Interview with Michael Crone, veteran of Operation of Iraqi Freedom, as part of the Tarrant County Veterans Oral History Project. The interview includes Crone's personal experiences of childhood in Texas, enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves, boot camp at Camp Pendleton, California, training as a diesel mechanic, and being deployed to Kuwait and Al Asad, Iraq. Crone also talks about his family's tradition of military service, realizing that he would be activated and shift in reservist training following September 11 attacks, the birth of his first child while in Iraq, aspects of daily life for American soldiers stationed in Iraq, his work as a repair mechanic, and returning to the U.S. and his family.

Interview with Rula Walid Bibi, Palestinian-born immigrant to Plano, Texas, for the DFW Metroplex Immigrants Oral History Project. The interview includes Bibi's personal experience with discrimination of Palestinians in the Middle East, childhood in Kuwait City, education at the University of Kuwait and Midwestern State University, family experiences during the First Gulf War and circumstances surrounding her immigration to Texas in 1990, thoughts on religion, experiences as a single mother as well as experiences of living in Wichita Falls, Dallas, Richardson, Garland, and Plano. Bibi talks about her first impressions of the U.S., her career in medical technologies, her marriage to an American man and his conversion to Islam, her involvement with political organizations, and thoughts on American education and foreign policy.

This publication describes major global environmental issues and policy decisions during 2006.

This comparative study assesses the state of democracy and examines the process of democratization in the Arab World between the years 1980-1993. It addresses shortcomings in the mainstream democracy literature that excluded the Arab World from the global democratic revolution on political cultural grounds. To fulfil the objectives of this study, I employ both the qualitative and quantitative research approaches to test a number of hypothesized relationships. I hypothesize that transition to democracy is negatively associated with economic development, militarism, U.S. foreign policy, the political economy of oil, and dependency. I contend that emerging civil society institutions so far have had no significant effect on democratization in the Arab World. Finally, I hypothesize that the level of democracy in the Arab World is influenced greatly by the issue of civil rights. In order to investigate the hypothesized relationships, the following data sets have been used: Gastil's Freedom House Data set, "Repression and Freedom in the 1980s" data set, and Vanhanen's 1990 data set. The findings of this study support the aforementioned hypothesized relationships. I find that Arab countries, in general have made modest progress toward democracy, making the Arab World part of the global revolution.

This report discusses the political future of various countries in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region. A change in the leadership in these countries could significantly affect their policies toward the United States and their willingness to cooperate with the United States in achieving the stability needed to advance U.S. interests in this important region.

The purpose of this study is to develop a set of behavioral objectives for the Second Year Chemistry Course in Kuwait Secondary Schools. This set of behavioral objectives will help school teachers to choose their activities, teaching methods, questions, and evaluation procedures; it will be useful in the preparation and use of behavioral objectives in their other courses. As a conclusion, the Chemical Education Material Study (CHEMS) appears more beneficial than the traditional chemistry course by its effect on student achievement and the stimulation of the cognitive abilities such as application and analysis processes. The present Kuwaiti chemistry course appears more organized than previous courses and the movement is toward the modern approach. Use of behavioral objectives appears more effective than the use of general objectives (or no objectives) in the area of students' achievements and attitudes, in the area of course content, and organization of complex cognitive processes. Recommendations for improvement of the Kuwaiti chemistry course and for further studies on behavioral objectives are listed.

This study is intended, first, to describe and analyze the channels of distribution for food products in the State of Kuwait, second, to pinpoint the problems that exist in the food-distribution system, and, third, to make specific recommendations for the alleviation of the problems. Consistent with the objectives of the study and based on the description and analysis of the food-distribution system in the country, it is concluded in the study that Kuwait depends on imports for virtually all of its food; the government plays a major role in the food-distribution system; and the majority of food wholesaling and retailing establishments are small, inefficient, and lack modern marketing and physical distribution techniques. Product shortages and rising food prices plague the food-distribution system in the country. Also, the findings indicate that consumers in Kuwait are generally ignorant and uninformed in the areas of food nutrition and food shopping, and the lack of standardization and grading of food products makes the shopping task of the consumer more difficult.

The purpose of this study is to review the development of library service in Kuwait, to survey the current status and problems of the principal types of libraries, and to consider recommendations for the improvement of public libraries since they are relatively less developed and their problems manifest greater immediate needs than other types of libraries. While limited collections, poor services, inadequate staffing and financing are clearly at the root of many library problems in Kuwait, their cause in turn is clearly not lack of money, since the country's per capita income exceeds that of many advanced countries. This study concludes that the recent dynamic changes in the Kuwaiti society are a warrant for new approaches to meet the growing needs of the people for improved and adequate library service.