Project MUSE®: The Middle East Journal - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in The Middle East Journal.daily12026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 63 (2009) through current issueLatest Articles: The Middle East JournalTWOProject MUSE®The Middle East Journal1940-34610026-3141Latest articles in The Middle East Journal. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Editor's Note
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988807
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Volume 79, no. 2 of The Middle East Journal appears at a stunning caesura in the region's modern history. The US and Iran face the gravest crisis since 1979. Israel continues to press its military campaign in Lebanon. The Arab Gulf states are meanwhile looking for a pathway to territorial security, and the entire world is looking for ways to ensure safe transit through the Strait of Hormuz, an essential corridor for the global energy supply chain. The question of the day is whether these overlapping crises represent mere pauses in ongoing regional struggles or dramatic tipping points that begin cascades of change.The policy essays in this issue deal with questions of regional realignment from different angles and
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallEditor's Note2026-04-30text/htmlen-USEditor's Note2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®39392026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30Fixing America's Failed Strategies in the Middle East
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988808
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The Middle East is both central to key United States interests and prone to instability. Yet US national security and defense strategic guidance has struggled to account for the unique demands of the region. Calls for strategic divestiture from the region have grown in prominence among analysts and policymakers alike in recent years. Yet events in this turbulent region impose a different reality. The result is a gaping disconnect between stated US preferences and operational exigencies.The Middle East remains a highly volatile region, prone to unforeseen and often destabilizing events with broader geopolitical effects. Relatedly, even before the war with Iran, US Central Command (CENTCOM) was unique among combatant
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallFixing America's Failed Strategies in the Middle East2026-04-30text/htmlen-USFixing America's Failed Strategies in the Middle East2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®516002026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30A Rift Deferred? Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the limits of Gulf Unity
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988809
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The US-Israeli war on Iran has temporarily papered over a rift between two Gulf powerhouses: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Finding themselves on the frontlines of a war they worked hard to prevent, these Gulf states have put differences aside publicly and circled the wagons. As in other crises, the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has come together, issuing a statement of solidarity and referencing their commitment to mutual defense.1 The leaders of Saudi Arabia and the UAE have spoken directly, breaking their silence since the relationship soured in December of last year.2Yet the patch is temporary. Significant structural, policy, and personal differences remain and will likely resurface once
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallA Rift Deferred? Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the limits of Gulf Unity2026-04-30text/htmlen-USA Rift Deferred? Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the limits of Gulf Unity2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®449292026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30Changing Security Dynamics in the Persian Gulf after Epic Fury: A Preliminary Assessment
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988810
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When the Twelve-Day War ended in a cease-fire in June 2025, it was clear that this would be a short break from fighting, not a lasting peace. The cease-fire did not bridge any of the fundamental strategic differences and expectations between Washington, Jerusalem, and Tehran, leaving the strong possibility of future hostility. Despite the resumption of negotiations to end the nuclear stalemate, Iran, Israel, and the United States each prepared for a more intense round of fighting.The ramifications of President Trump's Operation Epic Fury have been felt all over the world since the warʼs onset in February 2026. This impact is not limited to interruption of oil and gas supplies from the Persian Gulf and soaring
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallChanging Security Dynamics in the Persian Gulf after Epic Fury: A Preliminary Assessment2026-04-30text/htmlen-USChanging Security Dynamics in the Persian Gulf after Epic Fury: A Preliminary Assessment2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®587692026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30Can Trump Break the Middle East's Non-Tariff Barriers?
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988811
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On August 7, 2025, the Trump administration upended decades of United States trade policy in the Middle East and North Africa by raising tariffs on non-oil imports from the region. Neither ally nor adversary was spared. Jordan — the third largest recipient of US foreign assistance in the region and a longstanding US partner — faced a 15 percent tariff on exports to the US, one of its biggest markets. Though the US Supreme Court recently halted these tariffs, the Trump administration has vowed to continue its tariff agenda through other legal means.1 The administration believes that reciprocal tariffs on non-oil imports from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) can bludgeon barriers to US exports and narrow trade
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallCan Trump Break the Middle East's Non-Tariff Barriers?2026-04-30text/htmlen-USCan Trump Break the Middle East's Non-Tariff Barriers?2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®551002026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30How Post–October 7 Wars Reshaped Iran-Huthi Ties
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988812
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Ansar Allah, an Islamist political and military organization commonly known as the Huthis, is the only member of the Axis of Resistance — the network of non-state armed groups led by the Islamic Republic of Iran — not to have suffered major losses since October 2023. To the contrary: they have further consolidated their power domestically inside Yemen and have exploited the regional instability following Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel to continue expanding their influence. What does this mean for the evolution of the Huthis' relations to Iran, their main source of external support? Has Iran shifted the nature of its support since October 2023, and if yes, how, why, and with what consequences?War and conflict
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallHow Post–October 7 Wars Reshaped Iran-Huthi Ties2026-04-30text/htmlen-USHow Post–October 7 Wars Reshaped Iran-Huthi Ties2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®1289542026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30The Trump Effect on Global Autocratization: Theory and Evidence from Israel and Türkiye
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988813
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Scholarship in political science has long conceptualized United States democracy promotion as a force that fosters democracy globally.1 Yet the radical retrenchment of US democracy promotion during Donald Trump's second term as president calls for new research and theories regarding the ways that US international influence shapes regime outcomes globally. How has the decline of US democracy promotion affected processes of autocratization in US allies globally and in the Middle East particularly?Early research theorizes that Trump's presidency may undermine democracy globally both through the effects of Trump's domestic governance (by inspiring copycats) and through his foreign policy (by reducing pro-democratic
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallThe Trump Effect on Global Autocratization: Theory and Evidence from Israel and Türkiye2026-04-30text/htmlen-USThe Trump Effect on Global Autocratization: Theory and Evidence from Israel and Türkiye2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®1627732026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30Syria's State-Rebuilding Challenge: Reintegrating the Border Peripheries
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988814
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On December 8, 2024, Bashar al-Assad's regime collapsed, leaving behind a fragmented state divided along center-periphery lines. Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa inherited the state apparatus and Syria's formal representation and has consolidated power in Damascus. He has called for a unified Syria, which requires reintegrating border peripheries, notably the northeast, where a Kurdish-led administration and armed forces have consolidated control; parts of the north along the Turkish border that remain under Turkish influence and the control of Turkish-backed groups; the coast, which is under government control but may yet become a locus of insurgency; and the south, particularly the Druze-majority province of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallSyria's State-Rebuilding Challenge: Reintegrating the Border Peripheries2026-04-30text/htmlen-USSyria's State-Rebuilding Challenge: Reintegrating the Border Peripheries2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®1845042026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30From Securitization to National Rebranding: Saudi–Muslim Brotherhood Relations since 2010
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988815
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"Islamic awakening is a good tiding to a new society that will secure the aspirations of the Muslim individual," "Actually, if you see any terrorist, you will find that he used to be from the Muslim Brotherhood,"As the two quotes illustrate, the official Saudi stance toward the Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn) and the Sahwa movement (al-Sahwa al-Islamiyya), has dramatically changed in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings of 2010–12. The Brotherhood was founded by a secondary school teacher, Hasan al-Banna, in Egypt in 1928. The Brotherhood called for Islamic revival and resistance against Western influence and evolved into a transnational Islamist movement over decades.3The Sahwa developed as a religious
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallFrom Securitization to National Rebranding: Saudi–Muslim Brotherhood Relations since 20102026-04-30text/htmlen-USFrom Securitization to National Rebranding: Saudi–Muslim Brotherhood Relations since 20102026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®1213402026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30Reclaiming Syrian Agency: Two New Histories of Modern Syria
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988816
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The fall of the Assad regime in December 2024 has reopened fundamental questions about Syria's political future — a future that had seemed foreclosed for over half a century and has revived a familiar interpretive problem in the study of Syria: how to explain political outcomes without reducing them either to the machinations of external powers or to the logic of sectarian identity. Media coverage and policy discussions since 2024 have routinely reduced complex political questions to sectarian calculations: Will Alawites be protected or targeted? Can Sunni Islamists govern a diverse society? What about Christian and Druze minorities? These questions, while not illegitimate, risk naturalizing sectarianism as Syria's
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallReclaiming Syrian Agency: Two New Histories of Modern Syria2026-04-30text/htmlen-USReclaiming Syrian Agency: Two New Histories of Modern Syria2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®309112026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30The Long War on Iran: New Events, Old Questions by Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988817
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Long wars are conflicts that unfold over extended durations, most commonly operating through low-visibility forms of violence. For most of their history — with early modern roots in European dynastic power rivalries and later expansion through nineteenth- and twentieth-century imperial formations — they have operated through coercive diplomatic and economic means alongside military confrontation to render an adversary's power progressively less sustainable, with the ultimate aim of capitulation. Such warfare privileges states with overwhelming economic and military capacity and enables strategies designed to weaken adversaries, often without immediate battlefield confrontation.Yet, what long wars ultimately
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallThe Long War on Iran: New Events, Old Questions by Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi (review)2026-04-30text/htmlen-USThe Long War on Iran: New Events, Old Questions by Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi (review)2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®165722026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30Enduring Hostility: The Making of America's Iran Policy by Dalia Dassa Kaye (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988818
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It's a function of the paucity of creative, courageous thinking in Washington that a book like Dalia Dassa Kaye's Enduring Hostility: The Making of America's Iran Policy is even necessary. This book is even more timely coming after the Trump administration joined Israel in bombing Iran last summer and now with a more devastating war in 2026.There are many reasons why the US and Iran remain adversaries nearly 47 years after the Islamic Revolution. The new Iranian government took a decidedly anti-American stance in reaction to US support for the Shah. Iran's holding of US diplomat hostages for 444 days after the US admitted the Shah for medical treatment helped the regime purge those that still favored a relationship
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallEnduring Hostility: The Making of America's Iran Policy by Dalia Dassa Kaye (review)2026-04-30text/htmlen-USEnduring Hostility: The Making of America's Iran Policy by Dalia Dassa Kaye (review)2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®116422026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30Jordan: Politics in an Accidental Crucible by Sean Yom (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988819
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In this impressive new book, Sean Yom provides both a comprehensive overview and a detailed analysis of the major features of Jordanian politics. The scope of the book is broad, covering government, society, opposition movements, economics, and foreign policy. In each chapter, Yom provides extensive historical context and then engages in a deep dive into that particular aspect of Jordanian politics, from its early history to its resonance today. While the book is a scholarly work, Yom writes in a way that is accessible to broader audiences. It is well written and deeply researched, drawing on more than two decades of the author's own field research in the kingdom, as well as on other primary and secondary
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallJordan: Politics in an Accidental Crucible by Sean Yom (review)2026-04-30text/htmlen-USJordan: Politics in an Accidental Crucible by Sean Yom (review)2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®86592026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30Kurdish Politics in the Middle East: Lessons from the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG in Iraq by Rebwar Rawf Salih (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988820
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Rebwar Rawf Salih is in a well placed position to dissect the troubled situation in Kurdistan, Iraq, not only because he trained at Cambridge and the University of London, but also because he is a Kurdish citizen of the very Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) he is analyzing. As he explains,The main aim in this book was to work as a political sociologist in order to explore the reasons why the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) lost its strength internally by losing trust from its own people in the governing system within the region and its power towards the central government in Baghdad in political, economic and military terms, particularly after the independence referendum
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallKurdish Politics in the Middle East: Lessons from the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG in Iraq by Rebwar Rawf Salih (review)2026-04-30text/htmlen-USKurdish Politics in the Middle East: Lessons from the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG in Iraq by Rebwar Rawf Salih (review)2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®88962026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30Tribalism and Democracy in Libya: State Building and Identity after Gaddafi by Rawia Ben Khayal (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988821
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Until the 2011 uprising that removed Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi from power, few books published in the West on Libya's political system — or on the country more generally — carried much authoritative heft. Most relied largely on secondary sources and, occasionally, on sparse and somewhat suspect Libyan internal data and publications. Admirable exceptions were the earlier works of the late George Joffé and of John Davis (Libyan Politics: Tribe and Revolution (Tauris, 1987)). Much of the character of writing on Libya stemmed from a combination of external sanctions and embargoes imposed on the country that made it virtually a no-go area for most Western (and particularly United States) observers and academics. This was
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallTribalism and Democracy in Libya: State Building and Identity after Gaddafi by Rawia Ben Khayal (review)2026-04-30text/htmlen-USTribalism and Democracy in Libya: State Building and Identity after Gaddafi by Rawia Ben Khayal (review)2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®100572026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30L'Affaire Ben Barka: La fin des secrets by Stephen Smith and Ronen Bergman (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988822
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Over the six decades since October 29, 1965, when Mehdi Ben Barka, leader of a Moroccan opposition party, disappeared in Paris at the hands of two French police officers, the Ben Barka affair has been subject to much speculation in the press regarding the involvement of Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, in addition to the French and Moroccan security services. The co-authors of this book, each of whom had written earlier about the case, spent five years dissecting a new trove of documents from Mossad with the help of Olivia Nora, a professional documentalist, giving aided weight to their conclusions. The authors claim to have revealed all the details about the Moroccan politician's disappearance, including who
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallL'Affaire Ben Barka: La fin des secrets by Stephen Smith and Ronen Bergman (review)2026-04-30text/htmlen-USL'Affaire Ben Barka: La fin des secrets by Stephen Smith and Ronen Bergman (review)2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®88032026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30Vigilante Islamists: Religious Parties and Anti-State Violence in Pakistan by Joshua T. White (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988823
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This study is a welcome addition to the growing literature on the complex landscape of Islam in Pakistan. The author rightly points to the palpable rise in anti-state violence in the country over the last four decades. The book probes why Islamist political parties that actively participate in Pakistani politics and elections would risk their political capital and reputation by supporting anti-state violence carried out by militant groups. How do they justify this support, and under what circumstances? White identifies three possible factors that could explain such support: ideological sympathy, targeting political opposition, and managing competition with other political actors.For too long — especially in popular
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallVigilante Islamists: Religious Parties and Anti-State Violence in Pakistan by Joshua T. White (review)2026-04-30text/htmlen-USVigilante Islamists: Religious Parties and Anti-State Violence in Pakistan by Joshua T. White (review)2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®123242026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30Power Competition in the Red Sea: Testing the Post-Liberal International Order by Federico Donelli (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988824
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Despite its pivotal position in world affairs, the Red Sea littoral has remained surprisingly absent from scholarship on Middle Eastern international relations. Previously, Roberto Aliboni sought to inject the Red Sea into discussions of regional security in 1985,1 and Anoushiravan Ehteshami and Emma Murphy made a further attempt a quarter-century later.2 Federico Donelli has now taken up the campaign, beginning with a succession of stimulating journal articles and culminating in this book-length survey.Unlike his earlier articles, which highlighted underexplored strategic and diplomatic developments in and around this vital geopolitical corridor, Power Competition in the Red Sea devotes considerable space to
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallPower Competition in the Red Sea: Testing the Post-Liberal International Order by Federico Donelli (review)2026-04-30text/htmlen-USPower Competition in the Red Sea: Testing the Post-Liberal International Order by Federico Donelli (review)2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®81012026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30Rethinking Islamic Politics in Tunisia: A Gramscian Analysis by Fabio Merone and Francesco Cavatorta (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988825
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In the decade and a half since the Arab uprisings of 2011, scholars have closely examined the trajectories of Islamist and, more recently, Salafist movements across the Middle East and North Africa. Rarely, however, are these two influential political forces considered together as a single political phenomenon. This insightful book argues that Islamism and Salafism are so similar in the ways they intertwine socioreligious mobilization with political orga nization that they should be placed under the same analytical category of "Islamic politics." The authors employ a Gramscian analysis to draw out this comparison in the case of Tunisia, showing how ideology and activism operate in tandem. They argue that daʿwa —
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallRethinking Islamic Politics in Tunisia: A Gramscian Analysis by Fabio Merone and Francesco Cavatorta (review)2026-04-30text/htmlen-USRethinking Islamic Politics in Tunisia: A Gramscian Analysis by Fabio Merone and Francesco Cavatorta (review)2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®100092026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30The Transformation of Turkish Foreign Policy: Islamism and Nationalism by Hasan Kösebalaban, and: Contesting Pluralism(s): Islamism, Liberalism, and Nationalism in Turkey and Beyond by Nora Fisher-Onar (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988826
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Hasan Kösebalaban's The Transformation of Turkish Foreign Policy: Islamism and Nationalism and Nora Fisher-Onar's Contesting Pluralism(s): Islamism, Liberalism, and Nationalism in Turkey and Beyond are best read together as comple mentary interventions into two questions that have come to define contemporary Turkish studies: how to conceptualize Türkiye's ideological reordering since the early 2000s, and how to connect domestic contestation to the making of foreign policy without collapsing explanation into either "geopolitics made them do it" or "Islamism explains everything."Kösebalaban offers a tightly periodized account of AKP-era foreign policy transformation. He traces the shift from a "liberal, EU-oriented"
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallThe Transformation of Turkish Foreign Policy: Islamism and Nationalism by Hasan Kösebalaban, and: Contesting Pluralism(s): Islamism, Liberalism, and Nationalism in Turkey and Beyond by Nora Fisher-Onar (review)2026-04-30text/htmlen-USThe Transformation of Turkish Foreign Policy: Islamism and Nationalism by Hasan Kösebalaban, and: Contesting Pluralism(s): Islamism, Liberalism, and Nationalism in Turkey and Beyond by Nora Fisher-Onar (review)2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®132752026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30State Failure in the Middle East: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen by Neil Partrick (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988827
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State Failure in the Middle East: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen by Neil Partrick is an informative analysis of four cases of state failure — Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen — in a region where state fragility is an endemic problem. The book offers a genuinely specialist regional perspective, richly informed by 60 interviews with politicians, administrators, semi-influentials, and analysts of the region. As Sir Richard Dalton, former UK ConsulGeneral in Jerusalem and Ambassador to Libya and Iran, describes in the opening endorsements, the book provides a view through the eyes of people on the ground, rather than an analysis that begins with standard Political Science concepts, categories, and theories, using cases
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallState Failure in the Middle East: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen by Neil Partrick (review)2026-04-30text/htmlen-USState Failure in the Middle East: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen by Neil Partrick (review)2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®118832026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30America's Middle East: Ruination of a Region by Marc Lynch (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988828
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America's Middle East by Marc Lynch is a scathing critique of United States foreign policy over three decades, culminating in Donald Trump's second term. Lynch relies largely on publicly available sources to argue for consistency across presidential administrations. He is careful to explain that American leaders and their advisers are not "evil or ignorant." "The problem is structural, not personal," Lynch writes (p. 23). He asserts that Washington's "unchallenged primacy" is ultimately the core issue (p. 14).The end of the Cold War frames the beginning of America's Middle East. Lynch contends that the American regional order has been in place since at least the end of the first Persian Gulf War. This "powerfully
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallAmerica's Middle East: Ruination of a Region by Marc Lynch (review)2026-04-30text/htmlen-USAmerica's Middle East: Ruination of a Region by Marc Lynch (review)2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®105842026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30Seeing Is Disbelieving: Why People Believe Misinformation in War, and When They Know Better by Daniel Silverman (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988829
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A great deal of research has explored civilians' behavior and attitudes in conflict settings. Scholars have asked why people support insurgencies or peace processes, and why civilians may or may not forgive former combatants and support transitional justice programs. Daniel Silverman's thought-provoking new book, Seeing Is Disbelieving: Why People Believe Misinformation in War, and When They Know Better, asks a question that is causally prior to these well-covered topics: how do civilians decide what information about a conflict to believe? Why do people believe or reject the often-rampant misinformation in conflict settings?Seeing Is Disbelieving is a focused study that demonstrates the book's key argument across
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallSeeing Is Disbelieving: Why People Believe Misinformation in War, and When They Know Better by Daniel Silverman (review)2026-04-30text/htmlen-USSeeing Is Disbelieving: Why People Believe Misinformation in War, and When They Know Better by Daniel Silverman (review)2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®118822026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30West Asia: A New American Grand Strategy in the Middle East by Mohammed Soliman (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988830
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Where is the Middle East? The ostensibly simple question — shaped by nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century imperial exigencies — has long animated scholarly debate. In his incisive new book, Mohammed Soliman revisits this question for a different purpose: to argue that the region known as the "Middle East" is giving way to a broader regional system he calls "West Asia," stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean.Although West Asia is more concerned with policy prescriptions than historiographical debate, Soliman's thesis echoes the burgeoning scholarly interest in the transnational histories of oceanic worlds. This new wave of scholarship reminds us that the bodies of water girding the Eurasian
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallWest Asia: A New American Grand Strategy in the Middle East by Mohammed Soliman (review)2026-04-30text/htmlen-USWest Asia: A New American Grand Strategy in the Middle East by Mohammed Soliman (review)2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®125222026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30Recent Publications
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/988831
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The Un-Chosen Body: Disability Culture in Israel, by Ilana Szobel. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2025. 264 pages. $94.99 cloth; $34.99 paper. This book examines the power of the creativity-disability partnership and its potential to lead to social change in Israel. Author Ilana Szobel explores the visual art, poetry, dance, and documentaries of disabled women in Israel and Palestine to explore the nuances of disability culture. She utilizes the personal stories of disabled women to demonstrate how disabilities factor into larger power dynamics between the Global North and South and between Israel and Palestine. (TL)Two Rivers Entangled: An Ecological History of the Tigris and Euphrates in the Twentieth
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/459/image/coversmallRecent Publications2026-04-30text/htmlen-USRecent Publications2026-04-302026TWOProject MUSE®110132026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-30