Chasing the Rising Red Crescent: Sino-Shi’i Relations in Post-Cold War Era China

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 313-347
Author(s):  
Itamar Y. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Rise Of China ◽  
Middle East Policy ◽  
The Impact

This article adopts a unique angle to analyze China’s Middle East policy in “Chasing the Rising Red Crescent: Sino-Shi’i Relations in the Post-Cold War Era.” With the end of the Cold War and the political renaissance of Islam, the author argues that China’s strategic approaches towards the Middle East have changed fundamentally. The rise of China on the Middle East coupled with the strategic ascendancy of Shi’i Islam in the Middle East invites a strategic window for the emerging architecture of global geopolitics and world economy. The aim of Lee’s study is to make clear the historical trajectories and evolving strategic calculations in China’s Middle East policy and its global implications by reviewing Sino-Shi’i relations in general and introducing Chinese strategic interactions with Iran, Iraq, Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas in particular. Since the establishment of zhongguo zhongdong wenti teshi [Chinese Special Envoy for Middle Eastern Affairs] in 2002, China’s economic presence and political clout in the Middle East including the Shi’i region have been advanced obviously. Sino-Shi’i relations in the post-Cold War era, thus, should be seriously examined not only for understanding China’s strategic perceptions of the Middle East but also for explaining the pattern of Chinese foreign behaviours, as well as for expecting the impact of China’s rising in the region and its geopolitical implications for the future of China-U.S. relations

scholarly journals An Accommodative Security Architecture in the Asia-Pacific

2015 ◽  
Vol 01 (02) ◽  
pp. 247-264
Author(s):  
Chunsi Wu
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Security Architecture ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Security Environment ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Rise Of China ◽  
Diverse Cultures

In the Asia-Pacific geopolitical dynamics, China's rise and its accompanying "assertive" diplomacy are often cited by some studies as the cause of security concerns. The author argues that this interpretation of the Asia-Pacific security situation is wrong. The Asia-Pacific confronts various and complex security problems, which cannot be simply attributed to the rise of China. The occurrence and activation of so many security problems in the Asia-Pacific only indicate that the security architecture in the region is undergoing a profound transition. The old security architecture inherited from the Cold War era cannot effectively handle the security problems in the region any more. The Asia-Pacific needs a new architecture adaptive to the features of the post-Cold War era. The new security architecture should embody the spirit of cooperation and reflect Asian countries' interests and ways of handling regional affairs. More importantly, the new security architecture should feature ample accommodativeness, not only including the diverse cultures and paths of development of the region, but also encouraging and incentivizing all parties of the region to learn from each other so as to JNTly create a sustainable security environment for the region.

Post-Soviet Russian Foreign Policy Toward the Middle East

1996 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark N. Katz
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Russian Foreign Policy ◽  
Arab Region ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Soviet Foreign Policy ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Middle East Policy ◽  
Former Ussr

AbstractSince the breakup of the USSR in 1991, there has been significant change in Moscow's Middle East policy. During much of the Cold War, Moscow sought to project Soviet influence throughout even the far off Arab region of the Middle East. In the post-Cold War era, though, Russian foreign policy has focused on that part of the Middle East closest to the former USSR-the Northern Tier. This article will examine the major aspects of post-Cold War Russian foreign policy toward the Middle East in order to identify Moscow's multiple goals in the region and discuss Moscow's capacity for achieving them. First, though, a brief review of the different stages of Imperial and Soviet foreign policy toward the region is necessary in order to show the extent to which post-Cold War Russian foreign policy toward the Middle East has and has not changed.

4. The Middle East Since the Cold War: Movement without Progress

2019 ◽  
pp. 80-104
Author(s):  
Bahgat Korany
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Security Patterns ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
Arab Israeli Conflict ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter focuses on the Middle East during the post-Cold-War era. It introduces some the key themes that have come to dominate contemporary international relations of the Middle East: oil; new and old conflicts; the impacts of globalization; and religio-politics. In considering the major security patterns and trends in the Middle East, one finds a number of enduring issues, such as the Arab–Israeli conflict and border disputes. At the same time, one can see elements of change, both within these conflicts and with the emergence of recent threats, such as Iranian nuclearization, with profound consequences for regional alliance structures. As old and new security issues mingle in the geopolitical order, events of the past few years reflect a region dominated by conflict clusters. It is no surprise then that the Middle East remains a highly militarized region.

Southeast Asia's New Nationalism: Causes and Significance

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuong Vu
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Regional Level ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Mass Politics ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
Regional Order ◽  
Asian Context ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Rise Of China

AbstractThis paper explains the post-Cold War surge of nationalism in Southeast Asia and discusses its significance for regional peace and cooperation. As argued, the growth of nationalism as a form of mass politics has different causes in each Southeast Asian context where it occurs, but at the regional level the phenomenon can be explained by three factors: the failure of earlier nationalist movements to fully deliver their promises; a shift in the international and regional order (the end of the Cold War and the rise of China); and a change in domestic order (political liberalisation and democratisation) that was also occurring across many countries in the region. While the main mission of the new nationalism is the defence of national territory, the movements have the unintended impact of bringing together national communities once divided by Cold War ideologies. The phenomenon also poses some serious risks to regional peace and cooperation.

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.

A test of the democratic peacekeeping hypothesis: Coups, democracy, and foreign military deployments

2020 ◽  
pp. 002234332090562
Author(s):  
Jamie Levin ◽  
Joseph MacKay ◽  
Anne Spencer Jamison ◽  
Abouzar Nasirzadeh ◽  
Anthony Sealey
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Private Goods ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Incumbent Regime ◽  
Coup Risk ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
At Home

While peacekeeping’s effects on receiving states have been studied at length, its effects on sending states have only begun to be explored. This article examines the effects of contributing peacekeepers abroad on democracy at home. Recent qualitative research has divergent findings: some find peacekeeping contributes to democratization among sending states, while others find peacekeeping entrenches illiberal or autocratic rule. To adjudicate, we build on recent quantitative work focused specifically on the incidence of coups. We ask whether sending peacekeepers abroad increases the risk of military intervention in politics at home. Drawing on selectorate theory, we expect the effect of peacekeeping on coup risk to vary by regime type. Peacekeeping brings with it new resources which can be distributed as private goods. In autocracies, often developing states where UN peacekeeping remuneration exceeds per-soldier costs, deployment produces a windfall for militaries. Emboldened by new resources, which can be distributed as private goods among the selectorate, and fearing the loss of them in the future, they may act to depose the incumbent regime. In contrast, peacekeeping will have little effect in developed democracies, which have high per-troop costs, comparatively large selectorates, and low ex-ante coup risk. Anocracies, which typically have growing selectorates, and may face distinctive international pressures to democratize, will likely experience reduced coup risk. We test these claims with data covering peacekeeping deployments, regime type, and coup risk since the end of the Cold War. Our findings confirm our theoretical expectations. These findings have implications both for how we understand the impact of participation in peacekeeping – particularly among those countries that contribute troops disproportionately in the post-Cold War era – and for the potential international determinants of domestic autocracy.

Europe and the Arab-Israel Conflict: A Survey

1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-16
Author(s):  
Paul-Marie de La Gorce
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
European Community ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Gulf War ◽  
Marked Contrast ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War

With France in the lead, the European Community in 1996 seemed on the verge of cautiously asserting a more independent role in the Middle East peace process. This is in marked contrast to Europe's passive role for more than a decade following Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and especially since the Gulf War, a period during which France and other major European powers acquiesced in U.S. domination of Arab-Israeli peace issues. Reviewing the history of European initiatives and absences during the cold war era, the author examines whether Europe now has the determination to chart its own peace policy despite U.S. and Israeli antagonism to its involvement.

scholarly journals The Kuwait Crisis of 1990–1991: The Turning Point in India’s Middle East Policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-87
Author(s):  
Md Muddassir Quamar ◽  
P. R. Kumaraswamy
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Gulf Region ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Prime Concern ◽  
The Persian Gulf ◽  
Middle East Policy

The Iraqi invasion, occupation, and annexation of Kuwait in August 1990 exposed the soft underbelly of India’s policy toward the Middle East in general and the Persian Gulf region in particular. While safe evacuation of the Indian workers was a prime concern, some of the steps in that direction proved counterproductive. However, in the long run, the Kuwait crisis resulted in India making two critical steps that shaped its post-Cold War policy toward the region: diminishing influence of the Palestinian cause in its engagements with the Arab world and economic substance replacing political rhetoric.

Turkey and the Middle East in the 1990s

1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabri Sayari
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Gulf War ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Regional Role ◽  
Low Profile ◽  
Policy Agendas ◽  
Kurdish Issue ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Middle East Policy

With the end of the cold war, and particularly following the Gulf War, Turkey abandoned its low-profile posture in the Middle East for a more activist regional role. The Kurdish issue, the single most important item on the country's domestic and foreign policy agendas, has also had important implications for Turkey's Middle East policy, further exacerbating longstanding problems with Syria that in turn contributed to Ankara's decision to sign a military agreement with Israel. The rise to power of the Islamist Refah party in July 1996 in a coalition government is likely to have significant implications for the country's identity and relations both with the West and the Islamic world.

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