INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF THE MIDDLE EAST

         I have a number of publications in the general field of international relations of the Middle East.  They all, in one way or another, address the question of how the debate over the organizing principles of the regional system affect state behavior and international outcomes. The most recent is entitled "Systemic Approaches to Middle East International Relations," published in the Spring 1999 issue of the International Studies Review (full citation for this or any other publication can be found in my C.V.).  Others that look at the region as a whole include:  "Sovereignty and its Challengers:  War in Middle Eastern Inter-State Politics," in Paul Salem (ed.), Conflict Resolution in the Arab World, (American University of Beirut Press, 1997); "Sovereignty, Statecraft and Stability in the Middle East," Journal of International Affairs, Winter 1992; and "Revolutionary Fevers and Regional Contagion:  Domestic Structures and the 'Export' of Revolution in the Middle East," Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Spring 1991.  I put together a short discussion paper on the topic of alliances in the Middle East, as part of a panel on the subject at the 1998 Middle East Studies Association conference.  To read it, click here.  I also recently prepared a paper for a small conference at McGill University in honor of Paul Noble's retirement.  The paper is a rereading and reflection on Paul's seminal article on the Arab state system in the Korany and Dessouki volume on the foreigin policies of Arab states.  To read it, click here.

        Another area of my research is the international politics of the Persian/Arabian Gulf area.  My next major project is an analysis of war and alliance decisions by a number of Arab states in the area in the period 1971 through the 1990's.  To view a short description of that project, click here.  One part of that project has been published, an article on Iraqi war decisions:  "Iraq's Decisions to Go to War, 1980 and 1990," Middle East Journal, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Winter 2002).  I have written a conference paper on the alliance choices made by Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia during that time period, which has been accepted for publication by Security Studies but is not out yet.  A very early cut on the general topic of Gulf international relations can be found in "Gulf Regional Politics:  Revolution, War and Rivalry," in W. Howard Wriggins (ed.), The Dynamics of Regional Politics, Columbia University Press, 1992.  If you are interested in the GCC, you might look at an article I published with Michael Barnett called "Caravans in Opposite Directions:  Society, State and the Development of Community in the Gulf Cooperation Council," in Adler and Barnett (eds.), Security Communities, Cambridge University Press, 1998.  I also have  chapters on the foreign policies of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, both published in edited volumes:  "The Foreign Policy of Saudi Arabia," in Raymond Hinnebusch and Anoushiravan Ehteshami (eds.), The Foreign Policies of Middle East States, (Lynne Rienner, 2002) and "The UAE:  Between Pax Britannica and Pax Americana," in Joseph A. Kechichian (ed.), A Century in Thirty Years:  Shaykh Zayed and the United Arab Emirates, (Middle East Policy Council, 2000).

        My first book, entitled Saudi-Yemeni Relations:  Domestic Structures and Foreign Influence (Columbia University Press, 1990), looked at relations among Saudi Arabia and what were, until 1990, the two Yemeni states.  The analysis centered on how the Saudis were able to get their way in efforts to influence North Yemen (Yemen Arab Republic) much more successfully than was the case in Saudi efforts to influence South Yemen (People's Democratic Republic of Yemen).  I argued there that differences in state structures and state-society relations in the two Yemeni states provided the best explanation for this difference.

        I have also published an article entitled "Regional Influences on Experiments in Political Liberalization in the Arab World," in Brynen, Korany and Noble (eds.), Political Liberalization and Democratization in the Arab World:  Theoretical Perspectives, (Lynne Reinner, 1995), that argues that regional militarization and the power of transnational political ideologies like Pan-Arabism and Islamism both inhibit the prospects of democratization in the Arab world.