The published literature on the topic of “Authoritarianism, Civil Society, and Democracy in the Middle East” is extensive and unwieldy. Partly due to space constraints, we propose to review the topic under six framing questions and then provide a selected and representative bibliography at the end.

The ideas of political reform and democracy are often the mainstay of debates within Middle Eastern polities. In general, there is ample awareness of democracy deficit and poor governance in the region. Democracy refers most basically to the ability of citizens to hold their governments accountable, and to change their political leaders at regular intervals. Instead, accountability to the public is generally weak in the region, and rulers are more likely to change as a result of actuarial realities than a withdrawal of public confidence.

In September 2002, an article I had authored, “Iraq's Security and Intelligence Network: A Guide and Analysis,” was published in the September 2002 issue of the journal, Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA). On February 6, 2003 a UK news report revealed that entire sections of a British government dossier entitled “Iraq-Its Infrastructure of Concealment, Deception and Intimidation” were copied from three published sources, with the bulk of the plagiarized material coming from the article I had written. I was a twenty-nine year old doctoral student when the media frenzy that surrounded this incident erupted, six weeks prior to the 2003 Iraq War. I, as an Iraqi-American, had to watch as both sides opposite my hyphen waged a war against each other that I had an indirect role in justifying.

In the past, the majlis or dıwanıyah a sitting room used for socializing in many Gulf homes, was often a place of music-making. In recent years, however, the ‘ud, duff, and tabl have been supplanted by satellite TV, Wi-Fi Internet connections, and video game consoles. Other long-established music-making contexts in the Gulf have also disappeared, particularly songs associated with maritime occupations that were such an intrinsic part of life in the recent past. Some of these songs were performed as accompaniments to tasks on ships, such as pulling up the anchor or setting the sail, whereas others were songs of supplication, asking God for protection from the perils of the seas (Al-Taee 2005). Traditional music in the region has also suffered from the breakdown of original patronage systems, as wealthy merchants now seek to invest in skyscrapers and artificially created islands rather than support musical ensembles. With the disappearance of these traditional music-making contexts and support networks, mass media has increasingly become the primary mode of experiencing music, both old and new, in the region.

The 2005 UNAIDS/WHO Epidemic Update reports that the number of people living with HIV last year worldwide was 40.3 million (1). In 2005, approximately 3.2 million people became newly infected by HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa, the region of the world that is considered the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic (2).

Although the rates of HIV are much less in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) than in Sub-Saharan Africa, some experts believe that without appropriate implementation of surveillance and prevention services, the epidemic will spread to the general population (3). Reportedly, 67,000 people in MENA became infected with HIV in 2005; there are approximately 510,000 people living with HIV in the region (2). Because of cultural and social taboos surrounding the discussion of the acquisition of HIV around the world in general, and in MENA in particular, it is difficult to develop a clear representation of HIV's presence and risk in countries in the Middle East. Based on the information that is available, the main mode of transmission of HIV is sexual contact, with injecting drug use recognized as the second mode of increasing prevalence (2). Without sufficient implementation of surveillance in the region, however, estimated rates of infection may indeed be lower than the actual number of people infected with HIV (4).