Fragmentation as a Challenge: Tribal and Sectrarian Identities in the Middle East

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-85
Author(s):  
Kleanthis Kyriakidis
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Arabian Gulf ◽  
The State ◽  
Islamic Revolution ◽  
Direct Response ◽  
Tribal Identity ◽  
Gulf States ◽  
The Ideal

In the Arabian Gulf two identities can be really considered almost as important as the national one: the tribal and the sectarian ones. Someone should expect that the reinforcement of these identities is a direct response to inequality and processes of exclusion. Furthermore, parochial tribalism is expected to arise as the protector of cultural heritage, especially in a region where the ex-pats vastly outnumber the locals. Nonetheless, both statements are far from truth. In this paper we will analyze how in the Gulf, sectarian identity came to play a significant role only after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran and it keeps on surviving through mainly instigations and Iranian propaganda, provocations and support. It should be noted that Sunni identity has been allegedly subjugated in other Middle East States (mainly in Syria and Iraq) but in the Gulf the sectarian challenge stems from the Shia communities, openly supported by Tehran. Strangely enough, the tribal identity does not pose that much of a challenge, since tribes are more the friend than the enemy of all Gulf States. Actually, these countries could not have survived without the loyalty and commitment of the tribes not only to the Royal families but also to the idea of the State and the ideal of the Nation – and Gulf Nations do protect their cultural heritage. Keywords: Gulf, Globalization, Fragmentation, Sectarianism, Tribalism

scholarly journals The Present and Future of Kuwaiti-Iranian Relations and Their Influence on the Security of the Arabian Gulf

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khaled Abdulaziz Alsalloum ◽  
Mohamed Salman Tayie
Keyword(s):  
Arabian Gulf ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
Gulf Countries ◽  
External Relations ◽  
The Future ◽  
Gulf States ◽  
The State Of Kuwait ◽  
Hans Morgenthau

Objective: The objective is to study the present and future of Kuwaiti-Iranian relations through the determinants of the geographical, social, economic and political relationship and the reflection of that relation on the security of the Gulf. The study also examines the future of Gulf security in light of the Kuwaiti-Iranian relations.Method: The study used the approach of the national interest because it is linked to the theory of power, according to Hans Morgenthau, since power is the goal of the foreign policy maker, a major objective of the state in its external relations. Where the political interactions of Kuwait with the Gulf States and Iran is considered in accordance with its national interest.Results: The study concluded that the Kuwaiti-Iranian relations were positive at most stages and that security is one of the most important problems for small countries, but it is capable of playing a role in regional security. The future of Gulf security is linked to the relations of Gulf countries and Iran with major countries and for Kuwait specifically in its relationship with the United States of America and Western Countries through the security and military agreements.Conclusion: The study shows that the State of Kuwait as a small country played a major role through its political and geographical determinants in resolving regional disputes and conflicts.

The Mideast: Figures in the Carpet

Worldview ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 9-11
Author(s):  
Robert K. Olson
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Iraq War ◽  
Arab World ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Gulf States ◽  
Middle East Politics ◽  
Revolutionary Regime ◽  
The U.S

It is not a joking matter, but the state of Middle East politics is nothing if not absurd. Which is to say that, to the Westerner at least, the most recent rearrangement of alliances, conflicts, and rivalries follows no readily apparent pattern of loyalty or consistency—either religious or political. The Iran-Iraq war seems to have crystalized the fragmented Arab world into two opposing blocs, those siding with non-Arab Iran and those backing Saddam Hussein. But Libya and Syria, the two most pro-Soviet countries, have sided with anti-Communist, anti-Soviet Khomeini. On the other hand the Imam is opposed by the two anti-Soviet monarchies of lordan and Saudi Arabia and the non-Communist Gulf states led by pro-Soviet Iraq. The two monarchies might be expected to oppose Iran's revolutionary regime but hardly to ally themselves with a regime no less revolutionary in its own way than Iran. Not to put too fine a point on it, it was the 1958 Iraq revolution that murder ed King Faisal II, ruler of Iraq and cousin to King Hussein. We find Sunni Libya, which has sought to embarrass Alawite president of Syria Assad by stirring up opposition among the Sunni majority of Syria, united with Assad to give aid and comfort to the Shiite leader of Iran. Syria and Iraq, which are hostile to each other, are ruled by the two extant leaders of thp Baath or Renaissance party dedicated to the unity of the Arab peoples. We find Soviet-client Iraq allied with the most proAmerican states, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, against the most anti-American state, Iran. Soviet weaponry provides the security of the Arab axis against American weaponry provided to the shah. Meanwhile, Iran credits the U.S. with starting the war, even though Iran is being attacked with Soviet weaponry.

scholarly journals Review of In a Pure Muslim Land: Shiʿism between Pakistan and the Middle East by Simon Wolfgang Fuchs

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-144
Author(s):  
Mohammad Kalantari
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
The State ◽  
Islamic Revolution ◽  
Layer Interaction ◽  
Transnational Ties ◽  
The World ◽  
Shed Light

By some estimates, the Shiʿis of Pakistan, roughly around 25 million people, represent, after that of Iran, the second-largest community of Shiʿis all around the world. Simon Fuchs’s book is among the few scholarly works which have tried to shed light on this relatively under-studied community. His study of Pakistani Shiʿis goes beyond their internal social and bureaucratic relations within the state, and concentrates more on the religious transnational trends which they have forged, especially after the 1979 Revolution in Iran. He argues how the Islamic Revolution in Iran, a watershed moment for Shiʿi transnationalism, was factored in by some Shiʿi scholars in Pakistan to consolidate their base throughout the community. Describing the evolution of these transnational ties, and its multi-layer interaction with the clerical authority and sectarian polemics in Pakistan, is the theme running through all chapters of the book.

Queering Citizenship, Queering Middle East Studies

2013 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 350-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya Mikdashi
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
Benedict Anderson ◽  
Partha Chatterjee ◽  
Middle East Studies ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Normative Political Theory

Critical citizenship studies have argued that researchers should not take the myth of the universal unmarked citizen to heart, but rather focus on the distance between the ideal of citizenship and its everyday embodied practices and on what the citizen and the state do rather than on the state's narration of itself. As Partha Chatterjee writes in his critique of Benedict Anderson, to endorse “unbound serialities” such as the universal and anonymous citizen is to imagine that nationalism and state practices can function without governmentality. In fact, the state's job is to organize and regulate the shared life of its structurally and practically unequal citizens and residents. Normative political theory of citizenship elides the ways that governmentality and biopower produceeachcitizen (as well as groups of citizens) as a particular derivation from the norm. It is with each iteration of these technologies that the state comes into view as a bounded entity.

Transiting into Singaporean identity: Immigration and naturalisation policy

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathews Mathew ◽  
Debbie Soon
Keyword(s):  
Manpower Planning ◽  
The State ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Policy Discourse ◽  
Optimal Composition ◽  
Skilled Labour ◽  
Planning Policy ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Ideal

Debates in Singapore about immigration and naturalisation policy have escalated substantially since 2008 when the government allowed an unprecedentedly large number of immigrants into the country. This essay will discuss immigration and naturalisation policy in Singapore and the tensions that have been evoked, and how these policies are a key tool in regulating the optimal composition and size of the population for the state’s imperatives. It will demonstrate that although the state has, as part of its broader economic and manpower planning policy to import labour for economic objectives, it seeks to retain only skilled labour with an exclusive form of citizenship.  Even as the Singapore state has made its form of citizenship even more exclusive by reducing the benefits that non-citizens receive, its programmes for naturalising those who make the cut to become citizens which include the recently created Singapore Citizenship Journey (SCJ) is by no means burdensome from a comparative perspective. This paper examines policy discourse and the key symbols and narratives provided at naturalisation events and demonstrates how these are used to evoke the sense of the ideal citizen among new Singaporeans. 

When the State Speaks, What Should It Say?

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey Brettschneider
Keyword(s):  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
The State ◽  
Hate Groups ◽  
New Approach ◽  
State Action ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Theory Of Value ◽  
The Right ◽  
Equal Citizenship ◽  
The Ideal

How should a liberal democracy respond to hate groups and others that oppose the ideal of free and equal citizenship? The democratic state faces the hard choice of either protecting the rights of hate groups and allowing their views to spread, or banning their views and violating citizens' rights to freedoms of expression, association, and religion. Avoiding the familiar yet problematic responses to these issues, this book proposes a new approach called value democracy. The theory of value democracy argues that the state should protect the right to express illiberal beliefs, but the state should also engage in democratic persuasion when it speaks through its various expressive capacities: publicly criticizing, and giving reasons to reject, hate-based or other discriminatory viewpoints. Distinguishing between two kinds of state action—expressive and coercive—the book contends that public criticism of viewpoints advocating discrimination based on race, gender, or sexual orientation should be pursued through the state's expressive capacities as speaker, educator, and spender. When the state uses its expressive capacities to promote the values of free and equal citizenship, it engages in democratic persuasion. By using democratic persuasion, the state can both respect rights and counter hateful or discriminatory viewpoints. The book extends this analysis from freedom of expression to the freedoms of religion and association, and shows that value democracy can uphold the protection of these freedoms while promoting equality for all citizens.

Iraq's regional standing In the International Competition situation in the Middle East

2019 ◽  
pp. 484
Author(s):  
Arkan Ibrahim Adwan
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
The State ◽  
International Competition ◽  
Regional Powers ◽  
Competition Situation

The researcher aimed to identify the most important elements of power for the state of Iraq. As a historically had a country of prestige and influence in its regional, which has made it very important to global and regional powers, in order to achieve their interests in the region.

Sectarian struggle in the Middle East and the new Alliances

2019 ◽  
pp. 337
Author(s):  
Harith Qahtan Abdullah
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
The Other ◽  
New Era ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
The World ◽  
Gulf States ◽  
Other World ◽  
Islamic Civilization ◽  
New Formation

Our Islamic world passes a critical period representing on factional, racial and sectarian struggle especially in the Middle East, which affects the Islamic identification union. The world passes a new era of civilization formation, and what these a new formation which affects to the Islamic civilization especially in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon. The sectarian struggle led to heavy sectarian alliances from Arab Gulf states and Turkey from one side and Iran states and its alliances in the other side. The Sunni and Shia struggle are weaken the World Islamic civilization and it is competitive among other world civilization.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Sadeghi
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Islamic Revolution ◽  
Western Modernity ◽  
Revolutionary Politics ◽  
Iranian Politics

The Islamic revolution of 1979 in Iran was decisive in reshaping and reframing both Iranian politics and the Middle East, as we know it. This chapter investigates the historical framing of the Islamic revolution as a result of the politicization of the religious discourse in Iran from the early 1940s through the late 1970s and the steady emergence of the idea of an Islamic government as an alternative to the oppressive structure of Western modernity. The Islamic revolution marked the re-enchantment and remystification of politics in an allegedly disenchanted world. The chapter reveals two versions of revolutionary Islam, the clerical and the messianic, and their role in the framing of revolutionary politics. Whereas in clerical Islam the modern state was seen not as substantially corrupt but as an indispensable instrument for the establishment of the Islamic government, in messianic Islam the contemplation and reconstruction of history aimed at building a new past, hence a quite different future.

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