J.W. WRIGHT, JR. currently works for USAID in Cairo, Egypt. He studied economic diplomacy in the Middle East region as part of a Fullbright research programme in 1996-97, and managed academic and executive research programmes at the Dubai Polytechnic, which is part of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce in the UAE. He wrote Business and Economic Development in Saudi Arabia, and has written on the impact of the peace process on Gulf states' trade since the Gulf war.LAURA DRAKE is a noted scholar of the Middle East region, focusing on political-economic relations between the Levantine and the northern Gulf states, with special emphasis on analysis of impact of US foreign policies on the region. She is currently at the American University in Washington DC, and has published over twenty articles on American diplomatic relations with nations in the Middle East.