Kamiar Mohaddes and M. Hashem Pesaran (Cambridge): One Hundred Years of Oil Income and the Iranian Economy: A Curse or a Blessing? Hassen Chaabani (Monastir): Insights on the History of Anthropology: Its Emergence in the Wider Middle East Before It Existed as a Discipline. Olivia Mason reviews Image Politics in the Middle East: The Role of The Visual in Political Struggle by Lina Khatib. Why is the Arab world so easily offended? Fouad Ajami wants to know. What’s it like being a stand-up comic in Saudi Arabia? The terrible twos: Can Washington prevent the turbulent Arab Spring countries from going the way of the post-Soviet states? Many Americans find Jesus in prison; Abdullah Ocalan, the revered and despised leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), found Benedict Anderson. Fred Kaplan on the coming collapse of the Middle East: The region's borders have long been artificial — the war in Iraq accelerated their demise.
