The Middle East Military Balance, 1990-1991

Two institutions - the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies and Anthony Cordesman - continue their tradition of producing authoritative tomes on Middle East military issues. The Middle East Military Balance has appeared annually since 1983 and constitutes the most reliable, detailed source on the makeup of military forces from Morocco to Iran. In addition, it contains several articles of analysis; the current volume devotes five articles to the war for Kuwait and five to such issues as the strategic implications of Soviet Jewry to Israel and the tightening Syrian grip on Lebanon.

After the Storm offers a one-man (and perhaps one-time) version of the Jaffee Center's volume, with both the advantages and quirks this implies. On the minus side, After the Storm has a mish-mash quality. Some sentences are very much up to date (mid-1992); others refer to the Soviets in the present tense and provide references from 1986. Important insights appear unpredictably amid a welter of minutiae. On the plus side, when Cordesman steps back from the data, he can analyze the whole of the Middle East in a synoptic fashion, discerning trends in a way no one else can (for instance: there is "little correlation between the volume of high technology arms imports and high casualties"). Also, whereas the Jaffee Center lists stark figures, Cordesman discusses background and draws out trends.

In sum, the two books complement each other nicely: if The Middle East Military Balance is the movie, After the Storm offers a very detailed still picture.

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