Rubin, Barry 1950- (Barry M. Rubin)

PERSONAL:

Born January 28, 1950, in Washington, DC; married Judith Colp (a writer). Education: Richmond College of the City University of New York (now College of Staten Island of the City University of New York), B.A. (magna cum laude), 1972; Rutgers University, M.A., 1974; Georgetown University, Ph.D., 1977.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), P.O. Box 167, Herzliya 46150, Israel; fax: 972-9-960-2736. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Georgetown University, Washington, DC, research fellow in Middle East studies at Center for Strategic and International Studies, beginning 1978; professorial lecturer in School of Foreign Service, 1978; Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, professor of political science, 1995-96; Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel, director of Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, senior fellow of International Center for Counterterrorist Policy, and research director of Lauder School, 2001—. Deputy Director of BESA Center for Strategic Studies, 1994-2002. Instructor in history at Frederick Community College, fall, 1976, and at Anne Arundel Community College, spring, 1977. Visiting professor, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, 1983, and Middle East Technical University, 1995. Visiting fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2007.

MEMBER:

Society for Iranian Studies, American Historical Association, Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations, Middle East Studies Association, Middle East Institute, Israel Studies Association (vice president).

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Defense Foreign Language fellow, 1977; World Press Freedom Committee grant, 1978-79; writers' grant for research in Africa from German Marshall Fund, 1980; state department grant, 1982; defense department grant, 1982; Fulbright fellow; Foreign Relations/National Endowment for the Humanities International Affairs fellow; grants from the U.S. Institute of Peace, Guggenheim Foundation, and Leonard Davis Center; senior fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Johns Hopkins University Foreign Policy Institutes, and Georgetown University Center for Strategic and International Studies.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

International News and the American Media, Sage Publications (Beverly Hills, CA), 1977.

How Others Report Us: America in the Foreign Press, Sage Publications (Beverly Hills, CA), 1979.

(Editor, with Elizabeth P. Spiro) Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy, foreword by Muriel S. Humphrey, Westview (Boulder, CO), 1979.

(Editor, with Walter Laqueur) The Human Rights Reader, New American Library (New York, NY), 1979, revised edition, 1990.

The Great Powers in the Middle East, 1941-1947: The Road to Cold War, Cass & Co. (London, England), 1980.

Paved with Good Intentions: Iran and the American Experience, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1980.

The Arab States and the Palestinian Conflict, Syracuse University Press (Syracuse, NY), 1981.

(Editor, with Walter Laqueur) The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict, 4th edition, Facts on File Publications (New York, NY), 1985, 6th edition, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Secrets of State: The State Department and the Struggle over U.S. Foreign Policy, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1985.

Modern Dictators: Third World Coup Makers, Strongmen, and Populist Tyrants, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1987.

(With Robert S. Leiken) The Central American Crisis Reader, Summit Books (New York, NY), 1987.

Istanbul Intrigues, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1988.

(Editor) The Politics of Terrorism: Terror as a State and Revolutionary Strategy, Johns Hopkins University (Washington, DC), distributed by University Press of America, 1989.

The PLO's New Policy: Evolution until Victory?, Washington Institute for Near East Policy (Washington, DC), 1989.

(Editor) The Politics of Counterterrorism: The Ordeal of Democratic States, Johns Hopkins University (Washington, DC), distributed by University Press of America, 1990.

Islamic Fundamentalism in Egyptian Politics, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1990, updated edition, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2002.

(Editor) Terrorism and Politics, St. Martin's Press in association with the Johns Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute (New York, NY), 1991.

(Editor, with others) Gulfwatch Anthology: August 30, 1990-March 28, 1991; the Day-by-day Analysis of the Gulf Crisis by the Scholars and Associates of the Washington Institute, Washington Institute for Near East Policy (Washington, DC), 1991.

(Editor, with Ian S. Lustick) Critical Essays on Israeli Society, Politics, and Culture, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1991.

Cauldron of Turmoil: America in the Middle East, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (New York, NY), 1992.

(Editor, with Amatzia Baram) Iraq's Road to War, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1993.

The PLO—Between Anti-Zionism & Antisemitism: Background and Recent Developments, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (Jerusalem, Israel), 1993.

Radical Middle East States and U.S. Policy, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (Washington, DC), 1993.

Revolution until Victory? The Politics and History of the PLO, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1994.

(Editor, with Joseph Ginat and Moshe Ma'oz) Arab-Israeli Relations, 1973-1993, New York University Press (Washington Square, NY), 1994.

The New Middle East: Opportunities and Risks, BESA Center, Bar-Ilan University (Ramat Gan, Israel), 1995.

Assimilation and Its Discontents, Times Books, Random House (New York, NY), 1995.

A Citizen's Guide to Politics in America: How the System Works and How to Work the System, M.E. Sharpe (Armonk, NY), 1997, 2nd edition, 2000.

Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the Arab States, Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University (Ramat Gan, Israel), 1998.

The Transformation of Palestinian Politics: From Revolution to State-Building, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1999.

(Editor, with Kemal Kirisci) Turkey in World Politics: An Emerging Multiregional Power, Lynne Rienner Publishers (Boulder, CO), 2001.

(Editor, with Thomas Keaney) U.S. Allies in a Changing World, Frank Cass (Portland, OR), 2001.

(Editor) Efficient Use of Limited Water Resources: Making Israel a Model State, Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University (Ramat Gan, Israel), 2001.

The Tragedy of the Middle East, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

(Editor, with wife, Judith Colp Rubin) Anti-American Terrorism and the Middle East: A Documentary Reader, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

(Editor, with Thomas A. Keaney) Armed Forces in the Middle East: Politics and Strategy, Frank Cass (Portland, OR), 2002.

(Editor) Crisis in the Contemporary Persian Gulf, Frank Cass (Portland, OR), 2002.

(Editor, with Metin Heper) Political Parties in Turkey, Frank Cass (Portland, OR), 2002.

(Editor) Revolutionaries and Reformers: Contemporary Islamist Movements in the Middle East, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 2003.

(Editor, with Ali Çarkoğlu) Turkey and the European Union: Domestic Politics, Economic Integration, and International Dynamics, Frank Cass (Portland, OR), 2003.

(Editor, with Ziya Ōniş) The Turkish Economy in Crisis, Frank Cass (Portland, OR), 2003.

(With wife, Judith Colp Rubin) Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

(Editor, with Ali Çarkoğlu) Greek-Turkish Relations in an Era of Détente, Frank Cass (Portland, OR), 2004.

(With wife, Judith Colp Rubin) Hating America, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

(Editor, with Ali Çarkoğlu) Religion and Politics in Turkey, Routledge (New York, NY), 2006.

The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East, John Wiley and Sons (Hoboken, NJ), 2006.

(Editor) Political Islam: Critical Concepts in Islamic Studies, Routledge (New York, NY), 2007.

Chronologies of Modern Terrorism, M.E. Sharpe (Armonk, NY), 2007.

The Iranian Revolution and the Resurgence of Islam, Mason Crest Publishers (Philadelphia, PA), 2007.

The Middle East in the Age of Uncertainty, 1991-Present, Mason Crest Publishers (Philadelphia, PA), 2007.

The Truth about Syria, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2007.

Coauthor of "Unconventional Wisdom," a weekly international affairs column. Editor, Middle East Review of International Affairs Journal, 1996—, Turkish Studies 1999—, and Covenant, 2006—; associate editor of Washington Quarterly; contributing editor and columnist for World Press Review; editorial board member for Middle East Quarterly. Contributor of more than fifty articles to magazines and scholarly journals, including Newsday, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New Republic, Middle East Journal, and Journal of Contemporary History. Regular columnist for Jerusalem Post.

SIDELIGHTS:

Barry Rubin is a scholar whose field of expertise is the Middle East. He has edited and contributed to many publications on Middle Eastern politics and history, and he is a prolific author. His books cover many aspects of Middle Eastern affairs, including a biography of Yasir Arafat, writings on the Palestine Liberation Organization, The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East, The Iranian Revolution and the Resurgence of Islam, and Hating America: A History, which examines the way the United States has been perceived by other nations throughout history.

In his book Paved with Good Intentions: Iran and the American Experience, Rubin provides a summary of the role of the United States in Iran from 1947 to 1980. The first half of the book details U.S. relations with the regime of Mohammed Riza Pahlevi, the Shah of Iran, and centers on the issue of Iranian military spending. American involvement with the Shah began in 1947, when the leader requested funds for the establishment of a large independent Iranian army to discourage Soviet advances in the area. The United States supplied 1.8 billion dollars in military aid to Iran over the next twenty years, simultaneously pressuring the Shah to cut back on military expenditures and to make necessary economic and social reforms in his country. The turning point in the relationship, Rubin contends, came in 1969, when the Nixon administration announced that Iran was "the key pillar of support for American interests in the Persian Gulf" and stopped American demands for reform. In his New York Times Book Review critique, Daniel Pipes noted, "Mr. Rubin argues that by allowing the Shah to make Iran into a major regional power, the United States lost control over him; quite the opposite of what his domestic foes claim, the Shah's enormous military expenditures gave him wide economic and strategic leverage over the United States." The consequences of the Nixon policy shift were extremely important to American-Iranian relations over the next decade; the Shah's 1971 push for increased oil prices to fund further expansion of his arsenal was unopposed by the United States and resulted in both economic hardship for Iranian citizens and the oil price spiral we acknowledge to this day, says Rubin.

The second half of the work focuses on American-Iranian relations since 1978 and offers, in Pipes's estimation, "the finest analysis of the Islamic revolution yet in print." He added: "No summary can do justice to Mr. Rubin's skillful and subtle interpretation of the extraordinary events of the past two-and-a-half years in Iran." Rubin suggests that for years "all sides have tended to exaggerate the importance of American actions and decisions on events in Iran." He maintains that Islamic radicals, convinced beyond all doubt that American interests would be forever tied to the Shah, viewed all conciliation attempts on the part of the U.S. as posturing meant to cover a counterrevolutionary plot. The Iranians took American hostages to prevent the loss of national independence they feared might occur after a normalization of relations between the two countries.

Scott Armstrong judged Paved with Good Intentions "an extremely readable, up-to-date, and balanced study which is also a unique combination of scholarship and reporting," in his Washington Post Book World review. In a South Atlantic Quarterly article, Bruce R. Kuniholm stated: "No one up to now has delineated the recent history of U.S.-Iranian relations with much clarity, insight, and … fair-minded judgment." A Critic reviewer assessed, "In what is probably the most objective and comprehensive study yet published, Barry Rubin shows how American ignorance of Iranian culture and politics … led to disaster."

Iraq's Road to War, which Rubin coedited with Amatzia Baram, is a collection of papers that were originally presented in 1991 at a conference sponsored by the University of Haifa's Jewish-Arab Center. There are eighteen articles, nine of them focusing on the events and political dynamics that led to the Persian Gulf War. The other half of the book explores Iraq's relations with other countries and political organizations, such as the Palestine Liberation Organization. It is a "scholarly" book offering "comprehensive analysis," reported a Publishers Weekly writer.

Revolution until Victory: The Politics and History of the PLO provides "an excellent start toward understanding the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)," according to reviewer Youssef H. Aboul-Enein in Aerospace Power Journal. For decades, for the most part under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, the PLO has influenced politics in the Middle East, forming and dissolving alliances with various other political groups and nations. Aboul-Enein advised that "Rubin's work is a must read for Middle East specialists or anyone with an interest in the region." The book was also recommended by Robert E. Harkavy in Political Science Quarterly, where he called it "an excellent and timely analytical political history of the Palestine Liberation Organization" and declared that "it provides the reader a vivid portrayal of the seemingly endless twistings and turnings and reversals of PLO policies."

Rubin extended his examination of Palestinian history in his book The Transformation of Palestinian Politics: From Revolution to State-Building, published in 1999. In the preface to the text, the author announces his support for a Palestinian state, and in his book, he closely examines the years between 1993 and 1999, when significant progress was made toward statehood, though it was not ultimately achieved. Several reviewers noted the difficulty of writing history when it is still in the process of unfolding; Scott D. Johnston, in Perspectives on Political Science, commented that, although the author's cautiously optimistic predictions for Palestine had not yet been fulfilled, the book is nevertheless "an outstanding, objective, and well-balanced study." It is "a well-documented, objective and generally sympathetic account" of a transitional time, stated Philip Wilcox in Middle East Policy.

Rubin and his wife, Judith Colp Rubin, later wrote a book focusing wholly on the PLO's longtime leader, Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography. In portraying Arafat and his propensity for violence, the authors "evince abhorrence" of their subject, according to C.J. Krisinger in the Naval War College Review. "Among other traits, in the Rubins' view, he is petty, arrogant, megalomaniacal, and disingenuous. The Rubins carefully place evidential anecdotes to support their portrayal." Krisinger concluded that the book is "impressively documented." The Rubins' biography was also praised by David Pryce-Jones in Commentary; he described it as "a very complete account of serial miscalculations and of the inability or unwillingness to learn from them."

Rubin's The Tragedy of the Middle East is a "brilliant but maddening book about one of the most contentious, controversial, and important topics in all of contemporary international politics: what is the matter with the Arabs?" wrote Adam Garfinkle in Middle East Quarterly. Garfinkle agreed with Rubin's analysis of the current state of Arab politics and the reasons for its dysfunction. He found favor with the author's use of historical material to illustrate the contemporary situation but faulted the book for lack of detail in certain areas and for its author's failure to suggest solutions to problems in the Arab political world.

In 2006, Rubin published The Long War for Freedom, an analysis of the Arab countries' attempts to move away from dictatorships to democratic government. The book serves as a follow-up to The Tragedy of the Middle East. Dictatorships continue to thrive "through a mix of techniques, including repression and corruption, the use of anti-Americanism and anti-Israel rhetoric, playing ethnic politics, and other methods," Rubin stated in an interview with Jamie Glazov in FrontPage. The main opposition to the dictators have been the radical Islamists "who in a sense have the same basic world view. They simply want to substitute Islamism for Arab nationalism," observed Rubin. True liberals have been a very weak third force in the political scene. Rubin predicts a protracted struggle between these three groups in the Arab world, which will prove to be "the greatest political drama of our time."

Rubin and his wife Judith collaborated again on the book Hating America. In this volume, the coauthors use nine chapters to describe various episodes of loathing toward America as expressed by other countries, including England and the Arab nations. A Publishers Weekly reviewer found the book somewhat lightweight, but nevertheless said that it "provides entertaining glimpses of a nation that may have invented public relations to combat is own image problem."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Air & Space Power Journal, June 22, 2001, Lt. Youssef H. Aboul-Enein, review of Revolution until Victory? The Politics and History of the PLO, p. 122; September 22, 2002, Youssef H. Aboul-Enein, review of U.S. Allies in a Changing World, p. 121.

Australian Journal of Political Science, November 1, 1997, Jacinta Sanders, review of Revolution until Victory?, p. 485.

Booklist, March 15, 1995, Aaron Cohen, review of Assimilation and Its Discontents, p. 1291; November 15, 2004, Vernon Ford, review of Hating America: A History, p. 550.

Commentary, January 1, 2004, "The Eliminationist," p. 58.

Critic, February 1, 1981, review of Paved with Good Intentions: Iran and the American Experience, p. 8.

Historian, January 1, 1994, Ylana N. Miller, review of Revolution until Victory?, p. 374; December 22, 2002, Mary Ann Heiss, review of U.S. Allies in a Changing World, p. 456; March 22, 2006, Dominick Cavallo, review of Hating America, p. 201.

Middle East, December 1, 2007, Fred Rhodes, review of The Truth about Syria, p. 64.

Middle East Journal, June 22, 2000, Glenn E. Robinson, review of The Transformation of Palestinian Politics: From Revolution to State-Building, p. 477; March 22, 2003, Sam Brannen, review of Crisis in the Contemporary Persian Gulf, p. 363; March 22, 2003, Burcu Islam, review of Islamic Fundamentalism in Egyptian Politics, p. 358; September 22, 2003, review of Revolutionaries and Reformers: Contemporary Islamist Movements in the Middle East, p. 704; September 22, 2003, review of Turkey and the European Union: Domestic Politics, Economic Integration, and International Dynamics, p. 700; January 1, 2004, review of Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography, p. 164; September 22, 2007, Daniel Belkin, review of The Truth about Syria, p. 751.

Middle East Policy, June 1, 2000, Guilain Denoeux, review of The Transformation of Palestinian Politics, p. 183; March 1, 2002, Philip Wilcox, review of The Transformation of Palestinian Politics, p. 158.

Middle East Quarterly, January 1, 2003, Jonathan Schanzer, review of Anti-American Terrorism and the Middle East: A Documentary Reader, p. 85; June 22, 2003, Sabri Sayari, review of Political Parties in Turkey, p. 93; January 1, 2004, Adam Garfinkle, review of The Tragedy of the Middle East, p. 90; June 22, 2004, Moshe Dann, review of Yasir Arafat, p. 94.

Middle Eastern Studies, April 1, 1995, Liora Lukitz, review of Iraq's Road to War, p. 387; January 1, 2003, Matthew Hughes, review of Armed Forces in the Middle East: Politics and Strategy, p. 210.

Military Review, January 1, 2004, Matthew J. Morgan, review of Anti-American Terrorism and the Middle East, p. 87.

Naval War College Review, March 22, 2004, C.J. Krisinger, review of Yasir Arafat, p. 188.

New York Times Book Review, November 2, 1980, Daniel Pipes, review of Paved with Good Intentions, p. 15; May 26, 1985, Christopher A. Kojm, review of Secrets of State: The State Department and the Struggle over U.S. Foreign Policy, p. 15; April 5, 1987, Bernard D. Nossiter, review of Modern Dictators: Third World Coup Makers, Strongmen, and Populist Tyrants, p. 17; October 22, 1989, Malcolm Browne, review of Istanbul Intrigues, p. 23.

Perspectives on Political Science, March 22, 1998, James Witt, review of A Citizen's Guide to Politics in America: How the System Works and How to Work the System, p. 99; March 22, 2001, Scott D. Johnston, review of The Transformation of Palestinian Politics, p. 115; September 22, 2004, Rolin Mainuddin, review of The Tragedy of the Middle East, p. 240.

Political Science Quarterly, December 22, 1994, Robert E. Harkavy, review of Revolution until Victory?, p. 937.

Publishers Weekly, September 7, 1992, review of Cauldron of Turmoil: America in the Middle East, p. 87; November 29, 1993, review of Iraq's Road to War, p. 49; January 30, 1995, "Assimilations and Its Discontents," p. 92; August 16, 2004, review of Hating America, p. 55.

Reference & Research Book News, November 1, 2006, review of Religion and Politics in Turkey.

Shofar, September 22, 2000, Donna Robinson Divine, "Deconstructing Post-Zionism," p. 129; January 1, 2001, Donna Robinson Divine, review of The Transformation of Palestinian Politics, p. 129.

South Atlantic Quarterly, summer, 1981, Bruce R. Kuniholm, review of Paved with Good Intentions, p. 360.

Washington Post Book World, November 23, 1980, Scott Armstrong, review of Paved with Good Intentions, p. 5; May 19, 1985, review of Secrets of State, p. 4; May 3, 1987, review of Modern Dictators, p. 4.

ONLINE

Foreign Affairs,http://www.foreignaffairs.org/ (May/June, 2003), L. Carl Brown, review of The Tragedy of the Middle East.

FrontPage,http://www.frontpagemag.co/ (November 23, 2005), Jamie Glazov, review of The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East.

Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center Web site,http://www.gloriacenter.org/ (May 2, 2008), biographical information about Barry Rubin.

Middle East Forum,http://meforum.org/ (September, 1994), Daniel Pipes, review of Revolution until Victory?; (summer, 2004), Moshe Dann, review of Yasir Arafat; (winter, 2004), Adam Garfinkle, review of The Tragedy of the Middle East.

Middle East Review of International Affairs,http://meria.idc.ac.il/ (May 2, 2008), biographical information about Barry Rubin.