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Remaking the Middle East: The Prospects for Democracy and Stability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2012

Lisa Anderson
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Abstract

This essay is an exploration of the ramifications for the Middle East of the profound transformations in global politics implied in the end of the Cold War and the birth of a new, American-dominated world order. In doing so, Anderson takes up an issue posed since the birth of many of today's Middle Eastern states after World War I: the influence of great-power politics in the Middle East and within the individual states of the region which, added to local traditions, result in an explosive mix. She concludes with the prospects for Middle East democracy in the new world order.

Type
Articles
Information
Ethics & International Affairs , Volume 6 , March 1992 , pp. 163 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 1992

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References

1 Although disagreeing with some of his conclusions, I greatly benefited from the paper of my colleague Gause, F. Gregory III, “Sovereignty, Statecraft and Stability in the Middle East,” Journal of International Affairs (Winter 1992).Google Scholar

2 For relatively sophisticated examples of this argument, see the reports of several visits to the Middle East by Milton Viorst in The New Yorker before and after the Gulf War, including “Report from Baghdad” (June 24,1991) and “Kuwait After the Liberation” (September 30,1991).Google Scholar

3 Much of American journalism adopts this approach, as do some well-known specialists on the area. Graham Fuller's remark that “paranoia, a deeply embedded psychological factor in the Middle East, vitiates American-inspired political initiative,” may serve as an example. (“Respecting Regional Realities,” Foreign Policy 83 [Summer 1991], p. 39.Google Scholar) Samuel Huntington has culled the specialized literature and provides a useful short summary of the discussions of the influence of Islam on the prospects for democracy in “Democracy's Third Wave,” Journal of Democracy 2 (Spring 1991)Google Scholar.

4 Among the more recent works to make this point, see Tilly, Charles, Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD. 990–1990 (Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1990Google Scholar).

5 On such states, see Delacroix, Jacques, “The Distributive State in the World System,” Studies in Comparative International Development 15:3 (1980)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Anderson, Lisa, The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya, 1880–1980 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986Google Scholar).

6 Tilly, Charles, “War and State Power,” Middle East Report 21 (1991), p. 40Google Scholar.

7 For both background and speculation about the future, see Hudson, Michael, “After the Gulf War: Prospects for Democratization in the Arab World,” Middle East Journal 45 (Summer 1991)Google Scholar; Muslih, Muhammad and Norton, Augustus Richard, “The Need for Arab Democracy,” Foreign Policy 83 (Summer 1991)Google Scholar.

8 Fuller, Graham, “Moscow and the Gulf War,” Foreign Affairs 70 (Summer 1991)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 See Viorst, “Report From Baghdad.”.Google Scholar

10 See the Middle East Watch Report, Needless Deaths in the Gulf War: Civilian Casualties During the Air Campaign and Violations on the Laws of War (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1991Google Scholar).

11 Personal interview with a senior Foreign Ministry official, Moscow, June 18, 1991.Google Scholar

12 See Said, Edward, Covering Islam (New York: Pantheon Books, 1981Google Scholar).