A Changing Middle East

Summer 2011

A Changing Middle East

A Changing Middle East Cover Image

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Since this spring’s eruption of demands for change in the Arab world, uncertainty reigns everywhere. In some countries, long-ruling autocrats still fight viciously for power, while in others, leaders scramble to reach a new accommodation with their suddenly rebellious people. Egyptians and Tunisians, meanwhile, struggle to make good on the promise of democracy. Where did this wave of change come from? And where is it going?

More From This Issue

Table of Contents

In Essence

THE SOURCE: “The Long Goodbye: The Future North Korea” by Robert D. Kaplan and Abraham M. Denmark, in World Affairs, May–June 2011.

THE SOURCE: “The Post-American Hemisphere” by Russell Crandall, in Foreign Affairs, May–June 2011.

THE SOURCE: “Rise of a Cybered Westphalian Age” by Chris C. Demchak and Peter Dombrowski, in Strategic Studies Quarterly, Spring 2011.

THE SOURCE: “Thinking About the Unthinkable, Again” by Mark Helprin, in Claremont Review of Books, Winter 2010–Spring 2011.

THE SOURCE: “In Defense of Politics” by Steven B. Smith, in National Affairs, Spring 2011.

THE SOURCE: “Making Our Democracy Work: The Yale Lectures” by Stephen Breyer, in The Yale Law Journal, June 2011.

THE SOURCE: “Top Incomes in the Long Run of History” by Anthony B. Atkinson, Thomas Piketty, and Emmanuel Saez, in Journal of Economic Literature, March 2011.

THE SOURCE: “Barbed Wire: Property Rights and Agricultural Development” by Richard Hornbeck, in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2010.

THE SOURCE: “Culture, Context, and the Taste for Redistribution” by Erzo F. P. Luttmer and Monica Singhal, in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Feb. 2011.

THE SOURCE: “A Global Perspective on Happiness and Fertility” by Rachel Margolis and Mikko Myrskylä, in Population and Development Review, March 2011.

THE SOURCE: “Race and Home Ownership from the End of the Civil War to the Present” by William J. Collins and Robert A. Margo, in The American Economic Review, May 2011.

THE SOURCE: “Philosophy That’s Not for the Masses” by James Ladyman, in The Philosopher’s Magazine, Second Quarter 2011.

THE SOURCE: “American Postwar ‘Big Religion’: Reconceptualizing 20th-Century American Religion Using Big Science as a Model” by Benjamin E. Zeller, in Church History, June 2011.

THE SOURCE: “Experimental Philosophy and the Problem of Free Will” by Shaun Nichols, in Science, March 18, 2011.

THE SOURCES: Introduction to volume 37, by the editors, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Spring 2011, and “Five Myths About the ‘Information Age’” by Robert Darnton, in The Chronicle Review, April 17, 2011.

THE SOURCE: “Radical Graffiti Chic” by Heather Mac Donald, in City Journal, Spring 2011.

THE SOURCE: “Why Do Humans Reason? Arguments for an Argumentative Theory” by Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber, in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, April 2011.

THE SOURCE: “Mapping the Sovereign State: Technology, Authority, and Systemic Change” by Jordan Branch, in International Organization, Winter 2011.

THE SOURCE: “Explaining the Awakening: Engagement, Publicity, and the Transformation of Iraqi Sunni Political Attitudes” by Marc Lynch, in Security Studies, Jan. 2011.

THE SOURCE: “India’s Vanishing Vultures” by Meera Subramanian, in Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring 2011.

THE SOURCE: “Paradoxes of the New Authoritarianism” by Ivan Krastev, inJournal of Democracy, April 2011.

THE SOURCE: “Mauritius: African Success Story” by Jeffrey A. Frankel, in National Bureau of Economic Research Digest, May 2011.

Book Reviews

As we begin moving through the sesquicentennial commemoration of the American Civil War, my mind returns to the...

Best Civil War Military Books  Image

When asked to choose five great books on military aspects of the Civil War, a leading historian was initially thrilled, then perplexed.

My Favorite Civil War Novels  Image

A few well-crafted novels bring alive what Walt Whitman called “the seething hell and black infernal background” of the war.

AMERICA AFLAME:
How the Civil War Created a Nation.
By David Goldfield.
Bloomsbury. 632 pp. $35

A Moral Question  Image

1861:
The Civil War Awakening.
By Adam Goodheart.
Knopf. 481 pp. $28.95

Free-for-All  Image

FIGHTING CHANCE:
The Struggle Over Woman Suffrage and Black Suffrage in Reconstruction America.
By Faye E. Dudden.
Oxford Univ. Press. 285 pp. $34.95

Battle Over Britain  Image

A WORLD ON FIRE:
Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War.
By Amanda Foreman.
Random House. 956 pp. $35

They Were There  Image

THE CIVIL WAR:
The First Year Told by Those Who Lived It.
Edited by Brooks D. Simpson, Stephen W. Sears, and Aaron Sheehan-Dean.
Library of America. 814 pp. $37.50

Essays

WikiLeaks’ tsunami of revelations from U.S. government sources last year did not change the world, but it did change WikiLeaks.

Alasdair Roberts

Theodore Roosevelt famously used the “bully pulpit” of the White House to advance his agenda. By the time he left office, “spin” had become a fundamental part of the American presidency.

David Greenberg

It is easy to scoff at the prestigious commissions that constantly sprout in Washington as empty exercises in buck passing—until you take stock of all they have accomplished.

Jordan Tama

As Arab political horizons expand, the space for the United States to pursue its interests in the Middle East may well contract.

Aaron David Miller

The Arab world’s wave of change was a century in the making. Why expect its effects to become clear in the space of months?

Rami G. Khouri

The Arab revolts of 2011 have transformed the image of the Islamic world. One young Egyptian woman’s struggle reflects the scope of change—and shows how long it has been in coming.

Robin Wright

In Egypt, the next important battles over the political future will be waged with law books and computer keyboards.

Donald L. Horowitz

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