Barry Rubin - Böcker

After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a stunned public asked: How could this happen? Why did the attackers do what they did? What did they hope to accomplish? This wasn't the first battle in a conflict that has included bombings of U.S. embassies and planes, the Iran hostage crisis, and kidnappings or shootings of American citizens. This unique volume sets out to answer these questions using the unfiltered words of the terrorists themselves. Over many decades, radical forces in the Middle East have changed and evolved, yet their basic outlook and anti-Western views have remained remarkably consistent. Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin have assembled nearly one hundred key documents, charting the evolution of radical Middle East movements, their anti-Americanism, and Western policy response. The buildup to the battle between a world superpower and Middle East revolutionaries is brought dramatically to life. Among the documents included are the charters of such organizations as Hizballah, Hamas, and World Islamic Front; speeches by Syrian president Hafiz al-Asad and former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein; al-Qa'ida recruitment materials; and terrorist training manuals. The book also shows and analyzes the often conflicting and deeply conflicted responses to September 11 by journalists, clerics, and activists in the Arab world. Supplemented by an annotated chronology, a glossary of terms, and sections that put each selection in context, this comprehensive reference serves not only as essential historical background to the ongoing aftermath of the September 11 attacks, but more generally as an invaluable framework for understanding a long-term, continuing conflict that has caused many crises for the United States.

In the early twenty-first century, the world has been seized by one of the most intense periods of anti-Americanism in history. Reviled as an imperialist power, an exporter of destructive capitalism, an arrogant crusader against Islam, and a rapacious over-consumer casually destroying the planet, it seems that the United States of America has rarely been less esteemed in the eyes of the world. In such an environment, one can easily overlook the fact that people from other countries have, in fact, been hating America for centuries. Going back to the day of Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin, Americans have long been on the defensive. Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin here draw on sources from a wide range of countries to track the entire trajectory of anti-Americanism. Most significantly, they identify how anti-Americanism evolved over time. In the 18th century, the newfound land was considered too wild and barbaric to support human society. No one, the argument went, could actually live there. Animals brought from Europe, one French commentator claimed, shrunk in size and power. Native Americans too were "small and feeble," lacking "body hair, beard and ardor for his female." The very land itself was "permeated with moist and poisonous vapors, unable to give proper nourishment except to snakes and insects." This opinion prevailed through most of the 19th century, with Keats even invoking the lack of nightingales as symptomatic of just how unlovely and unlivable a place this America was. As the young nation came together at the beginning of the twentieth century and could no longer be easily dismissed as a failure, its very success became cause for suspicion. The American model of populist democracy, the rise of mass culture, the spread of industrialization-all confirmed that America was now a viral threat that could destabilize the established order in Europe. After the paroxysm of World War II, the worst fears of anti-Americanists were realized as the United States became one of the two most powerful nations in the world. Then, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, America became the sole superpower it is today, and the object of global suspicion and scorn. With this powerful work, the Rubins trace the paradox that is America, a country that is both the most reviled and most envied land on earth. In the end, they demonstrate, anti-Americanism has often been a visceral response to the very idea-as well as both the ideals and policies--of America itself, its aggressive innovation, its self-confidence, and the challenge it poses to alternative ideologies.

The Muslim Brotherhood is the oldest and most important international Islamist group. Aside from strong organizations in Egypt, Jordan, Syria—where it provides the main opposition—and its Palestinian offshoot Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip, the Brotherhood has become active in Europe and North America.

Syria has long presented a serious problem for the Middle East region and U.S. policy. With its mix of competing religious and ethnic groups, radical ideologies, and political repression, it is a 72,000-square-mile time bomb waiting to go off. Yet surprisingly, very little is known about this country and the role it has played in shaping the destiny of the Middle East. In The Truth about Syria, Middle East expert Barry Rubin looks at the critical issues that have made the country the powderkeg of the Middle East and offers an insightful analysis of the effects of recent developments.

No country in the world has more political battles, military conflicts, and ethnic complexity per person and per square mile than does Lebanon. This book explains the issues, events, and personalities involved in one of the globe's most dramatic and important stories.

Over the last decade the once marginal extreme right of the Turkish ideological spectrum has grown in size as well as in influence and has effectively reshaped party competition in Turkey. Policy mandates and electoral bases of the rising extreme right rely on potentially explosive social cleavages in the country. One such confrontation is between the secularist and pro-Islamist forces, which has always been one of the centrepieces of modern Turkish politics.The rise of pro-Islamist electoral forces from a marginal to an undeniably imposing position in Turkish electoral politics has led many to worry that a deep-rooted schism has come to the forefront of Turkish politics. The frontline of this secularist vs pro-Islamist confrontation is quite widespread ranging from a debate around the ban of turban and headscarves in universities to religious education in the country, from Islamic principles in the economy to Turkish foreign policy towards the Middle Eastern countries.This volume was previously published as a special issue of the journal Turkish Studies.

Bringing together canonical and the best cutting-edge scholarship in one useful reference resource, the shortcomings as well as the successes of Islamism are fully examined in this three volume collection of seventy-five key journal articles on all aspects of modern political Islamism.'Political Islam' here means political movements which argue that the state must be based on their interpretation of Islamic law, viewing this as an alternative to Arab nationalist, traditional monarchist, or semi-secular democratic states. Such movements may seek power through violence or elections. They also usually set up their own educational, social service, and cultural institutions to influence individuals and the society at large.This work is organized into sections discussing the origins and world view of political Islam and its relationship with the issues of terrorism and democracy. The collection also includes a number of case studies that examine the ideas, strategy, tactics, leadership, and opposition to the movement both in the Middle East and in other parts of the world.

Political violence and instability in the Middle East is arguably the world's most important political issue. The region is certainly the globe's leading area for turmoil, war, and violence; and its conflicts have continuously involved Western countries both directly and indirectly. This book surveys the main conflicts and insurgencies in recent Middle East history, focusing mainly on the period since the 1980s. Taking a historical-analytical approach, it covers challenges from revolutionary groups, civil wars, and the main conventional wars in the region. In addition to providing detailed narratives, the contributors also analyse the lessons for political and military affairs stemming from these conflicts.Conflict and Insurgency in the Contemporary Middle East assembles for the first time detailed studies of the Iran-Iraq, Israel-Hizballah, and the two Coalition-Iraq wars, along with analyses of a number of insurgencies. Assessing successes and failures, strategy and tactics, and changes in military technologies, the book will be of great interest to students of Middle Eastern politics, insurgencies, security studies and International Relations in general, as well as policymakers and military professionals.

The growing importance of Islam in the world coincides with the growing interest by scholars in understanding Islam as a religion and its political and social influences. The geographic scope of Islam goes far beyond the Middle East, ranging from the Far East to sub-Saharan Africa.There is a vast diversity of Islamic movements and every country has its own distinctive pattern. But of the main categories of Islamic groups, only the Islamist political groups, the best-known in the West such as the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida, Hamas and Hizballah, have been thoroughly analyzed and documented; but these are only a small portion of the variety and stance of groups. Indeed, the ‘Arab Spring’ has brought a resurgence of Islamic, as well as Islamist, civil society organizations.This new four-volume set provides a comprehensive study of the other main categories of movements: Muslim non-political, non-Islamist groups, including charitable and educational organizations as well as the association of imams, courts, and so on. These incorporate the networks of the traditional Muslim institutions which, in most cases, actually run the communities and provide services to them; Muslim non-Islamist political groups, that is the efforts to create communal representational or communal interest groups, commonly called ‘moderate Muslim’ groupings; the non-political aspects of Islamist groups, that is the social welfare, educational, theologically oriented, and special interest organizations created by Islamist groups to spread their influence and enlarge their base of support.This truly ground-breaking and timely work collects for the first time in one reference work the latest scholarship on a previously-neglected aspect of the Muslim political and social experience, and will be invaluable to researchers and students across a wide range of disciplines.

This book examines the decade in office of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its efforts to transform the Turkish republic toward a more Islamist-oriented system. If it succeeds, Turkey’s dramatic shift will be the most important change in the Middle East power balance since the 1979 Iranian revolution and will have equally devastating effects on Western interests.For more than 80 years Turkey has been ruled by the secular democratic structures created by Kemal Ataturk. Now, however, the rise of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its series of electoral victories are creating a new system. Whilst portraying itself as a centre-right reform party, the AKP has been accused of having an Islamist agenda. After almost a decade in power, there is serious evidence that this claim is true. At home, the AKP has been changing basic Turkish attitudes and institutions, from buying up a large portion of the country’s media to revising its laws, and even taking the lead in the writing of a new constitution. Internationally, Turkey has moved away from the West and Israel toward Iran and radical Islamist groups. While its intentions—and ability to fulfil them—are still unclear, the AKP has been leading the most important transformation of Turkey since the formation of the republic after World War I. This book systematically examines the AKP’s ideology, support base, actions in office, and goals.This book was published as a special issue of the Turkish Studies.

Why is the Middle East the only part of the world which has drawn the West into wars in the last thirty years? With a sequence of events since 1945, including the Six-Day War, the Iranian revolution, the Iran-Iraq war, and the two Gulf wars, the Middle East has been the most important region of diplomacy, crisis, and controversy for the West. More recent events - notably the 2001 attack on the United States but also a number of other events (Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, nuclear proliferation, oil) - have even further escalated both engagement and debate. This has been punctuated by large-scale immigration to the West from the region. Islamism is the only ideology that challenges the dominant, globalizing, modern form of society.All of these factors have greatly increased interest in the West toward its engagement in the region and the need for good materials explaining the history, the strategies, events, and ideas. This new title in the Routledge Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Political Science, meets the need for an authoritative reference work to answer these and other questions, and to enable users to make sense of the subject’s vast literature and the continuing explosion in research output.

Over the last decade the once marginal extreme right of the Turkish ideological spectrum has grown in size as well as in influence and has effectively reshaped party competition in Turkey. Policy mandates and electoral bases of the rising extreme right rely on potentially explosive social cleavages in the country. One such confrontation is between the secularist and pro-Islamist forces, which has always been one of the centrepieces of modern Turkish politics.The rise of pro-Islamist electoral forces from a marginal to an undeniably imposing position in Turkish electoral politics has led many to worry that a deep-rooted schism has come to the forefront of Turkish politics. The frontline of this secularist vs pro-Islamist confrontation is quite widespread ranging from a debate around the ban of turban and headscarves in universities to religious education in the country, from Islamic principles in the economy to Turkish foreign policy towards the Middle Eastern countries.This volume was previously published as a special issue of the journal Turkish Studies.

Political violence and instability in the Middle East is arguably the world's most important political issue. The region is certainly the globe's leading area for turmoil, war, and violence; and its conflicts have continuously involved Western countries both directly and indirectly. This book surveys the main conflicts and insurgencies in recent Middle East history, focusing mainly on the period since the 1980s. Taking a historical-analytical approach, it covers challenges from revolutionary groups, civil wars, and the main conventional wars in the region. In addition to providing detailed narratives, the contributors also analyse the lessons for political and military affairs stemming from these conflicts.Conflict and Insurgency in the Contemporary Middle East assembles for the first time detailed studies of the Iran-Iraq, Israel-Hizballah, and the two Coalition-Iraq wars, along with analyses of a number of insurgencies. Assessing successes and failures, strategy and tactics, and changes in military technologies, the book will be of great interest to students of Middle Eastern politics, insurgencies, security studies and International Relations in general, as well as policymakers and military professionals.

No region of the world has been more affected by the forces of instability and the factors of war and insecurity than has the Middle East. The area has seen more violence and conflict in the last three or four decades than all of the other world regions put together. Moreover, conflict in the area has an international significance far beyond its borders. These events and issues have also been of the greatest international and academic interest, with much study generated.The editor’s choice of materials in this new Routledge collection is based on an effort to cover a full range of issues concerning external and internal threats to the stability of Middle Eastern states as well as the means by which they try to ensure their security both at home and abroad. The topics include military, ideological, sub-national, Islamist, and economic challenges. In geographic terms it encompasses the greater Middle East: the Arab world, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, and Afghanistan.

This book examines the decade in office of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its efforts to transform the Turkish republic toward a more Islamist-oriented system. If it succeeds, Turkey’s dramatic shift will be the most important change in the Middle East power balance since the 1979 Iranian revolution and will have equally devastating effects on Western interests.For more than 80 years Turkey has been ruled by the secular democratic structures created by Kemal Ataturk. Now, however, the rise of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its series of electoral victories are creating a new system. Whilst portraying itself as a centre-right reform party, the AKP has been accused of having an Islamist agenda. After almost a decade in power, there is serious evidence that this claim is true. At home, the AKP has been changing basic Turkish attitudes and institutions, from buying up a large portion of the country’s media to revising its laws, and even taking the lead in the writing of a new constitution. Internationally, Turkey has moved away from the West and Israel toward Iran and radical Islamist groups. While its intentions—and ability to fulfil them—are still unclear, the AKP has been leading the most important transformation of Turkey since the formation of the republic after World War I. This book systematically examines the AKP’s ideology, support base, actions in office, and goals.This book was published as a special issue of the Turkish Studies.

No area of the world has been more involved in military matters during the last half century than has the Middle East. The region has seen seven Arab-Israeli wars; three wars involving Iraq and two more in Afghanistan; as well as civil wars in Lebanon, Libya, Algeria, Yemen, Syria, and among Palestinians; and insurgencies in several other places. Several of these wars—most notably the last one in Iraq and the Afghan ones—involved direct Western intervention.In addition, however, the military has been either the direct ruler of many countries, including Turkey among others, or the main pillar of the regime. Military coups, successful or otherwise, took place in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Algeria, and Jordan. Thus, the armed forces, their equipment, demands, goals, and other seemingly purely military issues have also become prime political determinants of Middle Eastern history.This new Routledge collection offers a survey of the scholarly work across the range of twentieth- and twenty-first-century regional history that puts these events together in a systematic context and provides a wide range of views and opinions. Comprehensively covering military history of the past hundred years, this title includes such topics as both world wars, the Turkish-Greek conflicts, Arab nationalism, the Arab-Israeli conflicts, and the post-2003 fighting in Iraq.

The Middle East has changed clearly, substantially, and dramatically during the last decade. Yet scholarly and public understanding lags far behind these events. This book explains why the previous era came to end, giving an historical and political summation of the region. Three interlinked themes are crucial to the book. First, a reinterpretation of the era of upheaval the Middle East has just passed through. During that period, many Arabs believed that some leader, country, or radical movement would unite the region, solving all its problems. Second, an evaluation of how the historical experience of the period between the 1940s and the 1990s undermined the old system, making change necessary. Third, an analysis of the region today that helps explain future developments, in what the author terms the Era of Reluctant Pragmatism, as the Middle Eastern societies decide their relationships to the West.

The Middle East has changed clearly, substantially, and dramatically during the last decade. Yet scholarly and public understanding lags far behind these events. This book explains why the previous era came to end, giving an historical and political summation of the region. Three interlinked themes are crucial to the book. First, a reinterpretation of the era of upheaval the Middle East has just passed through. During that period, many Arabs believed that some leader, country, or radical movement would unite the region, solving all its problems. Second, an evaluation of how the historical experience of the period between the 1940s and the 1990s undermined the old system, making change necessary. Third, an analysis of the region today that helps explain future developments, in what the author terms the Era of Reluctant Pragmatism, as the Middle Eastern societies decide their relationships to the West.

This book is a comprehensive overview and analysis of the Palestinians’ travail as they move from revolutionary movement to state. Barry Rubin outlines the difficulties in the transition now underway arising from Palestinian history, society, and diplomatic agreements. He writes about the search for a national identity, the choice of an economic system, and the structure of government.Rubin finds the political system interestingly distinctive—it appears to be a pluralist dictatorship. There are free elections, multiple parties, and some latitude in civil liberties. Yet there is a relatively unrestrained chief executive and arbitrariness in applying the law because of restraints on freedom. The new ruling elite is a complex mixture of veteran revolutionaries, heirs to large and wealthy families, professional soldiers, technocrats, and Islamic clerics. Beyond explaining how the executive and legislative branches work, Rubin factors in the role of public opinion in the peace process, the place of nongovernmental institutions, opposition movements, and the Palestinian Authority’s foreign relations—including Palestinian views and interactions with the Arab world, Israel, and the United States.This book is drawn from documents in Arabic, Hebrew, and English, as well as interviews and direct observations. Rubin finds that, overall, the positive aspects of the Palestinian Authority outweigh the negative, and he foresees the establishment of a Palestinian state. His charting of the triumphs and difficulties of this state-in-the-making helps predict and explain future dramatic developments in the Middle East.

The Palestine Liberation Organization is now almost a government in Gaza and the West Bank. In this in-depth account of its ideology, strategy, and tactics, its relationship to other Arab states, and its confrontations with Israel, Barry Rubin documents how the PLO was transformed from revolutionary organization into the administrator of its own territory.

First Published in 1981. The objective of this study is to reconstruct the difficulty faced by American and British policy-makers in ‘determining the capabilities and intentions’ of their two main wartime allies regarding the Middle East. Specifically, it seeks to explore the role of great power relations in the Middle East in the breakdown of the wartime alliance and in the origins of the Cold War.

An examination of the Middle East's leading armed forces and their role in both military and political affairs. The book considers their missions, doctrine, training, equipment and effectiveness as fighting forces.

This work addresses the main strategic issues in today's Persian Gulf, a region that could easily produce a crisis that would encourage international political and economic involvement. Topics discussed include: strategic balances, modernization, internal stability, and weapons of mass destruction.

Turkey's growing international profile, candidacy for the EU, and persistent democracy has led to a growing interest in how that country is governed. This book provides portraits of the seven main political parties by Turkish experts who are close observers of these institutions. In addition to providing an analytical survey of Turkish politics today, this volume also provides a fascinating case study on the problems of developing deep-rooted democracy, conflicts between state interests amd interest groups, and the evolution of party systems.

These papers examine the history behind Turkey's application for EU membership. The contributors tackle the thorny issues of Cyprus, Turkey's attitude towards a common defence policy and Turkish parliamentarians' views on the nation's relations with the European Union.