scholarly journals The osce and the Libyan Crisis

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 23-38
Author(s):  
Walter Morana
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Energy Security ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
External Actors ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Common Security

This article examines the role played by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (osce) and other external actors in tackling security issues that have emerged in Libya since the outbreak of the Arab Spring. Uncontrolled migration, human trafficking, radicalization and energy security are still at stake within the comprehensive and indivisible security that the osce strives to bring across its area. Although security in the Mediterranean is linked to that of osce participating States, Libya’s fragmentation has highlighted the challenges in adopting joint policies in the country. Therefore, the osce still faces the challenge to effectively engage with Libya in its ongoing debate on common security in the Mediterranean.

14. The International Politics of the Gulf

2019 ◽  
pp. 317-338
Author(s):  
Matteo Legrenzi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Gulf Region ◽  
External Threats ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Regional Influence ◽  
External Actors ◽  
The Arab Spring

This chapter focuses on the international politics of the Gulf region, which are defined by the interplay of the local states and outside powers. The domestic framework and its interactions with transnational influences and external actors are crucial to understanding the environment within which local states operate — whether revolutionary Iran, Saddam Hussein's Iraq, or the Gulf monarchies themselves. Given that regime security drives states in their foreign policies, the need to cope with both internal and external threats is compelling. Outside actors are important in as much as they supply or help to combat such threats. The withdrawal of US forces from Iraq and the relative immunity of the Gulf monarchies from the effects of the Arab Spring have afforded these states greater regional influence and autonomy, but events since 2015 also reveal deep divides among them over issues like IS, Iranian foreign policy, and the war in Yemen.

10. Middle East Security: Conflict and Securitization of Identities

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Calculli ◽  
Matteo Legrenzi
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Strategic Competition ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
External Actors ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact

This chapter examines the Middle East’s security dilemmas by reconsidering the balance of power and threats in light of the Arab Spring. Although external actors are still important, as is regime security, in this balance, an important feature of the current scene is the ‘securitization of identities’ whereby rival regimes mobilize different identities to preserve and consolidate their positions against the destabilizing effects of change. The chapter also explores the emergence of a region-based rivalry between monarchies and republics and how they were affected by the Arab uprisings; the strategic competition between Sunni and Shia Islam; and the impact of the ‘Shia crescent’ from 2003 to the aftermath of the 2011 uprisings. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the ways that competition among rival Sunni regimes in the aftermath of the 2011 uprisings has been ideologically shaped in terms of support for/opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Wave of change in the Arab world and chances for a transition to democracy

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdelkader Abdelali
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Democratic Transformation ◽  
The Arab Spring

This article looks at the literature on democratization in the Arab world, and links it to the ongoing political change since the ‘Arab Spring’. Whereas assessing the ongoing events in the Arab world as an ‘Arab Spring’ or revolution is still a matter of speculation, there is a need to re-examine the literature on democratization which is dominated by the hypothesis of Arab and Islamic exceptionalism. This article aims at presenting possible explanations for these theoretical perspectives in light of the ongoing debate on definition, characterization and interpretation of what is actually happening in the Arab world, amidst contradicting representation of facts and data. The study concludes that defining the ‘Arab Spring’ as democratic transformation is a premature judgement. What is happening, instead, can be considered a ‘transition from authoritarianism’. Democratic transition depends on a number of factors that allow for building democratic political institutions and at the same time, diminishing the possibilities of renewal of autocracy and authoritarianism in the Arab world.

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