Sanford R Silverburg - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Sanford R Silverburg

Research paper thumbnail of The Contemporary Middle East

International Relations, Oct 30, 2019

As historic issues continue to fester, historical controversies resurface with renewed intensity,... more As historic issues continue to fester, historical controversies resurface with renewed intensity, and new threats to global security arise, the contemporary Middle East remains a hotbed of activity and the epicenter of international attention. Even as the “Arab Spring” has transformed the complexion of the region, reoccurring issues such as the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Sunni-Shia divide still languish. Civil wars in Syria and Yemen convulse the area, Iraq struggles to reconstitute itself, and Iran moves ominously into the nuclear age. Islamic fundamentalism, terrorism, internecine conflict, and civil war have made the area a veritable crucible that has jeopardized regional stability and resurrected superpower rivalries.

Research paper thumbnail of Modern History and Politics-Flight of the Lavi: Inside a U.S.-Israeli Crisis

Middle East Journal, Oct 1, 1997

Flight of the Lavi: Inside a U.S.-Israeli Crisis, by Dov S. Zakheim. Washington, DC and London: B... more Flight of the Lavi: Inside a U.S.-Israeli Crisis, by Dov S. Zakheim. Washington, DC and London: Brassey's, 1996. xvii + 258 pages. Notes to p. 267. Index to p. 276. About the author to p. 277. $25.95. Although there exists a "special relationship" between the United States and Israel, absolute agreement between the two is, by the very nature of international relations, entirely unrealistic. Exemplifying the oscillating nature of negotiations between the United States and Israel is the Flight of the Lavi, a personal memoir of a mid-level American bureaucrat with the Department of Defense (DoD) who comments on the US decision to put pressure on the Israeli political and military establishment to halt production of a jet aircraft. Early in 1980, the Israelis approached the United States to co-produce an attack fighter aircraft that would enhance the Israeli air defense capability. The Israeli financial contribution, they anticipated, would be fulfilled by diverting some of Israel's Foreign Military Sales (FMS) credits to the project. The United States, in an attempt to protect a segment of its national economy, sought to persuade the Israelis to purchase stock equipment or a customized version of a US-produced aircraft rather than allow Israel to develop independently its own military aircraft capability. When all was said and done, however, the plane ended up deserving an American trademark since almost the entire aircraft resulted from American technology and manufacture. The core issue here, namely, technology transfer between allies, was complicated by the financial factor. While weaponry's principal use is functional, this is not the only consideration in its development. Other considerations include usefulness, integration into a defense arsenal and, perhaps more importantly, the expense involved in the system's development and its impact on the national economy. The author, Dov S. Zakheim, was placed in charge of a study group that examined the feasibility of the proposed aircraft, named Lavi (Hebrew for lion cub). After a careful review, Zakheim opposed the Israeli plan. While the book discloses a great deal of the on-going political battles both in the United States and Israel regarding the aircraft, it gives little detailed information about the substance of the author's opposition to the project, technical or otherwise, aside from a cost-effectiveness perspective. Even his boss, Fred Ikle, US undersecretary of defense, sought an analytic basis for opposition, which, admittedly, the Israelis made difficult to obtain. The author also discusses the pressures leveled on him and his family. Since he is an Orthodox Jew, his public position in opposition to something the Israelis wanted was viewed by some as a form of ethnic treason. …

Research paper thumbnail of The Open Veins of Jerusalem: Munir Akash, with Fouad Moughrabi, eds

Digest of Middle East Studies, Oct 1, 2006

Research paper thumbnail of The Middle East and the Western Alliance. Edited by Spiegel Steven L.. (Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1982. Pp. 252. $28.50.)

American Political Science Review, Jun 1, 1983

Research paper thumbnail of The Palestinians: The Road to Nationhood: David McDowall

Digest of Middle East Studies, Oct 1, 1996

Research paper thumbnail of Negotiating Across Cultures: International Communication in an Interdependent World; Raymond Cohen

Digest of Middle East Studies, Jul 1, 1998

Research paper thumbnail of The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American-Iranian Relations.James A. Bill

The Journal of Politics, Feb 1, 1989

Research paper thumbnail of The Peace Process and Palestinian Refugee Claims: Addressing Claims for Property Compensation and Restitution: Michael R. Fischbach

Digest of Middle East Studies, Apr 1, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Adam Garfinkle, Israel and Jordan in the Shadow of War: Functional Ties and Futile Diplomacy in a Small Place; and Alasdair Drysdale and Raymond A. Hinnebusch. Syria and the Middle East Peace Process

The Journal of Conflict Studies, 1993

Research paper thumbnail of From Coexistence to Conquest: International Law and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1891-1949 (review)

Middle East Journal, 2010

led native African forces subduing other natives. The second strand of Le Clezio’s story takes up... more led native African forces subduing other natives. The second strand of Le Clezio’s story takes up with Nour’s descendant, a dreamy orphaned loner named Lalla, who spends her days roaming the Atlantic beach dunes and the periphery of the untamed inland desert on the outskirts of her shantytown abutting a nameless city in contemporary Morocco. The copper-skinned Lalla radiates a purity which draws humanity to her, particularly men. Yet it is she who willingly distances herself from society. A procession of supporting characters propels her story from Morocco to Marseilles. There, an expectant, runaway Lalla enjoys a short-lived career as a coruscating fashion model. Throughout her journey she draws upon the strength of her blue-veiled ancestors’ warrior spirit to keep her aloft during the dark hours of hunger and hardship. An ensuing tragedy drives the story to its climax, the French army’s decimation of Nour’s tribe and the violent, ecstatic birth of Lalla’s daughter at dawn, alone on her native sands. The distinction of Le Clezio’s writing resides in its appeal to the senses. As in many of his works, Desert relies more on meditation, description, and form than on plot. In the first half, wherein Le Clezio contemplates the landscape, the dazzling light, and lashing winds of the desert and the ocean, the pace is, at times, numbingly slow. Then, in the second half, a radical narrative shift occurs once Lalla disembarks in Marseilles. There, the tale’s frenzied pace mirrors the malaise of an immigrant penned-in amidst the confining urban spaces. what comes through in Le Clezio’s lucid language is the strength of the Tuaregs’ tenacious character, born of the arduous life along the Saharan caravan routes that allows them to endure in a menacing modern world. Though born in France during world war II, Le Clezio grew up in Nigeria, where his father served as a French army physician stationed in west Africa. Largely educated in post-war England and France, Le Clezio has taught or lived in venues from the United States and South Korea to Panama and Thailand. He also has long been intrigued by Mesoamerican cultures, though some of his post-Nobel republished writings on the subject have been strongly rebuked for their lack of nuanced cultural perception and outmoded research. Having sojourned among the world’s various indigenes, Le Clezio affirms in his work what he believes to be the often noble values of vanishing cultures, as well as the west’s indifference to the destruction wrought by its agencies of power. In 2008, when the Nobel Committee announced the selection of Le Clezio for the Prize, the Committee’s Permanent Secretary singled out American literature as being absorbed with its own mass culture, too “isolated and insular,” uninterested in works in translation and, in sum, unwilling to participate in the world’s literary conversation. The comments caused a brouhaha in the Republic of Letters. Then, in his acceptance speech, Le Clezio took aim at his own prosperous, literary readers in the west, highlighting the irony of writers deeply engaged in remedying the plight of the world’s outcast and poor, only to have their work be primarily read by those affluent enough to afford the price of their books. In time, Le Clezio may well yet join those few eminent authors whose books are read regularly by Americans in translation, like Mahfouz, Marquez, or the pre-Lolita Nabokov. But with its mystical, at times even hallucinatory passages and rather contrived plot, Desert is unlikely to be the signal book which causes his literary career in the United States to unfurl, carpet-like, from both ends at once.

Research paper thumbnail of Law Versus Justice in International Negotiations

Research paper thumbnail of Pale and Wan, Comatose Maybe, But Not Dead: A Response to Bleimaier

The Catholic lawyer, 2017

Research paper thumbnail of The United States and the Middle East: A Search for New Perspectives; Hooshang Amirahmadi, editor

Digest of Middle East Studies, 1993

Research paper thumbnail of Jay Rothman, From Confrontation to Cooperation: Resolving Ethnic and Regional Conflict, Violence, Cooperation, Peace: An International Series (Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1992). Pp. 261

International Journal of Middle East Studies, Feb 1, 1994

Research paper thumbnail of The Siege Qua War: From Ultimatum to Ultimatum

International Studies, 1994

... (d) It should, in “' Public Papers of George Bush, Book I, n. 2, pp. 168-70. Page 10. 78... more ... (d) It should, in “' Public Papers of George Bush, Book I, n. 2, pp. 168-70. Page 10. 78/SANFORD R. SILVERBURG cooperation with the International Red Cross, release all prisoners of war and third-country civilians it had detained. ...

Research paper thumbnail of <i>Perilous Prospects: The Peace Process and the Arab-Israeli Military Balance</i> (review)

Research paper thumbnail of The Stern Gang: Ideology, Politics and Terror 1940-1949: Joseph Heller

Digest of Middle East Studies, Oct 1, 1996

Research paper thumbnail of Law, Force and Diplomacy at Sea.Ken Booth

The Journal of Politics, Aug 1, 1986

Research paper thumbnail of The Palestinian Regime: A “Partial Democracy”: As'ad Ghanem

Digest of Middle East Studies, Apr 1, 2002

Research paper thumbnail of Party Politics in Israel and the Occupied Territories. By Kieval Gershon R.. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983. Pp. xiv + 228. $35.00.)

American Political Science Review, Dec 1, 1984

Research paper thumbnail of The Contemporary Middle East

International Relations, Oct 30, 2019

As historic issues continue to fester, historical controversies resurface with renewed intensity,... more As historic issues continue to fester, historical controversies resurface with renewed intensity, and new threats to global security arise, the contemporary Middle East remains a hotbed of activity and the epicenter of international attention. Even as the “Arab Spring” has transformed the complexion of the region, reoccurring issues such as the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Sunni-Shia divide still languish. Civil wars in Syria and Yemen convulse the area, Iraq struggles to reconstitute itself, and Iran moves ominously into the nuclear age. Islamic fundamentalism, terrorism, internecine conflict, and civil war have made the area a veritable crucible that has jeopardized regional stability and resurrected superpower rivalries.

Research paper thumbnail of Modern History and Politics-Flight of the Lavi: Inside a U.S.-Israeli Crisis

Middle East Journal, Oct 1, 1997

Flight of the Lavi: Inside a U.S.-Israeli Crisis, by Dov S. Zakheim. Washington, DC and London: B... more Flight of the Lavi: Inside a U.S.-Israeli Crisis, by Dov S. Zakheim. Washington, DC and London: Brassey's, 1996. xvii + 258 pages. Notes to p. 267. Index to p. 276. About the author to p. 277. $25.95. Although there exists a "special relationship" between the United States and Israel, absolute agreement between the two is, by the very nature of international relations, entirely unrealistic. Exemplifying the oscillating nature of negotiations between the United States and Israel is the Flight of the Lavi, a personal memoir of a mid-level American bureaucrat with the Department of Defense (DoD) who comments on the US decision to put pressure on the Israeli political and military establishment to halt production of a jet aircraft. Early in 1980, the Israelis approached the United States to co-produce an attack fighter aircraft that would enhance the Israeli air defense capability. The Israeli financial contribution, they anticipated, would be fulfilled by diverting some of Israel's Foreign Military Sales (FMS) credits to the project. The United States, in an attempt to protect a segment of its national economy, sought to persuade the Israelis to purchase stock equipment or a customized version of a US-produced aircraft rather than allow Israel to develop independently its own military aircraft capability. When all was said and done, however, the plane ended up deserving an American trademark since almost the entire aircraft resulted from American technology and manufacture. The core issue here, namely, technology transfer between allies, was complicated by the financial factor. While weaponry's principal use is functional, this is not the only consideration in its development. Other considerations include usefulness, integration into a defense arsenal and, perhaps more importantly, the expense involved in the system's development and its impact on the national economy. The author, Dov S. Zakheim, was placed in charge of a study group that examined the feasibility of the proposed aircraft, named Lavi (Hebrew for lion cub). After a careful review, Zakheim opposed the Israeli plan. While the book discloses a great deal of the on-going political battles both in the United States and Israel regarding the aircraft, it gives little detailed information about the substance of the author's opposition to the project, technical or otherwise, aside from a cost-effectiveness perspective. Even his boss, Fred Ikle, US undersecretary of defense, sought an analytic basis for opposition, which, admittedly, the Israelis made difficult to obtain. The author also discusses the pressures leveled on him and his family. Since he is an Orthodox Jew, his public position in opposition to something the Israelis wanted was viewed by some as a form of ethnic treason. …

Research paper thumbnail of The Open Veins of Jerusalem: Munir Akash, with Fouad Moughrabi, eds

Digest of Middle East Studies, Oct 1, 2006

Research paper thumbnail of The Middle East and the Western Alliance. Edited by Spiegel Steven L.. (Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1982. Pp. 252. $28.50.)

American Political Science Review, Jun 1, 1983

Research paper thumbnail of The Palestinians: The Road to Nationhood: David McDowall

Digest of Middle East Studies, Oct 1, 1996

Research paper thumbnail of Negotiating Across Cultures: International Communication in an Interdependent World; Raymond Cohen

Digest of Middle East Studies, Jul 1, 1998

Research paper thumbnail of The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American-Iranian Relations.James A. Bill

The Journal of Politics, Feb 1, 1989

Research paper thumbnail of The Peace Process and Palestinian Refugee Claims: Addressing Claims for Property Compensation and Restitution: Michael R. Fischbach

Digest of Middle East Studies, Apr 1, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Adam Garfinkle, Israel and Jordan in the Shadow of War: Functional Ties and Futile Diplomacy in a Small Place; and Alasdair Drysdale and Raymond A. Hinnebusch. Syria and the Middle East Peace Process

The Journal of Conflict Studies, 1993

Research paper thumbnail of From Coexistence to Conquest: International Law and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1891-1949 (review)

Middle East Journal, 2010

led native African forces subduing other natives. The second strand of Le Clezio’s story takes up... more led native African forces subduing other natives. The second strand of Le Clezio’s story takes up with Nour’s descendant, a dreamy orphaned loner named Lalla, who spends her days roaming the Atlantic beach dunes and the periphery of the untamed inland desert on the outskirts of her shantytown abutting a nameless city in contemporary Morocco. The copper-skinned Lalla radiates a purity which draws humanity to her, particularly men. Yet it is she who willingly distances herself from society. A procession of supporting characters propels her story from Morocco to Marseilles. There, an expectant, runaway Lalla enjoys a short-lived career as a coruscating fashion model. Throughout her journey she draws upon the strength of her blue-veiled ancestors’ warrior spirit to keep her aloft during the dark hours of hunger and hardship. An ensuing tragedy drives the story to its climax, the French army’s decimation of Nour’s tribe and the violent, ecstatic birth of Lalla’s daughter at dawn, alone on her native sands. The distinction of Le Clezio’s writing resides in its appeal to the senses. As in many of his works, Desert relies more on meditation, description, and form than on plot. In the first half, wherein Le Clezio contemplates the landscape, the dazzling light, and lashing winds of the desert and the ocean, the pace is, at times, numbingly slow. Then, in the second half, a radical narrative shift occurs once Lalla disembarks in Marseilles. There, the tale’s frenzied pace mirrors the malaise of an immigrant penned-in amidst the confining urban spaces. what comes through in Le Clezio’s lucid language is the strength of the Tuaregs’ tenacious character, born of the arduous life along the Saharan caravan routes that allows them to endure in a menacing modern world. Though born in France during world war II, Le Clezio grew up in Nigeria, where his father served as a French army physician stationed in west Africa. Largely educated in post-war England and France, Le Clezio has taught or lived in venues from the United States and South Korea to Panama and Thailand. He also has long been intrigued by Mesoamerican cultures, though some of his post-Nobel republished writings on the subject have been strongly rebuked for their lack of nuanced cultural perception and outmoded research. Having sojourned among the world’s various indigenes, Le Clezio affirms in his work what he believes to be the often noble values of vanishing cultures, as well as the west’s indifference to the destruction wrought by its agencies of power. In 2008, when the Nobel Committee announced the selection of Le Clezio for the Prize, the Committee’s Permanent Secretary singled out American literature as being absorbed with its own mass culture, too “isolated and insular,” uninterested in works in translation and, in sum, unwilling to participate in the world’s literary conversation. The comments caused a brouhaha in the Republic of Letters. Then, in his acceptance speech, Le Clezio took aim at his own prosperous, literary readers in the west, highlighting the irony of writers deeply engaged in remedying the plight of the world’s outcast and poor, only to have their work be primarily read by those affluent enough to afford the price of their books. In time, Le Clezio may well yet join those few eminent authors whose books are read regularly by Americans in translation, like Mahfouz, Marquez, or the pre-Lolita Nabokov. But with its mystical, at times even hallucinatory passages and rather contrived plot, Desert is unlikely to be the signal book which causes his literary career in the United States to unfurl, carpet-like, from both ends at once.

Research paper thumbnail of Law Versus Justice in International Negotiations

Research paper thumbnail of Pale and Wan, Comatose Maybe, But Not Dead: A Response to Bleimaier

The Catholic lawyer, 2017

Research paper thumbnail of The United States and the Middle East: A Search for New Perspectives; Hooshang Amirahmadi, editor

Digest of Middle East Studies, 1993

Research paper thumbnail of Jay Rothman, From Confrontation to Cooperation: Resolving Ethnic and Regional Conflict, Violence, Cooperation, Peace: An International Series (Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1992). Pp. 261

International Journal of Middle East Studies, Feb 1, 1994

Research paper thumbnail of The Siege Qua War: From Ultimatum to Ultimatum

International Studies, 1994

... (d) It should, in “' Public Papers of George Bush, Book I, n. 2, pp. 168-70. Page 10. 78... more ... (d) It should, in “' Public Papers of George Bush, Book I, n. 2, pp. 168-70. Page 10. 78/SANFORD R. SILVERBURG cooperation with the International Red Cross, release all prisoners of war and third-country civilians it had detained. ...

Research paper thumbnail of <i>Perilous Prospects: The Peace Process and the Arab-Israeli Military Balance</i> (review)

Research paper thumbnail of The Stern Gang: Ideology, Politics and Terror 1940-1949: Joseph Heller

Digest of Middle East Studies, Oct 1, 1996

Research paper thumbnail of Law, Force and Diplomacy at Sea.Ken Booth

The Journal of Politics, Aug 1, 1986

Research paper thumbnail of The Palestinian Regime: A “Partial Democracy”: As'ad Ghanem

Digest of Middle East Studies, Apr 1, 2002

Research paper thumbnail of Party Politics in Israel and the Occupied Territories. By Kieval Gershon R.. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983. Pp. xiv + 228. $35.00.)

American Political Science Review, Dec 1, 1984