Publications

This section highlights books, monographs and articles relating to regional cooperation in the Middle East. Publishers and authors are encouraged to submit material for review.

Naji Abi-Aad and Michel Grenon
Instability and Conflict in the Middle East: People, Petroleum and Security Threats
(New York, St. Martin’s Press, Inc., 1997), 224 pages, US$65.00 (cloth)

This volume presents an overview of the security environment in the contemporary Middle East by evaluating the nature and magnitude of potential conflict factors in the region. The authors also add a comparative dimension to their analysis by examining the roles these factors play in a number of regional settings.

In weighing the relative importance of these factors, such as interstate ideological cleavages and migration patterns, the authors reach the expected conclusion that security concerns in the Middle East cluster around the fact that the region contains so much of the world’s known petroleum reserves. Potential factors of conflict that directly impact on inter-state stability are particularly germane and may have a socio-cultural basis. For example, the Shi’a population in eastern Saudi Arabia, the area containing the bulk of the country’s petroleum, has come to be seen as a security threat by the Sunni leadership in Riyadh because of the 1979 revolution in Iran and that country’s Shi’a-majority population.

A more obvious example of a potential factor of conflict given by the authors is the ill-placed inter-state boundaries that divide petroleum reserves in such a manner as to "exacerbate resource geopolitics." These can eventually lead to armed confrontation, as was the case between Iraq and Kuwait in 1990 concerning the shared Rumia/Ratqa oil field and the subsequent Gulf War.

Equally, if not more, relevant for security and stability is how states will divide the region’s meager water supply. The fragile water situation is magnified by the fact that the major regional water resources are shared. Control over water flow can be used as leverage in inter-state relations and to strengthen a state’s security position. Thus, it is not surprising that Turkey is undertaking an ambitious multi-dam building program - the Great Anatolian Project - on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in an effort to divert more water to Turkish soil and away from neighboring Syria and Iraq.

The authors conclude their survey by stating that the latent factors for regional instability and conflict appear to be strengthening. To decrease tensions, they suggest the establishment of new relations among states in the region and an easing of the arms race. (Daniel Klass)

Jeff Albert, Magnus Bernhardsson, Roger Kenna, editors
Transformations of Middle Eastern Environments: Legacies and Lessons
(New Haven, Connecticut, USA: Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 1998), 498 pages, US$35.00 (cloth)

This volume is based on an international interdisciplinary conference held at Yale University in 1997 that brought together an array of scholars, practitioners, and journalists concerned with the natural environments of the Middle East. Both the conference and this book were inspired by the idea of achieving a better understanding of the relationship between humans and nature in a region that has been continuously settled for many centuries.

Large increases in population, rising standards of living, water scarcity, and pollution are combining to place great stresses on the plant, water, and air resources of the Middle East. The essays in this volume address these issues under a number of general themes: agriculture and pastoralism, water, nature and culture, marine environments, and monitoring.

In his chapter entitled "Biodiversity and Sustainable Agriculture in the Fertile Crescent," author A.A. Jaradat of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute in Aleppo, Syria, proposes a holistic approach to managing the ecosystems of the region to address the degradation of its inherent biodiversity over time. He hypothesizes that food security for future generations will increase through the conservation and utilization of agricultural biodiversity.

Aaron Wolf of Oregon State University examines the topic of "Hydrostrategic Decisionmaking and the Arab-Israeli Conflict." His primary focus is to determine whether or not territory in the Middle East has been sought - in the establishment of boundaries, through warfare, or during negotiations - solely because of its access to water resources. He concludes that such thinking has played some role in political considerations, particularly in Zionist circles during the decades prior to Israel’s establishment, but not in military considerations. During negotiations between Israel and its neighbors (Jordan and the PNA), Wolf states that water has been a difficult topic of discussion in terms of rights, allocations, and management, but not in terms of territory. Overall he believes that water seems not to have exacerbated the Arab-Israeli conflict but rather, as people move away from war toward peace, has induced them to cooperate.

As the editors state, the many rich perspectives included in this volume show that "good information and good communication, even across enduringly difficult political and cultural boundaries, will do more to focus attention on, and move toward solution of, environmental issues of critical importance to all inhabitants of the region than any other factors." (Tim Werner)

Available from the Yale School of Forestry and Environ-mental Studies, 205 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; fax (1-203)432-5942.

Robin Barlow and Joseph W. Brown, editors
Reproductive Health and Infectious Disease in the Middle East
(Brookfield, Vermont, USA: Ashgate Publishing Company, 1998), 228 pages, US$63.95 (cloth)

This edited volume includes a selection of papers presented at a 1997 University of Michigan School of Public Health conference, entitled "Health Issues in the Middle East." The two main themes, reproductive health and infectious disease, are covered from a variety of disciplinary perspectives including epidemiology, economics, and anthropology.

The editors, Robin Barlow and Joseph Brown of the University of Michigan, situate the perspectives contained in this volume within an "integrative" paradigm of public health. This paradigm addresses the complexity of women’s positions in society and their role in reproductive issues, and draws upon various social and cultural factors in the development of a comprehensive reproductive health plan. Using this model in the Middle East, health issues are beginning to be approached from a broader perspective that includes the reproductive rights of individuals and families, primary health care, and the effects of gender inequalities.

Several papers discuss the impact of limited health care for women in the Middle East. Contributing authors review aspects of maternal health in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia, as well as the historic emphasis on country-specific rather than regional maternal health. This emphasis may be attributed not to a lack of data, but rather to a relatively small regional population, constraints on the work of international agencies due to long-term political difficulties, and the generally low priority given to maternal health issues. The authors attempt to counter this trend by analyzing reproductive health and infectious disease on a regional as well as country-specific basis in order to promote cooperation, productivity, and exchange of knowledge and techniques.

Attention is given in several papers to the prevention and proliferation of infectious diseases such as schistosomiasis, HIV/AIDS, Rift Valley fever and hepatitis C. In his overview of the impact of such diseases in the Middle East, Robin Barlow makes clear that the region is still at a fairly early stage in combating them. One possible reason, he believes, is the high rate of illiteracy among women in the Middle East (54% in 1995) since it has been established that better educated mothers give better protection to their children against infectious disease.

Several authors assert that the peace process has provided a critical opportunity for Middle East health professionals to collaborate on regional disease prevention and training initiatives in order to counter growing reproductive health problems and infectious diseases. They believe that the most effective approach to health programming is an integrated regional one. (Elizabeth Rosenberg)

David Cortright, editor
The Price of Peace: Incentives and International Conflict Prevention
(New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1997), 347 pages, US$65.00 (cloth), US$24.95 (paper)

In this collection of case studies, David Cortright, president of the Fourth Freedom Forum, attempts to give insight on the role of incentives in conflict prevention. The case studies address a broad range of issues - from nuclear proliferation to human rights - and geographic settings, which include Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America.

First discussed is the impact of incentives on nuclear proliferation. The authors, Virginia Foran and Leonard Spector of the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace, distinguish three determinants for the success of incentives in this area: the depth of each country’s desire for nuclear weapons; the relationship between the incentive-giver and the incentive-taker; and the sunk cost already involved with the nuclear program. By looking at historical actions taken by the US, whose incentives comprised financial support, security assurances and political recognition, Foran and Spector determined that success was achieved through a combination of both incentives and sanctions. A significant example of success in this area came in Ukraine with the removal of nuclear weaponry.

In another chapter, Cortright and Amitabh Mattoo of Jawaharlal Nehru University focus on civil and regional disputes between India and Pakistan. They show how sanctions have rarely been productive in South Asia, while incentives have proved much more fruitful. The authors outline incentives such as lifting technology restrictions, offering India the possibility of a seat on the UN Security Council in exchange for putting aside its nuclear weapons option, and a restricted program of debt relief. They conclude that the most powerful incentive for both India and Pakistan is the promise of good relations with the United States.

Jeffrey Herbst of Princeton University shows the inadequacy of incentives in a chapter dealing with South Africa. The combination of sanctions and incentives used by the US to effect domestic reform during the apartheid era in South Africa, for example, was largely ineffective. South Africa’s relatively advanced economy seemed invulnerable to economic pressure, the power of the incentives offered did not match the demands made, and the US lacked moral authority because it was still dealing with its own troubled history of civil rights. These factors created an unstable environment for the use of incentives.

The editor concludes that while incentives are not appropriate for every situation, and may even be counterproductive in a militant setting, they have the advantage over coercive measures. In order to make incentives a reality, there ultimately must be more of a commitment by major powers to financial assistance and developmental aid. (Felicia Lin)

George E. Irani and Nathan C. Funk
"Rituals of Reconciliation: Arab-Islamic Perspectives"
Arab Studies Quarterly, Volume 20, Number 4, Fall 1998, pp. 53-73

In this article, George Irani of Washington College (Maryland) and Nathan Funk, a doctoral candidate in the School of International Service at American University, review and compare traditional Arab-Islamic rituals of reconciliation alongside western models of conflict resolution.

Irani and Funk provide a much-needed scholarly analysis of the importance of culture and cognition in conflict and conflict resolution in the Middle East. The article addresses three fundamental questions: (1) What are the cultural assumptions of western conflict resolution theory and practice?; (2) How do traditional Arab-Islamic approaches conceptualize and respond to conflict?; and (3) How can conflict resolution practitioners respond and be sensitive to these differing cultural approaches?

Since the beginning of the peace process in the Middle East, the international community has taken a more active role than before in seeking to resolve conflicts within the region. This endeavor has been accompanied by the articulation of a fairly standardized conflict resolution mechanism that has been applied to a wide variety of conflicts throughout the Middle East. Irani and Funk summarize the main features of this mechanism and, by comparing it with traditional Arab-Islamic approaches, seek to elucidate some of the theoretical underpinnings for cultural biases. In doing so, they question whether the western method of conflict resolution is flexible enough to effectively accommodate cultural diversity. The goal of the article is not to oppose western methods of conflict resolution, however, but to challenge their assumptions and ability to achieve success.

Importantly, Irani and Funk provide two models of Arab-Islamic rituals of reconciliation, namely sulh (settlement) and musalaha (reconciliation). While there are subjective similarities between Arab-Islamic models of reconciliation and western mechanisms of conflict resolution, the authors examine the multitude of differences between the two processes. As a result, they remind us that the traditional practices of sulh and musalaha are embedded in a cultural context very different from that which underlies western conflict resolution practices.

This article provides evidence to support the premise that cultures approach conflict differently, thus emphasizing the need to transcend western ethnocentric models of conflict resolution by encouraging both theorists and practitioners to understand and be sensitive to cultural variations. (Gary Blythe)

John Paul Lederach
Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies
(Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1997), 197 pages, US$32.50 (cloth), US$14.95 (paper)

Following his 1994 paper on conflict and development in which he outlined the concept of building peace with an emphasis on development, John Paul Lederach continues the same thesis in this book and expands on the concept of the inextricability between peace and development. In this extensive yet simple account, Lederach provides a strong argument, backed with examples and working frameworks, on how to build peace in societies beset by hatreds and war. He emphasizes what he calls the middle-range actors – the behind the scenes people – who can make it happen.

When Lederach, Director of the Conflict Transformation Program at Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia, published his earlier monograph outlining the concept of peace and development, the international community of peace-builders and NGO activists hailed its importance while also recognizing the need for a future model. This book provides it. Lederach utilizes working examples from his rich experience to demonstrate the applicability of his thesis. He skillfully addresses the concept of peacebuilding, which, in divided societies, is based on the promise of reconciliation – itself dependent on such concepts as mercy and justice.

Lederach also stresses the importance of relationship-building on the road to reconciliation. The journey of peacebuilding, according to the author, is a long process involving what he labels as top leadership, middle-range leadership, and grassroots leadership. Often, he argues, some of these levels of leaderships are ignored more than others, which provides for an uneven peace – a statement that strikes a responsive chord in divided, multi-ethnic societies. Lederach discusses in detail a peacebuilding model that encompasses not only the concrete application of crisis management, but also conflict prevention and the challenge of building an enduring peace.

In his concluding chapters, Lederach provides an integrated approach toward peacebuilding that emphasizes the importance of dealing with the root causes of conflict, crisis management, prevention, advancement of a shared vision by warring parties, and the transformation of conflict into a positive relationship. He also provides a menu of several choices to apply his conceptual framework, such as peace missions and training workshops, among others.

As with his earlier work, Preparing for Peace: Conflict Transformation Across Cultures, Lederach has once again proven his masterful ability at blending theory with practical experiences and examples from around the world. He has charted new territory where few others have dared to tread, rendering the book a must for policymakers, NGO activists, and humanitarian actors, among others. (Oussama Safa)