scholarly journals Multifaceted Islam: Malaysia

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 68-87
Author(s):  
Ju. V. Roknifard

This paper analyzes the Islam’s impact on the Malaysian politics. Islam as an instrument of Malaysia’s foreign policy has been used by the political elite of the state for decades. Observers note the Islamization of the country’s foreign policy, especially during the premiership of Najib Razak (2008– 2018). However, the trend towards Islamization can be traced back to the moment Malaysia gained independence from Great Britain in 1957 and especially during the premiership of Mahathir Mohamad (1981–2003). The formation of such a foreign policy of Malaysia took place against the background of the Islamization of the political and social environment within the country, which, in turn, was the result of an internal political struggle. Thus, the projection of Malaysia’s identity into the outside world and the foreign policy corresponding to this identity was often motivated by the need to retain or attract the support of the malay-muslim majority in the domestic political arena. Since many of the issues raised in the article relate to identity both at the national and global level, a constructivist paradigm is used to conceptualize Malaysia’s foreign policy with a special emphasis on the identity of states. Particularly important in this process is the formation of domestic and foreign policy discourse. Malaysia’s Islamic identity is viewed externally in three dimensions: the Sunni state, the activist state in the Islamic world and the standard of moderate Islam. Consideration of these dimensions reveals quite obvious contradictions between them, as well as between rhetoric and real politics.

Africa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 529-547
Author(s):  
Roger Southall

AbstractThis article focuses on the impact of the policies of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) government on Zimbabwe's black middle class. It does so by exploring three propositions emerging from the academic literature. The first is that during the early years of independence, the middle class transformed into a party-aligned bourgeoisie. The second is that, to the extent that the middle class has not left the country as a result of the economic plunge from the 1990s, it played a formative role in opposition to ZANU-PF and the political elite. The third is that, in the face of ZANU-PF's authoritarianism and economic hardship, the middle class has largely withdrawn from the political arena.


1991 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang J. Mommsen

The age of high imperialism was also the age of the emergence of mass journalism. This heralded a steady widening of what might be called the “political nation,” that is, those groups who took an active interest in politics in contrast to the mass of the population still largely outside the political arena. Up to the 1890s politics tended to be Honoratiorenpolitik—confined to “notables” or Honoratioren, a term first applied by Max Weber around the turn of the century to describe the elites who had dominated the political power structure up to that time. Gradually “public opinion” ceased to be, in effect, the opinion of the educated classes, that is, the classes dirigeantes. In Wilhelmian Germany the process of democratization had been successfully contained, if seen in terms of the constitutional system; the age of mass politics was still far away.


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rozaliya Garipova

Like all the elites of post-Soviet Muslim countries, the political elite and religious officials in Russia have been in the search of a moderate and strictly national Islamic identity, to keep the Muslim population of Russia separate from Arab or Turkish versions of Islam that could be politicised and thus had the potential to undermine the state structure. ‘Tatar traditional Islam’ emerged through this framework.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 201
Author(s):  
Tejo Waskito

This article tries to track genealogy of the Islamic revolutionary paradigm of thought in NU and its various possibilities have arisen. Based on the library studies using the analytical discourse approach, the result revealed that the genealogy of the Islamic paradigm of NU was born due to the internal and external dialectics bridged by multi-epistemology. Based on the 'political reconciliation' event which is called 'returning to khittah 1926' in Situbondo in 1984, NU experienced a shift orientation, not only in the political sphere but also paradigmatically. Hereby, there was social-intellectual mobility marked by the proliferation of social and intellectual discourse among NU’s young generation. The dominance of this activity leading to revolutionary movement in the field of NU’s Islamic paradigm: Aswaja's theology which was originally understood as a doctrine became a thinking methodology (manhaj alfikr); expansion of the legal institution's methodology, from qauly to manhajy; and shifting political struggle, from structural political arena to cultural politics. This discourse became massive among Nu’s young generation caused by the support of Abdurrahman Wahid, the ideal figure known as a locomotive of the NU cultural movement.


2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 923-941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donnacha Ó Beacháin ◽  
Frederik Coene

This article sheds light on the Euro-Atlantic discourse in Georgia by situating it in a wider frame. It provides an analysis of its Euro-Atlantic orientation by presenting it as a continuation of past efforts to involve European powers in Georgian affairs and highlights changing trends in this aspect of contemporary foreign policy. Far from determining whether or not the Georgians are European, the different arguments that have been used to support Georgian “Europeanness” are evaluated to assess its role in the national identity construction process. Focusing primarily on the United National Movement government led by Mikheil Saakashvili, we demonstrate how the Euro-Atlantic discourse has been employed domestically by the political elite as a legitimacy management strategy and explore its function in seeking Western patronage, a key foreign policy goal.


Author(s):  
D. I. Yefremov

The article establishes the relationship between the interests of the Ukrainian establishment and the foreign policy vector of Kyiv. The author identified the main actors who determined the specifics of the transformation of the strategic course of Ukraine. On the one hand, the author revealed the critical problems of European integration and on the other hand, the improvement/ degradation of relations with the Russian Federation. The author evaluated the strategic doctrines used by the Ukrainian elite and analysed main changes in the approaches of the Ukrainian establishment. This article considers the reaction of Russian and Ukrainian political elites to the correction of the foreign policy imperatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine, respectively. Also, the author, using the theory of the “heavy” and “light” fractions of Ukrainian political elites as an example, identifies specific features of the correlation between the replacement/renewal of key elite groups and the adaptation of the strategic vector, including a qualitative rethinking of the approaches inherent in the replaced establishment. On the other hand, the author compared between the declared positions/slogans and specific doctrines/concepts, initiated, for example, by individual actors of the political elite. The author analyses the main reasons for the soft dismantling of the so-called multi-vector diplomacy in favour of the Euro-Atlantic course. Also, in the article, concerning the realities of Ukraine, the influence of the political model of “shapeless pluralism” of hybrid regimes on the transformation of the foreign policy’ agenda.


Author(s):  
Heorhii Potulnytskyi ◽  

Being at the political and diplomatic service of King of France Louis XV for more than three decades (from 1729 to 1759) Hryhor Orlyk, the son of the Ukrainian Hetman Pylyp Orlyk, was committed to furthering the cause of his father. Traditionally, in the context of the political tasks of the French kingdom, he addressed, on the one hand, the incorporation of the Cossack factor into the foreign policy of the Versailles Cabinet, and, on the other hand, the Crimean question. At every stage of his diplomatic service, which we have distinguished (the 1730s, 1740s, and 1750s respectively), the Hetman’s son set different tasks to resolve the Crimean issue and, accordingly, tried to implement them. Through his consistent, permanent, and persistent actions, Hryhor Orlyk contributed to the traditional matter of Hetman’s Ukraine integration into the international policy of the Versailles Cabinet, along with the Cossack and Crimean factors. In the 1750s, one of the last representatives of the Mazepian emigration Fedir Myrovych and Fedir Nakhymovskyi joined the corps of Orlyk’s son Hryhor. They became his effective assistants in the matter of political and legal recognition of the Cossack factor as one of the dominant foreign policy activities of the Versailles Cabinet by the French political elite. Being in Crimea in the 1750s, Myrovych and Nakhymovskyi acted as special emissaries of the Versailles Cabinet maintaining contacts with it directly through Hryhor Orlyk. They contributed in every way to the policy of the kingdom in Crimea in connection with the activation of the Cossack factor there. Old Mazepa’s supporters assisted the Hetman’s son in the implementation of the military and political cooperation between France and Crimea and the Ottoman Empire, but they also attempted to explain the essence of Russian policy aimed at terminating the independence of the Kosh both to the Khan and to Zaporozhian Cossacks in Crimea. The author concludes that as the envoy of the French Crown in Crimea, Hryhor Orlyk made the last attempt to involve the Crimean Khanate to the problems related to the restoration of the Cossack statehood solving the Crimean-Cossack problem, which had been consistent since the sixteenth century. All Mazepa supporters by conducting their activities in Crimea not only contributed to raising the issue of integrating the Cossack factor as an integral part into the international policy of the Versailles Cabinet, but also helped to legitimize and substantiate the latter in the concept of involving Turkey and the Crimean Khanate into the struggle for Ukraine’s liberation from Russian domination


2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lelly Andriasanti

In recent years, Indonesia's foreign policy seems to portray moderate Islamic identity. This is, however, in contrast with the practices of Indonesia's foreign policy itself. Historically, Indonesia has been avoiding the possibility of reflecting the Islamic identity, although the majority of Indonesia's population is Muslim. This situation raises a question, "Why does Indonesia's current foreign policy promote moderate Islamic identity?" The methodology used in this study is a qualitative method, specifically discourse analysis. There are four results of this study. First of all, by portraying moderate Islamic identity, Indonesia wants to distinguish itself from the other Muslim-majority countries, especially those in the Middle East region. Second, there are expectations from the international community, especially Western countries, to understand and to get closer to the Muslim world. Third, Indonesian Government wants to accommodate the voice of domestic Muslim community that has been expecting a better relation with the Muslim world. Last but not least, in accordance with the consistency of its worldview, Indonesia has a motivation to take part in international relations.


Author(s):  
Nasrullah Muhammad Nur

The discussion on the role of Islamic political parties in Muslim-majority countries is a hot conversation not only among the political elite but also in the lower society. Is a political party based on Islam is right to fight for the rights of Muslims or just a mere mask behind the Religion alias in the name of Islam in order to achieve certain goals? This article highlights the issue of how the role of Islamic political parties or the participation of Islamic parties in building the welfare of the people mandated to them especially when they are in power. How can an Islamic party gain a vote, take the sympathy of society when many of the people who are in doubt about the labeling of Islam in the party.


2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-513
Author(s):  
Leandro Wolpert dos Santos ◽  
André Pimentel Ferreira Leão ◽  
Jonathan Raphael Vieira da Rosa

Abstract The administration of President Michel Temer (2016-2018) led to significant changes in Brazilian foreign policy towards South America as opposed to the country’s goals that had remained in place for over a decade. This article addresses the question of how and why these changes unfolded under Temer’s government. Anchored in an analytical framework of Public Policy Analysis, we develop two main arguments. Firstly, we claim that the changes in foreign policy towards South America represented a paradigmatic transition from a post-liberal strategy to the restoration of the logic of open regionalism. Secondly, we argue that this change resulted from the coupling of the three dimensions of the political process: problem recognition, policy alternatives, and politics. The primary cause of such change was the political dispute in the public arena between business groups and party leadership.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document