Download or read book The Quality of Life and Policy Issues among the Middle East and North African Countries written by el-Sayed el-Aswad and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-09-21 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the challenges threatening the quality of life and well-being of people living in the MENA region. It focuses on both internal / local and external / global drivers impacting their well-being particularly in the domains of economy, health, and education. Additionally, it presents a critical analysis to help readers understand the position that the MENA countries currently occupy in the world. Lastly, it provides policy analysts and decision makers with otherwise hard to obtain data and information related to socio-economic, cultural, demographic, technological, and political factors that have influenced the quality of life there.

Download or read book Militarization and the Global Rise of Paramilitary Culture written by Brad West and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited book demonstrates a new multidimensional comprehension of the relationship between war, the military and civil society by exploring the global rise of paramilitary culture. Moving beyond binary understandings that inform the militarization of culture thesis and examining various national and cultural contexts, the collection outlines ways in which a process of paramilitarization is shaping the world through the promotion of new warrior archetypes. It is argued that while the paramilitary hero is associated with military themes, their character is in tension with the central principals of modern military organization, something that often challenges the state’s perceived monopoly on violence. As such paramilitization has profound implications for institutional military identity, the influence of paramilitary organizations and broadly how organised violence is popularly understood

Download or read book An Islamic Model for Stabilization and Growth written by Adama Dieye and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-07-16 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that the macroeconomic policy adjustment models recommended by the IMF and the World Bank for implementation in many Muslim countries, with substantial donor financial support, have not been effective. Economic indicators show low economic growth, persistent fiscal and external deficits and limited industrialization. Also, these countries are experiencing increases in unemployment, poverty and substantial growth in income and wealth ‎inequalities. These facts ‎underline an urgent need to produce an alternative to the failed conventional macroeconomic model in order to address the challenge of ‎macroeconomic and social adjustment policies. The project posits and investigates the idea that the Islamic economic model prescribed in the Quran and applied by the Prophet (sawa) could be the ideal model for Muslim as well as non-Muslim ‎countries.

Download or read book Empowerment and Fragility written by Maria João Ferreira and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2019-01-23 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book discusses how the two interrelated questions of biopolitics and ethics influence discursive and non-discursive practices in the fields of international relations and strategic studies. The book debates the following research question of how discussions on global regimes that rule human empowerment and human fragility in international and strategic arenas require the establishment of a complex relation between the contested concepts of biopolitics and ethics. The book focuses on six main areas which are (1) the politics of (in)security, (2) complex emergencies and contemporary terrorism, (3) health, risk and population management, (4) environment and climate change, (5) the politics of memory and trauma and (6) migration and refugee flows. The usefulness of the book derives from critically questioning how, international public policies in sensitive areas like terrorism, global health, global migration flows or humanitarian assistance are being built through global policy regimes and global discursive regimes.

Download or read book State Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations for 2017 written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The South Caucasus Security Energy and Europeanization written by Meliha B. Altunışık and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-02 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores developments in the countries of the South Caucasus – Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia – since the EU included the region in the European Neighbourhood Policy in 2003. It considers issues related to energy, ethnic conflict, steps towards regional integration, and, above all, security – including the involvement of Russia, Iran, Turkey and the United States. It assesses the key importance of energy, argues that the prospects for regional integration are weak, and contends that while the approach of Europe and the United States has been confused and weak, not holding out great hope of EU or NATO membership, Russia’s interest and involvement in the region is strong, and growing.

Download or read book Comparing Armed Conflicts written by Bruno Charbonneau and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-07-12 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comparing armed conflicts primes the production of categories that, when mobilized, can alter the trajectories of the conflicts. Considering the political dynamism of spaces of conflict and intervention, and that practitioners regularly seek out academic expertise, this book discusses the possibilities and limits of comparative approaches to understanding armed conflict and intervention. Capacity-building experts, development workers, international organizations, and diplomats use their previous experiences and bring them into new contexts to understand and respond to their environment. Conflict actors can also make comparisons to buttress their political position in negotiations, consolidate their control over fighters, and as calls for transnational rebel solidarity. The use of such comparisons is an inherently political move and it has an impact on the production of scientific knowledge, on conflict dynamics themselves, and on the formulation and implementation of conflict management policy: comparison is inherently a practice of order-making. While there are important epistemological and methodological stakes associated with researchers engaging in comparison, there are also important productive effects connected to the research avenues taken. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Civil Wars.

Download or read book Middle Powers in Asia and Europe in the 21st Century written by Giampiero Giacomello and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-07-02 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents three claims regarding the role of middle powers in the 21st Century: first, states aspiring to become or remain middle powers choose from three possible role: to be a global middle powers; to be a regional pivot; or to be a niche leader. Second, states seeking such roles need different mixes of hard and soft power sources. Third, more so than great or small powers, middle powers walk a thin line between the domestic and systemic pressures they face. In this volume, these claims are based on (comparative) case studies of Germany, Iran, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, Sweden, and Turkey.

Download or read book Nationalism Militarism and Masculinity in Post Conflict Cyprus written by Stratis Andreas Efthymiou and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-06-25 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book uses empirical research to introduce the relationship between nationalism, militarism and masculinity. The co-constitution between these three factors is susceptible to change and hinders reconciliation, according to the author. Drawing on the case of Cyprus, a country in conflict with Turkey, Efthymiou reveals how nationalism, militarism and masculinity were constructed after the war, and re-adapted following the opening of internal borders and European Union accession. Nationalism, Militarism and Masculinity in Post-Conflict Cyprus draws on rich field-research, with soldiers and officers in army barracks, politicians such as former President of Republic of Cyprus Glafkos Clerides, leaders of radical far-right movements and the Greek Cypriot public. The book offers invaluable insight into the application of nationalism, militarism and masculinity in governmental policy including by the Cyprus Defence Ministry, and will be of interest to students and scholars in sociology, gender studies, peace studies, security studies, politics and international relations, as well as governments and NGOs.

Download or read book Global Militarization written by Peter Wallensteen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-02-22 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Repression, armed conflicts, interstate wars, the international arms trade, military regimes, and increasing worldwide military expenditures are all indications of one particularly significant development in world politics: global militarization. In this volume, an international group of scholars describe, explain, and evaluate the roots of this de

Download or read book Comparative Politics of Southeast Asia written by Aurel Croissant and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-12-26 with total page 453 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to the political systems of all ASEAN countries and Timor-Leste from a comparative perspective. It investigates the political institutions, actors and processes in eleven states, covering democracies as well as autocratic regimes. Each country study includes an analysis of the current system of governance, the party and electoral system, and an assessment of the state, its legal system and administrative bodies. Students of political science and regional studies will also learn about processes of democratic transition and autocratic persistence, as well as how civil society and the media influence the political culture in each country.

Download or read book Disposable Americans written by Paul Buchheit and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-03-31 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inequality has dramatically increased in America, with few solutions on the horizon. Serious social inequalities persist. For example, the 14 richest Americans earned enough money from their investments in 2015 to hire two million preschool teachers (while the USA ranks low among developed countries in preschool enrollment). Following the Great Recession, the richest one percent took 116 percent of the new income gains, a statistic caused by so many middle-class Americans moving backward, many losing investments in property and experiencing interruptions in work. Author Paul Buchheit looks hopefully to solutions in a book that vividly portrays the rapidly changing inequality of American society. More Americans have become "disposable" as middle-class jobs have disappeared at an alarming rate. Buchheit presents innovative proposals that could quickly begin to reverse these trends, including a guaranteed basic income drawn from new revenues, such as a Financial Speculation Tax and a Carbon Tax. Discussing the challenges and obstacles to such measures, he finds optimism in past successes in American history. Ideal for classroom assignment, the book uniquely pairs historical events with current, real-life struggles faced by citizens, pointing to measures that can improve personal and social well-being and trust in government.

Download or read book National Power and International Geostructure written by Daniel Morales Ruvalcaba and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Nagorno Karabakh deadlock written by Azer Babayev and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-05-02 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book examines all relevant models which have been employed in settling ethno-territorial conflicts since the time of the League of Nations. Eight of these models have been studied in-depth. The aim of this analysis is to gain expertise and insights that could prove relevant to resolving the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. This potential is evaluated in the closing chapters of the volume where novel ideas on how to apply the lessons of these cases to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh are presented. This conflict carries many features typical of ethno-territorial conflicts in present and past times: it is neither unique, nor does its settlement depend on others than the parties to the conflict. Rather it is – as in all other cases – entrenched historical narratives and enemy images which lead to zero-sum calculations and can conceivably only be overcome in a gradual process. Content Part I Nagorno-Karabakh and ethno-territorial conflict settlement Part II Case studies of ethno-territorial conflict settlement: Åland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, South Tyrol, Trieste, Cyprus, Northern Ireland, Quebec. Part III Results and conclusions: A way out for Nagorno-Karabakh The Editors Dr Azer Babayev​ is Assistant Professor of Political Science at ADA University, Baku. Dr Bruno Schoch is Associated Researcher at PRIF (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt), Frankfurt/Main. Dr Hans-Joachim Spanger is Head of the Dissemination Division at PRIF (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt), Frankfurt/Main.

Download or read book China Military Power written by and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Finances of Regional Organisations in the Global South written by Ulf Engel and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses a major gap in the longstanding research on regional organisations: how do their finances work and what do they reveal about the region-building process? It brings together an empirically rich collection of chapters written by experts of regional organisations in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Based on the insights on thirteen regional organisations as well as two chapters dedicated to the influence of external funders, the editors develop typologies to cluster regional organisations according to their financial characteristics: the size of budgets, the sources of funding and the criteria to calculate contributions. Through analysing the process of budgeting and resourcing, the book sheds light on the different nature and functioning of these organisations existing outside of the Global North and puts a specific emphasis on regional organisations in the area of security in Africa and the Global South. It provides explanations to why members pay or do not pay and how budgeting works, and it deals with data availability, the role of donors, overlapping regionalism, cultural transfers between regional organisations and the impact on regional actorness. This volume will be of key interest to scholars and students of African studies and politics, the Global South, the finances of international organisations, comparative regionalism, international political economy and international relations.

Download or read book Insight Turkey 2020 03 Transformation of Turkey s Defense Industry written by and published by SET Vakfı İktisadi İşletmesi. This book was released on 2020-10-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Turkey’s contemporary defense and military strategy can be best understood as a result of the historical process the country has experienced. This historical process has significantly altered the security environment surrounding Turkey while transforming her alliance relations, ultimately producing a new political vision for the country and a defense and military strategy that serves this vision. Firstly, although the end of the Cold War and the ensuing dissolution of the Soviet Union has ameliorated international security, Turkey was faced with both conventional and asymmetric threats on multiple fronts. This situation kept defense spending of the country at record levels despite military expenditures within NATO showing a rapid decline. On the other hand, the emerging political geography led to a series of new conflicts erupting in several hotspots, from the Balkans through to the Caucasus and the Middle East. Emerging conflicts were thought to require a common response which precipitated NATO’s evolution from a collective defense organization to a collective security organization. Concurrently, it meant that Turkey would actively join NATO’s new missions ranging from the peaceful resolution of disputes to stability operations with expeditionary forces featured by mobility, jointness, and readiness. Secondly, the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the U.S. created profound ramifications for Turkey’s regional security and her alliance relations. In particular, the American military occupation of Iraq jeopardized Turkey’s national security by effectively removing the political authority of that country and dismantling the Iraqi army. While the emerging political vacuum was filled by sectarian politics, the scarcity of security was exploited by the PKK, consolidating its presence in northern Iraqi territories. Divided Iraq has also transformed into a breeding ground for international terrorism which resulted in the rise of various extremist armed organizations, including ISIS. Thirdly, since the so-called Arab spring started in the early 2010s, the political and security landscape of the Middle East and North Africa has undergone significant changes. While the overthrow of dictators led to intra-state conflicts in several places, it was particularly the civil war in Syria that alarmed Turkish decision-makers due to its transformation into a safe haven for various terrorist groups operating at Turkey’s southern frontiers. Bereft of concrete ally support, Turkey unilaterally launched military operations into northern Syria in order to eliminate ISIS elements as well as curbing the long-term territorial ambitions of the PKK. The Arab spring has also aggravated previous tensions and engendered various factions that facilitated new alignments which is the case for today’s Eastern Mediterranean and Arab-Israeli relations. Against the backdrop of these considerations, Turkey’s contemporary defense and military strategy has been formed. In general, this strategy lays down the principles of using military force to support the political aims of the country. It operates as a “bridge” between policy and operation, in a classical sense. And that strategy is now not just informed by protecting the territorial integrity of the nation but has wider objectives, including enhancing the country’s international standing as well as achieving strategic autonomy. This in turn has necessitated new tools that extend beyond a sole deterrent force, namely military activism, and defense industry investments, along with the contribution to international security and commitments to the NATO alliance. The summer issue of Insight Turkey aims to explain the changing dynamics of Turkey’s military and defense strategy by taking into consideration current foreign and security policy practices of Turkey in the Middle East and North Africa region. More specifically, this issue is an attempt to develop a new framework to understand Turkey’s revolution in its military and defense strategies. Hulusi Akar, the Minister of National Defense of Turkey, in his commentary sheds light on the global and regional developments that threaten Turkey’s peace and stability and which contributed to shaping its defense strategy. A strategy that targets finding common solutions to international problems in a collaborative way. Akar gives special attention to the contribution of the distinguished, deterrent, efficient, motivated, well-trained, and disciplined Armed Forces that are equipped with high-level weaponry produced domestically using national resources. Within the context of the Turkish Defense Industry’s strong historical background, İsmail Demir highlights the transformation and rationality of the Turkish Defense Industry. He emphasizes the necessity of addressing the recent rise of the Turkish Defense Industry in two different but interrelated periods. The first provided the defense industry with strong support with an extremely decisive and long-term projection. The second represents the transformation of the expectations from the defense industry, in coordination with the changing position and function of the defense industry in bureaucratic mechanisms. Michaël Tanchum’s commentary is a coherent and rigorous analysis of the logical result of Turkey’s post-Cold War strategic reorientation, presented in its new expeditionary capability of enhanced naval capacity and new forward bases. Michaël examines Ankara’s challenge of calibrating the use of its hard power instruments to serve its post-Lausanne strategic orientation toward establishing Turkey-centered, inter-regional connectivity. In the middle of the COVID-19 global pandemic, Minister of Health of the Republic of Turkey, Fahrettin Koca, underscores the role of Turkey in the management of COVID-19. His commentary asserts that Turkey has successfully contained the COVID-19 pandemic and prevented devastating consequences due to its idiosyncratic approach to the crisis and the robustness of its healthcare system. After 85 years as a museum, Hagia Sophia welcomes Muslim worshippers’, a decision that has drawn intense criticism in Turkey and worldwide. However, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, Yavuz Selim Kıran, argues that the functional change of Hagia Sophia will not affect Turkey’s centuries-old tradition of promoting tolerance, harmony, and diversity. The final off-topic commentary of this issue underlines the challenges to Pakistan’s nuclear threshold. Muhammad Haris Bilal Malik and Muhammad Abbas Hassan explain why Pakistan has been further threatened by India’s aggressive policies and provocative military modernization. The commentary concludes that Pakistan may be compelled to further revisit its nuclear threshold level to overcome India’s aggression. Besides the commentaries, this issue comprises five articles that focus on the Turkish Defense Industry past, present, and future and underline the factors that led to its remarkable evolution. The first article by Murat Yeşiltaş presents a general framework of Turkey’s Military and Defense Strategy. By taking into account the main drivers, primary objectives, and essential pillars, as well as its tangible repercussions on the military mindset, the author explains how the change in Turkey’s defense and military strategy stems both from Turkey’s changing security landscape and its quest to be an assertive regional player. Can Kasapoğlu’s research article covers two interrelated strategic topics regarding Turkey’s national military capacity in the 21st century: its defense technological and industrial base and its military policy, both currently characterized by a burgeoning assertiveness. In light of the rapid advances in technology that are continually shaping developments in the aerospace and defense sector, notably the evolution of airpower, Arda Mevlütoğlu, provides us with an understanding of the features of the next generation of air warfare, while presenting the status of the Turkish Air Force and offering suggestions on several challenges and opportunities. As a reply to the critics that Turkey is caught between a rock and a hard place due to the adamant opposition of its NATO allies, Mustafa Kibaroğlu tries to make sense of Turkey’s S-400 choice by assessing the impact of the S-400 deal on Turkey’s defense industries. On one hand, he presents his conception of the current “international political non-order” as an underlying factor behind the deal. On the other, he suggests that the deal must be approached from a wider perspective to grasp the extent of the service it has done in bolstering Turkey’s military-industrial complex. The last article related to the main theme of this issue focuses on Turkey’s defense spending. Merve Seren attempts to show that prioritization of defense spending during the AK Party era is specifically the outcome of a political preference. In other words, the shift in the political landscape from idealism to realism, associated with pragmatism. Our initial off-topic article highlights how Trump’s peace plan optimistically called the “Deal of the Century” adopts the Zionist discourse regarding al-Aqsa and its effects on undermining the Muslim sovereignty over the mosque, which will be a clear violation of the International law and status quo. Khalid el-Awaisi and Cuma Yavuz investigate the results of the implementation of Trump’s plan which they assert will lead to three main changes that would undo the centuries-old status quo of Masjid al-Aqsa completely and give Israel full control over this important historic and religious site. Ahmad AlShwawra and Ahmad Almuhtady’s off-topic article completes the dossier of this issue. The authors examine the potential implications of Jordan’s decision to import Mediterranean gas through Israel on Jordanian energy security, with special attention to how this decision will impact Jordanian foreign policy regarding the Palestinian cause. Through a wide range of articles and commentaries, this issue aims to bring to its readers a comprehensive framework on the transformation of Turkey’s Defense Industry and changing patterns of its military strategy.