Bolt from the Blue or Avoidable Failure? Revisiting September 11 and the Origins of Strategic Surprise

Drawing on the strategic surprise, warning-response, and foreign policy literature, this article argues that the September 11 terror attacks should be regarded as a strategic surprise and examines a number of key factors that contributed to vulnerability and inhibited vigilance. Three broad explanatory "cuts" derived from the literature—psychological, bureau-organizational, and agenda-political—are deployed to sift through the rapidly expanding empirical record in an effort to shed light on the processes and contextual factors that left the United States vulnerable to the attacks. The article aims to improve our understanding of generic processes and practices that enhance or detract from vulnerability and vigilance.     

Multi-layered justice and security delivery in post-conflict and fragile states

This paper examines the value of an alternative approach to SSR policy, namely a multi-layered one in post-conflict and fragile state environments. It begins by arguing that there is a state-centric bias in current SSR policy and practice. This contradicts development principles of a ‘people-centred, locally owned’ approach in post-conflict and fragile state contexts. The SSR's state-centric approach rests upon two fallacies: that the post-conflict and fragile state is capable of delivering justice and security; and that it is the main actor in security and justice. The paper goes on to present the outline of a multi-layered strategy. This addresses the issue of who is actually providing justice and security in post-conflict and fragile states. The paper continues by describing the accountability mechanisms that could be pursued by SSR programmes in support of this approach. The conclusion is that the advantage of the multi-layered approach is that it is based not on the state's capacity, but on the quality and efficacy of the services received by the end user, regardless of who delivers that service.     

‘Bilingual’ education and discontent in Xinjiang

Efforts to promote and impose Mandarin Chinese as the language of instruction in ethnic minority schools in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, aimed at further integrating the state and raising regional educational and economic quality, have had mixed success. The 2004 plan to consolidate Han Chinese and minority elementary and middle schools and to make Mandarin the universal language of instruction in those schools is fostering an immersive second-language environment without prior preparation for students, bringing native speakers of Mandarin into unfair competition with non-native speakers. The increased focus on Mandarin has already had grave consequences for ethnic relations, especially in urban Uyghur schools, where the project is focused, while the mandate for change in educational curriculum and methodology has also been poorly planned and remains under-resourced, negatively impacting educational quality. The Chinese government has available to it other language policy solutions that are both more workable and friendlier to minority sensibilities.     

To arrest insecurity: time for a revised security sector reform agenda

Despite the exponential growth in the attention and resources devoted to security sector reform (SSR), positive tangible outcomes remain hard to find. A ‘conceptual-contextual’ divide exists between SSR's stated goals and its actual implementation, a fissure that suggests the need to re-evaluate its tenets as currently conceived and practiced. This paper contributes to such a reappraisal and argues for a new round of SSR debate and policy formulation that will be simultaneously more pragmatic and less ambitious, while listening carefully to the wishes of those who are to benefit from SSR. Our core argument is that the current understanding of SSR policy provides practitioners with neither the requisite intellectual foundation nor practical guidance to craft institutions that arrest insecurity. Consequently, a number of the central concepts of the current SSR agenda—local ownership, civil society, governance, multi-sectoral approach, etc.—need to be recast to make them operationally effective, managerially coherent, and susceptible to measurable evaluation.     

Distrust of Government, the Vigilante Tradition, and Support for Capital Punishment

This study probes the interconnections among distrust of government, the historical context, and public support for the death penalty in the United States with survey data for area-identified samples of white and black respondents. Multilevel statistical analyses indicate contrary effects of government distrust on support for the death penalty for blacks and whites, fostering death penalty support among whites and diminishing it among blacks. In addition, we find that the presence of a "vigilante tradition," as indicated by a history of lynching, promotes death penalty support among whites but not blacks. Finally, contrary to Zimring's argument in The Contradictions of Capital Punishment , we find no evidence that vigilantism moderates the influence of government distrust on support for the death penalty, for either whites or blacks. Our analyses highlight the continuing influence of historical context as well as contemporary conditions in the formation of public attitudes toward criminal punishment, and they underscore the importance of attending to racial differences in the analysis of punitive attitudes.     

B. Reviews: general

A HISTORY OF THE ARAB PEOPLES. By ALBERT HOURANI. London, Faber and Faber, 1991. xviii, 551pp. £25 (hb).

STUDIES IN ARAB HISTORY. Edited by DEREK HOPWOOD. (St.Antony's/Macmillan series.) London, Macmillan, 1990. 189pp. 5 plates and 3 figures.

A HISTORY OF THE SELJUKS: ?BRAHIM KAFESOGLU'S INTERPRETATION AND THE RESULTING CONTROVERSY. Translated and edited By GARY LEISER. Carbondale and Edwardsville, Southern Illinois University Press, 1988. 208pp. Genealogical charts, maps in end covers. $29.95.

THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN THE LATIN KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM. By JOSHUA PRAWER. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1988. xv, 310pp. 5 maps.

ARAB HISTORY AND THE NATION STATE: A STUDY IN MODERN ARAB HISTORIOGRAPHY 1820–1980. By YOUSSEF M. CHOUEIRI. (Exeter Arabic and Islamic Series.) London & New York, Routledge, 1989. xix, 238pp. £35.00

THE END OF EMPIRE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: BRITAIN'S RELINQUISHMENT OF POWER IN HER LAST THREE ARAB DEPENDENCIES. By GLEN BALFOUR‐PAUL. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991. xxiv, 278pp. £30.00.

THE LETTERS OF T.E. LAWRENCE. Edited by MALCOLM BROWN. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1991. xi, 564pp. £8.95 (pb).

A PRINCE OF OUR DISORDER: THE LIFE OF T.E. LAWRENCE. By JOHN H. MACK. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1990. xxvi, 561pp. £9.95 (pb).

UN GRAND RABBIN SEPHARADE EN POLITIQUE 1892–1923. Presented and edited by ESTHER BENBASSA. Mesnil‐sur‐l'Estrée, CNRS, 1990. 263pp.

THE SUPREME MUSLIM COUNCIL: ISLAM UNDER THE BRITISH MANDATE FOR PALESTINE. By URI M. KUPFERSCHMIDT. Leiden, Brill, 1987.

AFTER THE EAGLES LANDED: THE YEMENITES OF ISRAEL. By HERBERT S. LEWIS. Boulder, Westview Press, 1989. xix, 277pp., photographs, glossary.

LAND BEFORE HONOUR: PALESTINIAN WOMEN IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES. By KITTY WARNOCK. (Women in Society: A Feminist List.) London, Macmillan Educational Press, 1990. 199pp.

PEASANT POLITICS IN MODERN EGYPT: THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE STATE. By NATHAN BROWN. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1990. 280pp. 2 maps. £25.00.

SOCIETY AND STATE IN THE GULF AND ARAB PENINSULA. By KHALDOUN HASAN AL‐NAQEEB. London and New York, Routledge, 1990. xvii, 206 pp. £35

THE TURBULENT GULF. By LIESL GRAZ. London, I.B. Tauris, 1990. xi, 312pp. £17.95.

IRAN: THE KHOMEINI REVOLUTION (COUNTRIES IN CRISIS). Edited by MARTIN WRIGHT. Contributors: Nick Danziger, Martin Howe, Baqer Moin, Reza Navabpour, Sir Anthony Parsons, Vahe Petrossian, Amit Roy and Martin Wright. London, Longman, 1989. 128pp. Maps, ills. £6.95.

ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS (COUNTRIES IN CRISIS). Edited by MARTIN WRIGHT. Contributors: Paul Cossali, Roger Hardy, Lawrence Joffe, Noah Lucas, David McDowall, Elfi Pallis, Martin Wright. London, Longman, 1989. 131pp. Maps, ills. £6.95.

MAJOR POLITICAL EVENTS IN IRAN, IRAQ AND THE ARABIAN PENINSULA 1945–1990. By TREVOR MOSTYN. New York & London, Facts on File, 1991. xii, 308pp. £14.95.

WOMEN AT WORK IN THE GULF: A CASE STUDY OF BAHRAIN. By MUNIRA A. FAKHRO. London, Kegan Paul International. 184pp. £45.00

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF TURKEY: DEBT, ADJUSTMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY. Edited by TOSUN ARICANLI and DANI RODRIK. Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1990. 275pp. £40 (hb).

AFGHANISTAN: A COUNTRY LAW STUDY. By GHOLAM H. VAFAI. Washington, Library of Congress, 1988. 63pp.

RESISTANCE AND CONTROL IN PAKISTAN. By AKBAR S. AHMED. London & New York, Routledge, 1991. xxiii, 207pp. £12.99 (pb).

MASTERING ARABIC: By JANE WIGHTWICK and MAHMOUD GAAFAR. (Macmillan Master Series.) London, Macmillan, 1990. 370pp.

FROM CODE‐SWITCHING TO BORROWING: A CASE STUDY OF MOROCCAN ARABIC. By JEFFREY HEATH. (Library of Arabic Linguistics, monograph 9.) London, Kegan Paul International, 1990. 328pp.

ARISTOTELIAN LOGIC AND THE ARABIC LANGUAGE IN ALFARABI. By SHUKRI B. ABED. Albany, State University of New York Press, 1991. xxv, 201pp.

OGHUSICA AUS IRAN. By GERHARD DOERFER, WOLFRAM HESCHE, JAMSHID RAVANYAR. Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 1990. ix, 146pp. DM 56.‐

ABBASID BELLES LETTRES. Edited by Julia Ashtiany, T.M. Johnstone, J.D. Latham, R.B. Serjeant and G. Rex Smith. (The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, Vol.II, 1.) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990. xiii, 517pp.

PENSEE MYTHIQUE, IDEOLOGIE ET ASPIRATIONS SOCIALES DANS UN CONTE DES MILLE ET UNE NUITS. By PATRICE COUSSONNET. (Supplément aux Annales Islamologiques—Cahier no. 13). Cairo, Institut français d'archéologie orientale, 1989. 67 pp. 6 plates.

THE MEADOWS OF GOLD: THE ABBASIDS. By MAS'UDI. Tr. and ed. by PAUL LUNDE and CAROLINE STONE. London and New York, Kegan Paul International, 1989. x, 469pp. £30.00

POESlA ESTRÓFICA (CEJELES Y/O MUWA??AHAT) ATRIBUIDA AL MlSTICO GRANADINO A?‐?u?TARI (SIGLO XIII d.C.).(Preedición, traducción, estudio e índices.) By F. CORRIENTE. Madrid, CSIC, Instituto de Filología, Departamento de Estudios Árabes, 1988. [6], 379pp.

ISLAM, THE STRAIGHT PATH. By JOHN L. ESPOSITO. Oxford University Press, 1988. viii, 230pp. £6.95.

TRADITIONAL ISLAM IN THE MODERN WORLD. By SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR. London, KPI, 1987. x, 335pp.

IN A CALIPH'S KITCHEN: MEDIAEVAL ARABIC COOKING FOR THE MODERN GOURMET. By DAVID WAINES. London, Riad el‐Rayyes Books, 1989. 119pp. 44 colour plates. £14.00.