The Contemporary Middle Eastern Scene, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1979 Basic Issues and Major Trends Coll. Schriften des Deutschen Orient - Instituts

The contributions to this volume are based on papers read at an international confer­ ence held in Hamburg in May 1978. Some of them are reprinted in their original form, others have been slightly modified in order to incorporate more recent findings. Since the overall concern is Middle Eastern development the various contributions deal with a wide range of problems. Studies on the Middle East are more often than not one-sided because of the pre­ dominating interest in the Arab-Israeli conflict and the economic factors relating to the supply of oil. At the Hamburg Conference, however, the participants concentrated main­ lyon examining such aspects of the situation as are far too often relegated to the side­ lines. In order to illustrate what those neglected topics are one should refer to two major examples: 1) the religio-cultural identity of Arabs and Israelis, 2) the tackling of political issues in Arab and Israeli literature.

One: The Middle East in World Politics.- Soviet Policy in the Middle East.- The European Community and the United States in the Arab World — Political Competition or Partnership?.- The Political and Economic Dimensions of Arab-Africa Cooperation.- Two: Economic Development, Ideological Trends and Social Evolution.- Economic Development in the Non-Oil-Producing Arab Countries.- Israel’s “New Economic Order”.- The Social Background of Ideologies in the Arab Middle East.- The Iraqi Ba’th after ten Years of Power — the Challenges of Dogma and Pragmatism.- “Right” and “Left” in Lebanon.- Social Change in the Arab Countries: Motives and Thrusts.- Trends towards Retraditionalization in Egypt.- Three: Religious and Cultural Elements in the Arab and Israeli Identity.- The Relevancy of Islam in Arab National Identity.- Problems of Confessionalism in Syria.- Attitudes towards Islam.- Experience into Fiction: Israeli Writers on Jewish-Arab Relations (The Case of Hasüt by Sammy Michael).- Social Problems in Contemporary Arab Literature.- The Palestine Conflict as Reflected in Contemporary Arabic Literature.- Psychodynamics of the Middle East Conflict.- List of Authors.