Download or read book Qatar and the Gulf Crisis written by Kristian Coates Ulrichsen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-01 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2017, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt severed diplomatic ties with Qatar, launching an economic blockade by land, air and sea. The self-proclaimed 'Anti-Terror Quartet' offered maximalist demands: thirteen 'conditions' recalling Austria-Hungary's 1914 ultimatum to Serbia. They may even have intended military action. Well into its second year, the standoff in the Gulf has no realistic end in sight. With the Bahraini and Emirati criminalisation of expressing support for Qatar, and the Saudi labelling of detainees as 'traitors' for their alleged Qatari links, bitterness has been stoked between deeply interconnected peoples. The adviser to the Saudi crown prince advocating a moat to physically separate Qatar from the Arabian Peninsula illustrates the ongoing intensity--and irrationality--of the crisis. Most reporting and analysis of these developments has focused on questions of regional geopolitics, and framed the standoff in terms of its impact on (largely) Western interests. Lost in this thicket of commentary is consideration of how the Qatari leadership and population have responded to the blockade. As the 2022 FIFA World Cup draws closer, the ongoing Qatar crisis becomes increasingly important to understand. Ulrichsen offers an authoritative study of this international standoff, from both sides.

Download or read book Global Energy Politics written by Thijs Van de Graaf and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-05-07 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since the Industrial Revolution energy has been a key driver of world politics. From the oil crises of the 1970s to today’s rapid expansion of renewable energy sources, every shift in global energy patterns has important repercussions for international relations. In this new book, Thijs Van de Graaf and Benjamin Sovacool uncover the intricate ways in which our energy systems have shaped global outcomes in four key areas of world politics: security, the economy, the environment and global justice. Moving beyond the narrow geopolitical focus that has dominated much of the discussion on global energy politics, they also deftly trace the connections between energy, environmental politics, and community activism. The authors argue that we are on the cusp of a global energy shift that promises to be no less transformative for the pursuit of wealth and power in world politics than the historical shifts from wood to coal and from coal to oil. This ongoing energy transformation will not only upend the global balance of power; it could also fundamentally transfer political authority away from the nation state, empowering citizens, regions and local communities. Global Energy Politics will be an essential resource for students of the social sciences grappling with the major energy issues of our times.

Download or read book Oil and Politics in the Gulf written by Jill Crystal and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995-01-27 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book asks why in recent years the social and economic upheavals in Kuwait and Qatar have been accompanied by a remarkable political continuity.

Download or read book Salafism Goes Global written by Mohamed-Ali Adraoui and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-21 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Salafism is a fundamentalist Sunni vision of Islam that is growing in popularity in many countries. In this book, Mohamed-Ali Adraoui focuses on quietist Salafism, which he calls a study in contradictions. Strongly opposed to political action, terrorism, and the overthrow of established regimes, quietist Salafism insists on restructuring Islamic norms with the fervor of a revivalist and fundamentalist ethic. Quietist Salafis seek the purification of culture and religious renewal through a "de-militantization" of the Islamic corpus. Adraoui explores the Salafis' individual trajectories, their relationship with politics, and their vision of the world and of modernity, in order to understand how quietist Salafis negotiate their social identities and religious obligations in the Western context. What does the increasing presence of Islamic movements in the global space mean? Adraoui draws parallels between the French case and that of Muslim countries, and argues that the spread of quietist Salafism is partially a result of the foreign policy of Saudi Arabia. Quietist Salafism, he argues, is resonant of Saudi Arabia's efforts to promote a legitimist, anti-anarchist, and counter-revolutionary conception of Islam, after having long legitimized and reinforced the Islamist forces and Jihadist movements when it was in its geopolitical interests to do so. Salafism Goes Global sheds light on a dynamic of globalization that is taking place in the margins.

Download or read book Sectarian Politics in the Gulf written by Frederic M. Wehrey and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-12-17 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of Foreign Policy's Best Five Books of 2013, chosen by Marc Lynch of The Middle East Channel Beginning with the 2003 invasion of Iraq and concluding with the aftermath of the 2011 Arab uprisings, Frederic M. Wehrey investigates the roots of the Shi'a-Sunni divide now dominating the Persian Gulf's political landscape. Focusing on three Gulf states affected most by sectarian tensions—Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait—Wehrey identifies the factors that have exacerbated or tempered sectarianism, including domestic political institutions, the media, clerical establishments, and the contagion effect of external regional events, such as the Iraq war, the 2006 Lebanon conflict, the Arab uprisings, and Syria's civil war. In addition to his analysis, Wehrey builds a historical narrative of Shi'a activism in the Arab Gulf since 2003, linking regional events to the development of local Shi'a strategies and attitudes toward citizenship, political reform, and transnational identity. He finds that, while the Gulf Shi'a were inspired by their coreligionists in Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon, they ultimately pursued greater rights through a nonsectarian, nationalist approach. He also discovers that sectarianism in the region has largely been the product of the institutional weaknesses of Gulf states, leading to excessive alarm by entrenched Sunni elites and calculated attempts by regimes to discredit Shi'a political actors as proxies for Iran, Iraq, or Lebanese Hizballah. Wehrey conducts interviews with nearly every major Shi'a leader, opinion shaper, and activist in the Gulf Arab states, as well as prominent Sunni voices, and consults diverse Arabic-language sources.

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 China Goes Global written by David Shambaugh and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2013-03-07 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eminent China scholar David Shambaugh's China Goes Global is the sweeping synthesis of that nation's growing prominence on the world stage that we have been waiting for. Thirty years ago, China's role in global affairs beyond its immediate East Asian periphery was decidedly minor. Its military was extremely weak, and it had little geostrategic power. As Shambaugh charts, though, China's expanding economic power has allowed it extend its reach and influence virtually everywhere. After establishing the main precondition—the astounding growth of the Chinese economy—Shambaugh turns his focus to the manifestations of China's global ambitions: its growing military power, characterized best by its current pursuit of a blue-water navy; its increasing cultural influence (i.e., "soft power"); and its new prominence in global governance institutions like the G-20. He is no alarmist, however. Rather, he will draw on his extremely deep knowledge of the subject to offer a balanced and well reasoned account of where China is now and where he thinks it is headed.

Download or read book Global Health and International Relations written by Colin McInnes and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The long separation of health and International Relations, as distinct academic fields and policy arenas, has now dramatically changed. Health, concerned with the body, mind and spirit, has traditionally focused on disease and infirmity, whilst International Relations has been dominated by concerns of war, peace and security. Since the 1990s, however, the two fields have increasingly overlapped. How can we explain this shift and what are the implications for the future development of both fields? Colin McInnes and Kelley Lee examine four key intersections between health and International Relations today - foreign policy and health diplomacy, health and the global political economy, global health governance and global health security. The explosion of interest in these subjects has, in large part, been due to "real world" concerns - disease outbreaks, antibiotic resistance, counterfeit drugs and other risks to human health amid the spread of globalisation. Yet the authors contend that it is also important to understand how global health has been socially constructed, shaped in theory and practice by particular interests and normative frameworks. This groundbreaking book encourages readers to step back from problem-solving to ask how global health is being problematized in the first place, why certain agendas and issue areas are prioritised, and what determines the potential solutions put forth to address them? The palpable struggle to better understand the health risks facing a globalized world, and to strengthen collective action to deal with them effectively, begins - they argue - with a more reflexive and critical approach to this rapidly emerging subject.

Download or read book After the Sheikhs written by Christopher Michael Davidson and published by Hurst & Company. This book was released on 2013 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Noted Gulf expert Christopher Davidson contends that the collapse of these kings, emirs, and sultans is going to happen, and was always going to.

Download or read book Going Global Or Going Nowhere written by Jennifer Medcalf and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2008 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the changing nature and location of NATO's operations, concentrating on the development of its extra-European interventions. The objectives of the book are twofold. The first is to provide a historical overview of the importance of the out-of-area issue to NATO. The book takes a chronological approach to this and maps the evolution of the debates that took place about NATO's appropriate response to threats beyond the North Atlantic area from NATO's founding in 1949 until the present day. The second objective is to assess how successfully NATO has made the transition from being a security actor with regional responsibilities to one that responds to global security threats. The author considers the argument that emerged post-9/11 that the key to ensuring NATO's future vitality was to expand its geographic area of responsibility to encompass threats occurring both within and beyond the Euro-Atlantic area. This book therefore provides the first detailed examination of the evolution of NATO's global role and the success with which NATO has adapted to its new responsibilities.

Download or read book China Goes Green written by Yifei Li and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean for the future of the planet when one of the world’s most durable authoritarian governance systems pursues “ecological civilization”? Despite its staggering pollution and colossal appetite for resources, China exemplifies a model of state-led environmentalism which concentrates decisive political, economic, and epistemic power under centralized leadership. On the face of it, China seems to embody hope for a radical new approach to environmental governance. In this thought-provoking book, Yifei Li and Judith Shapiro probe the concrete mechanisms of China’s coercive environmentalism to show how ‘going green’ helps the state to further other agendas such as citizen surveillance and geopolitical influence. Through top-down initiatives, regulations, and campaigns to mitigate pollution and environmental degradation, the Chinese authorities also promote control over the behavior of individuals and enterprises, pacification of borderlands, and expansion of Chinese power and influence along the Belt and Road and even into the global commons. Given the limited time that remains to mitigate climate change and protect millions of species from extinction, we need to consider whether a green authoritarianism can show us the way. This book explores both its promises and risks.

Download or read book China s Future written by David Shambaugh and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-03-11 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China's future is arguably the most consequential question in global affairs. Having enjoyed unprecedented levels of growth, China is at a critical juncture in the development of its economy, society, polity, national security, and international relations. The direction the nation takes at this turning point will determine whether it stalls or continues to develop and prosper. Will China be successful in implementing a new wave of transformational reforms that could last decades and make it the world's leading superpower? Or will its leaders shy away from the drastic changes required because the regime's power is at risk? If so, will that lead to prolonged stagnation or even regime collapse? Might China move down a more liberal or even democratic path? Or will China instead emerge as a hard, authoritarian and aggressive superstate? In this new book, David Shambaugh argues that these potential pathways are all possibilities - but they depend on key decisions yet to be made by China's leaders, different pressures from within Chinese society, as well as actions taken by other nations. Assessing these scenarios and their implications, he offers a thoughtful and clear study of China's future for all those seeking to understand the country's likely trajectory over the coming decade and beyond.

Download or read book Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries and Challenges Ahead written by Ms.May Y Khamis and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2010-07-21 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Departmental papers are usually focused on a specific economic topic, country, or region. They are prepared in a timely way to support the outreach needs of the IMF’s area and functional departments.

Download or read book Gulf Security and the U S Military written by Geoffrey F. Gresh and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2015-06-10 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. military maintains a significant presence across the Arabian Peninsula but it must now confront a new and emerging dynamic as most Gulf Cooperation Council countries have begun to diversify their political, economic, and security partnerships with countries other than the United States—with many turning to ascending powers such as China, Russia, and India. For Gulf Arab monarchies, the choice of security partner is made more complicated by increased domestic and regional instability stemming in part from Iraq, Syria, and a menacing Iran: factors that threaten to alter totally the Middle East security dynamic. Understanding the dynamics of base politicization in a Gulf host nation—or any other—is therefore vitally important for the U.S. today. Gulf National Security and the U.S. Military examines both Gulf Arab national security and U.S. military basing relations with Gulf Arab monarchy hosts from the Second World War to the present day. Three in-depth country cases—Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman—help explain the important questions posed by the author regarding when and why a host nation either terminated a U.S. military basing presence or granted U.S. military basing access. The analysis of the cases offers a fresh perspective on how the United States has adapted to sometimes rapidly shifting Middle East security dynamics and factors that influence a host nation's preference for eviction or renegotiation, based on its perception of internal versus external threats.

Download or read book When Care Work Goes Global written by Professor Mary Romero and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2014-09-28 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women who migrate into domestic labour and care work are the single largest female occupational group migrating globally at present. Their participation in global migration systems has been acknowledged but remains under-theorized. Specifically, the impacts of women migrating into care work in the receiving as well as the sending societies are profound, altering gendered aspects of both societies. We know that migration systems link the women who migrate and the households and organizations that employ domestic and care workers, but how do these migration systems work, and more importantly, what are their impacts on the sending as well as the receiving societies? How do sending and receiving societies regulate women’s migration for care work and how do these labour market exchanges take place? How is reproductive labour changed in the receiving society when it is done by women who are subject to multifaceted othering/racializing processes? A must buy acquisition, When Care Work Goes Global will be an extremely valuable addition for course adoption in migration, labour and gender courses taught in Sociology, Anthropology, Geography, Women's Studies, Area Studies, and International Development Studies.

Download or read book Qatar written by Mehran Kamrava and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2015-06-15 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Persian Gulf state of Qatar has fewer than 2 million inhabitants, virtually no potable water, and has been an independent nation only since 1971. Yet its enormous oil and gas wealth has permitted the ruling al Thani family to exert a disproportionately large influence on regional and even international politics. Qatar is, as Mehran Kamrava explains in this knowledgeable and incisive account of the emirate, a "tiny giant": although severely lacking in most measures of state power, it is highly influential in diplomatic, cultural, and economic spheres. Kamrava presents Qatar as an experimental country, building a new society while exerting what he calls "subtle power." It is both the headquarters of the global media network Al Jazeera and the site of the U.S. Central Command's Forward Headquarters and the Combined Air Operations Center. Qatar has been a major player during the European financial crisis, it has become a showplace for renowned architects, several U.S. universities have established campuses there, and it will host the FIFA World Cup in 2022. Qatar's effective use of its subtle power, Kamrava argues, challenges how we understand the role of small states in the global system. Given the Gulf state's outsized influence on regional and international affairs, this book is a critical and timely account of contemporary Qatari politics and society.

Download or read book Gulf Capital and Islamic Finance The Rise of the New Global Players written by Aamir A. Rehman and published by McGraw Hill Professional. This book was released on 2010-01-08 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A detailed overview of Sharia-compliant finance—one of today’s most dynamic and influential sectors Islamic banks, which are becoming increasingly wealthier, are ever in search of sharia-compliant investments. In order to capitalize on this new development, investing professionals must familiarize themselves with this burgeoning investing method. Gulf Capital & Islamic Finance introduces bankers, money managers, and investors to the strategic and technical aspects of Islamic finance, covering a broad range of vehicles, including Islamic bonds, Sukuks, ETFs, and takaful (Islamic insurance). In an era of evaporating liquidity and endless adjustments to economic crises, Islamic finance is one of the few areas that continues to grow.