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In the aftermath of popular uprisings that unleashed the quest for freedom, Arab governments scrambled to limit sectarian divisions, though much of these efforts came to naught. Regrettably, weak governments fell into carefully laid traps, aimed to divide and rule. Protracted wars further destroyed Arab wealth and cohesiveness, and Sunni communities saw their power bases marginalised. On cue, and predicted by some commentators, extremist movements like the so-called Islamic State emerged, targeting Sunnis with extreme violence. In 2014 Nabil Khalife, an established Lebanese thinker, published a widely praised thesis that identified the root causes of renewed sectarian tensions at a time when...
After the conservative Arab Gulf Monarchies - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - joined forces on 25 May 1981 within the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), few fathomed that security requirements on and around the Arabian Peninsula would be so precarious and for so long. To answer their search for permanent stability, Arab Gulf rulers erected a regional alliance that sought to integrate internal and regional defences, as well as strengthen their existing socio-economic ties. Several of the monarchies even hoped that co-ordination on foreign policy issues over which near unanimity existed could, eventually, lead to a full-fledged union as envisaged i...
Shaykh Yusuf Yassin (18921962) marked the contemporary history of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in his capacity as a favorite advisor who was the founder monarchs confidential secretary, relentless envoy and chief foreign policy consultant. Born in Latakiyyah, Syria, Yassin earned the confidence of King Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud, and moved to Riyadh even before the Third Saudi Kingdom was inaugurated in 1932. After obtaining citizenship he participated in critical decisions reached by the ruler as regional and international actors honed in on the wealth of the Arabian Peninsula. Over the course of several decades Yusuf Yassin met with and negotiated on behalf of three monarchs, Abdul...
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A Sacred Duty sets out the Kingdom's policy toward the global issue of migrants and refugees, with special emphasis directed toward Muslim societies. Discussion focuses on refugee communities currently living in Saudi Arabia, some of which migrated due to war, forced displacement, environmental catastrophe, and economic hardship. Some migrants have come from bordering countries such as Iraq and Yemen; others reached the Arabian Peninsula from Africa and Asia. All have been welcomed and cared for, though settlement conditions, repatriation and deportation circumstances were not always ideal. Inevitably, and mirroring experience elsewhere in the world, there are undeniable gulfs between polici...
Mitra Moussa Nabo präsentiert eine systematische Analyse des libanesischen Konflikts in den Jahren 2005 bis 2008. Darin ist die Konfliktdynamik als das Zusammenspiel der regionalen, nationalen sowie lokalen Ebenen zu verstehen. In der Untersuchung gilt der Libanon als integraler Bestandteil der Region des Nahen und Mittleren Osten, sodass der libanesische (Identitäts-)Konflikt als Teil der regionalen (Un-)Sicherheitsstruktur zu verstehen ist. Die libanesischen und regionalen Konfliktsysteme interagieren und ergänzen sich. Iranische, saudische und syrische Einmischungen sind so ein Teil dieses Interaktionsmusters, das zum einen aufgrund des Zusammenspiels von libanesischen und externen Akteuren vollzogen und zum anderen strukturell durch die Wechselbeziehung unterschiedlicher normativer Ordnungsgrundsätze ermöglicht wird. Dieses Analysemuster kann prinzipiell zur Beleuchtung anderer Konflikte in der Region herangezogen werden.
International Relations and International Law continue to be accented by epistemic violence by naturalizing a separation between law and morality. What does such positivist juridical ethos make possible when considering that both disciplines reify a secular (immanent) ontology? International Law, Necropolitics, and Arab Lives emphasizes that positivist jurisprudence (re)conquered Arabia by subjugating Arab life to the power of death using extrajudicial techniques of violence seeking the implementation of a "New Middle East" that is no longer "resistant to Latin-European modernity", but amenable to such exclusionary telos. The monograph goes beyond the limited remonstration asserting that the...
This book combines a vast encyclopaedic history of the war in Lebanon with a penetrating sociological analysis. Tracing the war to its origins, the author shows that it has been primarily a surrogate war over Palestine which escalated into a conflict between the diverse Lebanese communities each afraid of being the player left standing in a macabre game of musical chairs. Hanf's central theme is the problem of conflict and conflict regulation between these groups. How were conflicts regulated peacefully before the war? How did the country come to be the battlefield of both a surrogate war and a civil war? How do the Lebanese view what has happened in their country? What are their aspirations and how do they conceive a realistic settlement? Is there any prospect of reestablishing coexistence between different elements of Lebanese society? The author sets out to answer these and other important questions using a wide range of literature as well as his own extensive research in the country. He writes optimistically, suggesting that although fear can breed a vicious circle of hatred and violence, it can also produce reason and compromise.
The Routledge Handbook of Persian Gulf Politics provides a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of Persian Gulf politics, history, economics, and society. The volume begins its examination of Ottoman rule in the Arabian Peninsula, exploring other dimensions of the region’s history up until and after independence in the 1960s and 1970s. Featuring scholars from a range of disciplines, the book demonstrates how the Persian Gulf’s current, complex politics is a product of interwoven dynamics rooted in historical developments and memories, profound social, cultural, and economic changes underway since the 1980s and the 1990s, and inter-state and international relations among both regional ac...
International trade has, for decades, been central to economic growth and improved standards of living for nations and regions worldwide. For most of the advanced countries, trade has raised standards of living, while for most emerging economies, growth did not begin until their integration into the global economy. The economic explanation is simple: international trade facilitates specialization, increased efficiency and improved productivity to an extent impossible in closed economies. However, recent years have seen a significant slowdown in global trade, and the global system has increasingly come under attack from politicians on the right and on the left. The benefits of open markets, t...