The Editors: R. Kevin Lacey is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He obtained a B.A. in government from Cornell University and an M.A., in Middle Eastern studies and Ph.D. in Near Eastern languages and civilizations from Harvard University. His fields of specialization include Arabic literature, Arab-Islamic civilization, and cross-cultural encounters involving the West and the Arab-Islamic world. He has published books and articles in his areas of interest, and has taught at Boston College, Cornell University, and Harvard University.Ralph M. Coury is Professor of History at Fairflield University in Connecticut where he specializes in teaching the history of the Middle East and international and cultural studies. He received a B.A. in history from Hamilton College and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern studies from Princeton University. He has written a wide range of works on Orientalism and Arab political and cultural history, including the recently published The Making of an Egyptian Arab Nationalist: The Early Years of Azzam Pasha, 1893-1936.

• Contents: Ralph M. Coury: Introduction – Lise Garon: Freedom for Moroccans? A Meaningful Case of the Development of a Stable Polyarchy – Azzedine Layachi: Islamism in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia and the Struggle for Change – Oliver Wilcox: Pivotal or Peripheral? The Maghreb in U.S. Foreign Policy – Michael J. Willis: Islamism in Algeria: The Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion – Asma Barlas: Sex, Texts, and States: A Critique of North African Discourses on Islam – David Crawford/Katherine E. Hoffman: Essentially Amazigh: Urban Berbers and the Global Village – Alec G. Hargreaves: The «Beurs»: Between and Beyond National Boundaries – Rafika Merini: A Socio-Literary Perspective of Women in the Maghreb: Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia – Stephanie S. Saad: Interpreting Ethnic Quiescence: A Brief History of the Berbers of Morocco – William C. Young: The Cultural Dimensions of the Sudanese Civil War – Roy Armes: Reinterpreting the Tunisian Past: Les silences du palais – Susan Ireland: The Second War of Algeria: The Representation of History in Fictional Works of the 1990s – R. Kevin Lacey: Western Movie Representations of Arab-African North Africa: The Sheltering Sky and the Question of Orientalism – John Maier: Literate Women in Three Moroccan Writers – Francis Poole: The Wind and the Lion: Myth versus Reality in the Life and Times of Moulay Ahmed al-Raisuli – Rod Skilbeck: Mixing Pop and Politics: The Role of Raï in Algerian Political Discourse – Ben Yarmolinsky: Some Remarks on Jilala Music from Tangier, Morocco.