Afghanistan Seen by Others
Barnett R. Rubin
in Afghanistan: What Everyone Needs to Know®
Through much of the twentieth century Afghanistan seemed to be a distant concern in the United States. “Afghanistanism” used to be journalistic shorthand for stories about distant places, ...
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Ahmadinejad, Rouhani and Iran now
Michael Axworthy
in Iran: What Everyone Needs to Know®
How did Ahmadinejad become president in 2005?
Among the presidents Iran has had since the revolution, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the joker in the pack. He was not part of the charmed ...
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Albanians
Tim Judah
in Kosovo: What Everyone Needs to Know®
Although the focus of this book is Kosovo, it is also about the people of the Western Balkans, especially the Albanians and the Serbs, who do not fit neatly into the boundaries of the ...
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Ancient and Islamic Iran
Michael Axworthy
in Iran: What Everyone Needs to Know®
What do we know about the Indo-European peoples and the origins of Iran?
What we know begins with the fact that the Persian language (known to Iranians in their own tongue as ...
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The Arab Uprisings and their Fallout
James L. Gelvin
in The New Middle East: What Everyone Needs to Know®
How did the Arab uprisings begin?
On December 17, 2010, a Tunisian street vendor, Muhammad Bouazizi, set himself on fire in front of the local government building in Sidi Bouzid, ...
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The Arab-Israeli Wars
Dov Waxman
in The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know®
How many Arab-Israeli wars have there been, and how many people have been killed?
It is not as easy as you might think to count the number of Arab-Israeli wars or tally the number ...
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Arctic Homelands
Klaus Dodds and Mark Nuttall
in The Arctic: What Everyone Needs to Know®
The Arctic, if defined by land and sea (and ice) lying north of the Arctic Circle, is home to 4 million people. The majority of residents are found in the Russian North, and overwhelmingly ...
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The Bashir-Turabi Coup of 1989, the Rise and Fall of Hassan Al-Turabi, and U.S. Policy Toward Sudan
Andrew S. Natsios
in Sudan, South Sudan, and Darfur: What Everyone Needs to Know®
How did Omar al-Bashir and Hassan al-Turabi take power?
On June 30, 1989, just as Sadiq was about to leave for Addis Ababa, a group of midranking army officers led by Brigadier ...
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The Basics
Dov Waxman
in The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know®
Who is the conflict between?
To understand any conflict, the first and most basic task is to accurately identify the parties involved. When it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian ...
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Before the Deluge: The Middle East, 1945–2011
James L. Gelvin
in The New Middle East: What Everyone Needs to Know®
What is the Middle East?
The Middle East
“Middle East” is one of several terms that refer to the territory of southwest Asia and North Africa. Other terms for the same ...
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The Beginning: Tunisia and Egypt
James L. Gelvin
in The Arab Uprisings: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
What characteristics do Tunisia and Egypt hold in common?
At first glance, it would seem that no two countries in the Arab world differ from each other more than Tunisia and Egypt. ...
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The Beginning of the Conflict
Dov Waxman
in The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know®
When did the conflict begin?
By far the most enduring popular myth about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that it is an age-old conflict. All too often, one hears the claim that ...
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A Better Edition of Itself?
Timothy J. Colton
in Russia: What Everyone Needs to Know®
Why did Russia annex Crimea?
The short- and long-term challenges facing Russia are legion. In the short haul, one of the most daunting is to sort through repercussions of events to ...
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The Birth of Modern Sudan
Andrew S. Natsios
in Sudan, South Sudan, and Darfur: What Everyone Needs to Know®
How has Sudan’s early history affected its current problems?
To answer this question, we need to follow Sudan’s history, principally that of the last two centuries. European ...
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Brazilian Culture and Society
Riordan Roett
in Brazil: What Everyone Needs to Know®
Brazil has a vibrant national culture. It ranges from the passionate commitment of the average Brazilian to “their” soccer team to the bossa nova, an imaginative film industry, and ...
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The British Raj and the Road to Independence
Mira Kamdar
in India in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know®
What was the East India Company?
On December 31, 1600, Queen Elizabeth I granted a royal charter giving a group of English adventurers a fifteen-year monopoly over England’s trade ...
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Building
Stathis N. Kalyvas
in Modern Greece: What Everyone Needs to Know®
How was the new state built?
Becoming independent was the easy part. The leaders of the new state faced a daunting task. They sought to create a modern European state in a rather ...
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Building a New Regime: Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak
Bruce K. Rutherford and Jeannie L. Sowers
in Modern Egypt: What Everyone Needs to Know®
What Caused the Military Coup in 1952? What Were Its Goals?
The political order created after Egypt’s independence in 1922 was a disappointment to many Egyptians. The struggle for ...
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Civil War: Islamic State to Islamic Emirate
Barnett R. Rubin
in Afghanistan: What Everyone Needs to Know®
What set off the 1992–96 civil war?
Various actors maneuvered to fill the power vacuum in Kabul left by the Soviet withdrawal. After the failure of the offensive on Jalalabad, the ...
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The Civil Wars of Liberation
Richard D. Mahoney
in Colombia: What Everyone Needs to Know®
Why did Spain lose its grip in the New World?
In a panic because of the French Revolution, especially after the execution of his fellow Bourbon regent, French king Louis XVI in ...
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