A Short History of a Long Conflict

2020 ◽  
pp. 17-52
Author(s):  
Beth Van Schaack
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Full Scale ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Short History ◽  
Peace Processes ◽  
Foreign Intervention ◽  
History Of ◽  
Key Events ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact

This introductory chapter offers a short history of the eight-year conflict in Syria, covering the arrival of the Arab Spring, the transformation of a long-overdue revolution into a full-scale armed conflict, and the evolution of the situation on the ground to date. This chapter prefaces the contemporary violence with a few historical events, surfacing atrocities committed in the 1980s that have never been the subject of any genuine accountability process as well as the entrenchment of authoritarianism under the House of Assad. It describes how the arrival of the Arab Spring reawakened long-dormant revolutionary impulses, which amplified the government’s repression. This, in turn, provoked an armed resistance and a full-scale conflict, which opened space for the arrival of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The chapter recounts this history with reference to several key events and factors: the response of the international community, the opposition’s perpetual rearrangements, the appearance of ISIL, the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity (including the infringement of the taboo against chemical weapons), the humanitarian catastrophe that ensued, forms of foreign intervention (aid, arms, and air strikes), and failed peace processes. In addition to recounting the involvement of major Western powers in the Syrian battlespace, it also touches upon the impact of spillover conflicts in the subregion. Others will write the definitive history of this tragedy; the goal here is to touch upon key milestones as this conflict unfolded and to set the scene for the efforts to promote justice and accountability for the atrocities underway.

Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Sexual Relations ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact

Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction explores the history and culture of pharaonic Egypt, including ideas about Egyptian kingship, religion, ethics, customs, and writing systems. The ancient Egyptians are an enduring source of fascination and mystery; for generations, mummies and pyramids, curses and rituals have captured the imagination. This VSI draws on the latest archaeological discoveries and scholarship on ancient Egypt. It considers issues relating to the history of Egyptology, ethnicity, race, gender, and sexual relations. Moreover, it examines the impact of the Arab Spring on approaches to Egyptian museums and cultural heritage all over the world.

scholarly journals The Problems of Arab Solidarity and the Impact of Arab Spring on It: Study on the Model of the GCC Security

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 160
Author(s):  
Salem Toubasi ◽  
Ahmad Alzubaidi ◽  
Mushir Abahra
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Gulf Cooperation Council ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Modern Perspective

The author presents a brief study of the Arab solidarity. Furthermore, From the point of view of the author the Arab cooperation is one of the most controversial topics in the Arab world, whereas this idea extends to the first history of the Arab countries, we can also mention the creation of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and then the Maghreb Union of Arab Countries. In this article, the topic of Arab solidarity will be presented, through the views of many thinkers, and based on many analytical researches of Arab public opinion, the view of Arab solidarity and analysis of many ideas put forward for this project. There are new positive ideas possibly can be implemented to achieve the Arab solidarity, which is still a very important project for a wide sector of Arabs, this analytical study will present the case of the Gulf Cooperation Council states as example of positive implementation of Arab solidarity. This article includes the results of Arab public opinion and shed the light on the Arab spring which affected many international and local events. The author asks if Arab solidarity will a real case in the future. This study will investigate these issues and provide the readers with a modern perspective on this topic, furthermore this research approaches this subject from three different areas of discussion: the realism approach, the functionalism approach, and the idealism approach.

Rationalism, Christianity, and Ambiguity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Collini
Keyword(s):  
Full Scale ◽  
Class Relations ◽  
Ethical Life ◽  
Short History ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
History Of ◽  
Complex Words

This chapter examines the work of William Empson, the critic normally assumed to be the least historical in his approach, especially his close attention to ‘the words on the page’. It shows how even his earliest work, such as Seven Types of Ambiguity and Some Versions of Pastoral, is shot through with historical assumptions—indeed, the latter book contains a short history of class relations in England. It moves on to a full-scale discussion of his most daunting work, The Structure of Complex Words, showing the ways in which it is structured by an interpretation of history between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, revealing Empson to be a significant historian of English ethical life, who did not share the prevailing declinist or anti-Whig perspective.

scholarly journals ‘Islamofascism’: Four Competing Discourses on the Islamism-Fascism Comparison

Fascism ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-274
Author(s):  
Tamir Bar-On
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Short History ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Dramatic Rise ◽  
History Of

With the dramatic rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, we witnessed the revival of the Islamism-fascism comparison. This paper begins with a short history of the Islamism-fascism comparison. It then argues that both Islamism and fascism are coherent political ideologies. The author proposes a four-fold typology of different discourses in respect of the Islamism-fascism comparison, which are called ‘Thou shall not compare’, ‘Islamofascism’, ‘Islamofascism as epithet’, and ‘Dare to compare’. It’s concluded that we should compare Islamism and fascism, but that the two ideologies are distinctive, totalitarian ideologies. Clerical fascism is the closest ideologically to Islamism, although it is also a distinctive political ideology.

The meta-geography of the Middle East and North Africa in Turkey’s new geopolitical imagination

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 431-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aylin Güney ◽  
Nazif Mandacı
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Critical Geopolitics ◽  
Syrian Crisis ◽  
Security Practices ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Geopolitical Imaginations

This article critically analyses Turkish security discourses connected to the meta-geography of the Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA) before and after the developments of the Arab Spring. A critical geopolitics approach and critical security theories in international relations provide the theoretical framework, as security discourses are considered to be a product of geopolitical imaginations and codes that, in turn, shape the making of foreign and security policies. First, the article examines the invention of BMENA as a meta-geography within Turkey’s new geopolitical imagination, as well as the new geopolitical codes underlying the new security discourses. Then, the article assesses the impact of the Arab Spring, which led to major changes in Turkey’s newly established geopolitical codes, formulated in the pre-Arab Spring period, and analyses the ruptures and continuities in Turkey’s security discourses in the light of those developments. Finally, the article concludes that the Arab Spring, especially the Syrian crisis, shifted the focus of Turkey’s foreign policy in BMENA from cooperation to conflict. This has led to a resecuritization of Turkey’s geopolitical codes, discourses and security practices in the region, revealing the limitation of Turkey’s current geopolitical imagination.

scholarly journals Berber Factor in North Africa: Common Features and Local Peculiarities

2017 ◽  
pp. 42-51
Author(s):  
Yu. Zinin
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The North ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact

The article considers a place and influence of Berber-speaking communities in each of five countries of the North Africa: Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Mauritania and Tunis.After gaining the independence, demands are growing in all these states to recognize cultural, regional, and sometimes political peculiarities of Berbers.The situation in every country is different due to local conditions and background of interactions of Amazigs (self-designation of Berber) with the Arab speaking majority, as well as their participation in political processes.The author investigates and discuss the impact of the Arab Spring on the rise of self-consciousness, solidarity and consolidation of Amazig minority. It is Berber, often European educated elite which usually expresses and propagates such conceptions and trends.

scholarly journals Nasheeds as a part of the jihadi culture. The role of music in the Islamic State’s propaganda

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-71
Author(s):  
Marta Stempień
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Major Objective ◽  
Systemic Analysis ◽  
Empirical Research Methods ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The 19Th Century

Nasheeds outpace the era of Internet and Youtube. Jihadist poetry in the Islamist hymns can be seen as an extension of the 19th-century anticolonial style of poetry called qaseeda. Presented article shows that nasheeds were not always a significant element in the jihadi culture. The increase of their role was observed quite recently, after the outbreak of the “Arab Spring”. This article is a case study. It attempts to fill a gap in research on the IS’s propaganda materials. The major objective of this article is to investigate the phenomenon of jihadist naseeds, including their role in the ‘jihadi culture’. The author seeks to answer to the question whether the presented facts may indicate the increase in their role occurred with the transfer of IS’ activities to cyberspace and whether it will be intensified in the future. The article takes into account historical conditions, briefly describing the genesis of the naseeds and their proliferation after the events of the “Arab Spring”. Then, using systemic analysis, the author presents their role in the activities of the Islamic State. In addition, theoretical and empirical research methods, such as: scientific literature analysis, case analysis, content analysis, classification, generalization were taken to solve the research problem.

The Declaration of the Islamic State in Iraq and Al-Sham

2020 ◽  
pp. 149-160
Author(s):  
Haroro Ingram ◽  
Craig Whiteside ◽  
Charlie Winter
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Seismic Effects ◽  
War Effort ◽  
The Arab Spring

Chapter 6 features Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s announcement on 8 April 2013 that the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) had changed its name to the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS). Emerging as leader in May 2010, Baghdadi was pivotal in continuing the group’s revival in Iraq. However, when the Arab Spring reached neighboring Syria in early 2011, within months war had broken out and, in January 2012, Baghdadi sent ISI members to join the war effort. Under the title of Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) and the leadership of Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani, they quickly built a reputation for their military prowess and outreach strategies but their link to ISI was publicly unknown. When Baghdadi declared that JN was an extension of his group in his 2013 announcement, it had seismic effects for the global jihad triggering a bitter conflict between ISIS and al-Qaida.

Long before the Arab Spring

Women Rising ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 149-160
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Women Activists ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Arab Women ◽  
Women's Groups ◽  
Women’S Groups ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Marginalization

The Arab Women Solidarity Association United (AWSA United) emerged as an outlet for Arab women in the diaspora to express solidarity and support for women in the Arab world. It pioneered transnational Arab women’s groups that connected Arab women in all six continents. In this chapter, Rita Stephan explores the impact of AWSA United on Arab women activists who, between 1999 and 2011, used cyberfeminism to share their ideological and political marginalization, and how AWSA United helped them foster their collective identity, strengthen their connectivity, and increase their activism.

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