Events in Israel and its neighbors dominated international media coverage of this region in 1995 and 1996, drawn by the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin and the horrors of civilian deaths in Israel and Lebanon. Behind vivid atrocities, however, deeper changes were also at work, often too subtle for notice in a single country. One example is the role of women. In many countries the proposals of the International Women's Conference in Beijing stirred substantial opposition from religious authorities. In the future, will this lead to narrower roles for women? A very different example is higher oil prices. Will they lift the region from years of economic stagnation? Or will they simply prove a momentary blip before Iraqi exports satisfy demand and push prices back down?

GML seeks to inform a generally educated public about a most interesting and
strategically important region. It begins where the highest peaks of the Himalayas separate Southern Asia from the Far East. It continues through India, one-sixth of humanity, and then past Muslim countries neighboring Russia and blocking its access to a warm-water port. Under the waters of the Gulf and the surrounding lands lie roughly two-thirds of the world's oil deposits. Far beyond its size or wealth, the region bears strategic value and importance to trade routes.

Bangladesh will always rank as one of the most hopelessly and perpetually poor nations, while parts of the United Arab Emirates stand at the top of world per capita income. Economic systems vary equally as income, with advocates of free trade and autarchy, free enterprise and state socialism. While sharp operators abound, the hospitality of the people is famous. The geography stretches, very simply, from the highest (Mt. Everest) to the lowest (the Dead Sea), and from the wettest (Assam in northeastern India) to regions of Arabia so dry it has not rained for years. The aesthetically with the desert beauty of Wadi Rum in Jordan and the water and greenery of the Bosphorus or Vale of Kashmir.