Lion in the Sand: British Policy in the Middle East, 1945–67

The crisis that unfolded after Iran's June 2009 presidential election exposed the absolutist nature of the state's highest religious authority (wali-ye faqih), Ayatullah ‘Ali Khamena'i. It also revealed the urgent need to critically interrogate Ayatullah Khomeini's doctrinal justifications for the governance of the jurist (wilayat al-faqih) in light of how ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first Shi‘i Imam, assumed the caliphate: divine bestowal (nass) combined with public investiture that took the form of bay‘a (oath of allegiance). Ayatullahs Husayn ‘Ali Montazeri, Mohsen Kadivar, Yousef Saanei, Bayat Zanjani and Mehdi Karrubi have attempted to devise a model in which sovereignty belongs to the public and limits the clergy's role in daily matters of the state to oversight and guidance. In contrast, Ayatullahs Kazemeyni Boroujerdi and Mojteba Shabestari argue for a clear-cut separation between the church and the state so that the public can choose its form of government since no specific form is prescribed in Islam. On the other hand, Ayatullah Mesbah Yazdi, a member of the Assembly of Experts, has consistently been a passionate advocate of the absolute authority of the jurist in its most comprehensive form and a vehement opponent of any dissenting discourse on this subject.     

Soviet studies on workers’ movements in the Middle East

Rabochiy klass Afriki (The working class of Africa), edited by I. P. Yastrebova, Moscow, Africa Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Nauka Press: 1966.

K. A. Guseynov's Rabochiy klass i Profsoyuzi Afriki {The working class and the trade unions of Africa), Moscow, Profizdat: 1969.

B. A. Shabayev's Rabochiy klass strait Magriba (The working class of the Maghrib lands), Moscow, Asia Institute¹ of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Nauka Press: 1968.

Willard A. Beling's important Modernization and African Labor: a Tunisian Case Study, N.Y., Praeger: 1965).

F. M. Atsamba and L. A. Fridman and titled Rabochiy klass stran Azii i Afriki (The working class in the countries of Asia and Africa), Moscow, Moscow University Press: 1966.

F. M. Atsamba's ‘The workers’ movement in Egypt on the eve of the Second World War, 1929–1939’ (pp. 266–94)

Selskohozyaystvenniye rabochiye v stranah Azii i Afriki (The agricultural workers in the countries of Asia and Africa), edited by G. G. Kotovskiy and I. A. Svanidze, Moscow, Oriental Institute and Africa Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Nauka Press: 1969.

Rabocheye dvizheniye v Azerbayzhane v godi novogo revolyutsiyonogo podyoma, 1910–1914 (The workers’ movement in Azerbaijan during the revolutionary progress, 1910–1914), Baku, Soviet Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences: 1967.

A. I. Shamide, Rabocheye i profsoyuznoye dvizheniye v Irane posle vtoroy mirovoy voyni, 1946–1953 (The workers’ and trade‐union movement in Iran after the Second World War, 1946–1953), Baku, Soviet Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences: 1965

Z. Z. Abdullayev, Formirovaniye rabochego klassa Irana (The formation of Iran's workers’ class), Baku, Soviet Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences: 1968.

Sh. M. Badi, Rabochiy klass Irana (Iran's workers’ class), Moscow, the Asia Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Nauka Press: 1965, is a smaller book (130 pages).

M. S. Ivanov, Rabochiy klass sowemennogo Irana (The workers’ class of contemporary Iran), Moscow, Ethnography Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Nauka Press: 1969.     

Democratization in the Middle East and North Africa: A More Ambidextrous Process?

Democratization is always an ambidextrous process. On the one hand, it triggers a universalistic set of norms, events, processes and symbols. On the other hand, democratization involves a much more particularistic set of ‘realistic’ adaptations to the structures and circumstances of individual countries. In analysing the structures and conjunctures of countries in the Arab World during the past decades, scholars looked at them from the perspective of persistent authoritarianism. This essay exploits democratization theory – as well as its converse ? by analysing the universalistic set of events, processes and symbols of democratization elsewhere in the world, and then identifying the particularistic characteristics of timing, location and coincidence that seem likely to affect the political outcome of regime change in the countries affected by recent popular uprisings in the Arab World.     

Some allied misunderstandings in the Middle East, 1918–1920

Mizh—A Monograph. By Sir Evelyn Howell, K.C.I.E., C.S.I. Published by Government of India Press, Simla, 1931.

The Culture and Art of India. By Radhakamal Mukerjee. Published by George Allen and Unwin. 1959. Pp. 447. 55 illustrations. 50s.

Sources of Indian Tradition. Compiled by Wm. Theodore de Bary, Stephen Hay, Royal Weiler, Andrew Yarrow. Columbia University Press, New York, and Oxford University Press, London. Pp. 961. Indexed. U.K. price 55s.

Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism. By Lama anagarika Govinda. Published by Rider and Co., 1959. Pp. 310. Index, bibliography. 30s.

The Revolt in Tibet. By Frank Moraes. Macmillan Co. of New York. 1960. Pp. 223. (Price not given.)

The Naked Hills. Tales of Afghanistan by Charles Beardsley. Peter Davies. Pp. 275. 16s.

Riding to the Tigris. By Freya Stark. John Murray. 21s.

Ottoman Imperialism and German Protestantism, 1521–1555. By Stephen A. Fischer‐Galati. O.U.P. for Harvard University Press. 1959. Pp. viii +140. 32s.

The Soviet Union and the Middle East. By Walter Z. Laqueur. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. Pp. x + 360. Index. 35s.

A Political Study of the Arab‐Jewish Conflict. The Arab Refugee Problem. By Rouy E. Gabbay. Published by Librairie E. Droz, Geneva. Bibliography, index. Pp. 611. Swiss Frs. 50.

History and Tribes of Jordan. By F. G. Peake. Published by University of Miami Press. Pp. 253. Maps.

Lebanon in the Last Years of Feudalism, 1840–1868. A contemporary account by Antūn Dahir al‐'Aqiqi, and other documents translated by Malcolm H. Kerr. Published by the American University of Beirut, 1959. Pp. 159. Index.

Sun and Shadow at Aswan. By Herbert Addison. Chapman and Hall. 1959. Pp. 166. 18s. Indexed and illustrated.

Bankers and Pashas. International Finance and Economic Imperialism in Egypt. By David S. Landes. Heinemann. 1958. Illustrated. Pp. 344. 30s.

The Tales of Marzuban. Translated from the Persian by Reuben Levy. Thames and Hudson. Pp. 254. 25s.

Human Relations Area Files Incorporated. Subcontractor's Monograph. Afghanistan. Edited by Donald N. Wilber (1956). 2 vols. Indexed. 460 and 842 pages.

The Foundation of Dutch Power in Ceylon, 1638–1658. By K. W. Goone‐wardena. Under the Auspices of the Netherlands Institute for International Cultural Relations. Amsterdam, Djambatan. 1958. Pp. xx+196. Maps and illustrations. Dfl. 30 (57s.).

Dutch Power in Ceylon, 1658–1687. By S. Arasaratnam. Under the Auspices of the Netherlands Institute for International Cultural Relations. Amsterdam, Djambatan, 1958. Pp. xxii + 246. Maps and illustrations. Dfl. 32 (60s.).

The Junkman Smiles. By G. R. G. Worcester. Chatto and Windus, London. Pp. 254. 8 Plates, drawings and map by the author. 21s.

Chinese Art and Culture. By Rene Grousset. Published by André Deutsch. 55s.     

The Euro-Arab Dialogue and the Limits of European External Intervention in the Middle East, 1974–77

The Euro-Arab Dialogue (EAD) was established by the European Economic Community in 1974 as a way of improving bilateral relations between Europe and the Arab world in the wake of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the subsequent global energy crisis. This article examines the success of the EAD in its first three years in existence (between 1974 and 1977). It begins with an analysis of the literature on the framework in these years. Much of this material argues that the EAD was a success in achieving its goal of improving relations with the Arab world as well as evidence of the success of the recently established European Political Cooperation (EPC) framework in general. This article challenges this view and instead argues that the EAD, even in its early years, was not a success due to three factors: the first was the failure of the EEC to keep the EAD focused on economic issues and to prevent the politicization of the framework; the second was the Community's inability to come to grips with the deep internal divisions over both the mandate and goals of the EAD; and the third was American hostility towards the EAD from the time of its birth.     

Beyond Semi‐sovereignty: The new Germany in the new Europe

Semi‐sovereignty was identified by Peter Katzenstein as an external condition of West German Politics. Semi‐sovereignty persists as an internal condition of the new German state, but externally Germany is less semi‐sovereign as a result of the disappearance of external restrictions and its increasing economic and political power which is now allied to its greater freedom of manoeuvre in the security area. While less semi‐sovereign in objective terms than before unity, it is argued that the political elite in Germany will continue to be multilateralists and to eschew the adoption of a national interest discourse.     

Defining ‘America’ from a Distance: Local Strategies of the Global in the Middle East

This article focuses on the policy of population dispersion and the plan that transferred new Jewish immigrants from North Africa to settlements in Israel's periphery during the mid-1950s. Populating the frontier was a national task. The lack of candidates among old-timers contributed to the idea of sending new immigrants to those areas. The first wave of immigrants, immediately after Israel's independence, came at such a speed that a direct connection to population dispersion was almost impossible. The transit camps, created as temporary accommodation for the immigrants in populated area of the country, became permanent. With the second wave of immigration, a policy of directing the immigrants to the frontier was adopted. This policy required tight control on the immigrants and very efficient processing. This second wave of immigrants included mostly North African Jews. However, this policy was abandoned when East European Jews immigrated to Israel. The population dispersion of the 1950s shaped Israel's spatial gaps, and had long-lasting influence on the creation of an ethnic gap in Israel.