REVIEWS

Foreign books

Mit Feldmarschall von der Goltz Pascha in Mesopotamien und Persien. By his late General Staff Officer, Lieutenant‐Colonel Hans v. Kiesling. Leipzig: Dieterich ‘sche, publishers.

L'Islam et les Questions Musulmanes au point de vue Français: Conférence faite au centre des hautes études militaires, le 13 Avril, 1923. Par Général Brémond. Paris: Charles Lavau‐zelle et Cie, Editeurs Militaires.

English books

The Caliphate. By Sir Thomas Arnold, C.I.E., Litt.D. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1924. 108. 6d. net.

Persian Literature in Modern Times. By E. G. Browne. Cambrige University Press. 1924. 35s. net.

Ben Kendim: A Record of Eastern Travel. By Lieut.‐Colonel the Hon. Aubrey Herbert. Edited by Desmond MacCarthy. Illustrated with six maps. London: Hutchinson and Co. 1924. 21s. net.

Anatolica. By Harry Charles Luke. London: Macmillan and Co., 1924. 16s. net.

Trans‐Jordan: Some Impressions. By Mrs. Steuart Erskine. London: Ernest Benn, Ltd. 1924. 12s. net.

Tales from Turkistan. By Stor Lob. London: Wm. Blackwood and Sons. 1924. 6s.

India: A Bird's‐Eye View. By the Earl of Ronaldshay, P.C., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E. Constable and Co., London and Bombay, 1924. Price 18s.

From China to Hkamti Long. By Captain F. Kingdon Ward. Edward Arnold and Co. 1924. 18s. net.

Zanzibar: An Account of its People, Industries, and History. Zanzibar: The Local Committee of the British Empire Exhibition. Paper. Pp. xx + 84.     

WESTERN APPROACHES TO THE MIDDLE EAST (REVIEW ARTICLE)

This article considers five books about western countries' actions and policies in the Middle East over the twentieth century and beyond. The British with their mandates in Iraq, Palestine and Jordan, and the French in Syria and Lebanon, employed similar techniques. The role of the British in Palestine comes in for a deal of criticism By the time the Americans took over the dominant role in the region, the policy challenge was rather different. But the mistakes the Americans made were just as serious and the lessons of history were too often ignored.     

Recognising Politicization: The CIA and the Path to the 2003 War in Iraq

The concept of ‘politicization’ of the US intelligence services, and in particular the CIA, has been debated by scholars for many years. However, it has also been easily dismissed by those investigating recent US foreign policy, as in the Robb-Silberman Commission's assurance over the 2003 Iraq War that ‘the Intelligence Community needs to be pushed’. This essay seeks an extension of the critique of politicization by considering the historical context since the formation of the CIA. It seeks an application of that critique by putting forth, when evaluating the policy and operations of the George W. Bush administration, the notion of an ‘alternative network’ within the government. The argument is that politicization must be linked to a conception of ‘Executive power’, both within the American bureaucracy and in the projection and rationalization of US aims overseas.     

Beyond the new look: Policy and operations in the Eisenhower administration

Saki Dockrill, Eisenhower's New‐Look National Security Policy, 1953–61 (London: Macmillan, 1996). Pp. xvi + 400, biblio, index. NP. ISBN 0–333–65655–5.

Erika Alin, The United States and the 1958 Lebanon Crisis (Lanham MD: University Press of America, 1994). Pp.160, biblio, index. NP. ISBN 0–8191–9332–1.

Audrey R. and George McT. Kahin. Subversion as Foreign Policy: The Secret Eisenhower and Dulles Debacle in Indonesia (New York: Norton, 1995). Pp.318, index. £17.95. ISBN 1–56584–244–8.     

Book reviews

Sibyl Crowe and Edward Corp, Our Ablest Public Servant, Sir Eyre Crowe GCB, GCMG, KCB, KCMG, 1864-1925 (Braunton Devon: Merlin Books, 1993) £17.95. ISBN 0 86303 607-4.

Richard J. Aldrich, The Key to the South: Britain, the United States, and Thailand during the Approach of the Pacific War, 1929-42 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1993).

John Saville, The Politics of Continuity: British Foreign Policy and the Labour Government, 1945-46 (London and New York: Verso, 1993). ISBN 0 86091 456 9.

John Kent, British Imperial Strategy and the Origins of the Cold War, 1944-49 (Leicester, London and New York: Leicester University Press, 1993). ISBN 0 7185 1330 4.

Frederick W. Marks III, Power and Peace: The Diplomacy of John Foster Dulles (Westport, CT & London: Praeger, 1993) £45. ISBN 0 275 94497 2.

Charles Grant, Delors: Inside the House that Jacques Built (London: Nicholas Brealey, 1994) pp.305. £12.99. ISBN 1 85788 039 0.     

Deep-draft dredging of U.S. coal ports: A cost-benefit analysis

This article discusses whether U.S. society should invest in large-scale coal port development and examines specifically financing the deep-draft dredging of coal ports on the East and/or Gulf Coasts (Baltimore, Hampton Roads, Mobile, and New Orleans) so that fully loaded, large coal-carrying colliers can export coal to Western Europe. By assuming a society-wide perspective, no costs and benefits are attributed to various parties. Although the multifaceted nature of the coal port issue is acknowledged, the core of this study is a large number of different simulations. Each simulation optimizes the United States-Western Europe coal trade for a given demand, ocean transportation cost structure, and cost of capital. This relatively simple model focuses on the key tradeoff: the cost of dredging versus lower ocean transportation costs. The study supports those recommending caution in coal port development. The most striking conclusion is the robustness of two solutions - no dredging or dredge only Hampton Roads - depending on the assumptions. Our conclusions also generally do not support simultaneously dredging all deep-draft options, the concurrent dredging of more than one port, or dredging either of the Gulf ports before the two East Coast ports.     

Determination of Inorganic Ion Profiles of Illicit Drugs by Capillary Electrophoresis

A portable capillary electrophoresis instrument with dual capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (C⁴D) was used to determine the inorganic ionic profiles of three pharmaceutical samples and precursors of two illicit drugs (contemporary samples of methylone and para‐methoxymethamphetamine). The LODs ranged from 0.10 μmol/L to 1.25 μmol/L for the 10 selected cations, and from 0.13 μmol/L to 1.03 μmol/L for the eight selected anions. All separations were performed in less than 6 min with migration times and peak area RSD values ranging from 2 to 7%. The results demonstrate the potential of the analysis of inorganic ionic species to aid in the identification and/or differentiation of unknown tablets, and real samples found in illicit drug manufacture scenarios. From the resulting ionic fingerprint, the unknown tablets and samples can be further classified.