{"title":"Taliban 2.0 and China's Counterterrorism Diplomacy in Afghanistan","authors":"Raj Verma","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12677","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12677","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The US withdrawal that left the Taliban in control of Afghanistan has created a security dilemma for China. Beijing considers its Uyghur population to be a terror threat, and it believes the Taliban are allowing the group to use Afghanistan as a refuge from which to plan attacks and transit into Central Asian neighbors. This article analyzes both the historical record and recent moves by China to explain Beijing's strategy of engaging with the Taliban and developing the Afghan economy. The study indicates that the approach has some potential benefits if, as the Chinese assume, economic growth yields stability, good governance, and a cohesive state that can combat terror groups. However, the article demonstrates that Afghan history, the Taliban's ideology, and the vicious circle of instability, economic stagnation, and further chaos are likely to subvert China's goals.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43634792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bargain and Barter: China's Oil Trade with Iran","authors":"Shirzad Azad","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12669","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12669","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The US withdrawal from the nuclear deal and its ratcheting up of sanctions aimed to cut Iran's oil revenues virtually to zero by reducing trade between Tehran and its top foreign customers, especially China. This article examines the dynamics of the Sino-Iranian oil business and finds that the Chinese have never terminated their imports; instead, when Beijing cannot deal with Tehran directly, it continues the flow through subterranean methods. This practice holds some benefits for both sides, but the Iranian economy has become highly dependent on bartering with the East Asian power: exporting crude and receiving part of the revenues in Chinese goods and services. The two countries have vowed to keep up the oil trade, as sanctions have led Iran toward a growing economic and technological orientation toward the East.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47244124","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Iran and Regional Convergence in Eurasia","authors":"Mehdi Sanaei, Fatemeh Atri Sangari","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12673","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12673","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Regional convergence in Eurasia has been evolving since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Commonwealth of Independent States was Russia's initial attempt to forge a comprehensive regional integration. However, Russia gradually shifted its focus to economics, and this produced the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). This organization has concluded numerous cooperation agreements, even with countries outside the borders of Eurasia, raising questions about regional convergence. In addition, with the expansion of China's influence in Central Asia, there has been a shift in the role and scope of the EEU. Iran has concluded a preferential trade agreement with the EEU, including non-tariff measures and a list of commodities for which barriers have been reduced or cut to zero. The main question of this study is how Iran's presence in this organization will influence Eurasian convergence. We examine the opportunities for, and obstacles to, convergence through an analysis of the forces that can bind an institution like the EEU: cultural and ideological affinities; the hegemony of the most powerful actors; and the potential for solving common problems.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46647394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Naked Don't Fear the Water: An Underground Journey with Afghan Refugees, Matthieu Aikins, Harper, 2022. 336 pages. $27.99, hardcover. My Fourth Time, We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World's Deadliest Migration Route Sally Hayden, Melville House, 2022. 400 pages. $23.99, hardcover.","authors":"Richard Albright","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12667","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12667","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45337929","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Iran's Trade with Neighbors: Sanctions’ Impact and the Alternatives","authors":"Mahjoob Zweiri, Nael Abusharar","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12663","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12663","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article investigates whether sanctions have changed or influenced Iran's trade patterns, focusing on neighboring countries. The study concentrates first on the United Arab Emirates (UAE), considered Iran's main regional partner. We hypothesize that the sanctions should have had a negative impact on Iran's trade with the UAE, as the latter cooperated with US policies toward the Islamic Republic. By contrast, sanctions were likely to positively influence its trade with Qatar. Indeed, the research shows that Iranian trade with Qatar increased significantly after 2017, while its trade with the UAE declined as a result of the measures adopted toward Iranian businesses in Dubai. However, the results also indicate that despite the UAE's anti-Iranian stance, the country still constitutes a major trading partner for the Islamic Republic, which is trying to mitigate the paralyzing impact of sanctions by developing trade relations with Qatar and other countries, such as Turkey.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mepo.12663","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46603613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Defending Iran: From Revolutionary Guards to Ballistic Missiles, by Gawdat Bahgat and Anoushiravan Ehteshami. Cambridge University Press, 2021. 288 pages. $29.99, paper.","authors":"Ahmed S. Hashim","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12666","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12666","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47451667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Toward Stable Civil-Military Relations in Sudan","authors":"Majak D'Agoôt","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12659","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12659","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The most dramatic of military interventions is the coup d’état, and the cyclical melodrama of putsches in Sudan has placed the country on a violent path. Perhaps a major reason for an irascible officer corps to plot coups is the lack of an effective contract binding the armed forces and society. This is keeping a chokehold on the country's progress, limiting its potential. In search of a better answer, revisiting the past cycle of military interventions is critically important. The recurrent mass actions and fleeting democratic transitions have exposed the bungling civilian leadership and defined the sociology in which Sudan's civil-military alchemy has fermented or gone bust. However, if the country had any concord among the military, the political leadership, and society, the risk of domestic military interventions would have been reduced, limiting the scourge of the power grab.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47275316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Richard J. Schmierer, Barbara Slavin, Ali Alfoneh, Alex Vatanka
{"title":"Iran: Historical Context And Latest Developments","authors":"Richard J. Schmierer, Barbara Slavin, Ali Alfoneh, Alex Vatanka","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12664","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12664","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49379394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sanctions, Deterrence, Regime Change: A New Look at US-Iran Relations","authors":"Mahmood Monshipouri, Giorgio Davide Boggio","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12661","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12661","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Over the past four decades, the United States has managed its foreign policy toward Iran through a combination of sanctions, diplomatic incentives, and threats of military intervention. This approach has come down to two choices: war or sanctions. Clearly, sanctions have deprived Iran of access to foreign investment in its oil and energy sectors, caused many oil companies to withdraw from Iran, and dramatically reduced Iran's oil revenue. However, sanctions have had a more damaging effect on ordinary people than on the targeted leaders of the country. Sanctions have neither altered Iran's foreign-policy conduct nor led to regime change. Before Iran is completely pushed into the arms of China and Russia, the third option—diplomacy with a potentially new regime—deserves attention. The next few years will likely answer the question of how these difficult and explosive US-Iranian relations will be managed: through diplomacy, ongoing sanctions, or by escalatory deterrence.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42218094","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"US Foreign Policy in the Eastern Mediterranean: Power Politics and Ideology Under the Sun, by Spyridon N. Litsas. Springer, 2020. 221 pages. $119.99, paper.","authors":"Şevki Kıralp","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12665","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12665","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41752027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}