New MEI Bulletin

The June 2010 MEI Bulletin is now available, focusing on various aspects of nuclear development in the Middle East. The full issue is available here (PDF).

A New Issue of Arab Reform Bulletin

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Arab Reform Bulletin is always a fine collection of essays on democratization and related issues in the Arab world, and there's a new issue up with a wealth of interesting stuff: Iraq's electoral law, Muslim Brotherhood troubles (post in preparation here on that, soon I hope), post-Jihadism (by Omar Ashour, who's very good at it and I also plan to post on the wave of "post-Jihadi" discussions lately, perhaps as early as tomorrow); and a lot more.

Page for accessing individual articles in HTML is here; and since they translate every issue, the Arabic equivalent is here; for those who prefer to read the whole thing in PDF or download a copy, the English is here; I can't yet find the link for an Arabic PDF. [Okay: it's there now.]

I think I've mentioned previously that the fact that Arab Reform Bulletin is edited by Michele Dunne and The Middle East Journal is edited by Michael Dunn (me) has led to one or two misdirected phone calls (plus we both do Egypt), but I should perhaps note that sometimes Arabic citations (especially in former French Mandates or colonies where "Michael" tends to be read as "Michel"), are even stranger since sometimes they transliterate our names exactly alike in Arabic. I always have to look at the verb to see if it's feminine or masculine.

They usually are quoting Michele, of course. I haven't read the new issue yet but it's usually worth everyone's time.

Middle East International Redivivus

Old-timers in this business, and even some of the younger ones, will be aware of Middle East International. For decades, it was the voice of what might be called the British Arabist network: folks who shared a general vision of the region (including dovish Israelis, and lots of old British Arab hands, and as time went on, more and more Arab writers as well). The articles were long, well-informed, and aimed at people who knew the region well. It was the opposite of the USA Today brief TV-like news reporting, and was at times almost scholarly.

Though not a newsletter, it had a sort of newsletterish audience (informed people who really need solid, reliable and knowledgeable information and analysis), and — just like my own newsletter efforts — it faded and died. It ceased publication in 2003, but some of the old staff have recently revived it, this time in Cyprus rather than London, and with more of an electronic footprint.

Here's their website, and they've been shrewd enough to make the first issue available free in .pdf. Here's a post by The Arabist on the subject; and I may comment more once I've actually read the issue. The old publication had a devout following; it will be interesting to see if they can revive it in the electronic era.