Hiro, Dilip

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Hiro, Dilip

PERSONAL: Born in Sind, Pakistan. Education: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, M.S., 1964.

ADDRESSES: Home—London, England. Agent—c/o Bruce Hunter, David Higham Associates, 5-8 Lower John St., Golden Square, London W1F 9HA, England.

CAREER: Writer and journalist. Contributor to Inter Press Service (international syndicate); frequent commentator on the Middle East, Central Asia, and Islamic affairs for television and radio programs in the United States and abroad.

MEMBER: Middle East Studies Association of North America, Center for Iranian Research and Analysis.

AWARDS, HONORS: Award from Chicago Film Festival, 1975, for A Private Enterprise.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

The Indian Family in Britain, National Committee for Commonwealth Immigrants (London, England), 1967.

Black British, White British, Eyre & Spottiswoode (London, England), 1971, revised edition, Monthly Review Press (New York, NY), 1973, also published as Black British, White British: A History of Race Relations in Britain, Grafton Books (London, England), 1991.

The Untouchables of India, Minority Rights Group (London, England), 1975, revised edition, 1982.

Inside India Today, Monthly Review Press (New York, NY), 1976.

Inside the Middle East, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1982.

Iran under the Ayatollahs, Routledge (London, England), 1985, Routledge (New York, NY), 1987.

Iran: The Revolution Within, Center for Security and Conflict Studies (London England), 1988.

Islamic Fundamentalism, Paladin Books (London, England), 1988.

The Longest War: The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict, Grafton Books (London, England), 1989, Routledge (New York, NY), 1991.

Holy Wars: The Rise of Islamic Fundamentalism, Rout-ledge (New York, NY), 1989.

Desert Shield to Desert Storm: The Second Gulf War, Routledge (New York, NY), 1992.

Lebanon: Fire, and Embers: A History of the Lebanese Civil War, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1993.

Between Marx and Muhammad: The Changing Face of Central Asia, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1994.

The Middle East, Oryx Press (Phoenix, AZ), 1996.

Dictionary of the Middle East, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1996, revised and updated, published as The Essential Middle East: A Comprehensive Guide, Carroll & Graf (New York, NY), 2003.

Sharing the Promised Land: An Interwoven Tale of Israelis and Palestinians, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1996, also published as Sharing the Promised Land: A Tale of the Israelis and Palestinians, Olive Branch Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Neighbors, Not Friends: Iraq and Iran after the Gulf Wars, Routledge (New York, NY), 2001.

War without End: The Rise of Islamist Terrorism and the Global Response, Routledge (New York, NY), 2002.

Iraq: In the Eye of the Storm, Thunder's Mouth Press/Nation Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Secrets and Lies: Operation 'Iraqi Freedom' and After, Nation Books (New York, NY), 2004.

The Iranian Labyrinth: Journeys through Theocratic Iran and Its Furies, Nation Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Iran, Politico's (London, England), 2006.

PLAYS

To Anchor a Cloud: A Play in Three Acts (first produced in London at Collegiate Theatre, 1970), Writers Workshop (Calcutta, India), 1972.

Apply, Apply, No Reply (television play), first broadcast by British Broadcasting Corp. Television (BBC-TV), 1976.

A Matter of Honor (television play), first broadcast by Granada Television, 1976.

A Clean Break: A Play in One Act, first produced in London at Ravi Shankar Hall, 1977.

Two One-Act Plays: "Apply, Apply, No Reply" and "A Clean Break," Writers Workshop (Calcutta, India), 1978.

Three Plays, Madison Books (Lanham, MD), 1987.

OTHER

A Triangular View (novel), Dobson (London, England), 1969.

Interior, Exchange, Exterior (poems), Writers Workshop (Calcutta, India), 1980.

Also author of A Private Enterprise (a feature film), 1975, and Video Wicked (a multimedia show produced in London at Half Moon Theatre, 1985). Author of scripts for the television series Parosi, 1977–78. Contributor to books, including Makers of Nineteenth-Century Culture: A Biographical Dictionary, edited by Justin Wintle, Routledge, 1983; The Gulf War Reader, edited by Micah L. Sifry and Christopher Cerf, Times Books (New York, NY), 1991; Iran and the Arab World, edited by Hooshang Amirahmadi and Nader Entessar, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1993; and India: A Concise History, Francis Watson, Thames & Hudson (New York, NY), 2002. Editor of Babur Nama: Journal of Emperor Babur; contributor to magazines and newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Middle East Report, Nation, and the Times Literary Supplement.

SIDELIGHTS: Dilip Hiro is a well-known author, journalist, and commentator who has been an observer of the Middle East and Islamic affairs for more than twenty years. Although he is also a playwright, novelist, and poet, he is best known for his works of political analysis, particularly his trio of books on relations between Iran and Iraq—The Longest War: The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict, Desert Shield to Desert Storm: The Second Gulf War, and Neighbors, Not Friends: Iraq and Iran after the Gulf Wars. Hiro explicates the centuries-old antagonism between these neighboring countries and details the complex causes and consequences of their modern-day conflicts.

In Neighbors, Not Friends, Hiro picks up the history of Iran-Iraq relations after 1991. As Fred Halliday pointed out in his New Statesman review of the book: "Hiro is a veteran observer of the Middle East and one of the few specialists who have good access in both states." Nader Entessar, writing in Library Journal, observed that Neighbors, Not Friends combines Hiro's "firsthand information with a keen sense of political knowledge of the region to give us an informed, objective, and up-to-date analysis of political developments" in these key Gulf states. Writing in the London Sunday Times, Justin Wintle found that Neighbors, Not Friends has made an "enormous contribution to our understanding of geopolitics." Hiro is "a model political analyst," Wintle wrote. "His approach is as incorrigibly nonpartisan as it is methodical." He added: "He reconstructs a blow-by-blow account of events as they unfold, culled from a wide array of published, media and personal sources, with structural, cultural and biographical glosses given only as required by his narrative."

Hiro's book War without End: The Rise of Islamist Terrorism and the Global Response begins with a history of Islam as religion and as sociopolitical ideology, the author examines various Islamist movements that have thrived in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan—culminating in the rise of the Taliban—and the history of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaida network. Marcia L. Sprules, writing in the Library Journal, noted: "Recommended as good historical … background on … developments in the 'war on terror.'"

In his book Iraq: In the Eye of the Storm, which was published prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Hiro discusses how sanctions have affected the Iraqi people and also delves into such issues as the U.N. inspection efforts and U.S. attempts to manipulate them. "Those who blithely approach war with Iraq and see only positive effects would do well to read this book," wrote Jay Freeman in Booklist. Secrets and Lies: Operation 'Iraqi Freedom' and After focuses on the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States and its immediate aftermath. Writing in Booklist, Jay Freeman referred to the book as "often riveting." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists contributor Walter C. Uhler called Secrets and Lies "exceptional."

Hiro turns his attention to Iran with The Iranian Labyrinth: Journeys through Theocratic Iran and Its Furies. The book examines the history of Iran and the modern changes within the country beginning with the Iranian Revolution of 1979. He also discusses a divide that exists within Iranian society concerning religion, Western culture, and democracy. "Punctuated by people-on-the-street interviews that reveal a breadth of popular opinion in Iran, Hiro's portrait makes for provocative reading," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Writing in the Progressive, Amitabh Pal referred to the book as "a good primer about Iran." Pal also noted that the author "does some invaluable class analysis of the forces behind the Iranian revolution."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 1996, review of Dictionary of the Middle East, p. 164; February 15, 2003, Jay Freeman, review of Iraq: in the Eye of the Storm, p. 1036; January 1, 2004, Jay Freeman, review of Secrets and Lies: Operation 'Iraqi Freedom' and After, p. 815.

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, September-October, 2004, Walter C. Uhler, review of Secrets and Lies, p. 63.

Choice, April, 2000, Don Peretz, review of Sharing the Promised Land: A Tale of the Israelis and Palestinians, p. 1540.

Contemporary Review, January, 1994, Esmond Wright, review of Lebanon: Fire and Embers, A History of the Lebanese Civil War, p. 49; June, 1994, Leo Muray, review of Between Marx and Muhammad: The Changing Face of Central Asia, p. 328.

Economist, March 19, 1994, review of Between Marx and Muhammad, p. 105; July 20, 1996, review of Dictionary of the Middle East, p. S10.

Foreign Affairs, November-December, 1993, William B. Quandt, review of Lebanon, p. 178.

Insight on the News, September 7, 1992, Michael Hedges, review of Desert Shield to Desert Storm: The Second Gulf War, p. 21.

Journal of International Affairs, winter, 1993, Duke De Luca, review of Desert Shield to Desert Storm, pp. 570-575.

Journal of Palestine Studies, autumn, 2000, Don Peretz, review of Sharing the Promised Land, p. 106.

Journal of Third World Studies, fall, 2001, A.Z. Hilali, review of Dictionary of the Middle East, pp. 321-324.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2002, review of Iraq, p. 1822; May 1, 2005, review of The Iranian Labyrinth: Journeys through Theocratic Iran and Its Furies, p. 524.

Library Journal, September 1, 1999, Nader Entessar, review of Sharing the Promised Land, p. 216; June 15, 2001, Nader Entessar, review of Neighbors, Not Friends: Iraq and Iran after the Gulf Wars, p. 90; November 1, 2002, Marcia L. Sprules, review of War without End: The Rise of Islamist Terrorism and the Global Response, p. 109; March 1, 2003, Nader Entessar, review of Iraq, p. 105.

MELA Notes, spring, 1997, Christof Galli, review of Dictionary of the Middle East.

Middle East, June, 1993, review of Lebanon, p. 39; March, 2003, Fred Rhodes, review of War without End, p. 64; April, 2003, Fred Rhodes, review of Iraq, p. 64.

Middle East Journal, summer, 1998, review of Dictionary of the Middle East, p. 476; winter, 2003, Sam Brannen, review of War without End, p. 177; spring, 2003, Sam Brannen, review of Iraq, p. 359; autumn, 2005, Abbas William Samii, review of The Iranian Labyrinth, p. 672.

Middle East Policy, winter, 2005, John W. Sutherlin, review of The Iranian Labyrinth, p. 187.

National Observer-Australia and World Affairs, winter, 2004, R.M. Pearce, review of Iraq, p. 71.

New Statesman, August 8, 1997; June 25, 2001, Fred Halliday, "Oiling Up the West," review of Neighbors, Not Friends, p. 55.

New Statesman and Society, April 15, 1994, Robert Shannan Peckham, review of Between Marx and Muhammad, p. 39.

Progressive, March, 2006, Amitabh Pal, review of The Iranian Labyrinth, p. 48.

Publishers Weekly, August 4, 2003, review of The Essential Middle East: A Comprehensive Guide, p. 67.

Shofar, spring, 2004, review of The Essential Middle East, p. 202.

Sunday Times (London, England), July 15, 2001, Justin Wintle, "Realpolitik in the Middle East," review of Neighbors, Not Friends, p. 43.

Tikkun, July-August, 2005, review of The Iranian Labyrinth, p. 81.

Washington Monthly, November, 1985, Gordon Ray-field, review of Iran under the Ayatollahs, p. 59.

Washington Report, September, 1998, Richard H. Curtiss, review of Dictionary of the Middle East.