A review of Kingmakers: the Invention of the Modern Middle East by K. Meyer and S.B. Brysac. An interview with Rashid Khalidi, author of Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East. From Al-Ahram, while imperialism has left its mark on the Arab region, it alone cannot be blamed for the failure of the Arabs to build modern states. The fifth Arab Human Development Report is a bold intellectual contribution to the Arab world’s deadlocked reform debate — but will anyone read it? (and more and more) The first chapter from Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World by Amaney A. Jamal. Hamas 2.0: The Islamic resistance movement grows up. From Dissent, Tim Goot-Brennan on why Kurdistan matters. How the Pentagon bought stability in Iraq by funneling billions of taxpayer dollars to the country's next generation of strongmen. From The Economist, waking from its sleep: A quiet revolution has begun in the Arab world; it will be complete only when the last failed dictatorship is voted out (and a special report on the Arab world). A review of Beyond Terror and Martyrdom: The Future of the Middle East by Gilles Kepel. Nathan Deuel tweets up with Riyadh’s burgeoning generation of micro-bloggers.
