Conducting Research in the Middle East's Conflict Zones

In many people's minds, the Middle East stands out as the world's most dangerous place. I often remark to my colleagues and friends, however, that I feel safer doing field research in most Middle Eastern countries than I would in much of Africa or Latin America. To begin with, few parts of the Middle East suffer from high rates of random crime. Rather, the region's violence is mostly political in nature, and, with the right approach, a researcher can take several steps to minimize risks. I have conducted research in the Kurdish regions of Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq (before and after the 2003 war), in Lebanon, and in Israel-Palestine during the first Intifadah. In this article, I discuss various strategies and issues one faces while “in the field” in regions such as these.The author would like to acknowledge research support provided by the Canadian Department of National Defence, the Inter-University Consortium for Arab and Middle East Studies (ICAMES), and the University of Montreal's Centre d'Études et de Recherches Internationales.