the Asad regime would fall quickly. When the regime failed to...Rethinking US Policy Toward Iran: A Forum
While US relations with Iran have been adversarial since the 1979 Islamic revolution, President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) in 2018 and his belligerent implementation of a “maximum pressure” policy has on more than one occasion risked...Six Steps to Reform US Agricultural Policy in the Arab Region
People in the Arab region have long been hungry—for dignity, but also for food. Hunger is a social phenomenon: the “biological manifestation of underdevelopment,” in the words of Brazilian geographer Josué de Castro.[1] Underdevelopment is the reverse coin of...A Not-So-Modest Proposal to Nationalize the Defense Industry
Shifting the course of catastrophic American policy in the Middle East requires bolder steps than changes in doctrine and grand strategy. A substantially less militarized foreign policy necessitates altering the structural political economies that have justified,...The Defense Industry’s Role in Militarizing US Foreign Policy
As the welfare state shrinks, one of the last sure bets for big government spending is the maintenance of the warfare state. As the global coronavirus pandemic has made incredibly clear, the US government is disinclined to pump federal resources into health programs,...The Oil for Security Myth and Middle East Insecurity
Since the end of World War II, US policy toward the Middle East has ostensibly been dedicated to protecting the free flow of hydrocarbons to sustain the global economy. In reality, America’s pursuit of energy security has increased insecurity in the region through conflict, militarization and support for neoliberal authoritarians. Jacob Mundy explains why oil for security is a myth and how the current glut of oil presents a dangerous new twist.
Reimagining US Engagement with a Turbulent Middle East
Amidst the horror of President Donald Trump’s reckless actions in the Middle East there is an urgent need to not only oppose his policies, but also to envision a new path for the United States. Trump has endorsed the Israeli annexation of Palestinian territory,...In Appreciation of Chris Toensing, Steve Niva and Jimmy Bishara
At this time of uncertainty, disruption and rebuilding, MERIP would like to offer our deep gratitude to several members of our family whose contributions over the past two decades have allowed MERIP to survive and thrive against all odds. For nearly 50 years, MERIP...Exit Empire
MERIP has offered critical analysis of US foreign policy in the Middle East for almost 50 years. Beginning with decades of work by co-founder Joe Stork and others, contributors to Middle East Report have documented US support for regimes that suppressed popular...Agrarian Politics and the Slow Revolution Yet to Come
Almost a decade after the 2011 uprisings, we now have an excellent synthetic text by Habib Ayeb and Ray Bush, long-time activists and researchers of (North) African agrarian questions as they relate to food sovereignty, social equality, and the ecology.
The Post-Oslo Neoliberal Laboratory
A review of Toufic Haddad, Palestine LTD. Neoliberalism and Nationalism in the Occupied Territories (London: I.B. Taurus, 2016), 368pp. Toufic Haddad begins his sharply critical examination of the international donor and financial community’s role in the...Toward Religious Zionist Hegemony in Israel
Religious Zionism provides ideological leadership to the ascendant right-wing bloc and increasingly to Jewish Israeli society as a whole.
The Battle for South Yemen
Despite the recent agreement brokered by Saudi Arabia, it may also be the case that the fight for the future of the country has begun between forces that want militarily either to occupy or liberate South Yemen.
