From Middle East Topics and Arguments, a special issue on the middle class, including Karolin Sengebusch (Marburg): Caught in the Middle? On the Middle Class and its Relevance in the Contemporary Middle East. Jonathan Pidluzny (Morehead State): Explaining the “Democracy Deficit” in the Arab World: Is the Resurgence of Islam the Problem? Lindsay Benstead on why some Arabs don’t want democracy. Kira Jumet on the Egyptian uprisings from 2011 to 2013: Who says they were about democracy? Marc Lynch on explaining the Arab uprisings. From NYRB, the pillars of Arab despotism: Robert F. Worth reviews The New Arabs: How the Millennial Generation Is Changing the Middle East by Juan Cole and Temptations of Power: Islamists and Illiberal Democracy in a New Middle East by Shadi Hamid; and Max Rodenbeck reviews Frankenstein fi Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi, The Corpse Washer by Sinan Antoon, The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq by Hassan Blasim, and The Struggle for Iraq’s Future: How Corruption, Incompetence and Sectarianism Have Undermined Democracy by Zaid al-Ali. "Marked" for exclusion: Fanar Haddad on the problem of pluralism, state-building, and communal identities in Iraq and the Arab world. Zack Beauchamp, Max Fisher and Dylan Matthews on 27 maps that explain the crisis in Iraq. Danny Vinik on how this year's biggest border crisis is far from the U.S. Kenneth M. Pollack on why we need to begin nation-building in Syria right now if we want to avoid the mistakes we made in Iraq. Jeffrey Sachs wants the US and Europe to allow the Middle East to govern itself. What’s so new about the Islamic State’s governance? Megan A. Stewart investigates. Inside jobs and Israeli stooges: Why is the Muslim world in thrall to conspiracy theories? This letter to the editor perfectly captures what makes the Middle East so confusing.
