Weekend Reading

Per my usual Friday afternoon routine, if you have time on your hands this weekend (or whenever you do), here are some of the new reports around town and around the globe that may be of interest:

• Four additions to the readings on the Lebanon elections provided yesterday: 1) the International Crisis Group has a report, Lebanon's Elections; Avoiding a New Cycle of Confrontation; executive summary in English at the link, full report (available only in French), here. 2) The Saban Center has a report by Shibley Telhami, Lebanon on the Brink of Elections: Key Public Opinion Findings (PDF). 3) The Washington Institute for Near East Policy precedes the elections by making sure we've heard all the accusations by other countries about Hizbullah, in a PolicyWatch by Matthew Levitt called Hizbullah Campaigns at Home; Exposed Abroad. 4) A US Institute for Peace Working Paper by Mona Yacoubian on Lebanon's Parliamentary Elections: Anticipating Opportunities and Challenges. [Full disclosure: If you actually read all these plus the three I cited yesterday, you'll be way ahead of me, but for the real Lebanon wonks, there's plenty to plow into.]
  

• Thinking the Unthinkable Department: Abdullah Toukan and Tony Cordesman at CSIS give us an analysis of "Iran, Israel and the Effects of a Nuclear Conflict in the Middle East," complete with the patented Cordesman formula of lots of maps, graphs, and tables. On the positive side, instead of hysterical screaming about proliferation it's a sober (and sobering) look at what various levels of nuclear exchange could mean.
  

• From the Saban Center at Brookings, a report by Lydia Khalil, Stability in Iraqi Kurdistan: Reality or Mirage? The link takes you to the summary; the full PDF is here.
  

• The Council on Foreign Relations' The World This Week covers, among much else, the Cairo speech, the Lebanese elections, and more.
  

• Closer to home, the MEI Bulletin for June focuses on upcoming elections in the Middle East this year. Summary page here; full-text PDF here.

• Also at MEI: the podcast of the June 1 panel on "After the Visits: What Next for Middle East Peace?" with M.J. Rosenberg of Israel Policy Forum, Ghaith al-Omari of the American Task Force for Palestine, and Geoffrey Aronson of the Foundation for Middle East Peace: page about the event here; download or listen to the podcast of the event here.