A Perspective from the Middle East

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nida Alahmad
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Regional Governance ◽  
Regional Power ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Regional Institutions ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
Arab League ◽  
Regional Perspective

This chapter argues that, while we can conceive of a ‘global’ or a ‘regional’ governance structure, a ‘critical regional perspective’ is not possible for three reasons. First, there is a problem of governance as a technology of ordering the world that requires the production of abstracted forms of knowledge; second, the problem of determining what a critical ‘regional’ perspective on global governance might be; and third, a critical perspective that would account for the daily lives of people cannot be produced by regional institutions, which are rarely representative of popular democratic movements. In the Middle East, the Arab League has historically been weak, reflecting turbulent regional power relations. As such, it is difficult to identify a regional perspective based on the League’s governance practices. If a regional political counter-perspective to global governance is not possible (as in the Middle East), one cannot speak of a cultural (counter) perspective on governance.

Regional Organizations in the Middle East

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Pinfari
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Hybrid Organizations ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
Regional Institutions ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Regime Types ◽  
Arab League ◽  
Institutional Architecture ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Shed Light

This article introduces and reviews critically the main regional and subregional institutions currently operating in the Middle East. After presenting some analytical perspectives that shed light on the weakness of regional institutions in the Middle East, it presents the main institutional features of six regional, subregional, or “hybrid” organizations (including the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation framework) before turning to explore their activities from four critical angles, focusing on their effectiveness, their role, the impact of interregional institutional overlap and of regime types. It concludes with an assessment of how the so-called Arab Uprisings have affected the institutional architecture of the region.

Yemen and the World

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurent Bonnefoy
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
International Security ◽  
International Exchange ◽  
Regional Power ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
International Policies ◽  
The World ◽  
Global War

Contemporary Yemen has an image-problem. It has long fascinated travelers and artists, and to many the country embodies both Arab and Muslim authenticity; it stands at important geostrategic and commercial crossroads. Yet, strangely, Yemen is globally perceived as somehow both marginal and passive, while also being dangerous and problematic. The Saudi offensive launched in 2015 has made Yemen a victim of regional power struggles, while the global “war on terror” has labelled it a threat to international security. This perception has had disastrous effects without generating real interest in the country or its people. On the contrary, Yemen's complex political dynamics have been largely ignored by international observers--resulting in problematic, if not counterproductive, international policies. Yemen and the World aims at correcting these misconceptions and omissions, putting aside the nature of the world's interest in Yemen to focus on Yemen's role on the global stage. Laurent Bonnefoy uses six areas of modern international exchange--globalization, diplomacy, trade, migration, culture and militant Islamism--to restore Yemen to its place at the heart of contemporary affairs. To understand Yemen, he argues, is to understand the Middle East as a whole.

The Middle East and Peaceful Change

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arie M. Kacowicz ◽  
Galia Press-Barnathan
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
War Zone ◽  
Arab League ◽  
Arab Israeli Conflict ◽  
Kurdish Question ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Level Of Analysis

The Middle East is often considered a war zone, and it rarely comes to mind as a region that includes cases of peaceful change. Yet several examples of peaceful change can be identified at different levels of analysis: international, regional, interactive, and domestic. This chapter first critically examines the impact of the broader global/systemic level of analysis on the prospects for peaceful change. It then moves to examine the regional level of analysis, exploring the Kurdish question and the Arab-Israeli conflict as a central axis of change, the role of the Arab League, and the case of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The chapter then examines the interactive, bilateral level of analysis, exploring peaceful territorial change in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, with reference to the successful Israeli-Egyptian negotiations of 1977–1979 and the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process since 1993. Next, it explores the domestic level of analysis, focusing on domestic politics, the nature of ruling coalitions, and the implications of the domestic turmoil of the Arab Spring. The last section draws conclusions from each level of analysis, with implications about the prospects for peaceful change in the region.

Formal and Informal Groups

2018 ◽  
pp. 331-345
Author(s):  
Monica Herz
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International System ◽  
Regional Governance ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
International Governance ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
Regional Interaction ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
Informal Groups

The chapter examines the idea and practice of regional governance during the last twenty years. Intergovernmental regional organizations provide the focus of the analysis as they often are the hub of regional interaction leading to the generation of rules. In order to understand the idea of regional governance, the chapter looks into the relation between this idea and three other processes taking place in the international system: the changing nature of sovereignty, globalization, and the challenges to nationally based representative democracy. The role of regional multidimensional organizations that perform similar tasks in the human rights is a focus in the humanitarian, democratic governance, development, and security spheres as a result of the diffusion of international governance practices.

scholarly journals SYRIA'S POSITION ON IRAQ'S INVASION OF KUWAIT IN 1990

2021 ◽  
Vol 03 (08) ◽  
pp. 387-407
Author(s):  
Ohood Abbas Ohood Abbas
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Strategic Changes ◽  
Arab League ◽  
The Difference

At the beginning of the nineties of the last century, one of the most prominent Arab problems appeared ‎in the Middle East, which was represented by Iraq‏’‏s invasion of Kuwait, which was the most prominent ‎event at all levels, regional and international, given the great political and strategic changes that the ‎invasion provoked in the region and the difference in attitudes and consensus at other times, ‎including‏ ‏It was necessary for us to study and analyze the position of one of the most important Arab ‎countries in the region, which is the Syrian position on the issue of Iraq‏’‏s invasion of Kuwait and its ‎repercussions, and the Syrian government‏’‏s attempt to settle that conflict by adopting various effective ‎ways to contain the crisis and prevent the dispersal of the Arab nation with its focus on finding a ‎peaceful solution to avoid the countries of the region from possible future dangers‏. ‏It cannot be ‎controlled later, which is what prompted it to go along with all the Arab and international resolutions ‎that condemned that invasion. That is why it sought to announce its position on the issue of the ‎invasion clearly and transparently, and on several occasions, it did not deviate from its national and ‎Arab principles until the date of the liberation of Kuwait and the resolution of the crisis and its end‎‎. Keywords: Iraq, Syria, Invasion, Security Council, Saudi Arabia, Arab League, Kuwait

scholarly journals The Rule of Law in the Middle East and the Islamic World

2001 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 167-171
Author(s):  
Mohammad Fadel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Average Length ◽  
The United States ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Varying Length ◽  
The Government

This work grew out of a series of lectures that were delivered over atwo-year period between 1996 and 1998 at the Centre of Islamic andMiddle Eastern Law (CIMEL) at the School of Oriental and AfricanStudies (SOAS), University of London, on the genera] subject of the rule oflaw in the Middle East and Islamic countries. Subsequently, materials wereadded dealing particularly with issues relating to human rights law. Thecontributors to this work are a combination of legal academics, human rights activists, lawyers and judges, who hale from various countries in theArab world, Iran, the United States, Great Britain and Germany.There are a total of fourteen separate chapters, of varying length andquality. The book is not lengthy - including notes and authors’ biographies,it is 180 pages long. The average length of each chapter is between ten andfifteen pages. Despite the diversity of countries surveyed, all the essays areconcerned with generic questions regarding the rule of law, whether in atheoretical sense, viz., whether the notion that legitimate governmentalaction is limited to those acts that are deemed lawful by a pre-existing setor rules, or in a practical sense, viz., assuming that the formal legal regimeof a given state recognizes the rule of law in a theoretical sense, whetherthe coercive apparatus of the state in fact recognizes legal limitations onits conduct.Perhaps the most interesting (it is certainly the most lengthy, at 35 pages),and most important, essay in this work is the very fiit one, authored byAdel Omar Sherif, an Egyptian judge, wherein the author provides a digestof the landmark decisions of the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court.While the work can be criticized for taking on the appearance of a meresurvey of decisions, without taking a critical perspective to the Court’sprecedents, it is nonetheless a very valuable contribution for those lawyersand scholars who cannot read Arabic but nonetheless wish to gain insightinto Egypt’s legal culture. The modest task of relating the decisions ofEgypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court is especially important given thecliches regarding the absence of effective judicial institutions in the Arabworld. Sherifs contribution effectively dispels that myth. His article revealsthe Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court to be a vibrant institution thattakes its constitutional duties seriously, and discharges those duties withintegrity, and when it finds that the government has acted unlawfully, it willstrike down the offensive legislation, or rule against the government ...

scholarly journals Iran Nuclear Deal: Its Political and Economic Implications for the Region as a Whole and for Pakistan

2019 ◽  
pp. 259-267
Author(s):  
Muhammad Shah ◽  
Rab Nawaz ◽  
Muhammad Mahsud
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Persian Gulf ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Regional Power ◽  
Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Economic Opportunities ◽  
Other Hand

Introduction. No doubt that the Iran-USA nuclear deal of 2015 got fame in the international politics. Some countries were in favor of such a deal and some were against this development. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has more concerns over the Iran nuclear deal, it feels that after the deal Iran will become a regional power and will increase its military and political power which will disturb the regional security and stability. As the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) itself provokes the creation of such conditions, thus their influence in the Middle East will be affected. Analysis. The article analyzes the concerns of Israel, implications for Turkey, the question why deal is beneficial for Pakistan, economic concerns of Saudi Arabia, implications for Persian Gulf and Middle East, economic implications for Turkey, economic opportunities for Pakistan. After the nuclear deal, Iran becomes a regional power and increases its political and economic influence in the region, especially in the Persian Gulf. The world says that Iran cannot get nuclear weapons after the deal because it has no such a capacity. However, according to some findings from the documents of the deal Iran is not blocked to become a nuclear power and the deal legitimizes the nuclear program. So, on the other hand after the Iran nuclear deal the regional political and economic environment is totally favorable to Iran. On the other hand, scholars believe that the United States of America (USA) operate in terms of diplomatic competition. From the economic standpoint, the deal will be favorable for Iran. Thus, some countries have objections related to the deal, while others express a positive attitude towards it. Results. Pakistan will be able to generate economic opportunities from Iran, especially with the help of Iran-Pakistan-India Gas pipeline project (IPI project). Consequences of the deal will be beneficial for the regional economic development of the Middle East and South Asia respectively.

A Dream Deferred

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (141) ◽  
pp. 30-59
Author(s):  
Sarah Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
International News ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Media Development ◽  
International Networks ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
The Status ◽  
Scientists And Engineers

Abstract International news, and the technological infrastructures required to collect, distribute, and publish it, have long been battlegrounds of imperial ambition and anticolonial contestation. In the early 1960s, press professionals, engineers, and telecom officials from the global South elaborated a wide-ranging structural critique of the status quo, arguing that developing mass media required decolonizing international networks and global governance practices that perpetuated media inequality. But over the course of the decade, UNESCO began to invite research and expertise from American social scientists and engineers, who came to define UNESCO’s approach to satellite-based media development. By redefining the scope of media development to an instrumentalist vision of Westernization, such research eclipsed a broad, structural vision of reform, casting southern experts’ more radical designs into shadow. By recovering this history, the article tells a new story of the ideologies and governance practices that helped sustain global news inequality in the satellite age.

A Structural Explanation for Sino-US-Venezuelan Relations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Petros Spanakos
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
South America ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Regional Governance ◽  
Chinese Foreign Policy ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
Governance System ◽  
Structural Explanation ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Way

US-Venezuelan relations display both confrontation and cooperation. Chinese relations with Venezuela are a most likely case for rebellion against the global governance system over which the US presides. This chapter makes a structuralist argument, arguing that the way that the three countries are positioned within global and regional governance structures conditions the underlying character of their relations with each other. Simply put, the US, China, and Venezuela have very different interests and capabilities and their structural positions in South America explain why the increased Chinese presence in Venezuela is neither a threat to the US nor does it substantially aid Venezuelan intentions toward multi-polarizing the region or world. To make this argument, the chapter assumes that US foreign policy toward Venezuela is informed by its position as regional hegemon, Chinese foreign policy toward Venezuela is informed by its position as an extra-regional commercial state, and Venezuelan foreign policy toward both is informed by its position as a petrostate.

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