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