Recent Publications

ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT

The Sword Is Not Enough: Arabs, Israelis, and the Limits of Military Force, by Jeremy Pressman. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020. 296 pages. $36.95.

In this book Jeremy Pressman of the University of Connecticut claims that diplomacy is the only route to a peaceful end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. He argues against the view that military force is an avenue to success while negotiation and compromise lead to losses, demonstrating that the use of force has prevented the security situation and adversarial relationships from being such that a political solution could be achieved in Israel/Palestine. (WM)

Partitioning Palestine: British Policymaking at the End of Empire, by Penny Sinanoglou. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019. 256 pages. $40.

Professor Penny Sinanoglou's Partitioning Palestine revisits the origins of today's Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts through the lens of partition, illuminating the consequences of British imperialism on mandatory Palestine from the late 1920s through the 1947 UN resolution. A scholar of the British Empire, Sinanoglou highlights the failure of partition to fully materialize on account of both Britain's misrepresentation of, and the newly formed international community's misunderstanding of, the situation on the ground in mandatory Palestine. By recognizing partition as a tool of imperialism rather than decolonization, Sinanoglou recasts the historiography of Palestine's attempted partition and Israeli and Palestinian history more broadly. (DG)

GULF AFFAIRS

The Gulf in World History: Arabia at the Global Crossroads, edited by Allen James Fromherz. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020. 392 pages. $14.98.

Georgia State University historian Allen Fromherz brings together 17 chapters exploring the Persian Gulf as a central space through history where empires, societies, cultures, and individuals converged and interacted through peaceful exchange, war, and everything in between. The book contextualizes the cosmopolitanism of the Gulf not only within its broader connections to the world, but also through its local dynamics. Pulling together contributions from a number of other leading scholars in the field, the work incorporates a broad range of robust historical, theoretical, and archaeological evidence. The Gulf in World History presents an interdisciplinary study of this important region that should be of interest to scholars, students, and others looking to better understand its importance and history. (WM)

EGYPT

Delta Democracy: Pathways to Incremental Civic Revolution in Egypt and Beyond, by Catherine E. Herrold. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. 226 pages. $99 cloth; $29.95 paper.

Indiana University professor of philanthropy Catherine Herrold sheds light on the efforts of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to promote democracy in Egypt following the 2011 revolution. Through multiyear ethnographic research including interviews with organization leaders, she finds that grant-giving organizations and particularly development NGOs have been subtly promoting grassroots democratic development programs. Her research challenges scholars' claims that civil society organizations in hybrid regimes, including Egypt, have a limited capacity to promote democratic values. Delta Democracy's last chapter concludes with policy recommendations for reforming United States democracy aid programs, including adjusting to an integrated, value-driven, bottom-up approach. (JDC)

IRAN

Iran and Palestine: Past, Present, Future, by Seyed Ali Alavi. New York: Routledge, 2019. 196 pages. $46.95 paper; $160 cloth; $42.25 e-book.

University of London teaching fellow Seyed Ali Alavi writes a monograph on Iranian-Palestinian relations, covering prerevolutionary Iranian dissidents' views on the Palestinian cause and the evolution of Iran's relations with the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the years since the Iranian Revolution. Ultimately, Alavi argues that Iran's foreign policy decisions toward Palestinians have been driven more by ideology, political norms, and identity than material interests, though the author clarifies ideology and strategic interest can be conjoined. Notably, the text is benefitted by the inclusion of interviews with delegates of Palestinian groups and Iranian officials. (JDC)

IRAQ

Iraqi Refugees in the United States: the Enduring Effects of the War on Terror, by Ken R. Crane. New York: NYU Press, 2021. 208 pages. $89 cloth; $28 paper.

La Sierra University professor Ken Crane examines the challenges and stigmas...