Geopolitics of Conflicts and Refugees in the Middle East and North Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
AKM Ahsan Ullah
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Refugee Policy ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Border Conflicts ◽  
The Arab Spring

Geopolitically intertwined and strategically significant refugee policy in the MENA region is frequently analyzed in light of well-documented ethnic, religious, class, and border conflicts. However, the policy is also inexorably linked to the broader geopolitics of the global refugee protection regime and discourse. This article analyzes the complex relationship between geopolitics, domestic political dynamics, and their attendant crises in the MENA region. The complex set of political shockwaves of the Arab Spring induced massive mobility of people which may compound incipient political tensions between and within MENA states.

Attitudes of Students in the GCC Region towards the Arab Spring

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Naufal ◽  
Ismail Genc ◽  
Carlos Vargas-Silva
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
South Asia ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Gcc Countries ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
The Arab Spring

The purpose of this chapter is to present new empirical research on the Arab Spring and, specifically, to focus on the attitudes of residents of one country in the Middle East towards the Arab Spring. This research was conducted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has been one of the main migrant destinations in the world for the last two decades. This allows for comparisons regarding attitudes towards the Arab Spring across individuals from different regions of origin such as GCC, South Asia, and Western countries. The attitudes of university students are important because the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has experienced a substantial increase in the 17 to 23 years of age population. Existing reports suggest that, by far, those involved in Arab Spring protests were young individuals. The analysis places particular emphasis on the correlation of attitudes towards the Arab Spring with three key aspects: religiousness, attachment to the GCC countries, and attachment to country of origin.

Effect of the Arab Spring on Stabilization Capacity of the MENA Monarchies

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110173
Author(s):  
Andrey V Korotayev ◽  
Alina A Khokhlova
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
The Face ◽  
Mass Protest ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Negative Predictor

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region after the Arab Spring, monarchy has turned out to be a far stronger negative predictor of destabilization than it was before 2011. For the MENA, the period after 2010 can be subdivided into three periods: a mass protests period (2011–2012), the period of explosive growth of radical Islamist activities (2013–2016), and the second mass protest period (since 2016). Our analysis demonstrates that monarchies’ stabilization capacity was preserved in 2011–2012 and grew substantially during 2013–2016, as MENA monarchies turned out to be more resilient in the face of the outbreak of radical Islamism in the region.

Regional order and regional powers in the Middle East and North Africa

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordi Quero ◽  
Eduard Soler
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Great Power ◽  
English School ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Regional Powers ◽  
Regional Order ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact

This chapter discusses whether and to what extent the internal political changes unfolding in the Middle East and North Africa since 2011 have triggered a shift in the subsystem’s regional order and its institutions. Drawing on the English School and constructivist theories of International Relations, it firstly discusses the impact of the Arab Spring on the ‘constitutional structure’ of the regional order. Next, it examines if we have witnessed a change in some of the fundamental institutions in place in the MENA region (alliances and amity/enmity cleavages, non-intervention, multilateralism and bilateralism, and great power management). It argues that slight changes in the fundamental institutions since the Arab Spring generally respond to a more fundamental systemic change that took place in the context of the 2003 war in Iraq. However, despite attempts to challenge it, the constitutional structure of the regional order remains intact.

Spillover democratisation: Reflections from MENA politics

2021 ◽  
pp. 205789112199557
Author(s):  
Sujay Ghosh
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
Support For Democracy ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
The Arab Spring

‘Spillover democratisation’ is an ongoing process. It envisages that democratic values, institutions and practices continue to spread and evolve through various pathways – horizontal, geographical and vertical. Yet, possibilities also remain that anti-democracy forces may thwart the process. In Middle East and North Africa (MENA), social and economic rights were not accompanied by civil and political rights. The Arab Spring was a response to this gap: it raised the optimism of achieving democratisation in the MENA region, through geographical and horizontal pathways. However, the promise remains largely elusive at present; rather, we witness the cementing of existing anti-democratic forces. Yet, citizens’ innate support for democracy, sporadic pro-democracy activism and rising consumerism sustain the democratising potentials of the Arab Spring.

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 Arab Spring as a Factor of Emergence of Salafi Parties in the Middle East and North Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-176
Author(s):  
T. R. Khayrullin
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
New Development ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Arab Spring

The article is devoted to the analysis of Salafi Islamism. Conservative Salafi Islamism during the events of the Arab spring received a new development. In particular, the fall of authoritarian regimes and the beginning of the democratic process in the Middle East and North Africa led to the creation of Salafi political parties. The Salafi sts believed, that in a favorable political environment, they would be able to defend their legal status and gain some privileges through participating in parliamentary elections. However, the creation of parties has deepened internal divisions within the Salafi movements. In particular, there were supporters among the Salafi sts, who defended the combination of student and political activities against those who considered participation in the political struggle as a temporary tactical action. The result of the disagreement was the emergence of a reformist movement, that began to see participation in politics as a tool for strengthening the position of the Salafi st movement.

scholarly journals The Reasons and Economic and Political Consequences of Arab Spring

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-49
Author(s):  
Sertan Cinar ◽  
Ismet Gocer
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Coup D'etat ◽  
Related Literature ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Political Interests

A great many states have economic and political interests in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This area has suffered from instabilities, autocratic regimes, economic hardships and radical movements as well as rich natural resources. In this study, the reasons and political and economic consequences of Arab Spring were studied. As far as we are concerned, this study is supposed to contribute to the related literature at a time when the democratic government was toppled with a coup d’état in Egypt and ongoing civil war in Syria.

scholarly journals Digital use and mistrust in the aftermath of the Arab Spring: beyond narratives of liberation and disillusionment

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 1125-1141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Moreno-Almeida ◽  
Shakuntala Banaji
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Young People ◽  
New Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Arab Spring

Through the prism of the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East in 2010–2011, new media has been presented as diametrically opposed to the top-down and mistrusted. Asking the question, ‘In what ways do trust, privacy and surveillance concerns intersect and inflect the individual and collective practices of young people in networks of participation, and their sense of civic connection through old and new media?’, this article presents a nuanced understanding of the relationship between digital media and mistrust. Through the study of original case studies in Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and the UAE, we examine attitudes towards and usage of digital media in creating and maintaining political, civic, cultural and artistic networks among communities. We analyse our abundant qualitative interviews, observations and ethnographic data collected to reveal the continuity of media mistrust as people move into the digital arena. As new tools continue to be launched many young people in the region remain alert to the ways in which these tools can serve or hinder individual and group aims. Beyond narratives of liberation, disillusionment or democratisation, ‘new’ media poses both mundane and surprising challenges in encouraging and engaging networks of participation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

The “Arab Spring” as Seen through the Prism of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Negin Nabavi
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
New Order ◽  
Iranian Revolution ◽  
The Past ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Arab Middle East

Revolutions are by nature unpredictable and unsettling. That the wave of revolutions in North Africa and the Arab Middle East began so unexpectedly and spread with such speed, leading to the fall of the governments of Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, has added to the concern regarding the “new order” that is to come after the initial euphoria. From the outset, the fear has been that these revolutions will follow the same trajectory as Iran did in 1979—in other words, that they will marginalize those who launched the revolutions and provide the grounds for the rise to power of the most savvy, purposeful, and best organized of the opposition groups, namely, the Islamists. Yet when one considers the recent uprisings in the Arab world through the prism of Iran's experiences in 1979, the parallels are not so evident. Mindful of the variations and distinctions between each of the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, it would appear that in broad terms, and beyond superficial similarities, there is little in common between the events of Iran in 1979 and what has happened in the past year in the Arab world.

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