From NYRB, David Miliband on how to end the war in Afghanistan. From Foreign Affairs, a review essay on Afghanistan. From VQR, a special section on Afghanistan. From Harper's, the master of Spin Boldak: Undercover with Afghanistan's drug-trafficking border police. The introduction to Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History by Thomas Barfield. "It's a perfect war. Everybody makes money": Douglas A. Wissing on how US military funds are ending up in the hands of the Taliban. From New American Foundation, a special report on The Battle for Pakistan: Militancy and Conflict in Pakistan's Tribal Regions. An interview with Ramin Jahanbegloo on the Green Movement in Iran. From Al-Ahram, the history of the Arab League since its inception in 1944 suggests that the Arab regimes have long chosen to be weak and irrelevant; and will the Arabs ever rediscover the qualities and the glory that once conquered the world? A review of Political Succession in the Arab World: Constitutions, Family Loyalties and Islam by Anthony Billingsley. More on The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations by Lee Smith. Are Saudi women on their way at last? With the king’s permission, the debate is hotting up. With much of the Arab world rattled by the global economic turmoil and stuck in moribund politics, tiny Qatar and its punchy emir are bucking the trend. Hell on Earth: Yemen is crippled by terrorism, drought and civil war. Clemens Hoges goes inside the world's worst hellhole: Somalia, the perfect failed state. From LRB, Adam Shatz on Mubarak’s last breath. Open that border: Will the long stalemate between the Maghreb’s Algeria and Morocco ever end? More powerful than ever: Al-Jazeera, the most-watched television channel in the Arab world, still stirs controversy.
