Middle East Report is the foremost U.S. magazine of critical analysis on the Middle East, and its international readership of 25,000 makes it one of the most widely read publications on the Middle East. Each issue features in-depth analytical articles on Middle East politics, culture and society, and U.S. policy toward the region, as well as engaging journalistic dispatches, review essays and compelling photographs. Articles from MER are reprinted, and translations have appeared, in more than a dozen languages, including Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Turkish. Issues of MER are required reading in many college and university courses, and more than 700 libraries and research institutes around the world subscribe. Researchers can find MER cited in 12 different indices and abstracts. Specialists in a wide range of political, social and humanitarian agencies use MER in their work for research, education and constituency outreach.

MERIP was founded in 1971 by activists for peace and social justice to bring to the U.S. public critical analysis of Middle Eastern political economy and US policy toward the region. MERIP publishes an award-winning magazine, Middle East Report, distributes Press Information Notes via e-mail, maintains a website and produces primers. MERIP neither solicits nor accepts financial support from government and corporate sources. This independent stance is an essential part of MERIP's mission to document and support popular struggles for peace and social justice in the Middle East, and to promote progressive change in U.S. policy toward the region.