Download or read book Good Governance in the Middle East Oil Monarchies written by Martin Hetherington and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-09-02 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept of 'good governance' is of increasing importance, and is used by international organizations to ensure reasonable conformity to high standards in states which participate in the global trading regime and other international activities. This book examines the concept of good governance and how it is applied in the states of the Gulf Co-operation Council. These states are particularly important because of their strategic location and massive oil wealth. Moreover, as monarchies, in most cases without powerful democratic representative bodies, and as Islamic countries, with a different outlook from countries of the West, Western standards of good governance may need to be modified in order for them to be implemented effectively.
Download or read book Good Governance in the Middle East Oil Monarchies written by Martin Hetherington and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept of 'good governance' is of increasing importance, and is used by international organizations to ensure reasonable conformity to high standards in states which participate in the global trading regime and other international activities. This book examines the concept of good governance and how it is applied in the states of the Gulf Co-operation Council. These states are particularly important because of their strategic location and massive oil wealth. Moreover, as monarchies, in most cases without powerful democratic representative bodies, and as Islamic countries, with a differ.
Download or read book Reform in the Middle East Oil Monarchies written by Anoushiravan Ehteshami and published by Garnet & Ithaca Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The oil rich monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula are frequently dismissed as having no democratic systems compared to most other regions of the world. Indeed, the United States justified its action in Iraq by proclaiming that democracy and freedom must be adopted both in Iraq and throughout the wider Middle East, in order to counter the conditions which breed international terrorism. It has been argued that the countries of the Arabian Peninsula need to provide a system of democratic representation that fully takes into account their own history and culture. This raises many questions. Can their firmly established tradition of rule provide the basis for the evolution of an Arab form of constitutional monarchy? Should the West be seeking to encourage national indigenous evolution rather than working to impose Western systems? What are the risks of change and what has been achieved so far? This book addresses these issues and examines the drivers, progress, and challenges for future change in this vitally strategic area of the world.
Download or read book Oil Monarchies written by F. Gregory Gause and published by Council on Foreign Relations. This book was released on 1994 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely book demystifies the politics of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Oman, and focuses on the new pressures that have emerged since the Gulf War. Gause illuminates the foreign policy tightrope these states walk in the Middle East: self-defense is problematic, regional pressures translate directly into the domestic arena, and relations with the United States cause as well as solve many problems. Gause examines the interplay of Islamic fundamentalism, tribalism, and, most importantly, oil wealth that has determined the power structure of the Gulf monarchies. He shows what influences really drive politics in the Middle East as well as how U.S. foreign policy must respond to them in order to forge more meaningful ties with each country and preserve the stability of a fragile region that is vital to U.S. interests.
Download or read book Good Governance in the Middle East Oil Monarchies written by Martin Hetherington and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-09-02 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the concept of good governance and how it is applied in the states of the Gulf Co-operation Council.
Download or read book Oil States in the New Middle East written by Kjetil Selvik and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-07-16 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oil has been central to regime survival for oil states across the Arabian Peninsula and has been at the heart of their attempts to defuse the wave of Arab revolutions. However, in 2011 revolution hit Libya, the most oil dependent regime in the Middle East. The political storm winds that have swept this region have thrown into doubt the resilience of Arab rentier states, and highlight how the political effects of oil vary across the oil producing countries. Oil States in the New Middle East brings together leading experts to critically assess the centrality of oil and the relevance of Rentier State Theory in light of the post-2011 upheaval across the Middle East and North Africa. It combines overall reflections on the political dynamics in oil states with focused case investigations of individual countries. Taking as its starting point the centrality of oil in explanations of regime survival, the book analyses how the oil states have responded to and fared throughout the Arab popular upheavals, resulting in a critical assessment of the continued relevance of Rentier State Theory. While observers have asked how the uprisings varied between oil and non-oil states, this book turns the comparative focus inward, arguing for a more fine-grained understanding of the political effects of oil in different oil producing countries. This book would be of interest to students and scholars of Middle East, North Africa and Gulf Studies, Oil and Politics, as well as Comparative Politics and International Political Economy.
Download or read book Oil Monarchies written by F. Gregory Gause and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely book demystifies the politics of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Oman, and focuses on the new pressures that have emerged since the Gulf War. Gause illuminates the foreign policy tightrope these states walk in the Middle East: self-defense is problematic, regional pressures translate directly into the domestic arena, and relations with the United States can cause as well as solve problems. Gause examines the interplay of Islamic fundamentalism, tribalism, and, most importantly, oil wealth that has determined the power structure of the Gulf monarchies. He shows what influences really drive politics in the Middle East as well as how U.S. foreign policy must respond to them in order to forge more meaningful ties with each country and preserve the stability of a fragile region that is vital to U.S. interests.
Download or read book Money Markets and Monarchies written by Adam Hanieh and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-13 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An original and empirically grounded analysis of the Gulf monarchies and their role in shaping the political economy of the Middle East.
Download or read book Energy Kingdoms written by Jim Krane and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the discovery of oil in the 1930s, the Gulf monarchies—Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Bahrain—went from being among the world’s poorest and most isolated places to some of its most ostentatiously wealthy. To maintain support, the ruling sheikhs provide their subjects with boundless cheap energy, unwittingly leading to some of the highest consumption rates on earth. Today, as summertime temperatures set new records, the Gulf’s rulers find themselves caught in a dilemma: can they curb their profligacy without jeopardizing the survival of some of the world’s last absolute monarchies? In Energy Kingdoms, Jim Krane takes readers inside these monarchies to consider their conundrum. He traces the history of the Gulf states’ energy use and policies, looking in particular at how energy subsidies have distorted demand. Oil exports are the lifeblood of their political-economic systems—and the basis of their strategic importance—but domestic consumption has begun eating into exports while climate change threatens to render their desert region uninhabitable. At risk are the sheikhdoms’ way of life, their relations with their Western protectors, and their political stability in a chaotic region. Backed by rich fieldwork and deep knowledge of the region, Krane expertly lays out the hard choices that Gulf leaders face to keep their states viable.
Download or read book All in the Family written by Michael Herb and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2016-03-22 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Herb proposes a new paradigm for understanding politics in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. He critiques the theory of the rentier state and argues that we must put political institutions—and specifically monarchism—at the center of any explanation of Gulf politics. All in the Family provides a compelling and fresh analysis of the importance of monarchism in the region, and points out the crucial role of the ruling families in creating monarchal regimes. It addresses the issue of democratization in the Middle Eastern monarchies, arguing that the prospects for the gradual emergence of constitutional monarchy are better than is often thought.
Download or read book The Arab Winter written by Noah Feldman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-08-03 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Arab Spring promised to end dictatorship and bring self-government to people across the Middle East. Yet everywhere except Tunisia it led to either renewed dictatorship, civil war, extremist terror, or all three. In The Arab Winter, Noah Feldman argues that the Arab Spring was nevertheless not an unmitigated failure, much less an inevitable one. Rather, it was a noble, tragic series of events in which, for the first time in recent Middle Eastern history, Arabic-speaking peoples took free, collective political action as they sought to achieve self-determination.
Download or read book MBS written by Ben Hubbard and published by Crown. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A gripping, behind-the-scenes portrait of the rise of Saudi Arabia’s secretive and mercurial new ruler “Revelatory . . . a vivid portrait of how MBS has altered the kingdom during his half-decade of rule.”—The Washington Post Finalist for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Kirkus Reviews MBS is the untold story of how a mysterious young prince emerged from Saudi Arabia’s sprawling royal family to overhaul the economy and society of the richest country in the Middle East—and gather as much power as possible into his own hands. Since his father, King Salman, ascended to the throne in 2015, Mohammed bin Salman has leveraged his influence to restructure the kingdom’s economy, loosen its strict Islamic social codes, and confront its enemies around the region, especially Iran. That vision won him fans at home and on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley, in Hollywood, and at the White House, where President Trump embraced the prince as a key player in his own vision for the Middle East. But over time, the sheen of the visionary young reformer has become tarnished, leaving many struggling to determine whether MBS is in fact a rising dictator whose inexperience and rash decisions are destabilizing the world’s most volatile region. Based on years of reporting and hundreds of interviews, MBS reveals the machinations behind the kingdom’s catastrophic military intervention in Yemen, the bizarre detention of princes and businessmen in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton, and the shifting Saudi relationships with Israel and the United States. And finally, it sheds new light on the greatest scandal of the young autocrat’s rise: the brutal killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul, a crime that shook Saudi Arabia’s relationship with Washington and left the world wondering whether MBS could get away with murder. MBS is a riveting, eye-opening account of how the young prince has wielded vast powers to reshape his kingdom and the world around him. Praise for MBS “Saudi Arabia is testing the extremes of tradition and innovation, of half-baked visions and intensifying repression. Ben Hubbard’s authoritative reporting on the inner sanctums of its society offers a perfect synthesis of journalism and area expertise: the best description we have at the moment of why things happen as they do in the kingdom.”—Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Return of Marco Polo’s World
Download or read book Leadership Development in the Middle East written by Beverley Metcalfe and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leadership in the Middle East has never been as vital as it is in the wake of the global financial crisis and the Arab Spring Ð yet there is a lack of detailed knowledge concerning strategies for developing capacity in leadership, national skills and knowledge management. This volume aims to address this deficit. This book is the first text on the subject of leadership development in the Middle East to be published in English (drawing on both English and Arabic scholarship) and will contribute to the knowledge and understanding of leadership theory and practice in the global economy. The volume provides in-depth analysis of the social, political and economic factors that shape leadership capacity building efforts and shows how leadership behaviours and practices differ from those in the West, reflecting an ethic of care, social responsibility and concern for developing both organization and individual capabilities as well as fostering community improvement and nation-building and advancing social justice and human well-being. The book reveals the complexity of leadership behaviours in the region and contextualizes analyses with broader contemporary debates including migration, governance, climate change and political leadership succession. The book also includes original insights into the role of women in leadership in business, politics and the community. This unique volume will benefit international organizational behaviour/development specialists, international human resource development practitioners and students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It will be invaluable to development specialists, HR consultants and practitioners on assignment in the Middle East and for policy and capacity development experts in NGOs and international organizations such as the ILO, UN and World Bank.
Download or read book Democracy and Good Governance in Nigeria written by OBI KELVIN EZENYILI and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2012-08-14 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last decades, the most striking changes made by the World Bank and other development institutions are their commitments to improve the quality of governance and most importantly fighting corruption and focusing more on the developing Countries. Driven by case studies that developmental deficiencies in the developing Countries are due to the crisis of governance (seeKhan, 2002); As a result of this, good governance and democracy became a very comparative and embracing ideal admired by most Countries in the World, and has grown rapidly to become a major concern in analysis of what is missing in Countries struggling for economic and political developmentthe developing Countries (Nigeria). Although issues concerning governance failure and corruption vary within Country to Country; nevertheless, researchers have adopted the concept (Good Governance) as a means of enhancing development and exploring institutional failures (seeGrindle, 2010). The issue of good governance is now a major concern, and without good governance, arguably, the developing Countries (Nigeria) have little or no chance to progress. The two words again-democracy and governanceare interwoven in the framework that is the mechanism of political dialogue across the globe. In theory, this book will examine the relationship between democracy and good governance, by critically analyzing the concepts. This book is divided into two sectionsThe first section of this book will attempt to pin down these concepts: democracy and good governance to their manifestations on ground, using Nigeria as a case study. It will be argued in this paper, that there is no doubt that the transition from military to democratic government in 1999, marked a new beginning of democratic governance in Nigeria. However, Nigerias democracy has remained unstable since the Country returned to democratic form of governance. The political terrain and governing procedures has been characterized by corruption. This first section will argue that corruption has undermined democracy and have had grave implications for good (democratic) governance in Nigeria. In comparison with theoretical arguments, this paper will argue that the Nigerias practical scenario ironically portray the theory, due to the menace of corruption. In summary, this section will focus on corruption as a means of exclusion (deficit), and as a stumbling block in the development of Nigerias good (democratic) governance from a nominal to a practical one, and further conclude that the vast discrepancy between Nigerias nominal democracy and corrupt governance practices show that it is much easier to talk the talk, than it is to walk the walk. That is to say, good governance is easier to deliberate in theory, than to effect in practice, looking at the case of Nigeria. Nevertheless, with the few steps that have been taken in the last decade or so of democracy, and the unending and continuous efforts put forward by the present administration, one can expect further improvement in the years to come. The essays brought together in the second section of this book represent a selection of my further contribution to the continuing discussion about the position of public policy and governance in todays world. It tackles issues concerning public administration, public policypolicy implementation, and governance around the globe.
Download or read book Rentier Islamism written by Courtney Freer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While scholars have long looked at the role of political Islam in the Middle East, it has been assumed that domestic politics in the wealthy monarchical states of the Arabian Gulf, so-called "rentier states" where taxes are very low and oil wealth subsidizes the needs of citizens, are largely unaffected by such movements. However, the long accepted rentier theory has been shortsighted in overlooking the socio-political role played by Muslim Brotherhood affiliates in the super-rentiers of Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. While rentier state theory assumes that citizens of such states will form opposition blocs only when their stake in rent income is threatened, this book demonstrates that ideology, rather than rent, have motivated the formation of independent Islamist movements in the wealthiest states of the region. In the monarchical systems of Qatar and the UAE, Islamist groups do not have the opportunity to compete for power and therefore cannot use the ballot box to gain popularity or influence political life, as they do elsewhere in the Middle East. But, as this book points out, the division between the social and political sectors is often blurred in the socially conservative states of the Gulf, as political actors operate through channels that are not institutionalized. Simply because politics is underinstitutionalized in such states does not mean that it is underdeveloped; the informal realm holds considerable political capital. As such, the book argues that Brotherhood movements have managed to use the links between the social (i.e. informal personal networks) and political (i.e. government institutions) to gain influence in policymaking in such states.Using contemporary history and original empirical research, Courtney Freer updates traditional rentier state theory and argues that political Islam serves as a prominent voice and tool to promote more strictly political, and often populist or reformist, views supported by many Gulf citizens.
Download or read book Saudi Arabia and the Path to Political Change written by Mark C. Thompson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-06-16 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: State-society dialogue in Saudi Arabia is one of the most contested issues in the country today, yet little is known about the National Dialogue process, and its relationship with Saudi society is frequently and widely misunderstood. The first to examine the Saudi Arabian National Dialogue process in its entirety, Mark C. Thompson investigates the relationship between the King Abdulaziz Center for National Dialogue (KACND) and the key social constituencies of Saudi society. Since its establishment in 2003, the KACND has attempted to promote a culture of dialogue and has encouraged the debate of contentious socio-political issues by bringing individuals together from across the Kingdom. Drawing on Antonio Gramsci's theory of hegemony, the author asks whether the Saudi socio-political system is moving from a form of patrimonial state to one of ideological hegemony and, if this is the case, whether the KACND is a catalyst, or even a driving force, in this transition. Saudi Arabia and the Path to Political Change investigates the practices and the impact of the KACND and assesses the extent to which the institution's activities, and the ongoing National Dialogue process, represent a viable attempt to address emerging political concerns in Saudi Arabia. Covering pivotal issues including women's empowerment, public health and employment, the author here explores the extensive impact of the KACND's activities on internal cross-constituency communication and discourse and shows how the process relates to wider regime strategies and to the evolution of the Saudi polity. Based on approximately 120 interviews conducted in Saudi Arabia from 2009 to 2011 and drawing on the evidence of a wide range of focus groups and interviews with National Dialogue participants, KACND officials, government ministers, lawyers and journalists, this book provides a unique insight into the effects and consequences of Saudi National Dialogue, and questions the extent to which wider ideological debate is possible in the Kingdom.
Download or read book Global Governance and Muslim Organizations written by Leslie A. Pal and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-07-31 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, represented on the world stage by 57 states, as well as a host of international organizations and associations. This book critically examines the engagement of these states in systems of global governance and with a variety of policy regimes, including climate change, energy, migration, humanitarian aid, international financial institutions, research and education. Chapters explore the dynamics of this engagement, the contributions to global order, the interests pursued and some of the contradictions and tensions within the Islamic world, and between that world and the ‘West’. An in-depth perspective is provided about the traditional and new forms of multilateralism and the policy spaces formed which provide new opportunities for the Muslim and non-Muslim world alike.
