The following briefs are edited versions of papers presented at the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association in Anchorage, Alaska, November 8, 2003. The editors were Hakan Yavuz and Michael Gunter, whose papers are included below. Why Kurdish Statehood is Unlikely, Michael M. Gunter, professor of political science, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, Tennessee Transnational Networks: New Opportunities and Constraints for Kurdish Statehood, Denise Natali, visiting research fellow, Washington Kurdish Institute (WKI); director of WKI's transnational project Turkey and Kurdistan‐Iraq, 2003, Robert Olson, professor of Middle East and Islamic history, University of Kentucky Could a Kurdish State Be Set Up in Iraq?, Nihat Ali Özcan, author of PKK (Kurdistan ýpçi Partisi) Tarihi, Ideolojisi ve Yönetimi (Ankara: Asam, 1999) Kurdish Reality in an Emerging Iraq, Khaled Salih, University of Southern Denmark Provincial Not Ethnic Federalism in Iraq, M. Hakan Yavuz, associate professor of political science, University of Utah

No abstract

In the last five decades the Middle East has been the scene of very intensive conflict, violence and terror. The magnitude of violence has intensified following the events of September 11, 2001. There has been an outpouring of writing and scholarship that focuses on the analysis of this phenomenon. This paper attempts to reveal the major factors that have contributed to the state of violence in the Middle East. The paper argues that the failure of most of the Middle Eastern regimes to widen the arena of political participation, as well as their inabilities to improve the socio‐economic conditions of the masses, has been the major cause for violence. Adding to this the US global strategy to fight terror, and subsequently the invasion of Iraq, as well as the failure to reconcile the Palestinian issue also precipitated the state of violence in the Middle East. It is only after redressing the socio‐economic and political grievances of the masses, and finding remedies to both the Palestinian and Iraqi issues that we can contemplate the idea of a peaceful and stable Middle East. In this article, the author will attempt to address each of these factors.

No abstract

No abstract