Iraq and the limitations of American foreign policy in the Middle East

The Bush administration has manoeuvred itself into an exquisite dilemma. Iraq is by all reasonable assessments a foreign policy calamity and perceptions of American power and legitimacy are at an all time low. All the options available to the US in dealing with the situation carry significant costs. For the US to extricate itself from Iraq it must engage with regimes that it claims it has an existential and intractable conflict with, such as Iran and Syria. This is a direct outcome of the failure of the Bush administration to acknowledge the realities of the situation in Iraq and the complexities involved in solving this crisis. It also highlights a much greater problem with current US foreign policy towards the Middle East, namely an ignorance of the interconnected nature of conflicts and tensions in the region. Approaching Iran and Syria regarding the Iraqi crisis would signal a positive shift away from the current values-driven unilateralism towards a more realistic and flexible policy to further US national interests.     

Stateless and Citizenship Rights in the Middle East: the Case of Kuwait

This article examines Kuwaiti citizens' views towards expanding citizenship rights to disenfranchised groups. Using survey data from 1581 Kuwaiti citizens in 1998, the author focused on the influence of Kuwaitis' social statuses, cultural affiliations, social networks and religious beliefs. Are attitudes toward inclusion specific to the national origin of the excluded? It was found that variables connoting status decrease support for the stateless. Cultural adherence to Islamic nationalism and Pan‐Arabism and those who follow the media regularly positively influence support for the stateless. These findings suggest that citizens' attitudes about inclusion/exclusion are specific to the national origin of the dis‐enfranchised.     

Middle East History: a Review Essay

The Modern Middle East: a history; James L. Gelvin The Modern Middle East: a political history since the First World War; Mehren Kamrava     

中东铁路 世纪的穿越

19世纪末20世纪初.俄国人通过和清政府签订不平等条约,在中国东北修建了一条呈T字形的大铁路.这条铁路经历了清末、民国、伪满、解放战争和新中国成立初期的沧桑岁月、是近代中国屈辱、抗争的见证.同时也是这条铁路催生了一批以哈尔滨.满洲里和绥芬河站为代表的近代城市和重要的铁路通商口岸,并留存下了大批具有俄罗斯风格、折衷主义风格和新艺术运动风格的历史建筑,吸引着无数爱好者为它倾倒.     

Labor Rights as Global Human Rights

Book reviewed in this article:
Edward C. Lorenz, Defining Global Justice: The History of U.S. International Labor Standards Policy     

The Superpowers in the Middle East

RAMI GINAT. The Soviet Union and Egypt, 1945–1955. London: Frank Cass, dist. Portland, OR: ISBS, 1993. Pp. xii, 268. $45.00 (US);

ABRAHAM BEN-ZVL The United States and Israel: The Limits of the Special Relationship. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. Pp. xi, 312. $35.00 (US).