The Arab World

1994 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 570-575
Author(s):  
Najib Ghadbian
Keyword(s):  
Resistance To Change ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Cultural Attitudes ◽  
Current State ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Status ◽  
Arab Politics ◽  
Linguistic Groups ◽  
Western Hegemony

This book has an ambitious and comprehensive goal: to analyzethe degenerate contemporary condition of the Arab nation and thenpresent a “theory of action,” a vision to transcend the current state ofdecline and continue the process of nahdah. Barakat’s proposedapproach to the analysis of Arab society is one that he characterizes asdynamic (treating society as changing rather than static), dialectical(emphasizing social contradictions and class struggle), and critical(aimed at transforming the status quo). He treats the Arab world as asingle unit rather than as a number of nation-states. The emphasis onsociety rather than political entity does not negate his cognizance thatthe Arab world has the potential for both unity and divisiveness.Barakat arranges his analysis into three sections: Arab identity andissues of diversity and integration, social structures and institutions(i.e., family, social classes, religion, and Arab politics), and thedynamics of Arab culture.In his diagnosis of the Arab world’s maladies, Barakat offersinteresting and useful insights. In making room for these insights, heblasts orientalist discourse for its “static and mosaic’’ portrait of theArab world and presents a more cogent analysis of Arab reality. Infact, most orientalists do not acknowledge the existence of the Arabworld, but speak rather of a “Middle East” that contains a dizzyingarray of religious, ethnic, and linguistic groups. They characterize theArab part of this region as hopelessly divided, culturally inferior, andunable to modernize. Barakat points out that orientalists contradictthemselves when they speak of both the divided nature of Arabsociety and the existence of an “Arab mind” or mentality. Moreover,most orientalist “scholarship” explains resistance to change amongArabs in terms of cultural attitudes, thereby ignoring the prevailingrelationship of dependency and the socioeconomic and political contextsof this resistance. Such assertions “reveal the animosity towardArabs (and especially toward Muslims) that underlies many scholarlypretensions” (p. 22). Barakat cleverly exposes the agenda behind suchscholarship: the justification of Israel’s existence and the preservationof the status quo under Zionist and western hegemony ...

Against Permanent Sovereignty

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Status ◽  
Made In

The status quo within international politics is that individual nation-states enjoy extensive and for the most part exclusive rights over the resources falling within their borders. Egalitarians have often assumed that such a situation cannot be defended, but perhaps some sophisticated defences of state or national rights over natural resources which have been made in recent years prove otherwise. This chapter critically assesses these various arguments, and shows that they are not sufficient to justify the institution of ‘permanent sovereignty’ over resources. Even insofar as those arguments have some weight, they are compatible with a significant dispersal of resource rights away from individual nation-states, both downwards towards local communities, and upwards towards transnational and global agencies.

Review: Isabelle Stengers, In Catastrophic Times: Resisting the Coming Barbarism

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 259-264
Author(s):  
Nicholas Beuret
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
General State ◽  
Cautionary Tale ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Status ◽  
Isabelle Stengers ◽  
Ecological Catastrophe

In Catastrophic Times: Resisting the Coming Barbarism (2015) offers a welcome intervention into the current state of global political impasse and ecological catastrophe. Less a cautionary tale or a series of political injunctions, In Catastrophic Times sets out a clear account of how the ‘cold panic’ induced by looming ecological crises such as climate change is actively produced by the managers of the status quo – those Stengers calls ‘Guardians’. Stengers claims it is the convergence of governance without legitimacy with enclosed knowledges and the cult of expertise that has produced a general state of panicked political impotence. Against this mode of governance, Stengers offers a series of tactical experiments, from paying attention as intervention to acts of scientific commoning, articulated through what she calls the GMO event, that seek to seize environmental issues and sociotechnical problems as political questions in order to resist the devolution of modernity into a global social apartheid state.

The Status Quo of Sustainable Tourism Development in Phuket. A Qualitative Assessment

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 167
Author(s):  
Kevin FUCHS ◽  
Kris SINCHAROENKUL
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Tourism ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Qualitative Assessment ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Sustainable Tourism Development ◽  
Mass Tourism ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Status ◽  
Coherent Leadership

Sustainable tourism is an increasingly fashionable term that is strongly correlated with the global age of increased mobility. While there is increasing interest in sustainable tourism, there is no contemporary research that describes the current state of Phuket, Thailand, the mass-tourism destination. An in-depth review of existing literature revealed that sustainable tourism at large receives a great deal of attention in its current state. This paper aimed to go beyond the common theme of sustainable tourism and conducted a thorough analysis about the status quo in Phuket with regard to sustainable tourism. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews (n=5) with industry experts and later analyzed the content by the means of thematic analysis. The research is specific to Phuket; therefore, the results of this research are not generalizable to other mass-tourism locations. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but it is evident that stakeholders in Phuket recognize the importance of sustainable tourism. Moreover, the lack of accountability, coherent leadership, and consistency resulted in a high failure rate when initiatives were launched to improve sustainable tourism behavior in Phuket.  

scholarly journals Pedagogy of the Black academic

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (22) ◽  
pp. 2423-2424
Author(s):  
Glenn E. Simmons
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
Positive Change ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Current State ◽  
Single Person ◽  
The Status ◽  
Black Man ◽  
Social Upheaval ◽  
The Impact

I am just starting my career as a cancer biologist, but I have always been a Black man in America. This means that I have always inhabited a world that generally disregarded my existence in some form or another. It is June 17th, 2020 and protests have been happening for weeks since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The current state of America may be uneasy for some, but for many Americans, the looming threat of exclusion and violence has been an unwelcome companion since birth. This letter is not about a single person, but the Black academic’s experience of race inside and outside of the academy during a time of social upheaval. I have trained in a variety of institutions, big and small, and all the while acutely aware of the impact of my Blackness on my science. The intent of the following is to provoke the reader to reflect on how we as a nation can move toward radically positive change and not incremental adjustments to the status quo. The views expressed are my own and are the result of years of personal experience observing the anti-Black standard in America.

scholarly journals Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-136
Author(s):  
Magnus T. Bernhardsson
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Important Study ◽  
The Status ◽  
Advantageous Position ◽  
Muslim Majority

1n this interesting and well-researched book, Bruce Masters analyses the historyof Chris tian and Jewish communities in the Ottoman Empire's Arabprovinces and how they fared within a Muslim majority and hierarchy. Byand large, this important study is a story of modernization, identity, and ecclesiasticalpolitics that focuses primarily on Christian communities in Aleppo,Syria. The book's main themes are somewhat familiar: How Christian andJewish communities were in an advantageous position to benefit fromincreasing European influence in the Middle East, and how a secular politicalidentity (Arab nationalism) emerged in the Levant. The book's value liesnot in its overarching thesis, but rather in the details of the story and theimpressive research upon which this well-crafted narrative is based.Masters chronicles how the identities of Christians and Jews evolveddue to their increasing contact with western influences, or, as Masters labelsit, "intrusion." The status quo was forever transformed because manyChristians began to distance themselves, economically and socially, fromtheir Muslim neighbors. Masters, a historian who teaches at Connecticut'sWesleyan University, contends that the western intrusion altered Muslimattitudes toward native Christians. In the nineteenth century, local Christianswould serve for some Muslims as "convenient surrogates for the anger thatcould only rarely be expressed directly against the Europeans."Although the Arab provinces experienced serious sectarian strife in thenineteenth century, these antagonisms were, by and large, absent in the ...

scholarly journals The Radical Politics of Nation-States: The Case of President Rodrigo Duterte

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Ryan Baquero Maboloc
Keyword(s):  
Political Conflict ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Local Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Radical Politics ◽  
Alternative Framework ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The People ◽  
The Status

The advent of terrorism in the midst of political conflict requires an understanding of local context and history. Anti-establishment leaders like President Rodrigo Duterte expose the limits of liberalism. By applying the critical distinction between “politics” and the “political,” we can imagine an alternative framework in our desire to unravel the narrative of Duterte’s communitarian style. Disruption is not simply meant to put into question the status quo. The goal of progressive leadership is to transform society in ways that will improve the difficult lives of the people. While the president’s critics say that he is authoritarian, it will be argued that radical means are needed to overcome the failures of Philippine democracy. 

scholarly journals Political elites of the Arab world and their influence

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-115
Author(s):  
A. Sh. Abhari ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Foreign Intervention ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Military ◽  
Shed Light

The debate between political scientists about the "Arab Spring" revolutions is still escalating. Especially regarding the forces operating at the scene. Attempts by the military elite to retain power and try to maintain the status quo at any cost, leaving the doors wide open for foreign intervention The foreign interventions of countries that are trying to use the wave of the Arab spring to achieve their goals have especially complicated the situation in the Arab world. In this article I will try to shed light on some factors influencing the results of the “Arab Spring” revolutions.

The Missing Link in Regional Integration in South Asia: The Case for Regional and Sub-regional Political Institutions

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-155
Author(s):  
Andrew Thangasamy
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Regional Governance ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Missing Link ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Status ◽  
Better Than

Regional governance efforts in South Asia have been missing regional political institutions. There is no shortage of ideas and suggestions by scholars, practitioners, diplomats and others in terms of areas for integration in South Asia. And yet, regional integration continues in a piecemeal like stuttering fashion. Integration lags not because there are questions about the efficacy of regional integration or questions about where or what to integrate, it lags because of the path forward—in terms of how—is unclear. Regional or sub-regional political institutions vested with the decision-making authority can aid in integration better than the status quo. Political institutions in contrast to forums or summit-convening authorities can make decisions of their own benefiting the interests of those whom they represent. This article examines the current state of regional governance efforts in South Asia and evaluates the argument for regional and sub-regional political institutions.

Investigation of the Status Quo and Promotion of Financial Management Enterprises

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 4829-4839
Author(s):  
Xiaodong Wang ◽  
Ying Zhao ◽  
Yuegang Song ◽  
Hongliang Wang
Keyword(s):  
Financial Management ◽  
Stock Price ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Financial Risks ◽  
Design Algorithm ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Status ◽  
Fractal Spectrum ◽  
Research Objects ◽  
Operation And Management

Objectives: In day-to-day operation and management activities, attention is paid to preventing and controlling financial risks, which will prevent risks or minimize losses. Methods: The current state of financial management in companies is analyzed, and then how to effectively prevent and promote measures is systematically discussed. Results: Firstly, a multi-fractal spectrum program design algorithm is constructed and multi-fractal spectrum analysis and feature derivations are carried out. Then, several companies are selected as research objects, and the financial management of the company’s operations and stock price changes and tests are simulated. Conclusion: It can be seen that the algorithm constructed in this paper can predict the stock price through the shape of the bell-shaped spectrum and has high accuracy.

Donald Trump and the Arab World: The Disrupter in Chief faces the Status Quo*

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-82
Author(s):  
Lars Berger
Keyword(s):  
Arab World ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
The Status ◽  
Inter State ◽  
Security Crises

For the last fifty years, every US Presidency has come to be defined by momentous events in the Arab world. This pattern also applies to Donald Trump, whose approach to the region is shaped by the preference for reduced military exposure and a break with his predecessor’s policies as well as a general deference and even admiration for authoritarian personalities and systems. The result has been a policy mishmash which offers disruption where continuity is required and continuity where disruption is needed. Trump’s policies are thus likely to exacerbate the region’s security crises at the inter-state and intra-state levels.

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