EXAMINING STATE-BUILDING OF THE SYRIAN REPUBLIC AND THE LEGACY OF ITS COLONIAL PAST

This research tackles essential elements of Syrian state-building processes through a structural analysis incorporating several theories and concepts including but not limited to colonialism, nationalism, military interventions, institutional development, minority rule, and eventually neocolonialism. The article reveals how minority rule and different implications of military interventions shaped today’s Syria, as well as addresses some of the current issues such as the absence of domestic political consolidation. The primary aim of this research is to contextualize the role of France—as a former colonizer, within the state-building process of Syria by examining different phases of Syria’s historical past. An examination of Syria’s political developments proved that having inherited a colonial past, the current state of Syria has also inherited an unavoidable legacy of political instability from its colonial past. Keywords: Syria, Middle East, State-Building, Colonialism, Military Interventions.

Westminster as Usual? Three Interpretations for the UK Democracy

The Brexit process has shattered the foundations of British politics, with prime ministerial resignations, government defeats, continuous rebellions and floor-crossings. These phenomena seem at odds with the usual decisiveness of Westminster systems. However, the aforementioned departures from the British tradition could be interpreted as compatible with the typical distance of any empirical reality from theoretical models, as exceptions to the rule due to the specificity of the European issue, or as the surfacing of some deeper social, economic and cultural tensions. Data alone are insufficient to confirm any of the alternative interpretations, although they seem to confirm the existence of long-term dynamics rather than some short-term exceptionalism. Within this scenario, the article suggests that a series of institutional innovations introduced since the late 1990s have facilitated the political consolidation of those tensions, contributed to the partisan dealignment, and made room for a potential departure from a Westminster model of democracy.

Nuevas funciones de Instagram en el avance de la “política espectáculo”. Claves profesionales y estrategia visual de Vox en su despegue electoral

In recent years, Instagram has become established as a powerful tool for electoral communication and building political leadership. Our objective herein is to analyze the audiovisual management of the leading party on this social media platform, Vox, in the key period of its political consolidation in Spain. The methodological design is based on content analysis. Using our own model, inspired by the structure of the five classic journalistic questions (5W), nine thematic and formal categories associated with spectacularization have been reviewed during two key periods of the electoral year 2019. The final sample includes 189 videos published via five official accounts belonging to the party with a significant volume of followers (between 735k and 21.9k). The results of this analysis provide three main contributions: the identification of an innovative use of Instagram that includes new functions such as mobilization and political attack; the identification of a reference model for audiovisual management of social media at three strategic levels (operational, thematic, and expressive); and the integration of the results into the current debate on the spectacularization of politics, the advance of populist discourse, and its democratic consequences. Resumen En los últimos años Instagram se ha consolidado como un potente canal de comunicación electoral y construcción de liderazgo político. Nuestro objetivo es analizar la gestión audiovisual del partido líder en esta red, Vox, en un período clave de su consolidación política en España. El diseño metodológico se basa en el análisis de contenido. A partir de un modelo propio, inspirado en la estructura de las cinco preguntas periodísticas clásicas (5W), se han revisado nueve categorías temáticas y formales asociadas a la espectacularización, durante dos períodos clave del año electoral 2019. Finalmente, integran la muestra 189 videos publicados en cinco cuentas oficiales del partido con un gran volumen de seguidores (entre 735k y 21,9k). El análisis realizado ofrece tres aportaciones principales: se detecta un uso innovador de Instagram que incluye nuevas funciones como la movilización y el ataque político; se identifica un modelo de referencia para la gestión audiovisual de medios sociales a partir de tres niveles estratégicos (operativo, temático y expresivo); e integra sus resultados dentro del debate actual sobre la espectacularización de la política, el avance del discurso populista y sus consecuencias democráticas.

Killing Ambition

This chapter seeks to account for the nearly complete absence of warfare from medieval Iceland and its sagas. It argues that a single logic dictated both the embrace of feud as a socially constructive idea and the rejection of war as an abomination. Drawing on anthropological examples and analyses, war is defined by contrasting it with feud; the bond between war and state-formation is emphasized. War presupposes political centralization and differentiation, which Icelanders, committed to the reciprocal logic of feuding, resisted. According to the sagas, ideological opposition to war manifested itself in abortive attempts at political consolidation within Iceland, in confusion and substitution in the face of war elsewhere (in Norway, England, and North America), and in failure to contend with burgeoning warlike activity in thirteenth-century Iceland. Tensions between state-centric warfare and state-resistant feuding existed in historical reality, however, not only in saga accounts of this history; and in reality, tensions could not always be resolved. Uchronia provided a tool for creative, retrospective textual resolution of problems that could not be overcome in practice. As demonstrated by the Icelandic law code, Grágás, the past thus became the path-dependent product of the future. Uchronic ideology worked to emend any perceived historical ‘errors’: any symptoms of war that could not be suppressed in reality were, instead, overwritten and repressed in text

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORGANIZATION OF ISLAMIC COOPERATION (1969-1990)

The article analyzes the stages of development of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, historical events in which the organization was created, its goals and objectives, place and role in the political consolidation of the member states, as well as its formation as an international organization and its role in the system of international organizations. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation as an international organization has its special place and has a great institutional impact on the integration processes of Muslim countries. Dynamic transformations in political processes, strengthening of Muslim consolidation, cooperation in the fght against common threats and challenges, assistance and assistance to the Palestinian people, as well as factors of the Islamic religion were the basis on which the organization was created. Today, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation is considered to be an organization that expresses the political position of the Muslim world and conducts effective activities as the main actor in international relations in world politics, uniting 57 countries of the world in its ranks. The main activity of the organization is aimed at promoting social, economic, political, cultural, and scientifc cooperation between Muslim countries based on Islamic consolidation, organizing its activities in the international arena based on cooperation and partnership, protecting the interests of Muslims, promoting the development of member countries of the organization, preventing political problems and contradictions between them, etc. The article notes that one of the main tasks of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation is to protect the interests of Muslim countries at the international level and ensure the integration of all Muslims in the world. In the fnal part of the article, it is concluded that as a result of the creation of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a cooperation body of Islamic countries emerged, the main unifying factor of which was Islam.

CONSOLIDATION POTENTIAL OF THE INTERNET COMMUNICATION, THE RUSSIAN CONTEXT

Analyzing the spread of information technologies on social consolidation the author pays special attention to the study of the Russian situation when the wide spreading of the new media does not result into intensive political consolidation. The author notes that Internet and social networks have an undeniable potential for social influence because of intensive social interaction of numerous stakeholders. At the same time, the nominal potential of social networks as a mechanism of political communication and consolidation is low today. Wide online access does not lead to an increase of the interest to politics or social activity, awareness or subjectivity. The themes of Internet communication is extremely diverse and, most importantly, is rarely focused on a practical result or a long-term plan of socio-political reform of public policy.