Middle East Review of International Affairs

The Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal is owned by Professor Barry Rubin and based at the Global Research in International Affairs Center at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.

Dodgy Dossier

Material from a September 2002 MERIA article by Dr Ibrahim al-Marashi was lifted by the British Government and used in a February 2003 briefing paper on Iraq. When this emerged, Barry Rubin commented:

We are pleased that the high quality of MERIA Journal’s articles has made them so valuable to our readers, who now number almost 20,000 people around the world, including many government officials, as well as diplomats, journalists, scholars, and students. As noted on the masthead of each issue and all our publications, however, we do appreciate being given credit.

Alistair Campbell gave an account of the episode to the House of Commons' Select Committee on Foreign Affairs:

As to how the mistake occurred, I understand that once the group I chair commissioned the paper from the CIC in January, the CIC approached various Government agencies and departments asking for material they had which related to the theme we had discussed. It was during this process that Dr. Al-Marashi's article of September 2002 in MERIA journal was submitted to the CIC. It was following this, in the CIC, during the third week of January that the material was simply absorbed into the briefing paper, without attribution, and it then formed the basis of Section 2. From that point on, everyone who was asked to comment on the paper assumed this information was Government-sourced material. Thereafter editing changes were made in the normal way which explains why there are some differences between the article and the final text in the briefing paper. The changes were made because the officials making them believed they rendered the account more accurate. They were not aware they were commenting upon work which included parts of Dr Al-Marashi's article. The removal of the attribution was the mistake which we have acknowledged and I am happy to take responsibility for the briefing paper.

Editorial Board

• Prof. Fouad Ajami, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University.
• Prof. Amatzia Baram, Middle East History Department, Haifa University.
• Prof. Ya'acov Bar-Siman-Tov, International Relations Department, Hebrew University.
• Prof. Elliot Cohen, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University.
• Prof. Bilge Criss, International Relations Department, Bilkent University.
• Prof. Efraim Inbar, Bar-Ilan University; Director, Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies.
• Prof. Lawrence Freedman, Kings College, London.
• Prof. Ali Karaosmanoglu, International Relations Department, Sabanci University.
• Prof. Efraim Karsh, Director, Program for Mediterranean, Kings College, London.

Prof. Kamal Kirsici, Bosphorus University.

• Prof. Martin Kramer, Senior Research Fellow and former Director, Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East and North African Studies, Tel Aviv University.
• Prof. Robert Lieber, Chair, Government Department, Georgetown University.
• Prof. Philip Robins, St. Antony's College, Oxford.
• Prof. Shmuel Sandler, Bar-Ilan University.