January 2005
Iraq: From Insurgency to Civil War?
by Ahmed S. Hashim
"After the successful but destructive assault on Falluja, the Sunni Arabs are not merely alienated; they are outraged, and their support for the insurgency has increased. More ominously, a large number of Sunni see no future for their community in the new Iraq."

January 2005
After Arafat
by Glenn E. Robinson
"Arafat's death provides that rare historical opportunity for enormous and generally beneficial change to take place in Palestine. . . . [But] Palestine's comparative weakness, its political economy, and the occupation are not upended so easily. Neither are its fundamental requirements for a comprehensive peace with Israel."

January 2005
Politicide: Ariel Sharon and the Palestinians
by Baruch Kimmerling
"What is Sharon's plan? It is nothing less than the politicide of the Palestinian people: a combined military, political, diplomatic, and psychological process that has, as its ultimate goal, the dissolution of the Palestinians' existence as a legitimate socially, politically, and economically independent entity."

January 2005
The Limits of Shock and Awe: America in the Middle East
by Augustus Richard Norton and Farhad Kazemi
"Never before has a country committed itself to so fundamental and dramatic a transformation of a major region of the world as the United States has in the Middle East since 2001. . . . It remains to be seen how well the rhetoric of promoting reform will weather the experience of promoting reform."

January 2005
Iran, the Status Quo Power
by Mohsen M. Milani
"Iran appears ready to discuss the future of Iraq as well as other security issues with the United States. It remains uncertain for Tehran whether a 'tactical consensus' on Iraq could . . . lead to a marked improvement in us-Iran relations."

January 2005
Voices within Islam: Four Perspectives on Tolerance and Diversity
by Bahman Baktiari and Augustus Richard Norton
An author, an engineer, a reformist, and an ayatollah offer glimpses into a brave and probing debate that is gaining momentum in the Muslim world.