Download or read book The Violence of Petro dollar Regimes written by Luis Martínez and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The creation of oil "rents" in the 1970s put Algeria, Iraq, and Libya on the fast track to modernization. Massive revenues turned Algeria into the "Mediterranean dragon," Libya into an "emirate," and Iraq into the preeminent "rising military power" of the Arab world. From a political perspective, the progressive socialism of these countries would seem to have engendered profound, promising change: increased rights for women, positive urbanization, and improved education. Yet the realities of oil wealth are beyond disillusioning. The international community now wonders whether reform can ever penetrate such nations and if the West will ever enjoy secure access to gas and oil. Offering the first global evaluation of these issues, Luis Martinez considers the nature of oil-sponsored violence in Algeria, Iraq, and Libya and its ability both to weaken and bolster their respective regimes.
Download or read book The Violence of Petro dollar Regimes written by Luis Martínez and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The creation of oil rents in the 1970s put Algeria, Iraq, and Libya on the fast track to modernization. Massive revenues turned Algeria into the Mediterranean dragon, Libya into an emirate, and Iraq into the preeminent rising military power of the Arab world. From a political perspective, the progressive socialism of these countries would seem to have engendered profound, promising change: increased rights for women, positive urbanization, and improved education. Yet oil wealth's realities are beyond disillusioning. The international community now wonders whether reform can ever penetrate such nations and if the west will ever enjoy a secure gas supply. Offering the first global evaluation of these issues, Luis Martinez considers the nature of oil-sponsored violence in Algeria, Iraq, and Libya and its ability both to weaken and bolster their regimes.
Download or read book Oil Money written by David M. Wight and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-15 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Oil Money, David M. Wight offers a new framework for understanding the course of Middle East–US relations during the 1970s and 1980s: the transformation of the US global empire by Middle East petrodollars. During these two decades, American, Arab, and Iranian elites reconstituted the primary role of the Middle East within the global system of US power from a supplier of cheap crude oil to a source of abundant petrodollars, the revenues earned from the export of oil. In the 1970s, the United States and allied monarchies, including the House of Pahlavi in Iran and the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia, utilized petrodollars to undertake myriad joint initiatives for mutual economic and geopolitical benefit. These petrodollar projects were often unprecedented in scope and included multibillion-dollar development projects, arms sales, purchases of US Treasury securities, and funds for the mujahedin in Afghanistan. Although petrodollar ties often augmented the power of the United States and its Middle East allies, Wight argues they also fostered economic disruptions and state-sponsored violence that drove many Americans, Arabs, and Iranians to resist Middle East–US interdependence, most dramatically during the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Deftly integrating diplomatic, transnational, economic, and cultural analysis, Wight utilizes extensive declassified records from the Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations, the IMF, the World Bank, Saddam Hussein's regime, and private collections to make plain the political economy of US power. Oil Money is an expansive yet judicious investigation of the wide-ranging and contradictory effects of petrodollars on Middle East–US relations and the geopolitics of globalization.
Download or read book The Resource Curse in the Persian Gulf written by Mehran Kamrava and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-21 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "Resource Curse" in the Persian Gulf systematically address the little studied notion of a "resource curse" in relation to the Persian Gulf by examining the historical causes and genesis of the phenomenon and its consequences in a variety of areas, including human development, infrastructural growth, clientelism, state-building and institutional evolution, and societal and gender relations. The book explores how across the Arabian Peninsula, oil wealth began accruing to the state at a particular juncture in the state-building process, when traditional, largely informal patterns of shaikhly rule were relatively well established, but the formal institutional apparatuses of the state were not yet fully formed. The chapters show that oil wealth had a direct impact on subsequent developments in these two complementary areas. Contributors discuss how on one hand, the distribution of petrodollars enabled political elites to solidify existing patterns of rule through deepening clientelist practices and by establishing new, dependent clients; and how on the other, rent revenues gave state leaders the opportunity to establish and shape institutions in ways that solidified their political control. The "Resource Curse" in the Persian Gulf will be of great interest to scholars of Middle Eastern studies, focusing on a variety of subject areas, including human development, human resources, clientelism, infrastructural growth, institutional evolution, state-building, and societal and gender relations. This book was originally published as a special issue in the Journal of Arabian Studies.
Download or read book Revolution and Authoritarianism in North Africa written by Frédéric Volpi and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a much-needed corrective to dominant approaches to understanding political causality during episodes of intense social mobilisation in North Africa. Drawing on analyses of routine governance and of 'revolutionary' mobilisation in four countries of the Maghreb - Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya - before, during and after the 2011 uprisings, Volpi explains the different trajectories of these uprisings by showing how specific acts of protest created new arenas of contention that provided actors with new rationales, practices and, ultimately, identities. The book illustrates how the dynamics of revolutionary episodes are characterised by the social and political de-institutionalisation of routine mechanisms of (authoritarian) governance. It also details how post-uprising re-institutionalisation and/or conflict are shaped by reconstructed understandings of the uprisings by actors, who are themselves partially the products of these episodes of phenomena.
Download or read book The Blood of the Colony written by Owen White and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The surprising story of the wine industry’s role in the rise of French Algeria and the fall of empire. “We owe to wine a blessing far more precious than gold: the peopling of Algeria with Frenchmen,” stated agriculturist Pierre Berthault in the early 1930s. In the last decades of the nineteenth century, Europeans had displaced Algerians from the colony’s best agricultural land and planted grapevines. Soon enough, wine was the primary export of a region whose mostly Muslim inhabitants didn’t drink alcohol. Settlers made fortunes while drawing large numbers of Algerians into salaried work for the first time. But the success of Algerian wine resulted in friction with French producers, challenging the traditional view that imperial possessions should complement, not compete with, the metropole. By the middle of the twentieth century, amid the fight for independence, Algerians had come to see the rows of vines as an especially hated symbol of French domination. After the war, Algerians had to decide how far they would go to undo the transformations the colonists had wrought—including the world’s fourth-biggest wine industry. Owen White examines Algeria’s experiment with nationalized wine production in worker-run vineyards, the pressures that resulted in the failure of that experiment, and the eventual uprooting of most of the country’s vines. With a special focus on individual experiences of empire, from the wealthiest Europeans to the poorest laborers in the fields, The Blood of the Colony shows the central role of wine in the economic life of French Algeria and in its settler culture. White makes clear that the industry left a long-term mark on the development of the nation.
Download or read book Statebuilding in the Middle East and North Africa written by Irene Costantini and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-03-26 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the regime changes in Iraq and Libya to unravel the complexity of statebuilding in countries emerging from authoritarianism and conflict in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Framed in a comparative study of post-2003 Iraq and post-2011 Libya, the book examines changes in key state dimensions – representation and political authority, security, and wealth creation and distribution – in a continuous dialogue with past trajectories in these two countries. To grasp the nature and degree of these changes, the mechanisms of state formation are explored in light of a statebuilding agenda that, in its application from Iraq to Libya, has adapted to different political prerogatives. The analysis of Iraq and Libya serves the book’s ultimate goal to address the debate on statebuilding from a regional (MENA) perspective and to lay the ground for the study of other contemporary cases undergoing radical and violent process of changes, such as in Syria and Yemen. The book grapples with problems associated with the difficult process of transition from authoritarianism through conflict and towards peace by focusing on the state, its structure and function. The work is informed by a large quantity of materials collected over the past five years, including secondary literature, policy papers and reports, and semi-structured interviews with key informants on Iraq and Libya. This book will be of much interest to students of statebuilding, Middle Eastern studies, peace and conflict studies, and International Relations in general.
Download or read book From Deep State to Islamic State written by Jean-Pierre Filiu and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Details the rise of ISIS, which developed as autocrats in the Middle East sought to undermine the Arab Spring.
Download or read book The State in North Africa written by Luis Martinez and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-15 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since independence, revolts and riots in North Africa have structured relations between society and the state. While the state has always managed to restore order, the unexpected outbreak of the Arab Spring revolts has presented a real challenge to state stability. Taking a long-term historical perspective, this book analyses how public authorities have implemented policies to manage the Maghreb's restive societies, viewed at first as 'retrograde' and then as 'radicalised'. National cohesion has been a major concern for post-colonial leaders who aim to build strong states capable of controlling the population. Historically, North African nations found colonial oppression to be the very bond that united them, but what continues to hold these communities and nation-states together after independence? If public interest is not at the heart of the state's actions, how can national loyalties be maintained? Luis Martinez analyses how states approach these questions, showing that the fight against jihadist groups both helps to reconstruct essential ties of state belonging and also promotes the development of a border control policy. He highlights the challenges posed by fragile political communities and weak state instruments, and the response of leaders striving to build peaceful pluralistic nations in North Africa.
Download or read book Inside the Arab State written by Mehran Kamrava and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2011 Arab uprisings and their subsequent aftermath have thrown into question some of our long-held assumptions about the foundational aspects of the Arab state. While the regional and international consequences of the uprisings continue to unfold with great unpredictability, their ramifications for the internal lives of the states in which they unfolded are just as dramatic and consequential. States historically viewed as models of strength and stability have been shaken to their foundations. Borders thought impenetrable have collapsed; sovereignty and territoriality have been in flux. This book examines some of the central questions facing observers and scholars of the Middle East concerning the nature of power and politics before and after 2011 in the Arab world. The focus of the book revolves around the very nature of politics and the exercise of power in the Arab world, conceptions of the state, its functions and institutions, its sources of legitimacy, and basic notions underlying it such as sovereignty and nationalism. Inside the Arab State adopts a multi-disciplinary approach, examining a broad range of political, economic, and social variables. It begins with an examination of politics, and more specifically political institutions, in the Arab world from the 1950s on, tracing the travail of states, and the wounds they inflicted on society and on themselves along the way, until the eruption of the 2011 uprisings. The uprisings, the states' responses to them, and efforts by political leaders to carve out for themselves means of legitimacy are also discussed, as are the reasons for the emergence and rise of Daesh and the Islamic State. Power, I argue, and increasingly narrow conceptions of it in terms of submission and conformity, remains at the heart of Arab politics, popular protests and yearnings for change notwithstanding. Much has changed in the Arab world over the last several decades. But even more has stayed the same.
Download or read book Countries at the Crossroads 2011 written by Freedom House and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2012 with total page 773 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Countries at the Crossroads: An Analysis of Democratic Governance evaluates government performance in seventy strategically important countries from across the globe, including emerging market countries and at-risk states. The in-depth comparative analyses and quantitative ratings--examining Accountability and Public Voice, Civil Liberties, Rule of Law, and Anticorruption and Transparency--serve as a valuable tool for public analysts, educators and students, government officials, and the business community.
Download or read book Algeria written by Patrick Crowley and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2017-07-17 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Algeria: Nation, Culture and Transnationalism covers a specific period of time (1988-2015) that has taken on a significantly different socio-political configuration to that of the first 25 years of post-independence Algeria (1962-1987).
Download or read book Everyday Politics in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya written by Matteo Capasso and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-25 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Treating the everyday as central to the study of regional and international politics, this book reconstructs the last two decades of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, leading up to the 2011 events that sanctioned its fall. It provides a unique and vivid look into the political dynamics that characterized the everyday lives of Libyans, offering a compelling counterargument to those who insist on framing the history of the country as a stateless, authoritarian, and rogue state. Based on the collection of oral histories, what sets the tempo of this journey is an extensive collection of personal anecdotes, moods and emotions, popular jokes and rumors. In weaving the threads that link these quotidian lives to Libya’s interaction with wider international and geopolitical dynamics, the book offers a unique and timely analysis of the 2011 events that witnessed the fall of the regime reaching the current state of violence, war, and hope.
Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Arab and Islamic Organizations written by Sarah Tenney and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-10-28 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Historical Dictionary of Arab and Islamic Organizations focuses on international and regional organizations primarily in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. With more than 300 cross-referenced entries, this volume includes both major and minor organizations. While the emphasis is on intergovernmental institutions, it also covers non-governmental organizations, key countries, movements, and prominent figures in the Arab and Islamic world. Like other dictionaries of this type, it includes an introductory essay, chronology of major events, and a select bibliography for further reading. It provides a solid starting point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the subject.
Download or read book Islamic State written by Abdel Bari Atwan and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2015-09-08 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh) stunned the world when it overran an area the size of Great Britain on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border in a matter of weeks and proclaimed the birth of a new Caliphate. In this timely and important book, Abdel Bari Atwan draws on his unrivaled knowledge of the global jihadi movement and Middle Eastern geopolitics to reveal the origins and modus operandi of Islamic State. Based on extensive field research and exclusive interviews with IS insiders, Islamic State outlines the group's leadership structure, as well as its strategies, tactics, and diverse methods of recruitment. Atwan traces the Salafi-jihadi lineage of IS, its ideological differences with al Qaeda and the deadly rivalry that has emerged between their leaders. He also shows how the group's rapid growth has been facilitated by its masterful command of social media platforms, the "dark web," Hollywood blockbuster-style videos, and even jihadi computer games, producing a powerful paradox where the ambitions of the Middle Ages have reemerged in cyberspace. As Islamic State continues to dominate the world's media headlines with horrific acts of ruthless violence, Atwan considers the movement's chances of survival and expansion and offers indispensable insights on potential government responses to contain the IS threat.
Download or read book Financing Our Future written by Stefan Brunnhuber and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The monetary system is the indispensable missing link in the debate of sustainability, and whether the current financial system can handle these evolved needs. To date, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) primarily have been financed either through the private sector, through conventional public sector taxes and fees, or through philanthropic commitment. Assuming a need of 4 to 5 trillion dollars annually in the 10 to 15 years left to finance our future, these conventional sources of finance are insufficient in terms of both the scale and speed of funding required to finance our future. Furthermore, the inherent instability of our financial system forces the world community to focus first and foremost on repairing and stabilizing the existing system. The development of cryptocurrencies using distributed ledger technologies (mainly blockchain) has prompted leading central banks to study the potential application of this approach to independently create purchasing power. In this vein, this book offers a new approach, namely introducing a parallel electronic currency specifically designed to finance global common goods and provide the resources necessary to achieve the SDGs. Furthermore, this mechanism would have a stabilizing effect on the existing monetary system. The book argues that one way this could be achieved is by giving central banks a modified monetary mandate to inject new liquidity into the system using a top-down approach. Alternatively, liquidity could come from corporate or communal initiatives with crypto- or communal currencies in a bottom-up approach. The author maintains that by issuing a blockchain-enabled parallel electronic currency earmarked for SDG-related projects and using other channels for monetary flow rather than the conventional ones, the future could be financed in a different manner. In the long run, abandoning our current monetary monoculture and introducing a monetary ecosystem would stabilize international financial markets, increase monetary regulatory efforts, reduce negative externalities, create a social Pareto optimum and stabilize democracies. This book presents, in the same spirit as Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics, a Tao of finance--an outside-of-the-box approach to financing global common goods.
Download or read book Staging Cultural Encounters written by Jane E. Goodman and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Staging Cultural Encounters tells stories about performances of cultural encounter and cultural exchange during the US tour of the Algerian theater troupe Istijmam Culturelle in 2016. Jane E. Goodman follows the Algerian theater troupe as they prepare for and then tour the U.S. under the auspices of the Center Stage program, sponsored by the US State Department to promote cross-cultural dialogue and understanding. The title of the play Istijmam produced was translated as "Apples," written by Abdelkader Alloula, a renowned Algerian playwright, director, and actor who was assassinated in 1994. Goodman take readers on tour with the actors as they move from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. to the large state universities of New Hampshire and Indiana, and from a tiny community theater in small-town New England to the stage of the avant-garde La MaMa Theater in New York City. Staging Cultural Encounters takes up conundrums of cross-cultural encounter, challenges in translation, and audience reception, offering a frank account of the encounters with American audiences and the successes and disappointments of the experience of exchange.
