Middle East Journal

Middle East Journal
Abbreviated title (ISO)	MEJ
Discipline	International Affairs
Language	English
Edited by	Michael Collins Dunn
Publication details
Publisher	Middle East Institute (United States)
Frequency	Quarterly
Indexing
ISSN	0026-3141
Links
Journal homepage Electronic archive (since 2004) Open-access 1-year embargo archive

The Middle East Journal (MEJ) is published by the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Institute. It was first published in 1947, making it the oldest U.S. peer-reviewed publication on the modern Middle East. The Journal is published quarterly and carries analysis of political, economic, and social developments and historical events in North Africa, the Middle East, Caucasus, and Central Asia. Each issue features articles from scholars on the Middle East, as well as book reviews and a chronology of regional events organized by issue and country for each quarter. Like the Middle East Institute, the Journal does not take policy positions and features authors writing from across the political spectrum and around the world.

History

The Middle East Institute (MEI) was founded in 1946 in Washington, DC by a group of diplomats and scholars who aimed to promote the study of the region in a modern, policy-relevant context. From its outset, one of MEI's priorities was "[t]he editing and publishing of an authoritative journal on Middle Eastern affairs."^[1] Accordingly, the first issue of the Journal appeared in January 1947. In its "Editorial Foreword", the following mission for the new publication appeared:

Even though the American people may be suffering from a surfeit of periodical publications, no apology need be offered for adding a quarterly journal relating to the Middle East. Except to a very few Americans - Foreign Service and Army officers, educators, businessmen, travelers - this area is essentially terra incognita. Such a circumstance was a matter of no great practical consequence when the world was large and only loosely knit together. Now that the Middle East is very near the United States in point of time-distance and almost equally near with respect to matters of concern in American foreign policy, it deserves such thoughtful attention as can be initiated and encouraged through the pages of The Middle East Journal.^[2]

In its earlier years, the Journal covered regional issues and history in the 19th and 20th centuries; in the 1980s, however, the Journal would restrict its coverage to the post-World War II era. The Journal publishes articles from a range of disciplines, including political science, history, sociology, anthropology, economics, among others.

Contributors

The Journal has published leading scholars and policy-makers throughout its history, including: Aaron Miller, Afif Tannous, Akbar S. Ahmed, Albert Hourani, Ayatollah Ali Montazeri, Amatzia Baram, Bassam Tibi, Benny Morris, Bernard Lewis, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, C. Ernest Dawn, Cecil Hourani, Charles Issawi, Constantinte Zurayk, Don Peretz, Donald Wilber, Elizabeth Warnock Fernea, Elizabeth Monroe, Ernest Gellner, Fawaz Gerges, Gary Sick, George Hourani, George Lenczowski, George Rentz, Harry St. John Bridger Philby, Hanna Batatu, Iliya Harik, Irene Gendziher, J. Heyworth-Dunne, Jahangir Amuzegar, James Bill, J.C. Hurewitz, Jimmy Carter, John Esposito, Juan Cole, Kemal Derviş, Kemal Karpat, Kermit Roosevelt, L. Carl Brown, Lee H. Hamilton, Leonard Binder, Louis Dupree, L.P. Elwell-Sutton, Majid Khadduri, Malcolm Kerr, Moshe Ma'oz, Musa Alami, Nikki Keddie, Olivier Roy, Pierre Salinger, P.M. Holt, R.K. Ramazani, Raphael Patai, Rashid Khalidi, Richard Pipes, Roderic Davidson, Rom Landau, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Serif Mardin, Shibley Telhami, Süleyman Demirel, Walter Laqueur, William B. Quandt, and Ze'ev Schiff.

Masthead (Present and Past)

• Editor: Michael Collins Dunn (present), Mary-Jane Deeb, Eric Hooglund, Christopher Van Hollen, Jean Newsom, Richard B. Parker, William Sands, Harvey Hall
• Managing Editor: Aaron Reese (present), Adam Mendelson, Jennifer McElhinny, Amged Soliman
• Book Review Editor: John Calabrese (present), Sana Abed-Kotob, Steven Glazer
• Assistant Editor: Rachel Wilson (present), Peter B. White, Julia Voelker, Talal Belrhiti
• Publications Assistant: Nancy C. Wood (present)
• Circulation Assistant: Aaron Reese, Lisa Jacqueline Barr
• Board of Advisory Editors: Jon Alterman, Muriel A. Atkin, Shaul Bakhash, Henri Barkey, Helena Cobban, Mary-Jane Deeb, Graham E. Fuller, Edmund Ghareeb, Phebe Marr, John Moore, Jean C. Newsom, Richard B. Parker, Don Peretz, R.K. Ramazani, Bernard Reich, Sabri Sayari, Gary Sick, Barbara Slavin, Barbara Stowasser, and George N. Attiyeh (Emeritus).

The Middle East Journal is indexed in ABC POL SCI, A Bibliography of Contents: Political Science and Government, CrossRef, Current Contents: Social and Behavioral Sciences, EBSCO, JSTOR, Middle East: Abstracts and Index, PAIS International in Print, Quarterly Index Islamicus, Social Sciences Index, and United States Political Science Documents. Book reviews are indexed in Book Review Digest and Book Review Index. Articles are abstracted in Historical Abstracts and International Political Science Abstracts. The Middle East Journal is also available on University Microfile (Proquest).

References

1. ^ "Note on the Middle East Institute", The Middle East Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1 (January 1947), p. 123.
2. ^ "Editorial Foreword," The Middle East Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1 (January 1947), p. 1.