Download or read book Ambiguities of Domination written by Lisa Wedeen and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-09-09 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Treating rhetoric and symbols as central rather than peripheral to politics, Lisa Wedeen’s groundbreaking book offers a compelling counterargument to those who insist that politics is primarily about material interests and the groups advocating for them. During the thirty-year rule of President Hafiz al-Asad’s regime, his image was everywhere. In newspapers, on television, and during orchestrated spectacles. Asad was praised as the “father,” the “gallant knight,” even the country’s “premier pharmacist.” Yet most Syrians, including those who create the official rhetoric, did not believe its claims. Why would a regime spend scarce resources on a personality cult whose content is patently spurious? Wedeen shows how such flagrantly fictitious claims were able to produce a politics of public dissimulation in which citizens acted as if they revered the leader. By inundating daily life with tired symbolism, the regime exercised a subtle, yet effective form of power. The cult worked to enforce obedience, induce complicity, isolate Syrians from one another, and set guidelines for public speech and behavior. Wedeen‘s ethnographic research demonstrates how Syrians recognized the disciplinary aspects of the cult and sought to undermine them. In a new preface, Wedeen discusses the uprising against the Syrian regime that began in 2011 and questions the usefulness of the concept of legitimacy in trying to analyze and understand authoritarian regimes.

Download or read book Asad in Search of Legitimacy written by Mordechai Kedar and published by . This book was released on 2006-11 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Syrian regime, ruled by the Ba'th socialist party and headed by presidents from the 'Alawi minority, faces problems of legitimacy vis-Ã -vis its people, which it tackles through powerful security organizations and the state media. The government media machine exists to express the regime's viewpoint in both local and external spheres, and to promote acceptance of the legitimacy of Asad's presidency and government. The media also attempts to mobilize the masses to act in the service of the state by disseminating information which reflects Asad's position on current issues. The organs of the regime - army, party, security services, national and local authorities - are proclaimed as acting by order of the president. While personal commitment to the legitimacy of Hafiz al-Asad is the principal "article of faith", this message is supported by complementary messages - Asad being true to the Moslem faith; Asad as historic leader; Asad as the focus of identity of all Syrian citizens; the "crimes" of the Moslem Brotherhood, etc. - and vociferous political discourse.

Download or read book Syria from Reform to Revolt written by Raymond Hinnebusch and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2015-01-02 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Bashar al-Asad smoothly assumed power in July 2000, just seven days after the death of his father, observers were divided on what this would mean for the country’s foreign and domestic politics. On the one hand, it seemed everything would stay the same: an Asad on top of a political system controlled by secret services and Baathist one-party rule. On the other hand, it looked like everything would be different: a young president with exposure to Western education who, in his inaugural speech, emphasized his determination to modernize Syria. This volume explores the ways in which Asad’s domestic and foreign policy strategies during his first decade in power safeguarded his rule and adapted Syria to the age of globalization. The volume’s contributors examine multiple aspects of Asad’s rule in the 2000s, from power consolidation within the party and control of the opposition to economic reform, co-opting new private charities, and coping with Iraqi refugees. The Syrian regime temporarily succeeded in reproducing its power and legitimacy, in reconstructing its social base, and in managing regional and international challenges. At the same time, contributors clearly detail the shortcomings, inconsistencies, and risks these policies entailed, illustrating why Syria’s tenuous stability came to an abrupt end during the Arab Spring of 2011. This volume presents the work of an international group of scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. Based on extensive fieldwork and on intimate knowledge of a country whose dynamics often seem complicated and obscure to outside observers, these scholars’ insightful snapshots of Bashar al-Asad’s decade of authoritarian upgrading provide an indispensable resource for understanding the current crisis and its disastrous consequences.

Download or read book Asad in Search of Legitimacy written by Mordechai Kedar and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text offers and analysis of the political domestic message of the Syrian Press.

Download or read book A History of Social Justice and Political Power in the Middle East written by Linda T. Darling and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From ancient Mesopotamia into the 20th century, "the Circle of Justice" as a concept has pervaded Middle Eastern political thought and underpinned the exercise of power in the Middle East. The Circle of Justice depicts graphically how a government’s justice toward the population generates political power, military strength, prosperity, and good administration. This book traces this set of relationships from its earliest appearance in the political writings of the Sumerians through four millennia of Middle Eastern culture. It explores how people conceptualized and acted upon this powerful insight, how they portrayed it in symbol, painting, and story, and how they transmitted it from one regime to the next. Moving towards the modern day, the author shows how, although the Circle of Justice was largely dropped from political discourse, it did not disappear from people’s political culture and expectations of government. The book demonstrates the Circle’s relevance to the Iranian Revolution and the rise of Islamist movements all over the Middle East, and suggests how the concept remains relevant in an age of capitalism. A "must read" for students, policymakers, and ordinary citizens, this book will be an important contribution to the areas of political history, political theory, Middle East studies and Orientalism.

Download or read book The Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin written by Jonathan Phillips and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-20 with total page 519 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An engaging biography that offers a new perspective on one of the most influential figures of the Crusades In 1187, Saladin marched triumphantly into Jerusalem, ending decades of struggle against the Christians and reclaiming the holy city for Islam. Four years later he fought off the armies of the Third Crusade, which were commanded by Europe’s leading monarchs. A fierce warrior and savvy diplomat, Saladin’s unparalleled courtesy, justice, generosity, and mercy were revered by both his fellow Muslims and his Christian rivals such as Richard the Lionheart. Combining thorough research with vivid storytelling, Jonathan Phillips offers a fresh and captivating look at the triumphs, failures, and contradictions of one of the Crusades’ most unique figures. Bringing the vibrant world of the twelfth century to life, this book also explores Saladin’s complicated legacy, examining the ways Saladin has been invoked in the modern age by Arab and Muslim leaders ranging from Nasser in Egypt, Asad in Syria, and Saddam Hussein in Iraq to Osama bin Laden, as well as his huge appeal across popular culture in books, drama, and music.

Download or read book Re constructing Armenia in Lebanon and Syria written by Nicola Migliorino and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For almost nine decades, since their mass-resettlement to the Levant in the wake of the Genocide and First World War, the Armenian communities of Lebanon and Syria appear to have successfully maintained a distinct identity as an ethno-culturally diverse group, in spite of representing a small non-Arab and Christian minority within a very different, mostly Arab and Muslim environment. The author shows that, while in Lebanon the state has facilitated the development of an extensive and effective system of Armenian ethno-cultural preservation, in Syria the emergence of centralizing, authoritarian regimes in the 1950s and 1960s has severely damaged the autonomy and cultural diversity of the Armenian community. Since 1970, the coming to power of the Asad family has contributed to a partial recovery of Armenian ethno-cultural diversity, as the community seems to have developed some form of tacit arrangement with the regime. In Lebanon, on the other hand, the Armenian community suffered the consequences of the recurrent breakdown of the consociational arrangement that regulates public life. In both cases the survival of Armenian cultural distinctiveness seems to be connected, rather incidentally, with the continuing 'search for legitimacy' of the state.

Download or read book Regional Peacemaking and Conflict Management written by Carmela Lutmar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines mechanisms for regional peacemaking and conflict management in Europe and the Middle East. To date little research has been devoted to uncovering the conditions for peace, and the factors that contribute to stabilizing the state of peace. This volume assesses the factors that contribute to regional pacification, the incentives that motivate states in establishing peaceful relations, and most importantly, how regions become peaceful. It discusses the conditions under which various types of ‘peace’ might emerge on a regional level and the factors most likely to determine the outcome. The book takes an innovative approach through a systematic comparison of two regions that are particularly prominent and important for the subject of regional pacification: Europe and the Middle East. While many believe that the European case is the indispensable model for peacemaking, others believe that these two regions are too different for Europe to be a useful framework for the Middle East. This volume occupies a middle ground between these two extreme positions. It argues that while a mindless copying of European models will not lead to peace in the Middle East, important insights can be gained from the most successful case of regional peacemaking to date. This work will be of much interest to students of regional security, peacemaking, conflict management, Middle East politics, European security and IR in general.

Download or read book The Legitimacy of International Criminal Tribunals written by Nobuo Hayashi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-19 with total page 843 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the ad hoc tribunals completing their mandates and the International Criminal Court under significant pressure, today's international criminal jurisdictions are at a critical juncture. Their legitimacy cannot be taken for granted. This multidisciplinary volume investigates key issues pertaining to legitimacy: criminal accountability, normative development, truth-discovery, complementarity, regionalism, and judicial cooperation. The volume sheds new light on previously unexplored areas, including the significance of redacted judgements, prosecutors' opening statements, rehabilitative processes of international convicts, victim expectations, court financing, and NGO activism. The book's original contributions will appeal to researchers, practitioners, advocates, and students of international criminal justice, accountability for war crimes and the rule of law.

Download or read book Cycle of Fear written by Leon T. Goldsmith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Alawites are a key component to the current civil war in Syria. Journalist Robert D. Kaplan compared Hafez al-Assad's coming to power to "an untouchable becoming maharajah in India or a Jew becoming tsar in Russia-an unprecedented development shocking to the Sunni majority population which had monopolized power for so many centuries".[31] In 1971 al-Assad declared himself president of Syria, a position the constitution at the time permitted only for Sunni Muslims. The author shows how the political behavior of Alawites has long been shaped by the group's insecurity and lack of true integration into society.

Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Syria written by David Commins and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2013-12-05 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2011, massive protest movements that appeared to come out of nowhere caught the Arab world’s autocrats by surprise and brought down powerful leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. Thousands of Syrians took to the streets in March 2011 calling for the “fall of the regime,” the popular slogan of Arab uprisings, but found themselves confronting a determined foe willing to slaughter thousands of citizens and to destroy entire city neighborhoods in order to hold onto power. By the middle of 2013, Syria was in the midst of a nightmarish civil war marked by more than 80,000 deaths, sectarian massacres, the flight of one-fourth the country’s population from their homes, the disintegration of government institutions in much of the country, and a rising humanitarian crisis as food, medicine, and electricity grew short. Nobody in Syria or the outside world appears to be in a position to stop what looked like a fight to the bitter end, at whatever cost to the country. This third edition of the Historical Dictionary of Syria covers the recent events in Syria as well as the history that led up to these events. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The cross-referenced dictionary section has over 500 entries on significant persons, places and events, political parties and institutions, literature, music and the arts. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Syria.

Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Syria written by Omar Imady and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-01-21 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historical Dictionary of Syria, Fourth Edition covers the recent events in Syria as well as the history that led up to these events. The cross-referenced dictionary section has over 500 entries on significant persons, places and events, political parties and institutions, literature, music and the arts. .

Download or read book Zakariyya Tamir and the Politics of the Syrian Short Story written by Alessandro Columbu and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-12-29 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zakariyya Tamir is Syria's foremost writer of short stories, and his works are widely read across the Arab world. In this, the first English language monograph on Tamir's entire oeuvre, Alessandro Columbu examines Tamir's literary development in the context of changing political contexts, from his beginnings as a short story writer on local magazines in the late 1950s until the Syrian revolution of 2011. Thus, the movements from independence and Western-inspired modernisation to the rise of nationalism and socialism; war, defeat, occupation in the 1960s; the emergence of authoritarianism and the cult of personality of Hafiz al-Assad in the 1970s are charted in the context of Tamir's works. Therein, the significance of masculinity and patriarchy and its changing nature in relation to nationalism and authoritarianism are revealed as Tamir's foremost vehicles for social and political critique. The role of female sexuality and its disrupting/empowering nature vis-à-vis patriarchal institutions is also explored, as is the question of literary commitment and the relationship between authors and the authoritarian regime of Syria; homosexuality and representations of unconventional sexualities in general.

Download or read book Questioning Secularism written by Hussein Ali Agrama and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-11-02 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What, exactly, is secularism? What has the West's long familiarity with it inevitably obscured? In this work, Hussein Ali Agrama tackles these questions. Focusing on the fatwa councils and family law courts of Egypt just prior to the revolution, he delves deeply into the meaning of secularism itself and the ambiguities that lie at its heart.

Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Syria written by David Dean Commins and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Second Edition gives the reader easy access to the history and contemporary situation of one of the world's ancient civilizations. The heart of the work is more than 350 entries on the most influential political figures and events, religious groups and movements, economic sectors, social institutions, and cultural facets. The second edition includes nearly 100 entirely new entries and updates on 43 entries from the first edition. An important difference between the two editions is the inclusion of many more entries on social institutions, such as the family and coffeehouses, cultural aspects, such as art, architecture, cinema, literature, music, and theater, and economic facets, such as inflation, corruption, the public sector, and efforts at reform. There is also expanded coverage on Syria's political dynamics, with entries on human rights, civil society, and security forces. The only specific reference work in English, this new edition addresses profound changes in Syria's domestic and regional circumstances. The domestic political scene witnessed a major transition with the passing of Syria's ruler for 30 years, Hafiz al-Asad, and the unexpectedly smooth succession of his son Bashar as new president in 2000. The regional situation has changed even more since the first edition came out in 1996. Peace talks with Israel collapsed in 2000 and three years later the United States invaded Iraq, beginning an occupation of Syria's neighbor for an indeterminate period, with incalculable consequences. In addition to the A to Z dictionary, the second edition contains a chronology that presents fairly general information on early centuries and becomes quite detailed for the most recent years. The bibliography also reflects significant changes in research on Syria. Not only does the bibliographical essay highlight important new monographs, it introduces the reader to credible Internet resources for guides to travel and popular culture as well as news and statistical data at major international organizations'

Download or read book Between Fear and Freedom written by Kathleen Starck and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2010-02-19 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The field of Cold War studies has recently undergone a cultural turn. Scholars from many disciplines outside – but increasingly also from within – diplomatic history have come to understand that, just as the Cold War was marked by a political and military competition, it was also characterised by a cultural one. As a result, it is now widely accepted that everyday culture was itself infused with political and ideological messages. The Cold War was ubiquitous. In an attempt to comprehend this complexity of the superpower conflict, as well as the way it affected and still affects people’s lives globally, this collection of essays brings together the work of scholars from nine countries and a wide range of academic disciplines. They explore strategies, mechanisms and legacies of the Cold War in areas as diverse as film, propaganda, conspiracy theories, education, music, comic books, architecture, fiction, autobiographical writing and theatre.

Download or read book Syria written by John McHugo and published by New Press, The. This book was released on 2006-09-01 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A fluent introduction to Syria’s recent past, this book provides the backstory to the country’s collapse into brutal civil conflict” (Andrew Arsan, author of Lebanon: A Country in Fragments). The fall of Syria into civil war over the past two years has spawned a regional crisis with reverberations growing louder in each passing month. In this timely account, John McHugo seeks to contextualize the headlines, providing broad historical perspective and a richly layered analysis of a country few in the United States know or understand. McHugo charts the history of Syria from World War I to the tumultuous present, examining the country’s thwarted attempts at independence, the French policies that sowed the seeds of internal strife, and the fragility of its foundations as a nation. He then turns to more recent events: religious and sectarian tensions that have divided Syria, the pressures of the Cold War and the Arab-Israeli conflict, and two generations of rule by the Assads. The result is a fresh and rigorous narrative that explains both the creation and unraveling of the current regime and the roots of the broader Middle East conflict. As the Syrian civil war threatens to draw the US military once again into the Middle East, here is a rare and authoritative guide to a complex nation that demands our attention. “Scholarly but accessible and of much interest to those with an eye on geopolitical matters.” —Kirkus Reviews “Useful as a concise overview of independent Syria’s most important movements and personalities, McHugo’s book gives readers the basic background necessary to understand the country.” —Publishers Weekly