scholarly journals Symposium on Middle East and North African (MENA) conflict. Part 1: An introduction

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina Mansour-Ille ◽  
Hamid E Ali
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
North African ◽  
War Economy ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Crony Capitalism ◽  
Post War ◽  
War Power

Since their independence, countries across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have witnessed subsequent waves of social and political conflicts. Armed and non-armed conflicts have almost become a defining feature of a region that has been struggling to find its own identity and a system that best represents its diverse communities and guarantees stability. Calibrated post-war power-sharing formulas of governance have produced authoritarianism, clientelism, elitism and a political post-war economy, where corruption, nepotism, injustice, and crony capitalism are rampant.

Transitions Within Queer North African Cinema

Screen Bodies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter S. Temple
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Film Festivals ◽  
Global Awareness ◽  
Critical Factors ◽  
North African ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
African Cinema ◽  
Queer Cinema

In recent years, North African queer cinema has become increasingly visible both within and beyond Arabo-Orientale spaces. A number of critical factors have contributed to a global awareness of queer identities in contemporary Maghrebi cinema, including the dissemination of films through social media outlets and during international film festivals. Such tout contemporain representations of queer sexuality characterize a robust wave of films in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, inciting a new discourse on the condition of the marginalized traveler struggling to locate new forms of self and being—both at home and abroad.

scholarly journals The North African “Extremistan” of the Islamic State Caliphate

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-13
Author(s):  
Adrian Cosmin Basarabă ◽  
Maria-Mihaela Nistor
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
North African ◽  
Boko Haram ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
The North ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Cellular Matrices

Abstract This article aims at presenting ISIS expansion in North Africa in the first quarter of 2016, with its subsequent implication in the wider framework of Jihadist proliferation worldwide. It can be argued that, while losing real estate in the Middle East, ISIS has started a permanent search for extra-cellular matrices or an ongoing process of de- and reterritorialization. The allegiance and support pledged by other African-based terrorist groups or organizations such as Boko Haram, al-I’tisam of the Koran and Sunnah in Sudan, al-Huda Battalion in Maghreb of Islam, The Soldiers of the Caliphate, al-Ghurabaa, Djamaat Houmat ad-Da’wa as-Salafiya and al-Ansar Battalion in Algeria, Islamic Youth Shura Council, Islamic State Libya (Darnah), in Libya, Jamaat Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, Jund al-Khilafah and Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem in Egypt, Okba Ibn Nafaa Battalion, Mujahideen of Tunisia of Kairouan and Jund al-Khilafah in Tunisia and al-Shabaab Jubba Region Cell Bashir Abu Numan in Somalia is an alarming hypothesis of Jihadism reaching “the threshold of inevitability”- syntagm existent in the network theories of David Singh Grewal- turning a whole region, continent of even world into what Nassim Nicholas Taleb would call Extremistan.

scholarly journals Dietary trends in the Middle East and North Africa: an ecological study (1961 to 2007)

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 1835-1844 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahdieh Golzarand ◽  
Parvin Mirmiran ◽  
Mahsa Jessri ◽  
Karamollah Toolabi ◽  
Mehdi Mojarrad ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Dietary Patterns ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Alcoholic Beverages ◽  
North African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Food Items ◽  
Study Results ◽  
North African Countries

AbstractObjectiveMiddle Eastern and North African countries are undergoing nutrition transition, a transition which is associated with an increased burden of non-communicable diseases. This necessitates the evaluation of dietary patterns in these regions. The present study aimed to assess changes in dietary patterns in Middle Eastern and North African countries between 1961 and 2007.DesignAvailability of energy and fifteen main food items during 1961–2007 was examined using FAO food balance sheets from the FAOSTAT database.SettingFifteen countries including nine in the Middle East and six in North Africa were selected and the average availability of total energy and different food items in these regions were compared.ResultsOver the 47 years studied, energy and food availability (apart from animal fats and alcoholic beverages) has increased in the Middle East and North Africa. In both regions the proportion of energy derived from meat and vegetable oils has increased significantly while that from cereals decreased significantly. In addition, the proportion of energy from milk and dairy products and vegetables has shown an ascending trend in North Africa while the proportion of energy from fruits has shown a descending trend in the Middle East.ConclusionsThe study results reveal an unfavourable trend towards a Westernized diet in the Middle East and, to a certain extent, in North Africa. Tailored nutritional education encouraging healthy eating for prevention of the burden of chronic diseases in these countries seems essential.

scholarly journals Cross-species hybridization and the origin of North African date palms

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (5) ◽  
pp. 1651-1658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan M. Flowers ◽  
Khaled M. Hazzouri ◽  
Muriel Gros-Balthazard ◽  
Ziyi Mo ◽  
Konstantina Koutroumpa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Date Palm ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Introgressive Hybridization ◽  
Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽  
North African ◽  
Mixed Ancestry ◽  
History Of

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a major fruit crop of arid regions that were domesticated ∼7,000 y ago in the Near or Middle East. This species is cultivated widely in the Middle East and North Africa, and previous population genetic studies have shown genetic differentiation between these regions. We investigated the evolutionary history of P. dactylifera and its wild relatives by resequencing the genomes of date palm varieties and five of its closest relatives. Our results indicate that the North African population has mixed ancestry with components from Middle Eastern P. dactylifera and Phoenix theophrasti, a wild relative endemic to the Eastern Mediterranean. Introgressive hybridization is supported by tests of admixture, reduced subdivision between North African date palm and P. theophrasti, sharing of haplotypes in introgressed regions, and a population model that incorporates gene flow between these populations. Analysis of ancestry proportions indicates that as much as 18% of the genome of North African varieties can be traced to P. theophrasti and a large percentage of loci in this population are segregating for single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are fixed in P. theophrasti and absent from date palm in the Middle East. We present a survey of Phoenix remains in the archaeobotanical record which supports a late arrival of date palm to North Africa. Our results suggest that hybridization with P. theophrasti was of central importance in the diversification history of the cultivated date palm.

Incorporating Christian Communities in North Africa

2019 ◽  
pp. 644-664
Author(s):  
Susan T. Stevens
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Small Town ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
North African ◽  
Rural Churches ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
The Face ◽  
Material Evidence

Christian communities in North Africa are attested in textual sources from the second into the tenth centuries. The material evidence for them, especially churches, is restricted to the fourth through the seventh centuries and is embedded in the Roman landscape. Case studies of the urban, small town, and rural churches at Ammaedara, Aradi, Henchir Sokrine, and Horrea Caelia demonstrate a North African tendency to incorporate martyria and baptisteries. Churches also embody and shape local communities of martyrs, saints, clergy, and laymen. Their archaeological histories emphasize the continuity and cohesion of Christian communities in the face of sectarian and political conflicts.

Between Scylla and Charybdis? Twenty-Five Years Administrating the Contested Region of Brussels

2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 835-855 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl O’Connor ◽  
Joost Vaesen
Keyword(s):  
State Level ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Elite Level ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
Post War ◽  
Administrative Structures ◽  
The City

Although Belgian politics has experienced numerous political conflicts in the post-war period, the Brussels political system has, since 1989, remained relatively stable. This has led some scholars to suggest that Brussels may be experiencing a depolarization of its traditional linguistic cleavages. In this article, we analyze the possible realignment of these divisions and the possible emergence of an identity based on the urban territory. We trace the development of the public administrations at sub-state level in Brussels post 1989 and add new data on the often neglected elite-level bureaucrats and their individual attachment perceptions. This topic is most relevant as the organization and functioning of the public administrations have proven to be one of the major politically and socially divisive issues of the power-sharing agreement. The article draws on published and unpublished documents and interviews with 20 elite-level bureaucrats from four distinct public administrations operating in Brussels. The findings suggest that a regional urban attachment is emerging among the bureaucratic elite; however, this attachment would not prove robust if either community were to feel threatened. The likelihood of unintended policy making, which would have unintended consequences, is quite high given that the bureaucratic elite do not have confidence in the administrative structures of the city. The findings should be of interest to those interested in identification perceptions and to those studying other more fragile environments in and around Europe’s borders that may one day consider adopting the Brussels approach to conflict management.

scholarly journals The COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa. Old demons in a new bottle

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-18
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Górak-Sosnowska
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
Social Conflicts ◽  
North African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Success Stories ◽  
Gcc Countries ◽  
North African Countries

The paper presents the strategies of Middle East and North African countries in coping with COVID-19 pandemic in the first months of spring/summer 2020. It offers a categorisation of strategies basing on the available assets the countries have and political situation. According to this categorisation there are countries in which the pandemic is one more burden to bear that makes the current political or economic situation even worse (countries torn by war or serious internal social conflicts); countries that cope with the pandemic as good as it gets – taking their institutional capacities (Egypt and Morocco); the too rich to fail category of GCC countries, and two possible success stories (by that time Jordan and Tunisia).

Middle East export growth will be slow

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Export Market ◽  
Trade Policies ◽  
North African ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
Will Force ◽  
The Eu

Subject Regional trade performance. Significance The fall in oil prices has renewed focus on the future of exports from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). However, export diversification and quality are low across the whole of the region's oil and non-oil exporting economies compared to other areas of the world. Impacts The GCC will negotiate more Free Trade Agreements to help protect against protectionist international trade policies. China will be the GCC's largest export market, but will attempt to reduce dependence on GCC petrochemicals. This will force greater efforts by the GCC to diversify its trade relations. North African exports will gain from an expected upturn in the EU, but will be vulnerable due to the concentration of their markets.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document