A Turbulent Silk Road: China's Vulnerable Foreign Policy in the Middle East and North Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Andrea Ghiselli ◽  
Pippa Morgan

Abstract The nexus between China's human and economic presence abroad and its security policy is increasingly important. Within this nexus, this study statistically explores whether and to what extent Chinese contractors reduce the number of Chinese nationals they send to work in North Africa, the Middle East and the Horn of Africa when the security situation in host states worsens. We find no significant evidence that either warnings from Chinese embassies and consulates to leave host countries or expert perceptions of host stability influence the number of Chinese workers. Worker numbers appear to decrease significantly only in the aftermath of large-scale violent events. These findings suggest that Chinese companies are relatively acceptant of security risks and uncertainties, despite the decade-long regulatory efforts of the Chinese government to make them more security-conscious overseas and, thus, to reduce pressure to use diplomatically and economically expensive military means for their protection.

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-69
Author(s):  
Slobodan Janković ◽  
Aleksandar Saša Gajić

Author(s):  
I. Labinskaya

Political developments in North Africa and the Middle East that have begun in January 2011 are gaining strength and involve an increasing number of Arab countries. The participants of the Roundtable – experts from IMEMO, Institute of Oriental Studies (RAS), Institute of the USA and Canada (RAS) and Mrs. E. Suponina from “Moscow News” newspaper analyzed a wide range of issues associated with these events. Among them are: 1) the reasons for such a large-scale explosion, 2) the nature of the discussed developments (revolutions, riots?) and who are the subjects of the current “Arab drama”, 3) the role of Islam and political Islamism, 4) the role of external factors.


Author(s):  
Sam Hellmuth ◽  
Mary Pearce

This chapter provides an overview of the prosodic systems of languages spoken in North Africa and the Middle East, taking in North Africa and the Horn of Africa, plus the Arabian Peninsula, and the Middle East (but excluding Kurdish). The survey sketches the nature and scope of typological variation—in respect to prosody—across the whole of the Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-Saharan language families, addressing, within the limits of the existing literature: word prosody, prosodic phrasing, melodic structure, and prosodic expression of meaning (sentence modality, focus, and information structure). The survey is organized around language sub-families, reporting what is known about the different aspects of prosody for each sub-family, together with a brief discussion of priorities for future research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 80 (8) ◽  
pp. 697-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Schoenbach ◽  
Marium Saeed ◽  
Robb Wood

How do audiences in the Middle East and North Africa respond to the dramatic expansion of content offered with the advent of online video? Rapid internet adoption in the region signifies the latest expansion of content menus available to audiences since television. In this article, we determine who—as a consequence of this expansion—diversifies their content preferences online and on traditional television, and who maintains the same preferences, regardless of platform. To answer these questions, this study applies Everett Rogers' diffusion of innovations theory, using data from a large-scale survey on media use in the Middle East and North Africa. The results reveal: In the Middle East and North Africa in 2016, classic characteristics of innovators and early adopters are no longer significant predictors that one will be receptive to different genres of content online versus on television. Instead, more significant predictors are the television landscape in one’s country, being interested in new content of all kinds, and the characteristics of the genres themselves.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bing Pu ◽  
Paul Ginoux

Abstract. The increasing trend of aerosol optical depth in the Middle East and a recent severe dust storm in Syria have raised questions as whether dust storms will increase and promoted investigations on the dust activities driven by the natural climate variability underlying the ongoing human perturbations such as the Syrian civil war. This study examined the influences of the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) on dust activities in Syria using an innovative dust optical depth (DOD) dataset derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Deep Blue aerosol products. A significantly negative correlation is found between the Syrian DOD and the PDO in spring from 2003–2015. High DOD in spring is associated with lower geopotential height over the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa, accompanied by near surface anomalous westerly winds over the Mediterranean basin and southerly winds over the eastern Arabian Peninsula. These large-scale patterns promote the formation of the cyclones over the Middle East to trigger dust storms and also facilitate the transport of dust from North Africa, Iraq, and Saudi Arabian to Syria, where the transported dust dominates the seasonal mean DOD in spring. A negative PDO not only creates circulation anomalies favorable to high DOD in Syria but also suppresses precipitation in dust source regions over the eastern and southern Arabian Peninsula and northeastern Africa. On the daily scale, in addition to the favorable large-scale condition associated with a negative PDO, enhanced atmospheric instability in Syria associated with increased precipitation in Turkey and northern Syria is also critical for the development of strong springtime dust storms in Syria.


Author(s):  
József Kis-Benedek

Povzetek: Leta 2016 in predvsem 2017 so se na kriznih območjih Bližnjega vzhoda in Severne Afrike pojavile nekatere pozitivne spremembe. Spodbuden dogodek je bila uspešna akcija iraških in pešmerskih sil, ki jih podpira zahodna koalicija, proti tako imenovani Islamski državi, katere rezultat je bila izguba ozemlja ekstremističnih organizacij. Avtor analizira vidike kriznih območij, in sicer Iraka, Sirije in Libije, ki se nanašajo na posledice nerešenega vprašanja migrantov. Poleg kriznih območij predstavlja tudi situacijo tujih borcev in varnostna tveganja, ki jih povzroča njihova vrnitev v domovino. Navaja ukrepe, ki so jih sprejele EU in njene države članice, da bi preprečile in obvladale grožnjo, ki jo predstavlja vračanje tujih borcev. Ključne besede: Bližnji vzhod, Evropska unija, migracije, Sirija, Libija, tuji borci. Abstract: In 2016, but mainly in 2017 some positive changes happened in the crisis areas of the Middle East and North Africa. Encouraging event was the successful actions of Iraqi and Peshmerga forces supported by the western coalition against the so called Islamic State, the result is the loss of territory of the extremist organizations. The author analyzes the perspectives of the crisis areas, namely Iraq, Syria and Libya, referring to the effects of the unresolved migrant issue. Besides the two crisis zones, he also presents the situation of foreign fighters and the security risks posed by their return. He specifies the measures taken by the EU and its member states to avert and handle the threat represented by returning foreign fighters. Key words: Middle-East, European Union, migration, Syria, Libya, foreign fighters.


Author(s):  
Yassine Maleh ◽  
Mustapha Belaissaoui

This chapter aims to study the success factors of the ISO 27001 framework related to the implementation of information security in organizations, with particular emphasis on the different maturity controls of ISO 27001 in the implementation of information security policies in organizations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate what controls are commonly used and how they are selected to the implementation of information security in large public organizations in Middle East and North Africa MENA through ISO 27001, with a specific focus on practical framework for the implementation of an effective information security policy through ISO27001. The finding will help organizations to assess organizations to implement an effective information security policy.


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