A review of The Arab Gulf States: Beyond Oil and Islam by Sean Foley. The Case for a Middle East Union: A majestic region-wide union may well transform the strategic calculus of the sceptics and the spoilers. Arab autocracy: For good or ill, change is coming to Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Bashar al-Assad has maintained his country’s key position in Mideast politics by drawing out the peace process and turning it into warfare by other means. A review of books on Lebanon (and more and more). Shlomo Ben-Ami on Turkey’s rise and the decline of Pan-Arabism. "The desert of Arabia is America's last frontier”: The story of the cowboy oilmen who branded the Gulf and the Bedouin who followed in their footsteps. A review of Democracy in Modern Iran: Islam, Culture, and Political Change by Ali Mirsepassi. A review of Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Radical Islamism by John Calvert. Bad politics is better than no politics: Why Iraq's bloody democracy isn't so terrible. Operation Sabotage: Eli Lake on our secret war against Iran. From The Economist, a special report on Egypt. Not unlike the role oil has played, water is going to be increasingly important in determining power-sharing strategies and political alliances in the Middle East. Is Yemen the next Afghanistan? Al Qaeda may have found the perfect combination of tribal hospitality, chaos and military opportunity. A review of Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism since 1979 by Thomas Hegghammer. An interview with Mohamed ElBaradei: "This is a historical moment for Egypt".
