Browse

Patriotic Ayatollahs explores the contributions of the Grand Ayatollahs to the process of state and nation-building after the 2003 Iraq war. These figures, the so-called Grand Ayatollahs, the highest-ranking clerics of Shiism, took on a new and, to many observers at the time, unexpected political role after the fall of Saddam Hussein. They served as guardians of the democratic process in Iraq, regularly intervening in the process of institution building. They also served as key public intellectuals and moral guides on key domestic issues, such as the insurgency and the emergence of violent and widespread terrorism. Their brand of political activism was novel insofar as it neither sought to reproduce the Iranian form of governance, nor adhere to the quietist model normally associated with the clerics of Iraq. Together with other new social actors who competed for power, Sistani and other leading ayatollahs played a central role in public debates, as they sought to secure their own position in the new public sphere. Drawing mainly on previously unexamined Arabic-language fatwas, speeches and communiqués of Iraq’s four grand ayatollahs, this book offers an analysis of the ways in which their new discourses and narratives shaped and framed public debates after 2003.

This book tells the interconnected story of oil, globalization, and terrorism. It asks how Al-Qaeda, a small band of terrorists, became such a real and perceived threat to American and global security, a threat viewed as profound enough to motivate the strongest power in world history to undertake extraordinary actions, including two very costly wars. The book argues that Middle East oil and globalization have combined to augment the real and perceived threat of transnational terrorism. Globalization has allowed terrorists to do things that otherwise would be more difficult and costly: exploit technology, generate fear beyond their capabilities, target vulnerable economic and political nodes, and capitalize on socio-economic dislocation. Meanwhile, Middle East oil has fueled terrorism by helping to bolster oil-rich regimes that terrorists hate, to fund the terrorist infrastructure, and to generate anti-American and anti-Western sentiments about American support for oil-rich regimes and perceived Western designs on Middle East oil. Together, Middle East oil and globalization have combined in various ways to help create Al-Qaeda's real and perceived threat, and that of its affiliates and offshoots. The book convincingly argues that it is critical to understand the connections among oil, globalization, and terrorism if we seek to comprehend modern global politics.

What explains differences in soldier participation in violence during irregular war? How do ordinary men become professional wielders of force, and when does this transformation falter or fail? This book presents a theoretical framework for understanding the various forms of behavior in which soldiers engage during counterinsurgency campaigns—compliance and shirking, abuse and restraint, as well as the creation of new violent practices. Through an in-depth study of the Israeli Defense Forces' repression of the Second Palestinian Intifada of 2000—2005, including interviews with and a survey of former combatants, the book examines how soldiers come both to unleash and to curb violence against civilians in a counterinsurgency campaign. It argues that variation in soldiers' behavior is best explained by the effectiveness of the control mechanisms put in place to ensure combatant violence reflects the strategies and preferences of military elites, primarily at the small-unit level. Furthermore, the book develops and analyzes soldier participation in three categories of violence: strategic violence authorized by military elites; opportunistic or unauthorized violence; and “entrepreneurial violence”—violence initiated from below to advance organizational aims when leaders are ambiguous about what will best serve those aims. By going inside military field units and exploring their patterns of command and control, the book sheds new light on the dynamics of violence and restraint in counterinsurgency.

This book documents the extensive political corruption that accompanied the reconstruction of Lebanon after the end of a decade and a half of civil war. With the signing of the Ta'if Accord in 1989, the rebuilding of the country's shattered physical infrastructure and the establishment of a functioning state apparatus became critical demands. Despite the urgent needs of its citizens, however, graft was rampant. The book describes the extent and nature of this corruption in key sectors of the Lebanese economy and government, including transportation, health care, energy, natural resources, construction, and social assistance programs. Exploring in detail how corruption implicated senior policymakers and high-ranking public servants, the book offers a clear perspective on state institutions in the developing world. It also addresses the overriding role of the Syrian leadership's interests in Lebanon and in particular its manipulation of the country's internal differences.

This book examines the causes and consequences of each of those dynamics, both individually and collectively, that have made this small waterway and its surrounding areas one of the most volatile and tension-filled regions in the world. This pervasive insecurity, the book argues, is largely a product of four interrelated developments. The examination of these four central developments forms the central basis around which the book’s arguments are organized. Briefly, they include preoccupation with “conventional” security threats at the expense of pervasive, though largely intangible, non-conventional “critical security” issues; the flawed nature of the prevailing security architecture, which, ironically, perpetuates regional insecurity; the deliberate actions and policies of the regional and extra-regional actors involved in the Persian Gulf; and, the self-reinforcing nature of the region’s security dilemma.

The contrast between Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates today illustrates the vastly different possible futures facing the smaller states of the Gulf. Dubai's rulers dream of creating a truly global business center, a megalopolis of many millions attracting immigrants in great waves from near and far. Kuwait, meanwhile, has the most spirited and influential parliament in any of the oil-rich Gulf monarchies. This book provides a robust framework for thinking about the future of the Gulf monarchies. The Gulf has seen enormous changes in recent years, and more are to come. The book explains the nature of the changes we are likely to see in the future. It asks why Kuwait is far ahead of all other Gulf monarchies in terms of political liberalization, but behind all of them in its efforts to diversify its economy away from oil. The book compares Kuwait with the United Arab Emirates, which lacks Kuwait's parliament but has moved ambitiously to diversify. It reflects the importance of both politics and economic development issues for decision-makers in the Gulf. The book develops a political economy of the Gulf that ties together a variety of issues usually treated separately: Kuwait's National Assembly, Dubai's real estate boom, the paucity of citizen labor in the private sector, class divisions among citizens, the caste divide between citizens and noncitizens, and the politics of land.