The Middle East is Once Again West Asia

Caravanserai in Dasht e Lut desert, Kerman Province, Iran (photo Erik Alberts, courtesy Nations Online).

14 AUGUST 2023 • By Chas Freeman, Jr.

Opinions published in The Markaz Review reflect the perspective of their authors
and do not necessarily represent TMR.

 

We’re no longer talking about “the greater Middle East,” but a swath of West Asia that increasingly operates outside the geopolitical influence of the United States.

 

Chas Freeman

 

Names make a difference. Those who confer them reveal their perspectives on the places and peoples they are naming.

Over the course of the 16th to the 19th centuries, Europeans conquered and colonized the world, imposing their self-centered perspectives on its geography. For them, the Ottoman Empire was “the Near East,” a region encompassing West Asia, Southeast Europe, and Northeast Africa. Then, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the United States became the preeminent component of the self-styled “West,” a trans-Atlantic perspective supplanted the European one.

From the point of view of Americans, the lands within the collapsing Ottoman Empire were an intermediate zone between Europe — the Eurasian subcontinent to the East of the United States — and the Indian subcontinent. [1] That’s why Alfred Thayer Mahan decided they should be called the “Middle East,” not the “Near East.” In time, even the people who lived there began to use this American-minted term. The largest newspaper in the Arab world is الشرق الأوسط – which means “the Middle East.”

Western-Asia-political-map courtesy nations online
A political map of Western Asia (courtesy Nations Online).


The Birth of the Nation-State in West Asia

The name persists, but the people living in the region no longer acquiesce in foreign definitions of their homelands’ place in world affairs. Ottoman cosmopolitanism disappeared when the Ottoman Empire and the Caliphate expired. After flirting with a variety of transnational ideological identities — including pan-Arabism, Ba`athism, Judaism, Sunni, and Shi`ite Islamism — the region’s peoples have redefined themselves as “nation states.” Türkiye [2] and the fragments of the Ottoman Sultanate’s Levantine territories carved into semi-independent, neo-colonially administered countries by British and French bureaucrats have acquired well-defined international personalities.

Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria have come to embrace strong national identities that have survived multiple external and internal challenges to their existence.

Iran has broken with its neocolonialist patrons, installed a defiantly independent Shi`ite government, and asserted its own sphere of influence in West Asia. In this century alone, Iraq has experienced a period of governance as a “thugdom,” an anarchy imposed by a botched American effort at hit-and-run democratization, and the slaughter by foreign and domestic forces of at least half a million of its population.

Israel has degenerated from the vaguely humanistic vision of early Jewish nationalism to today’s Zionist negation of universal Jewish values. The indigenous people of Palestine have been the continuous object of relentless genocidal dispossession and brutal oppression by the Zionist settler state. Lebanon, once the playground of French confessional politics and Arab hedonism, has become ungovernable. Syria has been isolated, vivisected, and devastated by coalitions of domestic forces supported by external actors, including the Gulf Arabs, Israel, Türkiye, and the United States.

Syria continues to be the locus of a variety of proxy wars, including between Israel and Iran, Russia and the United States, and Türkiye and Kurdish separatists.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, once proudly pan-Islamist rather than pan-Arabist or nationalist, has embraced nationalism. It celebrates its official founding as a state in 1932 and employs the international — not the Hijra — calendar to do so. Egypt retains its distinctive character and cultural identity under a comprehensive military dictatorship. Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) practice independent foreign policies and exercise influence not just regionally but globally. Kuwait — which is surrounded by Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia — is appropriately cautious. Bahrain defers to Saudi Arabia and serves it as a useful proxy in contacts with Israel and the United States military.

 

Geopolitical Centrality

What has not changed is West Asia’s geopolitical centrality. It is where Africa, Asia, and Europe and the routes that connect them meet. The region’s cultures cast a deep shadow across northern Africa, Central, South and Southeast Asia, and the Mediterranean.  It is the epicenter of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the three “Abrahamic religions” that together shape the faiths and moral standards of over three-fifths of humankind. This gives the region global reach. But as the countries of West Asia seek their own destinies, they have graduated from subordination to great power rivalries and ended their vulnerability to external efforts to impose alien ideologies like Marxism or representative government. Political Islam, their original answer to these foreign systems of government, is in retreat. The peoples of the region are reinventing themselves in accordance with their own traditions of monarchy, military dictatorship, consultative politics, parliamentary democracy, or theocracy.

As the rule of law everywhere yields to populism (including in our own country), Aristotle’s observation that democracy tends to degenerate into demagoguery, autocracy, and the tyranny of the majority seems to be being born out. Various forms of elected autocracy are flourishing in Russia and Turkey and taking root in India and Israel.

 

Colonial Dominance

The era of foreign dominance of the crossroads of the world that began with Napoleon’s 1798 invasion and occupation of Egypt is clearly over. This should not surprise us. It has been two-thirds of a century since Egypt forced the British and French to cede control of the Suez Canal. Britain abandoned imperial ambitions east of Suez 56 years ago. Forty-four years have passed since Iranians expelled their Shah, who had been installed in an infamous Anglo-American regime-change operation a quarter century earlier. The Cold War, which long dominated regional politics, ended 34 years ago.  “9/11,” which fundamentally estranged the region from the United States, occurred more than two decades — a full generation — ago. The Arab uprisings of 2011 are a distant, garbled memory for all but their participants. The world has undergone fundamental change, and so has Afro-Asia — West Asia and Northeast Africa.

Among the changes is the reduced appeal of alien intellectual traditions and systems of government. Marxism is pretty much dead as an ideology except at the Central Party School in Beijing and a few institutions of higher learning in the Anglosphere. As the rule of law everywhere yields to populism (including in our own country), Aristotle’s observation that democracy tends to degenerate into demagoguery, autocracy, and the tyranny of the majority seems to be being born out. Various forms of elected autocracy are flourishing in Russia and Turkey and taking root in India and Israel. In this context, Washington’s efforts to portray world events as driven by a grand contest between democracy and authoritarianism have little appeal abroad, where they strike many as both irrelevant and seriously detached from reality.

Panoramic view of Ankara Turkey Sergii Figurnyi
Panoramic view of Ankara, Turkey (photo Sergii Figurnyi).


Breakout to Multiple, Simultaneous Alignments

But this is only part of the reason that, by contrast with the Cold War, the countries of West Asia (with the notable exception of Iran) have opted for nonalignment between the United States and America’s designated Chinese and Russian adversaries. To have called West Asian client states and dependencies like Israel and the Gulf Arabs “allies” of any great power was to seriously misunderstand and misdescribe their status. They were and, to some extent, remain “protected states,” consumers of security supplied by foreign backers rather than providers or guarantors of security to these backers. States in the region have been more likely to embroil their patrons in wars than to save them from enmeshment in them. Now, rather than attaching themselves to a single protector, these states have filled their dance cards with multiple great power partners. They offer fealty to none.

Iran, too, was originally nonaligned between East and West. But decades of U.S. policies of ostracism and “maximum pressure” left it nowhere else to go but into the arms of America’s adversaries. Iran has now turned to them to help it evict American influence from the region. In support of Moscow’s proxy war with the United States in Ukraine, Tehran has become a supplier of drones, artillery shells, tank ammunition, and other weapons systems to Russia. And it is working with India and Russia to develop an International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) that will bypass the NATO-controlled sea route through the Bosphorus as well as the Suez Canal. The INSTC will link Russia with the Iranian port of Chabahar, connecting Moscow to Bombay and other ports on the Indian west coast.

Unlike the United States, China has worked hard to maintain untroubled relations with all the nations of the region. This has been of particular benefit to Iran, recently helping it to restore normal relations with previously hostile Arab neighbors. Among other benefits, this rapprochement breaks the American-imposed embargo by opening Iran to trade and investment from the capital-rich societies across the Persian Gulf. Meanwhile, new roads, railways, and energy pipelines financed by China’s Belt and Road Initiative promise to restore Iran to its premodern role as a regional hub for both east-west and north-south economic exchanges.

As Iran did four decades ago, the Arab states of the region are now also in the process of freeing themselves from past patron-client relationships. Their interactions with Britain, France, the Soviet Union, or the United States were inherently unequal. In return for protection, these countries offered obsequious deference to their patrons’ interests and policies but undertook no reciprocal obligations. They made no commitments to aid in the defense of their patrons’ regional interests, which included security of energy supplies, assured overflight and transit, market access, counterterrorism, and the exemption of Israel from global pressure to conform to the norms of international law.

Israel now faces some of the same dilemmas in its relationships with the United States and other external powers that its Arab neighbors have long confronted. It chafes under its continuing overdependence on support from the United States and sees aligning with America against China and Russia as contrary to its own interests.  Israel can no longer claim shared values with American idealists, though it retains the enthusiastic support of diehard Zionists as well as U.S. racists and religious bigots. Like others in its region, Israel is under pressure from the United States to change both its foreign and domestic policies, though fear of political reprisals or the loss of electoral support from the American Israel lobby continues to suppress public criticism of it by U.S. politicians.

 

The Ebb of U.S. Influence and the Regional Pursuit of Strategic Autonomy

In the final decade of the 20th century — a period that the late Charles Krauthammer evocatively named “the unipolar moment” in global affairs — the United States eclipsed all other external powers as the protector and patron of both the Arab states of the region and Israel. In 1973, in response to Egypt’s surprise attack on Israeli forces occupying the Sinai, the United States provided massive military support that enabled a successful Israeli counteroffensive. In the immediate aftermath of the Cold War, Washington came to the aid of the Gulf Arabs against Iraqi aggression but then began to levy ideological and other demands that they found inappropriate and unacceptable. After “9/11,” Americans embraced Islamophobia. As the second decade of the 21st century began, the United States not only failed to support erstwhile protégés like Hosni Mubarak against overthrow but — in the name of “democracy” — appeared to applaud their removal from power. These events deprived previous U.S. pledges of protection of client states and their leaders in West Asia of almost all credibility. The rest of it disappeared when Washington failed to respond to various moves by Iran against Gulf Arab interests and freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

Now, as the Gulf Arabs separate themselves from past deference to and exclusive dependence on the United States, they do not seek and will not accept subordination to China, India, Russia, or others outside their region. The protection of these other external actors is, in any event, not on offer.

What is happening is not, as Washington mindlessly asserts, an effort by China, Russia, or any other great power to replace American hegemony in the so-called “Middle East” with its own. Nor are the states of the region either open to or in search of alternative dependent relationships. They are in active pursuit of strategic autonomy through diversification away from political and economic overdependence on the United States.

Such autonomy will not come easily. In practice, there are limits to the extent to which the states of West Asia can hope to wean themselves from military reliance on America. No other great power has either the disposition or the capability to accept the burdens of defending them against each other or external enemies as the United States once did. West Asian states are happy to exploit “great power rivalry,” but they are not driven by it. If they cannot extract defense commitments from great external powers, they must take responsibility for their own defense. They are beginning to do so.

 

The Special Difficulties of Israel

Israel faces an especially challenging transition. Zionism’s Ashkenazi founders agreed with their European Christian persecutors that Jews were an ethnic group rather than a religious community. As such, Zionism asserted, Jews were as entitled to self-determination as other ethnic minorities in Europe’s collapsing empires. Zionists sought Jewish independence in the mythic Jewish homeland, Palestine, which — with the racist condescension toward non-European native peoples that was typical of the time — they described as “a land without a people,” dismissing the resident Palestinian population as unworthy of acknowledgment, let alone recognition. This sowed the seeds of today’s Zionist state, which practices segregation against Arab Israelis in Israel proper, denies basic rights to West Bank Palestinians, seeks to drive them into exile by evicting them from their homes, destroying their farms, and conducting pogroms against them, and deliberately immiserates and occasionally massacres the nearly 2.2 million Palestinians it has imprisoned in Gaza.

This behavior, not surprisingly, incites both wider Arab hatred of Israel and global abhorrence of Zionism. It jeopardizes the US-sponsored “Abraham Accords” by making them seem a cynical project of autocratic Arab ruling families imposed over the opposition of most of their subjects, who continue to see Israel as an inherently illegitimate, foreign-supported, anti-Arab settler state. Since Iran turned against it, Israel has been unable to develop any friends in its own region, despite strenuous American efforts to help it do so. Its denials of ready access to Muslims seeking to worship at the al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem (Islam’s third holy city), not to mention Jewish extremists’ escalating assaults on the site, offend the global Muslim community. Only in India, where Hindutva is on the rise, have Israeli extremists found a religious nationalism to match their own antipathies to Christianity and Islam.

The extremist parties that now control the Israeli government provide daily evidence of their racist hatred for Palestinians, disdain for American and European Jews, denigration of liberal Israelis, contempt for goyim, and full-blooded support for and incitement of settler thuggery and violence. They have just overridden the independence of their country’s judiciary. They propose to give its government the power to lock up Jewish Israeli citizens in pre-trial detention in much the same way that it has long imprisoned stateless Palestinians.

These extremists are creating a deep rift between Jewish Israelis, destabilizing Israel’s economy, catalyzing a loss of confidence in Israel’s future, and causing foreign investors to flee. The streets remain filled with protesters and much of the Israeli air force is on strike. Abraham Lincoln’s prescient observation (in 1858) that “a house divided cannot stand” seems very relevant to Israel’s future. Israeli threats to attack Iran now sound less like plans than like bravado — efforts to use a foreign threat to paper over domestic divisions and conceal Israeli weakness, while warning others in the region that Israel remains its premier military power.

Zionist excesses are not just dividing Israelis — many of whom are emigrating — but seriously disillusioning and estranging previously sympathetic and supportive Jews in Europe and the Americas.  Their backing and that of fundamentalist Christians has been as essential to sustaining Israel as that of European Catholics was to the survival of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 11th and 13th centuries. Israel will find it more difficult than its Arab neighbors to diversify the sources of its international support. No great power other than the United States seems prepared to overlook, let alone subsidize Israel’s brutal oppression of its captive Arab populations. And as the international role and stature of its Arab neighbors grow, the willingness of external great powers to offend them can only decline.

Meanwhile, Israel’s efforts to avoid taking sides in the Ukraine war despite its dependence on the United States and its large Russian-speaking population have not endeared it to either Washington or Moscow. Some of the Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin now reside in or claim citizenship in Israel. The United States has adamantly opposed Israeli outreach to China. If Israel loses the affections and politico-military protection of Americans, whose support for the Zionist cause now reflects both partisan and generational divisions, it will not find it easy to reposition itself geopolitically. Despite the Netanyahu government’s current efforts to cultivate China, India, and Russia, Israel has no feasible alternatives to dependence on the United States.

Overlooking the city of Al Ula, Saudi Arabia photo brizardh
Overlooking the city of Al Ula, Saudi Arabia (photo Brizardh).


A Newly Assertive Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has faced a comparable challenge and responded with its own geopolitical repositioning.  Saudi-American estrangement steadily deepened over the twenty-two years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. These attacks led to the successful vilification of Saudi Arabia, other Arab nations, and Islam in American politics. The inability of Americans to distinguish between the Saudi establishment and its al Qaeda enemies was a shock to ordinary, previously pro-American Saudis as well as to the ruling Al Sa`ud. Washington’s subsequent failure to oppose the mobs that toppled Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak — its longstanding protégé — from power in 2011 then cost it the confidence of the Al Sa`ud and other Arab rulers previously reliant on backing by the United States. Their concerns deepened when the U.S. failed to respond to Iranian-backed attacks on Saudi and Emirati petroleum facilities as well as shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, and military bases in Abu Dhabi. The Saudis and other Gulf Arabs saw this as creating an urgent imperative to develop alternatives to reliance on America. They redoubled their efforts to do so.

The gruesome murder of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 cemented the American shift from quiet support for Saudi Arabia to vocal antipathy toward it, overriding President Trump’s narcissistic minuet with it and leading to presidential candidate Joe Biden’s pledge to make both the Kingdom and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al-Saud international pariahs. President Biden’s subsequent discovery, once in office, that U.S. interests require a cordial and cooperative relationship with the Kingdom led him to a belated effort to court both it and Crown Prince Mohammad. This has not succeeded. Vocally expressed opprobrium, even if formally retracted, does not encourage fealty. U.S. policies based on denunciatory diplomacy, unconditional support for Israel, and total animosity to Iran have clearly exceeded their sell-by date in the Arab Gulf states.

Far from being seen as a pariah, Saudi Arabia is now widely courted as a key player in global and regional geopolitics and finance, with the capacity to offer or withhold crucial cooperation or acquiescence on multiple issues of global concern.

Instead of renewing its previous deference to the United States, Saudi Arabia has built a strong consultative relationship with Russia, which, for all intents and purposes, it has now integrated into OPEC. It has courted China, its largest and most promising export market and biggest source of imports. The Kingdom is normalizing its relations with Iran, dealing a hard blow to the US-Israeli plan to rope the Gulf Arab states and Israel into an anti-Iranian coalition. It has made it clear that, while it is prepared to deal transactionally with Israel, normalization of ties with the Zionist state would cost both the United States and Israel far more than either could ever bring themselves to offer. Like Israel and the rest of West Asia (other than Iran), Saudi Arabia has declined to align itself with either the West or Russia in the Ukraine war. And — over American objections — the Kingdom is now normalizing diplomatic relations with Syria.

 

Outreach by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al-Saud

Crown Prince Mohammad — who turned to China, India, and Russia when he was persona non grata in the West — has since exchanged visits with President Macron of France and President Erdoğan of Türkiye. He has received President Biden and the former British prime minister and their key subordinates in his homeland. He has just been invited to visit London. He has doubled down on efforts to craft relations and choose friendships with other countries that, in his judgment, best serve Saudi interests. As a result, along with the UAE and Qatar, which have adopted similar Realpolitik-based foreign policies that bypass or challenge American primacy, the Kingdom has emerged as a middle-ranking power with significant global reach. At the same time, Riyadh has sought to enhance its regional influence through rapprochement with the Syrian government it spent the previous twelve years trying to overthrow. And it has reopened its long-severed dialogue with Hamas. Far from being seen as a pariah, Saudi Arabia is now widely courted as a key player in global and regional geopolitics and finance, with the capacity to offer or withhold crucial cooperation or acquiescence on multiple issues of global concern. Consider, for example, the August 5-6  peace conference in Jeddah, which the Saudis reportedly convened in response to a U.S. request for their help in expanding support for Ukraine in the Global South.

Saudi custody of two of Islam’s three holy cities reinforces human ties to the roughly two billion members of the global Muslim community, for whom it is a religious duty to perform the Hajj or `Umrah pilgrimages. Under Crown Prince Mohammad, the Kingdom has tempered its idiosyncratically narrow-minded version of Islam and moved closer to its religion’s tolerant traditions. This, and the Kingdom’s leadership of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation and the Islamic Military Counter-Terrorism Coalition has reduced previous frictions with other, more permissive Muslim societies. The reduction of religious constraints on individual and group behavior in the Kingdom has begun to enable the flowering of its women’s talents. This has also facilitated foreign willingness to invest in Saudi Arabia’s expanding non-oil economy and the mega-projects it has launched as part of “Vision 2030.”

Restored ziggurat in ancient Ur, sumerian temple Iraq photo Sergey Mayorov
Restored ziggurat in ancient Ur, Sumerian temple, Iraq (photo Sergey Mayorov).


Toward a Gulf Arab Arms Industry

Saudi Arabia is far from alone in seeking to expand and diversify its international politico-economic relationships. Most commentaries focus on the efforts of the UAE and Qatar to consolidate ties with China and Russia. Like Israel, Dubai is now a major refuge for Russians seeking to avoid the complications to life in their country created by Western sanctions. The United States cited the UAE’s cordial military relationship with China as an excuse for aborting the transfer of F-35s the UAE had been promised to incentivize its normalization with Israel. But the success of Dubai as an international entrepôt, business, and financial center is stimulating increasing Saudi competition with the UAE in finance, trade, investment, surveillance technology, and armaments production. Saudi Arabia expects that its main investment vehicle, the Public Investment Fund, will have more than $2 trillion by 2030, making it the world’s largest. It has applied for membership in the so-called ‘BRICS’ and its New Development Bank.

The Saudis in particular, after decades of near total dependence on international arms imports, now seek to attract investment in their domestic military industries. This is a potential deathblow to the traditional American approach of insisting that the Kingdom and other protected states like the UAE not buy U.S. competitors’ weapons, while Washington simultaneously refuses to sell them U.S. alternatives. American policies that equate security with militarism, ignore political, economic, trade, and cultural factors, and rely on sanctions and ostracism rather than diplomatic dialogue have proven seriously counterproductive. This explains the paradox that, while U.S. air, naval, and ground forces continue to be present or to exercise in all six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council as well as in Iraq and Syria, the United States is perceived to be in retreat from the region.

 

The Fruits of West Asian Realpolitik

As great power dominance of West Asia recedes, the countries of the region are pursuing their own interests there through Realpolitik. This is enabling them to make progress on issues that had long been viewed as intractable. Five months ago, years of efforts by Iraq and Oman to facilitate the restoration of Saudi-Iranian relations culminated in the successful Chinese mediation of rapprochement between the two countries. Since then, both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have normalized their previously hostile relations with Syria. Egypt and Turkey have moved to end the rift between them. The so-called “Abraham accords’ by which Bahrain and the UAE established diplomatic relations with Israel are yet another example of self-interested pragmatism producing progress. These accords reflected Arab states’ interest in harnessing the political power of the Israel Lobby in the United States to their advantage as well as in expanded access to U.S. weaponry. The Israel Lobby has since played its desired role, but the United States has failed to deliver the F-35s and other weapons systems it had pledged to provide.

The major exception to forward movement in the region is now the Israel-Palestine issue. Rising violence between Israel and its captive Arab populations has halted the development of Israel’s overt ties to Arab states and is estranging Israel from the West.  Regional acceptance of Israel, desirable as it is, depends on Israel’s acceptance of the rights of its Arab subjects. But there is no current evidence of either American or Israeli willingness to grapple with this issue. There has been no ‘peace process’ for decades now and it has become apparent that what Israel means by “peace” is Palestinian surrender to Jewish supremacy and dispossession.

 

The Impact on the United States’ Regional and Global Roles

Sadly, on none of these issues is the United States now able to exercise effective leadership. Washington has no ties to Teheran or Damascus. It has strained relations with Riyadh, tense relations with Ankara, stagnant relations with Cairo, and mutually exasperated and deteriorating relations with Jerusalem. The region’s move away from the United States is reflected in the efforts of countries there to join the so-called BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization and to use currencies other than the dollar for trade settlement. While they do not wish to sacrifice their relationships with the U.S., regional powers including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have signaled that they intend to take full advantage of these new openings as they prepare for a post-American, multipolar world.

De-dollarization is part of this evolution. It remains a work in progress but has been accelerated by apprehensions generated by the U.S. and European confiscation of Iran’s, Venezuela’s, and Russia’s dollar and gold reserves. These seizures made a mockery of the fiduciary responsibilities of central banks. They underscored the reality that the United States and its Western allies now make and break the rules of the post-World War II international order as they see fit. They raise serious doubts about the extent to which dollar deposits will remain reliable stores of value.

Still, despite the increased risk attached to holding dollars, for now the petrodollar agreement of 1973 remains in force. This agreement enabled the dollar — having just become a fiat currency no longer backed by gold — to continue as the universal medium of transactions in commodity markets, like energy and raw materials. Under it, the Saudis — and by extension, other members of OPEC — agreed to maintain their currency reserves in dollars and to reinvest any dollars they received for their oil in the United States. The resulting ability of the United States to print money rather than export goods and services that balance its imports is both unique and the basis of American global primacy. But the indefinite perpetuation of the “exorbitant privilege” conferred on America by such monetary hegemony can no longer be taken for granted.

 

What Must Be Done?

There is a lot at stake for the United States with the newly cantankerous states of West Asia. The region remains a central feature of global geopolitics, but it is no longer a U.S. sphere of influence. Washington must adjust to the new reality that its erstwhile client states now see it as in their interest to maintain political, economic, and military relationships with multiple external partners. They will no longer afford America a monopoly of arms purchases and military presence. Nor will they defer to interests of the United States they cannot be persuaded to see as their own. Such persuasion would require a level of respectful American diplomatic engagement with them not seen in decades. The countries of the region need reassurance that Washington is a reliable supporter of their interests rather than the unilateralist champion only of its own. To this end, the United States must earn their cooperation by offering tangible economic and political benefits. America will not succeed by focusing on preventing them from accepting such benefits from China or other great power competitors while offering no attractive alternatives.

The United States long recognized that both domestic and global prosperity require access to the hydrocarbon resources of the Persian Gulf region and acted unilaterally to protect such access. Despite the U.S. reemergence as a net energy exporter and international competitor with West Asian oil and gas, the Persian Gulf retains its importance to the world economy. But the willingness and ability of Americans to shoulder the entire burden of protecting other nations’ access to Gulf hydrocarbons are not what they once were. Recent experience has made it next to impossible to convince anyone there that, in fact, the United States remains committed and ready to do what it once did in this regard. No country in West Asia is now prepared to rely exclusively on the U.S. to protect either its energy trade or its national identity.

There is growing interest in the region and beyond it in alternatives to fading American guarantees of global access to the energy the world needs to prosper. Such alternatives must be grounded in strengthened individual and collective defense capabilities by the region’s energy producers as well as by agreement between them not to obstruct each other’s exports. The major countries to which they export would also need to be involved. Much as the United States might prefer to restrict diplomatic and naval cooperation to “allies,” this would not be enough. China is now the largest importer of oil and gas from the Persian Gulf, followed by India. Both must be part of any multinational security arrangement and field an effective force structure to support it.

The prerequisite for effective burden-sharing is an agreement between the great external powers to set aside their military rivalry in the Persian Gulf in favor of protecting a common interest in sustaining global prosperity as well as their own wellbeing. The operative question is whether the United States, with our current “you’re with us or against us” mentality and obsession with “great power rivalry,” could muster the flexibility to help put in place a framework that would serve more than our own selfish interests. It is hard to be optimistic about this.

American subsidies for Israel and insistence on its unique exemption from the norms of international law, more than anything else, cause the world to dismiss U.S. claims to support justice, human rights, and democracy with skepticism bordering on derision.

It is even harder to be optimistic about the future of Israel, which continues a march to perdition that answers those who call it out and try to halt it with baseless smears of antisemitism. Israel was born in hope. It risks ending in tragedy, a victim of hubris and deaf inattention to the lamentations and warnings of its well-wishers. Israel’s demise, if it comes, will not be imposed by the Palestinian resistance to its injustices or by the hostility of its Arab neighbors. It will be by its own hands, with more than a little help from its American friends.

Sadly, the United States has been as much the enabler of Israel’s descent into self-destructive and obnoxious practices as is any person who gives money to an alcoholic to buy liquor. Unquestioning support for Israel remains essential to extracting campaign contributions from American armchair Zionists, but it creates nothing but moral hazard for Israel and makes it an albatross around the neck of U.S. foreign relations. American subsidies for Israel and insistence on its unique exemption from the norms of international law, more than anything else, cause the world to dismiss U.S. claims to support justice, human rights, and democracy with skepticism bordering on derision. Unless and until U.S. enablement ends, Israel will persist in behavior that dishonors Judaism, makes enemies for both itself and the United States, and jeopardizes not just its moral standing but its viability as a nation state.

 

The Dynamism of West Asia

For better or ill, West Asia has acquired a dynamism that demands the reconsideration and adjustment of longstanding American policies. The relationships between its countries and between them and the outside world are in flux. A rigid adherence to historical partnerships does not serve American interests. The United States must refrain from offering any country there an apparent blank check, rebuild ties where they have become strained, place American interests first, and be prepared to offer tough love to friends who violate those interests. This will require a competence at statecraft and skill at diplomacy that are not currently in evidence in U.S. foreign policy.

What worked in the unipolar moment or the Cold War that preceded it will not work either in the emerging multipolar world and or in the new multi-aligned West Asian regional order. To serve American interests in the new circumstances, U.S. policies require fundamental rethinking and redesign. Sadly, so far, there is little evidence that Americans are ready to rise to that challenge. But policies that fail to anticipate and accommodate change risk strategic surprise and humiliation by it.

 


[1] Europe’s “Far East” is across the Pacific from the United States: our Far West.  We now call it East Asia, the Western Pacific, or “the Indo-Pacific.”
[2] At the Turkish government’s request, this is now the approved international rendering of the country’s name.

This text is edited from a talk given via video in remarks to the Middle East Forum of Falmouth by Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. (USFS, Ret.), Visiting Scholar, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University, on August 6, 2023.

Chas Freeman, Jr.

Chas Freeman, Jr. Chas W. Freeman, Jr. is a visiting scholar at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. He is the former assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs (1993–1994), ambassador to Saudi Arabia (1989–1992), principal deputy assistant secretary... Read more

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Reading <em>The Orchards of Basra</em>
Book Reviews

Egyptian Novelist Skewers British Bureaucracy with Black Humor

15 AUGUST 2025 • By Valeria Berghinz
Egyptian Novelist Skewers British Bureaucracy with Black Humor
Book Reviews

Without Women, the 2011 Revolution Might Have Never Been

8 AUGUST 2025 • By Jasmin Attia
Without Women, the 2011 Revolution Might Have Never Been
Book Reviews

Brutally Honest Exploration of Taboo Subjects in Empty Cages

8 AUGUST 2025 • By Ahmed Naji
Brutally Honest Exploration of Taboo Subjects in <em>Empty Cages</em>
Art

Architectural Biennale Confronts Brutality of Climate Change

1 AUGUST 2025 • By Iason Athanasiadis
Architectural Biennale Confronts Brutality of Climate Change
Book Reviews

Hope Without Hope: Rojava and Revolutionary Commitment

11 JULY 2025 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
Hope Without Hope: Rojava and Revolutionary Commitment
Book Reviews

Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah—a Review

9 JULY 2025 • By Philip Grant
<em>Theft</em> by Abdulrazak Gurnah—a Review
Fiction

“Waving at the Sky”—a story by Nahla Karam

4 JULY 2025 • By Nahla Karam
“Waving at the Sky”—a story by Nahla Karam
Essays

Reading Between the Lines of Land

4 JULY 2025 • By Manar Alsaif
Reading Between the Lines of Land
Essays

Unwritten Stories from Palestine

4 JULY 2025 • By Thoth
Unwritten Stories from Palestine
Art

Repression and Resistance in the Work of Artist Ateş Alpar

27 JUNE 2025 • By Jennifer Hattam
Repression and Resistance in the Work of Artist Ateş Alpar
Essays

Life Under the Shadow of Missiles: the View From Iran

20 JUNE 2025 • By Amir
Life Under the Shadow of Missiles: the View From Iran
Art & Photography

Cairo: A Downtown in Search of Lost Global City Status

13 JUNE 2025 • By Iason Athanasiadis
Cairo: A Downtown in Search of Lost Global City Status
Art

Neither Here Nor There

2 MAY 2025 • By Myriam Cohenca
Neither Here Nor There
Essays

Looking for a Job, Living and Dying in Iran: The Logistics of Going Back

2 MAY 2025 • By Raha Nik-Andish
Looking for a Job, Living and Dying in Iran: The Logistics of Going Back
Film

Gaza, Sudan, Israel/Palestine Documentaries Show in Thessaloniki

28 MARCH 2025 • By Iason Athanasiadis
Gaza, Sudan, Israel/Palestine Documentaries Show in Thessaloniki
Book Reviews

Resilient Cartographies: Histories of the Persian Gulf

7 FEBRUARY 2025 • By Todd Reisz
Resilient Cartographies: Histories of the Persian Gulf
Book Reviews

Memories of Palestine through Contemporary Media

7 FEBRUARY 2025 • By Malu Halasa
Memories of Palestine through Contemporary Media
Arabic

Huda Fakhreddine & Yasmeen Hanoosh: Translating Arabic & Gaza

17 JANUARY 2025 • By Yasmeen Hanoosh, Huda Fakhreddine
Huda Fakhreddine & Yasmeen Hanoosh: Translating Arabic & Gaza
Poetry

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha: Two Poems

19 DECEMBER 2024 • By Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha: Two Poems
Fiction

“The Small Clay Plate”—a Siwa folk tale

6 DECEMBER 2024 • By Bel Parker
“The Small Clay Plate”—a Siwa folk tale
Books

“Ghosts of Farsis”—a cyberpunk story

6 DECEMBER 2024 • By Hussein Fawzy, Rana Asfour
“Ghosts of Farsis”—a cyberpunk story
Books

The Time-Travels of the Man who Sold Pickles and Sweets—an Excerpt

6 DECEMBER 2024 • By Khairy Shalaby, Michael Cooperson
<em>The Time-Travels of the Man who Sold Pickles and Sweets</em>—an Excerpt
Essays

A Fragile Ceasefire as Lebanon Survives, Traumatized

29 NOVEMBER 2024 • By Tarek Abi Samra
A Fragile Ceasefire as Lebanon Survives, Traumatized
History

Ahlat Reimagined—Birthplace of Turkish Rule in Anatolia

29 NOVEMBER 2024 • By William Gourlay
Ahlat Reimagined—Birthplace of Turkish Rule in Anatolia
Essays

Liberation Cosplay: on the Day of the Imprisoned Writer

15 NOVEMBER 2024 • By Abdelrahman ElGendy
Liberation Cosplay: on the Day of the Imprisoned Writer
Essays

A Jewish Meditation on the Palestinian Genocide

15 NOVEMBER 2024 • By Sheryl Ono
A Jewish Meditation on the Palestinian Genocide
Editorial

The Editor’s Letter Following the US 2024 Presidential Election

8 NOVEMBER 2024 • By Jordan Elgrably
The Editor’s Letter Following the US 2024 Presidential Election
Art & Photography

Palestinian Artists Reflect on the Role of Art in Catastrophic Times

1 NOVEMBER 2024 • By Nina Hubinet
Palestinian Artists Reflect on the Role of Art in Catastrophic Times
Editorial

Animal Truths

1 NOVEMBER 2024 • By Malu Halasa
Animal Truths
Art & Photography

The Palestinian Gazelle

1 NOVEMBER 2024 • By Manal Mahamid
The Palestinian Gazelle
Opinion

Should a Climate-Destroying Dictatorship Host a Climate-Saving Conference?

25 OCTOBER 2024 • By Lucine Kasbarian
Should a Climate-Destroying Dictatorship Host a Climate-Saving Conference?
Book Reviews

The Walls Have Eyes—Surveillance in the Algorithm Age

18 OCTOBER 2024 • By Iason Athanasiadis
<em>The Walls Have Eyes</em>—Surveillance in the Algorithm Age
Film

Freedom is a Combat Sport: On Tatami

11 OCTOBER 2024 • By Karim Goury
Freedom is a Combat Sport: On <em>Tatami</em>
Fiction

The Last Millefeuille in Beirut

4 OCTOBER 2024 • By MK Harb
The Last Millefeuille in Beirut
Art

Photographer Mohamed Mahdy—Artist at Work

27 SEPTEMBER 2024 • By Marianne Roux
Photographer Mohamed Mahdy—Artist at Work
Books

Remembering Elias Khoury, 1948-2024

15 SEPTEMBER 2024 • By TMR
Remembering Elias Khoury, 1948-2024
Book Reviews

Tragic Consequences — On Western Meddling in the Middle East

13 SEPTEMBER 2024 • By Dina Rezk
Tragic Consequences — On Western Meddling in the Middle East
Centerpiece

Mohammad Hafez Ragab: Upsetting the Guards of Cairo

6 SEPTEMBER 2024 • By Maha Al Aswad, Rana Asfour
Mohammad Hafez Ragab: Upsetting the Guards of Cairo
Essays

Meta’s Community Standards as a Tool of Digital/Settler-Colonialism

6 SEPTEMBER 2024 • By Omar Zahzah
Meta’s Community Standards as a Tool of Digital/Settler-Colonialism
Essays

Who Decides What Makes for Authentic Middle East Fiction?

6 SEPTEMBER 2024 • By Nektaria Anastasiadou
Who Decides What Makes for Authentic Middle East Fiction?
Book Reviews

Egypt’s Gatekeeper—President or Despot?

6 SEPTEMBER 2024 • By Elias Feroz
Egypt’s Gatekeeper—President or Despot?
Essays

Beyond Rubble—Cultural Heritage and Healing After Disaster

23 AUGUST 2024 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
Beyond Rubble—Cultural Heritage and Healing After Disaster
Essays

SPECIAL KURDISH ISSUE: From Kurmanji to English, an Introduction to Selim Temo

9 AUGUST 2024 • By Zêdan Xelef
SPECIAL KURDISH ISSUE: From Kurmanji to English, an Introduction to Selim Temo
Book Reviews

All That Rage: On Comma Press’ Egypt +100

2 AUGUST 2024 • By Alex Tan
All That Rage: On Comma Press’ <em>Egypt +100</em>
Book Reviews

Israel’s Black Panthers by Asaf Elia-Shalev—a Review

19 JULY 2024 • By Ilan Benattar
<em>Israel’s Black Panthers</em> by Asaf Elia-Shalev—a Review
Book Reviews

Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew by Avi Shlaim—a Review

19 JULY 2024 • By Selma Dabbagh
<em>Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew</em> by Avi Shlaim—a Review
Books

Dune in 2024: A World Beyond Saving

5 JULY 2024 • By Ahmed Naji
<em>Dune</em> in 2024: A World Beyond Saving
Art

Deena Mohamed

5 JULY 2024 • By Katie Logan
Deena Mohamed
Essays

The Butcher’s Assistant—a true story set in Alexandria

5 JULY 2024 • By Bel Parker
The Butcher’s Assistant—a true story set in Alexandria
Fiction

“Certainty”—a short story by Nora Nagi

5 JULY 2024 • By Nora Nagi, Nada Faris
“Certainty”—a short story by Nora Nagi
Book Reviews

Upheavals of Beauty and Oppression in The Oud Player of Cairo

28 JUNE 2024 • By Tala Jarjour
Upheavals of Beauty and Oppression in <em>The Oud Player of Cairo</em>
Book Reviews

Life Along Istanbul’s Byzantine Walls, a Review

28 JUNE 2024 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
Life Along Istanbul’s Byzantine Walls, a Review
Book Reviews

Is Amin Maalouf’s Latest Novel, On the Isle of Antioch, a Parody?

14 JUNE 2024 • By Farah-Silvana Kanaan
Is Amin Maalouf’s Latest Novel, <em>On the Isle of Antioch</em>, a Parody?
Essays

How to Write About Kurdistan

14 JUNE 2024 • By Matt Broomfield
How to Write About Kurdistan
Centerpiece

Dare Not Speak—a One-Act Play

7 JUNE 2024 • By Hassan Abdulrazzak
<em>Dare Not Speak</em>—a One-Act Play
Essays

Laughing for Change—Activist Theatre Tours Egypt

7 JUNE 2024 • By Nada Sabet
Laughing for Change—Activist Theatre Tours Egypt
Art

Our Review of transfeminisms

24 MAY 2024 • By Fari Bradley
Our Review of <em>transfeminisms</em>
Art

Demarcations of Identity: Rushdi Anwar

10 MAY 2024 • By Malu Halasa
Demarcations of Identity: Rushdi Anwar
Editorial

Why FORGETTING?

3 MAY 2024 • By Malu Halasa, Jordan Elgrably
Why FORGETTING?
Essays

A Proustian Alexandria

3 MAY 2024 • By Mohamed Gohar
A Proustian Alexandria
Essays

The Elephant in the Box

3 MAY 2024 • By Asmaa Elgamal
The Elephant in the Box
Fiction

“Cotton Flower”—a short story by Areej Gamal

3 MAY 2024 • By Areej Gamal, Manal Shalaby
“Cotton Flower”—a short story by Areej Gamal
Book Reviews

Palestinian Culture, Under Assault, Celebrated in New Cookbook

3 MAY 2024 • By Mischa Geracoulis
Palestinian Culture, Under Assault, Celebrated in New Cookbook
Opinion

Equating Critique of Israel with Antisemitism, US Academics are Being Silenced

12 APRIL 2024 • By Maura Finkelstein
Equating Critique of Israel with Antisemitism, US Academics are Being Silenced
Art & Photography

Will Artists Against Genocide Boycott the Venice Biennale?

18 MARCH 2024 • By Hadani Ditmars
Will Artists Against Genocide Boycott the Venice Biennale?
Art

The Mood At This Year’s Dubai Art Week 2024

18 MARCH 2024 • By Sophie Kazan Makhlouf
The Mood At This Year’s Dubai Art Week 2024
Books

Four Books to Revolutionize Your Thinking

3 MARCH 2024 • By Rana Asfour
Four Books to Revolutionize Your Thinking
Book Reviews

The Myth of the West: A Discontinuous History

3 MARCH 2024 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
The Myth of the West: A Discontinuous History
Essays

Israel’s Environmental and Economic Warfare on Lebanon

3 MARCH 2024 • By Michelle Eid
Israel’s Environmental and Economic Warfare on Lebanon
Columns

Genocide: “That bell can’t be unrung. That thought can’t be unthunk.”

3 MARCH 2024 • By Amal Ghandour
Genocide: “That bell can’t be unrung. That thought can’t be unthunk.”
Book Reviews

Rotten Evidence: Ahmed Naji Writes About Writing in Prison

12 FEBRUARY 2024 • By Lina Mounzer
<em>Rotten Evidence</em>: Ahmed Naji Writes About Writing in Prison
Poetry

“The Scent Censes” & “Elegy With Precious Oil” by Majda Gama

4 FEBRUARY 2024 • By Majda Gama
“The Scent Censes” & “Elegy With Precious Oil” by Majda Gama
Essays

Tears of the Patriarch

4 FEBRUARY 2024 • By Dina Wahba
Tears of the Patriarch
Essays

Don’t Ask me to Reveal my Lover’s Name لا تسألوني ما اسمهُ حبيبي

4 FEBRUARY 2024 • By Mohammad Shawky Hassan
Don’t Ask me to Reveal my Lover’s Name لا تسألوني ما اسمهُ حبيبي
Poetry

Four Poems by Alaa Hassanien from The Love That Doubles Loneliness

4 FEBRUARY 2024 • By Alaa Hassanien, Salma Moustafa Khalil
Four Poems by Alaa Hassanien from <em>The Love That Doubles Loneliness</em>
Featured article

Israel-Palestine: Peace Under Occupation?

29 JANUARY 2024 • By Laëtitia Soula
Israel-Palestine: Peace Under Occupation?
Art & Photography

Cyprus: Return to Petrofani with Ali Cherri & Vicky Pericleous

8 JANUARY 2024 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
Cyprus: Return to Petrofani with Ali Cherri & Vicky Pericleous
Art

The Apocalypse is a Dance Party

8 JANUARY 2024 • By Sena Başöz
The Apocalypse is a Dance Party
Book Reviews

The Rebels of Football, Then and Now

8 JANUARY 2024 • By Justin Olivier Salhani
The Rebels of Football, Then and Now
Books

Inside Hamas: From Resistance to Regime

25 DECEMBER 2023 • By Paola Caridi
Inside <em>Hamas: From Resistance to Regime</em>
Poetry

Two Poems by Efe Duyan

22 DECEMBER 2023 • By Efe Duyan, Aron Aji
Two Poems by Efe Duyan
Art

Art Lights Up Riyadh This Winter

18 DECEMBER 2023 • By Sophie Kazan Makhlouf
Art Lights Up Riyadh This Winter
Columns

Messages From Gaza Now

11 DECEMBER 2023 • By Hossam Madhoun
Messages From Gaza Now
Featured excerpt

The Palestine Laboratory and Gaza: An Excerpt

4 DECEMBER 2023 • By Antony Loewenstein
<em>The Palestine Laboratory</em> and Gaza: An Excerpt
Beirut

“The Summer They Heard Music”—a short story by MK Harb

3 DECEMBER 2023 • By MK Harb
“The Summer They Heard Music”—a short story by MK Harb
Fiction

“I, Hanan”—a Gazan tale of survival by Joumana Haddad

3 DECEMBER 2023 • By Joumana Haddad
“I, Hanan”—a Gazan tale of survival by Joumana Haddad
Essays

Demolition and Recreation in Benghazi: Interview with Sarri Elfaitouri

3 DECEMBER 2023 • By Naima Morelli
Demolition and Recreation in Benghazi: Interview with Sarri Elfaitouri
Book Reviews

First Kurdish Sci-Fi Collection is Rooted in the Past

28 NOVEMBER 2023 • By Matt Broomfield
First Kurdish Sci-Fi Collection is Rooted in the Past
Opinion

Gaza vs. Mosul from a Medical and Humanitarian Standpoint

27 NOVEMBER 2023 • By Ahmed Twaij
Gaza vs. Mosul from a Medical and Humanitarian Standpoint
Art & Photography

Palestinian Artists & Anti-War Supporters of Gaza Cancelled

27 NOVEMBER 2023 • By Nada Ghosn
Palestinian Artists & Anti-War Supporters of Gaza Cancelled
Book Reviews

The Fiction of Palestine’s Ghassan Zaqtan

13 NOVEMBER 2023 • By Cory Oldweiler
The Fiction of Palestine’s Ghassan Zaqtan
Opinion

Beautiful October 7th Art Belies the Horrors of War

13 NOVEMBER 2023 • By Mark LeVine
Beautiful October 7th Art Belies the Horrors of War
Essays

Atom Bombs and Earthquakes: Changing Arabian Culture Via Architecture

5 NOVEMBER 2023 • By T.H. Shalaby
Atom Bombs and Earthquakes: Changing Arabian Culture Via Architecture
Essays

Rebuilding After the Quake: a Walk Down Memory Lane in Southeast Anatolia

5 NOVEMBER 2023 • By Sevinç Ünal
Rebuilding After the Quake: a Walk Down Memory Lane in Southeast Anatolia
Islam

October 7 and the First Days of the War

23 OCTOBER 2023 • By Robin Yassin-Kassab
October 7 and the First Days of the War
Book Reviews

The Archaeology of War

23 OCTOBER 2023 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
The Archaeology of War
Editorial

Palestine and the Unspeakable

16 OCTOBER 2023 • By Lina Mounzer
Palestine and the Unspeakable
Poetry

Home: New Arabic Poems in Translation

11 OCTOBER 2023 • By Sarah Coolidge
<em>Home</em>: New Arabic Poems in Translation
Essays

The Vanishing of the Public Intellectual

1 OCTOBER 2023 • By Moustafa Bayoumi
The Vanishing of the Public Intellectual
Essays

Alaa Abd El-Fattah: Political Prisoner and Public Intellectual

1 OCTOBER 2023 • By Yasmine El Rashidi
Alaa Abd El-Fattah: Political Prisoner and Public Intellectual
Art & Photography

Art Curators as Public Intellectuals

1 OCTOBER 2023 • By Naima Morelli
Art Curators as Public Intellectuals
Art & Photography

World Picks From the Editors, Sept 29—Oct 15, 2023

29 SEPTEMBER 2023 • By TMR
World Picks From the Editors, Sept 29—Oct 15, 2023
Interviews

Illegitimate Literature—Interview with Novelist Ebru Ojen

18 SEPTEMBER 2023 • By Nazlı Koca
Illegitimate Literature—Interview with Novelist Ebru Ojen
Book Reviews

Kurdish Novel Explores Nightmarish Isolation in Eastern Anatolia

18 SEPTEMBER 2023 • By Kaya Genç
Kurdish Novel Explores Nightmarish Isolation in Eastern Anatolia
Art

Anatolian Journey: a Writer Travels to Sultan Han to Witness a Postmodern Installation

18 SEPTEMBER 2023 • By Matt Hanson
Anatolian Journey: a Writer Travels to Sultan Han to Witness a Postmodern Installation
Amazigh

World Picks: Festival Arabesques in Montpellier

4 SEPTEMBER 2023 • By TMR
World Picks: Festival Arabesques in Montpellier
Fiction

“A Dog in the Woods”—a short story by Malu Halasa

3 SEPTEMBER 2023 • By Malu Halasa
“A Dog in the Woods”—a short story by Malu Halasa
Book Reviews

Traveling Through Turkey With Gertrude Bell and Pat Yale

28 AUGUST 2023 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
Traveling Through Turkey With Gertrude Bell and Pat Yale
Book Reviews

What’s the Solution for Jews and Palestine in the Face of Apartheid Zionism?

21 AUGUST 2023 • By Jonathan Ofir
What’s the Solution for Jews and Palestine in the Face of Apartheid Zionism?
Opinion

The Middle East is Once Again West Asia

14 AUGUST 2023 • By Chas Freeman, Jr.
The Middle East is Once Again West Asia
Film

The Soil and the Sea: The Revolutionary Act of Remembering

7 AUGUST 2023 • By Farah-Silvana Kanaan
<em>The Soil and the Sea</em>: The Revolutionary Act of Remembering
Book Reviews

Can the Kurdish Women’s Movement Transform the Middle East?

31 JULY 2023 • By Matt Broomfield
Can the Kurdish Women’s Movement Transform the Middle East?
A Day in the Life

A Day in the Life: Cairo

24 JULY 2023 • By Sarah Eltantawi
A Day in the Life: Cairo
Book Reviews

Literature Takes Courage: on Ahmet Altan’s Lady Life

24 JULY 2023 • By Kaya Genç
Literature Takes Courage: on Ahmet Altan’s <em>Lady Life</em>
Interviews

Musical Artists at Work: Naïssam Jalal, Fazil Say & Azu Tiwaline

17 JULY 2023 • By Jordan Elgrably
Musical Artists at Work: Naïssam Jalal, Fazil Say & Azu Tiwaline
Book Reviews

The Failure of Postcolonial Modernity in Siddhartha Deb’s Light

17 JULY 2023 • By Anis Shivani
The Failure of Postcolonial Modernity in Siddhartha Deb’s <em>Light</em>
Opinion

The End of the Palestinian State? Jenin Is Only the Beginning

10 JULY 2023 • By Yousef M. Aljamal
The End of the Palestinian State? Jenin Is Only the Beginning
Editorial

Stories From The Markaz, Stories From the Center

2 JULY 2023 • By Malu Halasa
Stories From The Markaz, Stories From the Center
Fiction

Abortion Tale: On Our Ground

2 JULY 2023 • By Ghadeer Ahmed, Hala Kamal
Abortion Tale: On Our Ground
Fiction

Genesis and East Cairo—fiction from Shady Lewis Botros

2 JULY 2023 • By Shady Lewis Botros, Salma Moustafa Khalil
Genesis and East Cairo—fiction from Shady Lewis Botros
Art & Photography

The Ghost of Gezi Park—Turkey 10 Years On

19 JUNE 2023 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
The Ghost of Gezi Park—Turkey 10 Years On
Art & Photography

Deniz Goran’s New Novel Contrasts Art and the Gezi Park Protests

19 JUNE 2023 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
Deniz Goran’s New Novel Contrasts Art and the Gezi Park Protests
Book Reviews

Youssef Rakha Practices Literary Deception in Emissaries

19 JUNE 2023 • By Zein El-Amine
Youssef Rakha Practices Literary Deception in <em>Emissaries</em>
Book Reviews

Niki, Prize-Winning Greek Novel, Captures the Country’s Civil War

12 JUNE 2023 • By Nektaria Anastasiadou
<em>Niki</em>, Prize-Winning Greek Novel, Captures the Country’s Civil War
Essays

Turkey’s Earthquake as a Generational Disaster

4 JUNE 2023 • By Sanem Su Avci
Turkey’s Earthquake as a Generational Disaster
Essays

Alien Entities in the Desert

4 JUNE 2023 • By Dror Shohet
Alien Entities in the Desert
Featured Artist

Nasrin Abu Baker: The Markaz Review Featured Artist, June 2023

4 JUNE 2023 • By TMR
Nasrin Abu Baker: The Markaz Review Featured Artist, June 2023
Poetry Markaz

Zara Houshmand, Moon and Sun

4 JUNE 2023 • By Zara Houshmand
Zara Houshmand, <em>Moon and Sun</em>
Books

The Markaz Review Interview—Leila Aboulela, Writing Sudan

29 MAY 2023 • By Yasmine Motawy
The Markaz Review Interview—Leila Aboulela, Writing Sudan
Books

Cruising the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair

29 MAY 2023 • By Rana Asfour
Cruising the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair
Islam

From Pawns to Global Powers: Middle East Nations Strike Back

29 MAY 2023 • By Chas Freeman, Jr.
From Pawns to Global Powers: Middle East Nations Strike Back
Book Reviews

How Bethlehem Evolved From Jerusalem’s Sleepy Backwater to a Global Town

15 MAY 2023 • By Karim Kattan
How Bethlehem Evolved From Jerusalem’s Sleepy Backwater to a Global Town
Book Reviews

Radius Recounts a History of Sexual Assault in Tahrir Square

15 MAY 2023 • By Sally AlHaq
<em>Radius</em> Recounts a History of Sexual Assault in Tahrir Square
Book Reviews

A Debut Novel, Between Two Moons, is set in “Arabland” Brooklyn

15 MAY 2023 • By R.P. Finch
A Debut Novel, <em>Between Two Moons</em>, is set in “Arabland” Brooklyn
TMR Conversations

TMR CONVERSATIONS: Amal Ghandour Interviews Raja Shehadeh

11 MAY 2023 • By Amal Ghandour, Raja Shehadeh
TMR CONVERSATIONS: Amal Ghandour Interviews Raja Shehadeh
Film

The Refugees by the Lake, a Greek Migrant Story

8 MAY 2023 • By Iason Athanasiadis
The Refugees by the Lake, a Greek Migrant Story
Columns

Yogurt, Surveillance and Book Covers

1 MAY 2023 • By Malu Halasa
Yogurt, Surveillance and Book Covers
Cities

In Luxor, Egypt Projects Renewed Tourism Economy

10 APRIL 2023 • By William Carruthers
In Luxor, Egypt Projects Renewed Tourism Economy
Film Reviews

Yallah Gaza! Presents the Case for Gazan Humanity

10 APRIL 2023 • By Karim Goury
<em>Yallah Gaza!</em> Presents the Case for Gazan Humanity
Fiction

“The Stranger”—a Short Story by Hany Ali Said

2 APRIL 2023 • By Hany Ali Said, Ibrahim Fawzy
“The Stranger”—a Short Story by Hany Ali Said
Essays

Beautiful Ghosts, or We’ll Always Have Istanbul

27 MARCH 2023 • By Alicia Kismet Eler
Beautiful Ghosts, or We’ll Always Have Istanbul
Beirut

Tel Aviv-Beirut, a Film on War, Love & Borders

20 MARCH 2023 • By Karim Goury
<em>Tel Aviv-Beirut</em>, a Film on War, Love & Borders
Beirut

Interview with Michale Boganim, Director of Tel Aviv-Beirut

20 MARCH 2023 • By Karim Goury
Interview with Michale Boganim, Director of <em>Tel Aviv-Beirut</em>
Book Reviews

In Search of Fathers: Raja Shehadeh’s Palestinian Memoir

13 MARCH 2023 • By Amal Ghandour
In Search of Fathers: Raja Shehadeh’s Palestinian Memoir
Fiction

“Raise Your Head High”—new fiction from Leila Aboulela

5 MARCH 2023 • By Leila Aboulela
“Raise Your Head High”—new fiction from Leila Aboulela
Cities

For Those Who Dwell in Tents, Home is Temporal—Or Is It?

5 MARCH 2023 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
For Those Who Dwell in Tents, Home is Temporal—Or Is It?
Cities

Coming of Age in a Revolution

5 MARCH 2023 • By Lushik Lotus Lee
Coming of Age in a Revolution
Essays

Home Under Siege: a Palestine Photo Essay

5 MARCH 2023 • By Anam Raheem
Home Under Siege: a Palestine Photo Essay
Columns

Letter From Turkey—Solidarity, Grief, Anger and Fear

27 FEBRUARY 2023 • By Jennifer Hattam
Letter From Turkey—Solidarity, Grief, Anger and Fear
Art & Photography

Becoming Palestine Imagines a Liberated Future

27 FEBRUARY 2023 • By Katie Logan
<em>Becoming Palestine</em> Imagines a Liberated Future
Columns

Letter From Turkey—Antioch is Finished

20 FEBRUARY 2023 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
Letter From Turkey—Antioch is Finished
Art

The Creative Resistance in Palestinian Art

26 DECEMBER 2022 • By Malu Halasa
The Creative Resistance in Palestinian Art
Essays

Sexploitation or Cinematic Art? The Case of Abdellatif Kechiche

15 DECEMBER 2022 • By Viola Shafik
Sexploitation or Cinematic Art? The Case of Abdellatif Kechiche
Essays

Conflict and Freedom in Palestine, a Trip Down Memory Lane

15 DECEMBER 2022 • By Eman Quotah
Art

Art World Picks: Albraehe, Kerem Yavuz, Zeghidour, Amer & Tatah

12 DECEMBER 2022 • By TMR
Columns

Sudden Journeys: Israel’s Intimate Separations—Part 3

5 DECEMBER 2022 • By Jenine Abboushi
Sudden Journeys: Israel’s Intimate Separations—Part 3
Book Reviews

Fida Jiryis on Palestine in Stranger in My Own Land

28 NOVEMBER 2022 • By Diana Buttu
Fida Jiryis on Palestine in <em>Stranger in My Own Land</em>
Essays

Stadiums, Ghosts & Games—Football’s International Intrigue

15 NOVEMBER 2022 • By Francisco Letelier
Stadiums, Ghosts & Games—Football’s International Intrigue
Film

Orientalism and the Erasure of Middle Easterners in Black Adam

7 NOVEMBER 2022 • By Mireille Rebeiz
Orientalism and the Erasure of Middle Easterners in Black Adam
Columns

Sudden Journeys: Israel’s Intimate Separations—Part 2

31 OCTOBER 2022 • By Jenine Abboushi
Sudden Journeys: Israel’s Intimate Separations—Part 2
Poetry

We Say Salt from To Speak in Salt

15 OCTOBER 2022 • By Becky Thompson
We Say Salt from <em>To Speak in Salt</em>
Art & Photography

The Postcard Women’s Imaginarium: Decolonizing the Western Gaze

15 OCTOBER 2022 • By Salma Ahmad Caller
The Postcard Women’s Imaginarium: Decolonizing the Western Gaze
Essays

Nawal El-Saadawi, a Heroine in Prison

15 OCTOBER 2022 • By Ibrahim Fawzy
Nawal El-Saadawi, a Heroine in Prison
Book Reviews

Cassette Tapes Once Captured Egypt’s Popular Culture

10 OCTOBER 2022 • By Mariam Elnozahy
Cassette Tapes Once Captured Egypt’s Popular Culture
Columns

Sudden Journeys: Israel’s Intimate Separations—Part 1

26 SEPTEMBER 2022 • By Jenine Abboushi
Sudden Journeys: Israel’s Intimate Separations—Part 1
Fiction

“Another German”—a short story by Ahmed Awadalla

15 SEPTEMBER 2022 • By Ahmed Awadalla
“Another German”—a short story by Ahmed Awadalla
Art

My Berlin Triptych: On Museums and Restitution

15 SEPTEMBER 2022 • By Viola Shafik
My Berlin Triptych: On Museums and Restitution
Columns

Phoneless in Filthy Berlin

15 SEPTEMBER 2022 • By Maisan Hamdan, Rana Asfour
Phoneless in Filthy Berlin
Columns

Unapologetic Palestinians, Reactionary Germans

15 SEPTEMBER 2022 • By Abir Kopty
Unapologetic Palestinians, Reactionary Germans
Art & Photography

Photographer Mohamed Badarne (Palestine) and his U48 Project

15 SEPTEMBER 2022 • By Viola Shafik
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Opinion

Attack on Salman Rushdie is Shocking Tip of the Iceberg

15 AUGUST 2022 • By Jordan Elgrably
Attack on Salman Rushdie is Shocking Tip of the Iceberg
Editorial

Editorial: Is the World Driving Us Mad?

15 JULY 2022 • By TMR
Editorial: Is the World Driving Us Mad?
Book Reviews

Alaa Abd El-Fattah—the Revolutionary el-Sissi Fears Most?

11 JULY 2022 • By Fouad Mami
Alaa Abd El-Fattah—the Revolutionary el-Sissi Fears Most?
Book Reviews

Traps and Shadows in Noor Naga’s Egypt Novel

20 JUNE 2022 • By Ahmed Naji
Traps and Shadows in Noor Naga’s Egypt Novel
Columns

World Refugee Day — What We Owe Each Other

20 JUNE 2022 • By Jordan Elgrably
World Refugee Day — What We Owe Each Other
Fiction

“Godshow.com”—a short story by Ahmed Naji

15 JUNE 2022 • By Ahmed Naji, Rana Asfour
“Godshow.com”—a short story by Ahmed Naji
Fiction

Nektaria Anastasiadou: “Gold in Taksim Square”

15 JUNE 2022 • By Nektaria Anastasiadou
Nektaria Anastasiadou: “Gold in Taksim Square”
Fiction

“The Suffering Mother of the Whole World”—a story by Amany Kamal Eldin

15 JUNE 2022 • By Amany Kamal Eldin
“The Suffering Mother of the Whole World”—a story by Amany Kamal Eldin
Opinion

Israel and Palestine: Focus on the Problem, Not the Solution

30 MAY 2022 • By Mark Habeeb
Israel and Palestine: Focus on the Problem, Not the Solution
Film Reviews

2022 Webby Honoree Documents Queer Turkish Icon

23 MAY 2022 • By Ilker Hepkaner
2022 Webby Honoree Documents Queer Turkish Icon
Book Reviews

Fragmented Love in Alison Glick’s “The Other End of the Sea”

16 MAY 2022 • By Nora Lester Murad
Fragmented Love in Alison Glick’s “The Other End of the Sea”
Essays

We, Palestinian Israelis

15 MAY 2022 • By Jenine Abboushi
We, Palestinian Israelis
Book Reviews

In East Jerusalem, Palestinian Youth Struggle for Freedom

15 MAY 2022 • By Mischa Geracoulis
Featured excerpt

Palestinian and Israeli: Excerpt from “Haifa Fragments”

15 MAY 2022 • By khulud khamis
Palestinian and Israeli: Excerpt from “Haifa Fragments”
Latest Reviews

Palestinian Filmmaker, Israeli Passport

15 MAY 2022 • By Jordan Elgrably
Palestinian Filmmaker, Israeli Passport
Book Reviews

Siena and Her Art Soothe a Writer’s Grieving Soul

25 APRIL 2022 • By Rana Asfour
Siena and Her Art Soothe a Writer’s Grieving Soul
Opinion

Palestinians and Israelis Will Commemorate the Nakba Together

25 APRIL 2022 • By Rana Salman, Yonatan Gher
Palestinians and Israelis Will Commemorate the Nakba Together
Book Reviews

Egyptian Comedic Novel Captures Dark Tale of Bedouin Migrants

18 APRIL 2022 • By Saliha Haddad
Egyptian Comedic Novel Captures Dark Tale of Bedouin Migrants
Book Reviews

Mohamed Metwalli’s “A Song by the Aegean Sea” Reviewed

28 MARCH 2022 • By Sherine Elbanhawy
Mohamed Metwalli’s “A Song by the Aegean Sea” Reviewed
Film Reviews

Palestine in Pieces: Hany Abu-Assad’s Huda’s Salon

21 MARCH 2022 • By Jordan Elgrably
Palestine in Pieces: Hany Abu-Assad’s <em>Huda’s Salon</em>
Opinion

U.S. Sanctions Russia for its Invasion of Ukraine; Now Sanction Israel for its Occupation of Palestine

21 MARCH 2022 • By Yossi Khen, Jeff Warner
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Art & Photography

On “True Love Leaves No Traces”

15 MARCH 2022 • By Arie Amaya-Akkermans
On “True Love Leaves No Traces”
Essays

The Alexandrian: Life and Death in L.A.

15 FEBRUARY 2022 • By Noreen Moustafa
The Alexandrian: Life and Death in L.A.
Film

“The Translator” Brings the Syrian Dilemma to the Big Screen

7 FEBRUARY 2022 • By Jordan Elgrably
“The Translator” Brings the Syrian Dilemma to the Big Screen
Essays

Taming the Immigrant: Musings of a Writer in Exile

15 JANUARY 2022 • By Ahmed Naji, Rana Asfour
Taming the Immigrant: Musings of a Writer in Exile
Art & Photography

Children in Search of Refuge: a Photographic Essay

15 JANUARY 2022 • By Iason Athanasiadis
Children in Search of Refuge: a Photographic Essay
Columns

Getting to the Other Side: a Kurdish Migrant Story

15 JANUARY 2022 • By Iason Athanasiadis
Getting to the Other Side: a Kurdish Migrant Story
Columns

Music in the Middle East: Business can’t Buy Authenticity

20 DECEMBER 2021 • By Melissa Chemam
Music in the Middle East: Business can’t Buy Authenticity
Fiction

“Turkish Delights”—fiction from Omar Foda

15 DECEMBER 2021 • By Omar Foda
“Turkish Delights”—fiction from Omar Foda
Essays

Syria Through British Eyes

29 NOVEMBER 2021 • By Rana Haddad
Syria Through British Eyes
Art & Photography

Hayy Jameel — Jeddah’s Sparkling New Center for the Arts

22 NOVEMBER 2021 • By TMR
Hayy Jameel — Jeddah’s Sparkling New Center for the Arts
Art & Photography

Traveling in Contentious Spaces — Saudi Arabia

22 NOVEMBER 2021 • By Deborah Williams
Traveling in Contentious Spaces — Saudi Arabia
Fiction

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22 NOVEMBER 2021 • By Waqar Ahmed
The Promotion (a short story from Saudi Arabia)
Columns

Burning Forests, Burning Nations

15 NOVEMBER 2021 • By Hadani Ditmars
Burning Forests, Burning Nations
Book Reviews

The Vanishing: Are Arab Christians an Endangered Minority?

15 NOVEMBER 2021 • By Hadani Ditmars
The Vanishing: Are Arab Christians an Endangered Minority?
Columns

Day of the Imprisoned Writer — November 15, 2021

8 NOVEMBER 2021 • By TMR
Day of the Imprisoned Writer — November 15, 2021
Film Reviews

Victims of Discrimination Never Forget in The Forgotten Ones

1 NOVEMBER 2021 • By Jordan Elgrably
Victims of Discrimination Never Forget in <em>The Forgotten Ones</em>
Featured excerpt

Memoirs of a Militant, My Years in the Khiam Women’s Prison

15 OCTOBER 2021 • By Nawal Qasim Baidoun
Memoirs of a Militant, My Years in the Khiam Women’s Prison
Film Reviews

Will Love Triumph in the Midst of Gaza’s 14-Year Siege?

11 OCTOBER 2021 • By Jordan Elgrably
Will Love Triumph in the Midst of Gaza’s 14-Year Siege?
Columns

Kurdish Poet and Writer Meral Şimşek Merits Her Freedom

4 OCTOBER 2021 • By Jordan Elgrably
Kurdish Poet and Writer Meral Şimşek Merits Her Freedom
Art & Photography

Displaced: From Beirut to Los Angeles to Beirut

15 SEPTEMBER 2021 • By Ara Oshagan
Displaced: From Beirut to Los Angeles to Beirut
Essays

Why Resistance Is Foundational to Kurdish Literature

15 SEPTEMBER 2021 • By Ava Homa
Why Resistance Is Foundational to Kurdish Literature
Essays

The Complexity of Belonging: Reflections of a Female Copt

15 SEPTEMBER 2021 • By Nevine Abraham
The Complexity of Belonging: Reflections of a Female Copt
Latest Reviews

The Limits of Empathy in Rabih Alameddine’s Refugee Saga

15 SEPTEMBER 2021 • By Dima Alzayat
The Limits of Empathy in Rabih Alameddine’s Refugee Saga
Columns

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15 SEPTEMBER 2021 • By Hadani Ditmars
20 Years Ago This Month, 9/11 at Souk Ukaz
Editorial

Why COMIX? An Emerging Medium of Writing the Middle East and North Africa

15 AUGUST 2021 • By Aomar Boum
Why COMIX? An Emerging Medium of Writing the Middle East and North Africa
Latest Reviews

Rebellion Resurrected: The Will of Youth Against History

15 AUGUST 2021 • By George Jad Khoury
Rebellion Resurrected: The Will of Youth Against History
Latest Reviews

Women Comic Artists, from Afghanistan to Morocco

15 AUGUST 2021 • By Sherine Hamdy
Women Comic Artists, from Afghanistan to Morocco
Latest Reviews

An Anthropologist Tells of 1970s Upheaval in “Turkish Kaleidoscope”

15 AUGUST 2021 • By Jenny White
An Anthropologist Tells of 1970s Upheaval in “Turkish Kaleidoscope”
Weekly

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12 AUGUST 2021 • By Lawrence Joffe
World Picks: August 2021
Columns

In Flawed Democracies, White Supremacy and Ethnocentrism Flourish

1 AUGUST 2021 • By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat
In Flawed Democracies, White Supremacy and Ethnocentrism Flourish
Weekly

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25 JULY 2021 • By TMR
Summer of ‘21 Reading—Notes from the Editors
Essays

Making a Film in Gaza

14 JULY 2021 • By Elana Golden
Making a Film in Gaza
Weekly

The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter

4 JULY 2021 • By Maryam Zar
The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter
Weekly

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3 JULY 2021 • By TMR
World Picks: July 2021
Columns

The Diplomats’ Quarter: Wasta of the Palestinian Authority

14 JUNE 2021 • By Raja Shehadeh
The Diplomats’ Quarter: Wasta of the Palestinian Authority
Book Reviews

The Triumph of Love and the Palestinian Revolution

16 MAY 2021 • By Fouad Mami
Art & Photography

Walls, Graffiti and Youth Culture in Egypt, Libya & Tunisia

14 MAY 2021 • By Claudia Wiens
Walls, Graffiti and Youth Culture in Egypt, Libya & Tunisia
Art

The Murals of Yemen’s Haifa Subay

14 MAY 2021 • By Farah Abdessamad
The Murals of Yemen’s Haifa Subay
Essays

The Wall We Can’t Tell You About

14 MAY 2021 • By Jean Lamore
The Wall We Can’t Tell You About
Essays

We Are All at the Border Now

14 MAY 2021 • By Todd Miller
We Are All at the Border Now
Fiction

A Home Across the Azure Sea

14 MAY 2021 • By Aida Y. Haddad
A Home Across the Azure Sea
Columns

In Yemen, Women are the Heroes

7 MARCH 2021 • By Farah Abdessamad
In Yemen, Women are the Heroes
Interviews

The Hidden World of Istanbul’s Rums

21 FEBRUARY 2021 • By Rana Haddad
The Hidden World of Istanbul’s Rums
TMR 6 • Revolutions

Ten Years of Hope and Blood

14 FEBRUARY 2021 • By Robert Solé
Ten Years of Hope and Blood
TMR 6 • Revolutions

The Revolution Sees its Shadow 10 Years Later

14 FEBRUARY 2021 • By Mischa Geracoulis
The Revolution Sees its Shadow 10 Years Later
Film Reviews

Muhammad Malas, Syria’s Auteur, is the subject of a Film Biography

10 JANUARY 2021 • By Rana Asfour
Muhammad Malas, Syria’s Auteur, is the subject of a Film Biography
Weekly

Cairo 1941: Excerpt from “A Land Like You”

27 DECEMBER 2020 • By TMR
Cairo 1941: Excerpt from “A Land Like You”
Weekly

Academics, Signatories, and Putschists

20 DECEMBER 2020 • By Selim Temo
Academics, Signatories, and Putschists
TMR 4 • Small & Indie Presses

You Drive Me Crazy, from “Bride of the Sea”

14 DECEMBER 2020 • By Eman Quotah
You Drive Me Crazy, from “Bride of the Sea”
Weekly

Breathing in a Plague

27 NOVEMBER 2020 • By TMR
Breathing in a Plague
World Picks

World Art, Music & Zoom Beat the Pandemic Blues

28 SEPTEMBER 2020 • By Malu Halasa
World Art, Music & Zoom Beat the Pandemic Blues
World Picks

Interlink Proposes 4 New Arab Novels

22 SEPTEMBER 2020 • By TMR
Interlink Proposes 4 New Arab Novels
Beirut

An Outsider’s Long Goodbye

15 SEPTEMBER 2020 • By Annia Ciezadlo
An Outsider’s Long Goodbye

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