Many have linked the US-led invasion of Iraq to its oil resources, leading some observers to question Caspian energy prospects. This article analyzes how the Iraqi occupation and Caspian oil prospects have been inter-linked, via the evolution of American and Turkish assessments of Iraq and the Caspian region. It shows that, contrary to initial expectations, the occupation of Iraq bolstered the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project as well as a number of other increasingly significant natural gas export pipelines.

This article examines the contemporary Shi‘a understanding of jihad, martyrdom, and resistance through an analysis of the writings of two leading Lebanese Shi‘a scholars: Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah and Muhammad Mahdi Shams al-Din. This article shows the impact of their writings on resistance movements in the region. It maintains that their discourse is central to the ideological foundation of Hizbullah, and also has affected the development of Hamas and its adoption of tactics developed in Lebanon against Israel.

Since the summer of 2007, Yemen’s southern provinces have witnessed widespread peaceful protest against the government in Sana‘a. In order to understand the significance of this opposition movement, it is necessary to look back to unresolved political issues at the time of Yemen’s unification in 1990. Events today reveal lingering problems with Yemen’s unity arrangement — problems which first surfaced in political conflict leading to a brief civil war in 1994.

This article focuses on the Palestinian Christian community in contemporary Jordan, tracing the evolution of the community’s social, religious, and political identities since 1948 to the present day. Incorporating material from interviews conducted within the past two years, the article assesses the impact of local and global developments on the microidentities within the Palestinian-Jordanian community and the significance of religion in the context of sustaining the Palestinian heritage for future generations residing in the diaspora.

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