Partisanship contaminates military, too - academic

BEIRUT: Eleven academics presented draft papers on the role of the military in Middle Eastern countries at a conference held by the Carnegie Middle East Center this week. Monday's workshop, entitled "The Military and State in the Middle East: Political, Economic, and Social Dimensions," focused on the dynamics between the military and the government in various parts of the region. Once finalized, the draft papers will be published in a single edited volume. The project began five years ago when a workshop in Italy put out a call for papers from authors interested in the subject, said professor Yezid Sayigh, the conference coordinator. "At one level, everyone sort of assumes or presumes that the military and intelligence services in the Middle East are tremendously powerful and that they rule everything or at least have a lot... [read full story]