Ò . . . a highly original and valuable contribution on an important and most timely topic. . . . No other book on Middle Eastern political economy matches this one in combining clarity of focus and breadth of geographic coverage. ÑRobert BianchiAn international group of specialists take stock of the problems and prospects for privatization of state-run economies and other liberalization efforts in a wide range of countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Although privatization and liberalization are frequently regarded as economic measures, the contributors demonstrate that it is the politics of such reforms that often determines the success or failure of economic policy changes. The countries under review share a variety of economic and political characteristics, yet are sufficiently different in their response to the call for privatization to constitute useful cases for comparative political and economic analysis. Countries studied include Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Algeria. The contributors are Abdel-Monem Said Aly, Laurie A. Brand, Kiren Aziz Chaudhry, Iliya Harik, Fred H. Lawson, Marcie J. Patton, Marsha Pripstein Posusney, Khaled Fouad Sherif, Regina M. Soos, Denis J. Sullivan, and Dirk Vandewalle.