scholarly journals Procedural Delay in the Developing Middle East

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-125
Author(s):  
Kim Economides
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Legal Tradition ◽  
Time Standards ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Civil Trials ◽  
Court Processing ◽  
Relative Concept

AbstractIn this article, I explore whether and how Middle Eastern legal process can be reconciled with the idea of timeliness. The idea that any procedure physically within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions could be both fair and expeditious may appear counterintuitive to those brought up in the Anglo-American legal tradition, and the suggestion that there could exist a notion of “timely Middle Eastern procedure” that produced just and fair results is more than likely to be treated as an oxymoron. Administrative, political and legal processes throughout the Levant and Arab world are, when viewed through Western eyes, more than likely to be characterised as corrupt, slow or even Kafkaesque. I argue that procedural delay is an inherently problematic and relative concept, both legally and culturally speaking, which cannot make sense without introducing robust time standards against which court processing time can be evaluated. I seek to elucidate the fundamental nature and causes of procedural delay in relation to civil trials and propose the adoption of a distinct methodology that could be used to more objectively assess court efficiency in handling civil cases throughout the GCC and MENA regions.

scholarly journals Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Rachid Ouaissa ◽  
Friederike Pannewick ◽  
Alena Strohmaier
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Central Interest ◽  
Transformation Processes

Abstract This essay collection is the outcome of interdisciplinary research into political, societal, and cultural transformation processes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region at the Philipps-Universität in Marburg, Germany. It builds on many years of collaboration between two research networks at the Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies: the research network “Re-Configurations: History, Remembrance and Transformation Processes in the Middle East and North Africa” (2013–19), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and the Leibniz-Prize research group “Figures of Thought | Turning Points: Cultural Practices and Social Change in the Arab World” (2013–20), funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). Both research projects’ central interest lay in the political, social, and cultural transformation that has become especially visible since 2010–11; we conceptualize this transformation here using the term “re-configurations.” At the core of the inquiry are interpretations of visions of past and future, power relations and both political and symbolic representations.

scholarly journals CONSEQUENCES OF THE REALIZATION OF NATO STRATEGY IN THE CONFLICTS OF "THE ARAB SPRING" FOR THE STATES OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

2016 ◽  
pp. 118-124
Author(s):  
E. A. Antyukhova
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Eastern Area ◽  
Regional Conflicts ◽  
The North ◽  
The Arab Spring

The article considers the consequences of the realization of NATO strategy in the conflicts of "the Arab spring" for the states of the Middle East and North Africa. It is pointed out that the main approaches to the realization of NATO strategy, its results and the consequences of the Alliance crisis management of "the Arab spring" have a contradictory character. On the one hand, the strategic problem of the block has been realized: arrangement of conflicts and an attempt to appear in the opinion of the world community as the only peacekeeping force capable of controlling and resolving regional conflicts. At the same time the Alliance has shown the efficiency of its partner programs. The high quality performance of the military forces of NATO has been confirmed. The North Atlantic Alliance has started moves towards strengthening its own positions in the region under the auspices of assistance in democratization of Arab states by supporting protest performances. On the other hand, the members of the Alliance have very specifically approached the realization of tasks of settlement of the conflicts. As a result, in the majority of the countries of the Arab world the conflicts not only have not been settled but, on the contrary, in a number of cases have intensified. One of the main consequences of the realization of NATO of its approaches to settlement of the events of "the Arab spring" was the export of "instability" which entailed radical changes in the geopolitical situation in the Middle East region. The geopolitical configuration of all the Middle Eastern area has changed. Some diffusion of the territorial activity of certain states (Iraq, Libya, Syria) is observed. In the course of the Arab crisis there appeared new ethnic (Kurdish) and territorial ("The Islamic State") enclaves. More and more countries are found to be involved in the conflict.

Rethinking the Middle East and North Africa in the Cold War

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-319
Author(s):  
Paul Thomas Chamberlin
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Third World ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Transnational Connections ◽  
The Third World ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Cold War History

The new Cold War history has begun to reshape the ways that international historians approach the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) during the post-1945 era. Rather than treating the region as exceptional, a number of scholars have sought to focus on the historical continuities and transnational connections between the Middle East and other areas of the Third World. This approach is based on the notion that the MENA region was enmeshed in the transnational webs of communication and exchange that characterized the post-1945 global system. Indeed, the region sat not only at the crossroads between Africa and the Eurasian landmass but also at the convergence of key global historical movements of the second half of the 20th century. Without denying cultural, social, and political elements that are indeed unique to the region, this scholarship has drawn attention to the continuities, connections, and parallels between the Middle Eastern experience and the wider world.

scholarly journals Environmental Performance and Economic Growth in Middle East and North Africa Countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (24) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hichem Dkhili
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Smooth Transition ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Mena Countries ◽  
The Impact

Background. Studies on environmental performance/quality and economic growth show inconclusive results. Objective. The aim of the present study is to assess the non-linear relationship between environmental performance and economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region from 2002–2018. Methods. A sample of fourteen (14) MENA countries was used in the present analysis. However, due to important differences between countries in this region, the whole sample was divided into two sub-samples; nine Middle Eastern countries (MEAS) and five North African countries (NAF). We performed the panel smooth transition regression model as an econometric approach. Discussion. Empirical results indicate a threshold effect in the environmental performance and economic growth relationship. The threshold value differs from one group of countries to another. More specifically, we found that the impact of environmental performance and economic growth is positive and significant only if a certain threshold level has been attained. Until then, the effect remains negative. Conclusions. The findings of the present study are of great importance for policymakers since they determine the optimal level of environmental performance required to act positively on the level of economic growth. MENA countries should seek to improve their environmental performance index in order to grow output. Competing Interests. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

scholarly journals Barrier or Opportunity? Political Islam and Support for Women’s Political Participation in Morocco

1970 ◽  
pp. 17-30
Author(s):  
Lindsay J. Benstead
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
World Region ◽  
Other World ◽  
Elected Office ◽  
Women's Political Participation

Women face a myriad of barriers to labor force participation in the Arab world, including discriminatory social attitudes which hinder their access to elected office (Norris & Inglehart, 2001). Scholars differ about why women’s empowerment lags behind in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Inglehart and Norris (2003a)argue that the gender gap in women’s political participation is explained by a dearth of democratic values, including support for women’s rights, which they show is lower in the Middle East and North Africa than in any other world region (Inglehart & Norris, 2003a; 2003b, p. 33). This belief is reinforced by data from the World Values Survey (1995-2007), in which respondents in 20 Muslim nations expressed negative stereotypes about women as political leaders.

Colonial Policies, Middle Eastern War, and City Spaces

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maud S. Mandel
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
French Government ◽  
Jewish Refugees ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Minority Policies ◽  
The City ◽  
Politically Active

Beginning in 1948 when war in the Middle East caused minor unrest in the city of Marseille, this chapter traces the way in which disagreements over Israel became a way to debate inequities in French minority policies at home and in North Africa. In Marseille, the gathering point for Jewish clandestine migration to Palestine, Algerian Muslims' anger toward what they perceived as French complicity in migration schemes was compounded by frustrations that French officials seemed to be favoring Jewish refugees over newly minted French Algerian Muslim citizens. Conflicts around war in the Middle East thus became an opportunity for politically active Muslims and Jews to negotiate their relationship with the French state, as the former established new parameters for political participation in the aftermath of the Holocaust by pushing the French government to support Israel, and the latter tested the limitations on a citizenship that never made good on its promises.

Crafting the Ancient Near Eastern Canon

2020 ◽  
pp. 319-321
Author(s):  
Zena Kamash
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Creative Writing ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Personal Reflection ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Art Practices

This chapter offers a personal reflection on two projects that seek to find alternative ways to respond to Middle Eastern heritage: “Remembering the Romans in the Middle East and North Africa” and “Rematerialising Mosul Museum.” Both projects aim to provide ways for people to rejuvenate friendships with heritage objects through a range of craft and art practices (felting, drawing, photograph, and creative writing). This chapter reflects on the author’s own crafted responses and uses these to explore how crafting can help people think more deeply about how they relate to the canon as individuals and how they might use crafting to make their own personal canon. In particular, this chapter thinks through why practices of this kind are important to the author as a person who is a British Iraqi, as well as an archaeologist.

She Came from Kasaba

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 582-585
Author(s):  
Leslie Hakim-Dowek
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Jewish Community ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Modal Approach ◽  
History Of

As in Marianne Hirsch’s (2008) notion of ‘devoir de memoire’, this poem-piece, from a new series, uses the role of creation and imagination to strive to ‘re-activate and re-embody’ distant family/historical transcultural spaces and memories within the perspective of a dispersed history of a Middle-Eastern minority, the Sephardi/Jewish community. There is little awareness that Sephardi/Jewish communities were an integral part of the Middle East and North Africa for many centuries before they were driven out of their homes in the second half of the twentieth century. Using a multi-modal approach combining photography and poetry, this photo-poem series has for focus my female lineage. This piece evokes in particular the memory of my grandmother, encapsulating many points in history where persecution and displacement occurred across many social, political and linguistic borders.

Sindbad's Ocean: Reframing the Market in the Middle East

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 754-757
Author(s):  
Johan Mathew
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Gulliver's Travels ◽  
The World ◽  
Cultural Markers ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Indian Ocean World

There are few figures as universally beloved and yet recognizably “Middle Eastern” as Sindbad. The text of Sindbad's seven voyages travel easily across continents and languages and many of the tales blur imperceptibly into those of Homer'sThe Odysseyand Swift'sGulliver's Travels. Yet this swashbuckling adventurer is also firmly situated in the world of Abbasid Iraqandthe Indian Ocean world. Sindbad is clearly identified as a good Muslim and respected Baghdadi merchant, and while fantastical, there are recognizable geographic and cultural markers that locate his voyages within the Indian Ocean world. This iconic character of Arab popular culture pushes us to contemplate how easily the Arab world flows into that of the Indian Ocean.

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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