Out of Nowhere: The Kurds of Syria in Peace and War, by Michael Gunter/The Kurds of Syria: Political Parties and Identity in the Middle East, by Harriet Allsopp

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-159
Author(s):  
Nir Boms
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Peace And War

Book Reviews

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 225-246
Author(s):  
Kariane Westrheim ◽  
Michael Gunter ◽  
Yener Koc ◽  
Yavuz Aykan ◽  
Diane E. King ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Kurdish Conflict

Adem Uzun, “Living Freedom”: The Evolution of the Kurdish Conflict in Turkey and the Efforts to Resolve it. Berghof Transitions Series No. 11. Berlin: Berghof Foundation, 2014. 48 pp., (ISBN: 978-3-941514-16-4).Ebru Sönmez, Idris-i Bidlisi: Ottoman Kurdistan and Islamic Legitimacy, Libra Kitap, Istanbul, 2012, 190 pp., (ISBN: 978-605-4326-56-3). Sabri Ateş, The Ottoman–Iranian Borderlands: Making a Boundary, 1843-1914, New York; Cambridge University Press, 2013. 366., (ISBN: 978-1107033658).  Choman Hardi, Gendered Experiences of Genocide: Anfal Survivors in Kurdistan-Iraq. Farnham, Surrey and Burlington Vermont: Ashgate, 2011, xii + 217 pp., (ISBN: 978-0-7546-7715-4).Harriet Allsopp, The Kurds of Syria: Political Parties and Identity in the Middle East, London and New York, I.B. Tauris, 2014, 299 pp., (ISBN: 978-1780765631).Khanna Omarkhali (ed.), Religious Minorities in Kurdistan: Beyond the Mainstream [Studies in Oriental Religions, Volume 68], Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2014, xxxviii + 423 pp., (ISBN: 978-3-447-10125-7).Anna Grabole-Çeliker, Kurdish Life in Contemporary Turkey: Migration, Gender and Ethnic Identity, London: I.B. Taurus, 2013, 299 pp., (ISBN: 978-1780760926).  

On Their Own? Women Running as Independent Candidates in the Middle East

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-274
Author(s):  
Bozena Welborne
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
National Level ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Political Office ◽  
Global North ◽  
Primary Vector ◽  
North And South

Abstract This paper considers examples of women successfully running as independents at the national level in the Middle East, investigating how existing electoral systems impacted their ability to contest political office. Women in the region face a host of challenges when it comes to launching political campaigns outside of sociocultural norms. Most extant literature on political participation focuses on parties as the primary vector for female participation in the Global North and South. However, women in the Middle East often cannot rely on this mechanism due to the absence of political parties or existing parties’ unwillingness to back women for cultural reasons. Yet, the region hosts many female independents holding office at the national level. Through the cases of Jordan, Egypt, and Oman, I unpack this phenomenon using an institutional argument and assess what the emergence of such candidates bodes for the future of women in the Middle East.

Rational Islamophobia in Europe

2010 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 429-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Laitin
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Front National ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
The Eu

Social and political relations between Europe and the Muslim world are politically fractious. Attacks in Madrid (March 2004) and London (July 2005), and the riots in suburban Paris in November 2005 and November 2007, have all been attributed to “Muslims”. Political parties in Europe (for example the Front National in France, which placed second in the presidential elections of 2002), have mobilized opinion against a Muslim threat to Europe. Relations between the countries and societies of the European Union and the Muslim World have therefore become politically consequential on a number of dimensions – foreign policy in regard to the Middle East; new membership into the EU; and the vast migration of Muslim populations into EU states.

Notes from the Editors, November 2016

2016 ◽  
Vol 68 (6) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
The Editors
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Cuban Missile Crisis ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Hillary Clinton ◽  
Monthly Review

buy this issueU.S. presidential elections, if nothing else, throw considerable light on the ideology and imperatives of the system. This is particularly the case with respect to imperialism, where one sees signs of a declining and increasingly desperate U.S. empire. Hillary Clinton has been calling for a no-fly zone in Syria (which would include Russian planes!), thereby threatening a confrontation with Russia on a level not seen since the Cuban Missile Crisis.… Trump, for his part, while appearing to suggest a kind of détente with Russia, is ready to intervene directly and massively in Iraq against the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), including the use of ground troops. He supports the extension of torture and the slaughter of whole families of suspected terrorists. He claims that he would raise Israel from being a second-level power…. In short, the presidential nominees for the two major political parties are each posturing over who is the most aggressive and bellicose upholder of U.S. militarism and imperialism—and in ways that threaten further escalation of war in the Middle East and in opposition to Russia.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Tribes will play politics in Middle East monarchies

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Electoral Reforms ◽  
State Relations ◽  
Modern Nation State

Significance Tribe-state relations have experienced various levels of tension and cooperation in the monarchies of the Middle East and North Africa: Jordan, Morocco, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Throughout the region, there is much discussion of a claimed tribal resurgence. In reality, however, tribes have always had a significant political role, co-existing with the modern nation-state. Impacts Potential electoral reforms to de-emphasise traditional tribal boundaries or legalise political parties could disempower tribes. Slow and cumbersome bureaucracies will encourage people to trade on tribal affiliations in order to circumvent procedures. Where central governments become weaker, especially in cases of civil conflict, tribes may step in to fill the political power vacuum.

scholarly journals The 2011 Egyptian Revolution and Islamists in Egypt and Malaysia

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 160-168
Author(s):  
Afif Pasuni
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Short Article ◽  
Egyptian Revolution ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
The Difference ◽  
To Come

The opposition Islamist PAS (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, or Pan Malaysian Islamic Party) is one of the oldest political parties in Malaysia. Inspired by Egypt’s Ikhwan al-Muslimin (Muslim Brotherhood [MB]), PAS is also influenced by occurrences in the Middle East; following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, its leaders revamped their organizational structure to entrust key decisions to religious scholars. The ramifications of the 2011 Egyptian revolution, arguably one of the most significant Middle Eastern political events in recent times, thus deserves a closer look. This short article attempts to look at this revolution’s possible impact on Islamists in Malaysia. I argue that Malaysia had already undergone its own version of a revolution in the 1998 reformasi (reformation) due to the shared characteristics between the two events: both (1) shared the same premise of alleged political injustice; (2) provided opportunities for Islamists to influence the political discourse, with the difference that in Egypt there was a political vacuum; and (3) utilized the Internet heavily to rally the masses. However, due to Malaysia’s freer democratic and electoral processes, political changes there will not be as abrupt as in Egypt. Furthermore, both Egypt’s revolution and Malaysia’s reformasi have hardly ended; the former is a tumultuous ongoing process of battling for the legitimacy of rule by appealing to the masses, while the latter is an ongoing process of appealing to voters in order to come to rule.

scholarly journals Debating Arab Authoritarianism

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-103
Author(s):  
K. Luisa Gandolfo
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
Economic Aspects ◽  
Political Opposition ◽  
Democratic State

The Middle East has long contended with the title of the region most lackingin democratic state structures, and while several countries endeavor toenforce a form of democracy, yet others preserve the frameworks that efficientlysustain their monarchies, revenue, and power status in the area. Thetwin questions of how and why democracy has proved elusive in theMiddleEast forms the crux of the collection of essays comprised within Schlumberger’stome: Debating Arab Authoritarianism: Dynamics and Durabilityin Nondemocratic Regimes.Spanning Morocco to Oman, via Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, theauthoritarian mode of governance is surveyed through an assessment of thedurability of regimes, the role of Islamist political parties, intra-regimedynamics, and the economic aspects of political reform. Divided into foursections, the book’s structure incorporates key elements of Arab authoritarianism:“State-Society Relations and Political Opposition,” “The Regimes,”“The Economy and the Polity,” and “The InternationalArena.” That the sectionsretain a subtle reluctance to address the link between the repressivecapacities ofArab states and their longevity, as well as the concept that Islamis incompatible with democracy, is conspicuous, yet prudent. Far fromretreadingworn theories, the contributors provide fresh conceptual and comparativeanalyses of individual countries and the region on a wider level, inaddition to prospects for the respective regimes ...

Parties and Party Organization in the Reign of Charles II

1948 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 21-36
Author(s):  
Andrew Browning
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Party Organization ◽  
The Commons ◽  
The Government ◽  
Charles Ii ◽  
Peace And War ◽  
At Home

THE rise of political parties in the reign of Charles II was an inevitable consequence of the increase in the power and prestige of Parliament during the Civil Wars and the Commonwealth. By 1660 Parliament had advanced far beyond the stage at which it could be content with merely criticizing the Government, or presenting its more substantial grievances for the royal consideration. It was now prepared to express decided opinions on all matters of national concern, and even, though rather hesitatingly, to assume the direction of policy both at home and abroad. Within a few years Charles in a memorable speech was to give the Commons the severest rebuke of which he was Capable for invading his most fundamental prerogative, that of making peace and war, and not merely desiring him ‘to enter into such leagues as might be for the safety of the kingdom’, but telling him ‘what sort of leagues they must be, and with whom’.

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