A Superb Article on "Sins" of Mideast Analysts (and my 200th Post!)

[On a personal note, this posting marks post #200 since the blog began in January.]

I only just found (thanks to a link from The Arabist), this truly fine essay on "10 Conceptual Sins in Analyzing Middle East Politics" by Prof. Eric Davis of Rutgers. It appears at the blogsite Tabsir, and was apparently posted to Prof. Davis' website in January, where an Arabic translation also appears, but I'm only just now learning of it. [UPDATE: Marc Lynch just bookmarked it too, so I'm not the only one late to the party.] If you haven't previously seen it, I hereby commend it to you. While I might make some points a bit differently, every one of his "sins" has affected Western analyses of the region. (I'm sure I've been guilty of some of them myself.)

Watch this space. I'm going to be commenting on at least several of his list of "sins."