The Kufa Review: Notable Iraqi journal that you may want to check out.

The Kufa Review publishes Arabic and English articles on historical, political, philosophic and linguistic topics. The journal has just won a prize for being the best peer-reviewed journal in Iraq. The co-editors-in-chief of the journal are Hassan Nadhem and Abbas Kadhim (an IISBU senior fellow).  Congratulations to Hassan and Abbas for their first-rate accomplishment, and for all the hard work they have invested in making the journal a success.

All issues of the journal are available for download as PDFs.

Current History, January 2012

Is the Labor Market Global?  by Uri Dadush and William Shaw
Arab Revolts Upend Old Assumptions by Augustus Richard Norton
America’s Outmoded Security Strategy by David B. Kanin and Steven E. Meyer
The End of Easy Everything by Michael T. Klare
Destructive Creation and the New World Disorder by Paul Harris and Daniel Sarewitz
Why the World Is More Peaceful  by Steven Pinker

Current History "Middle East" issue: an excellent collection of articles

December 2011

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Letter from Damascus: Will Syria Descend into Civil War?
by Sami Moubayed
“Many in the opposition are now saying the regime is stronger than they had imagined.”

The Palestinians’ Receding Dream of Statehood
by Nathan J. Brown
“The drama of international diplomacy has only obscured an ongoing, steady erosion of statehood as a focus of Palestinian aspirations.”

Uprisings Jolt the Saudi-Iranian Rivalry
by Frederic Wehrey
“Saudi and Iranian meddling aggravates a divisive, dangerous form of identity politics in fragile, vulnerable states.”

Islamism After the Arab Spring
by Ashraf El Sherif
“It makes no sense today to divide Arab politics into neatly crafted opposites, the ‘Islamist’ versus the ‘civil democratic’ blocs.”

The Middle East in Flux
by Michael C. Hudson
“The contagion effect created by the regime changes in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya suggests a significant degree of imagined community among Arabs everywhere.”

Perspective: Libya’s Revolution: Do Institutions Matter?
by Michele Dunne
Libyans’ path toward democracy looks rocky, to be sure. But at least they have been spared the cynical, instrumental use of democratic institutions that Egyptians and Tunisians for decades endured.

Books: The Muslim World’s Counter-Jihad
by William W. Finan Jr.
A new book finds the sources of Arab unrest not only in fury at corrupt regimes and stagnant economies, but also in a popular culture that scorns Islamist extremism.

Constitutional Options for Bahrain: Toward a Constitutional Monarchy

Article by Chibli Mallat & Jason Gelbort in the Virginia Journal of International Law.

Some readers have looked here for a 2008 link to MIT-EJMES on the Palestinian Naksa guest edited by Leila Farsakh

Unfortunately, the journal (conceived by Maha Yahya ahead of her time) is now defunct.  I did find a PDF of the issue, which you may now download.

This theme issue of the Electronic Journal for Middle Eastern Studies is titled "Commemorating the Naksa [calamity], Evoking the Nakba [catastrophe]", and it is edited by Maha Yahya.Contributors include Alain Gresh, Islah Jad, Leila Farsakh, Salim Tamari, Ilan Pappe and several other accomplished scholars and writers. The sober, thoughtful contributions emphasize the lived experiences of the Palestinians.

Surprises: The New Leader lives

The New Leader is an "old left" magazine that died a quiet life in 2006, but it has now been resurrected on-line thanks to Columbia University. In the 1950s, the magazine was quite well-known, especially for publishing Khrushchev's famous speech to the XX Party Congress of the CPSU. Leading intellectuals of the era published there, including Hans J. Morganthau. Daniel Schorr has been a contributor for years, and I see he appears in the new on-line version. Over the years, I wrote several essays for the magazine, including pieces following fieldwork in Cyprus and a UN-related mission in war-torn Mozambique in the 1980s, as well as articles on various Middle Eastern topics. It does not seem that an archive of the old print edition is readily available on-line, unfortunately.

The New Leader

International Spectator, October-December 2007 (en)

Volume XLII, No. 4, October-December 2007 (en)

Opinions
Choosing Transformation over Crisis in the Levant Nomi Bar-Yaacov and Gideon Lichfield
The European Union and Iran: What Next? Walter Posch
Saudi Arabia Walks the TightropePaul Aarts

Essays

The Role of Hezbollah in Lebanese Domestic Politics Augustus Richard Norton

The US Approach Toward Islamic Militancy: Current Policies in Historical Perspective Shireen Hunter
Globalisation and the Restructuring of State Power in the Arab World Laura Guazzone and Daniela Pioppi

Current History--annual Middle East issue is due out in December.

The dream of a democratic, unified Iraq has left Iran triumphant, Turkey alienated, and Iraq
itself irreparably broken. It is time to focus on achievable goals.

403 After Iraq: Picking up the Pieces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Peter W. Galbraith

Neither diplomacy nor threats have moderated Tehran’s behavior. Military strikes, however,
would have disastrous consequences.

409 The Death of Iraq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nir Rosen

Iran’s mullahs have concluded that provoking the West and repressing dissent are the way to
maintain their hold on power. So far, their strategy has worked.

414 Tehran Gambles to Survive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sanam Vakil

A recent flurry of diplomacy notwithstanding, it may be too late to create a state in Palestinian
territories splintered by factional politics and Israeli settlements.

421 The Fragmentation of Palestine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Glenn E. Robinson

In the Middle East and Western capitals, the Iraq War has renewed fears of a “Shiite crescent.”
Is the hazard real? Third in a series on religions and states.

434 The Shiite “Threat” Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Augustus Richard Norton

Islamic moderates have dislodged Turkey’s military-backed elite and broken longstanding
taboos. But radical nationalism poses a rising danger.

440 The US and Iran: Back to Containment? . . . . . . . . . . . . Suzanne Maloney

427 The Ebbing Power of Turkey’s Secularist Elite . . . . . . . . . Jenny White

A controversial book about the Israel lobby does not give enough credit to Americans’ deeply held sympathy for the Jewish state.

BOOKS

443 Is One Special Interest Special? . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .William W. Finan Jr.

The Sixth War

Just published:
The MIT Electronic Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, special issue on "The Sixth War: Israel's Invasion of Lebanon"
[The journal is now defunct, but the complete issue is available at this site:
MIT-EJMES]