Journal of the Middle East and Africa最新文献

{"title":"Police Officer Experiences with Community Policing and Views on Counterterrorism in Somalia","authors":"Daisy Muibu","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2022.2086391","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2022.2086391","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines frontline officers’ experiences with community policing and how these experiences shape their attitudes toward different security actors engaged in counterterror activities in a region experiencing protracted conflict (i.e., Kismaayo, Somalia). Relying on path dependency theory and an original and new dataset, the current study finds that officers with experience with the organizational adaptation dimension of community policing are less likely to believe that militarized forces with offensive functions are suited to respond to terrorism, while experience with the community engagement dimension makes officers less likely to believe an armed intelligence force with an informant cultivation mandate is suited for countering terrorism. These findings expand the scholarly understanding of community policing and counterterrorism by focusing on officers’ actual experiences with different dimensions of community policing and how these experiences shape frontline officers’ attitudes in a region dealing with prolonged warfare, an active terrorist threat, and a plurality of forces.","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"13 1","pages":"407 - 434"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45634808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Illiberal Democrats in Egypt","authors":"Hannah M. Ridge","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2022.2075175","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2022.2075175","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Despite years of high expressed support for democracy in the Middle East, recent social movements have not resulted in durable democratization. Egypt, in particular, experienced an authoritarian reversion under a military coup. This article addresses Egyptians’ support for democracy in the context of Democratic Culture Theory. Using an original survey in Egypt and machine learning, it finds that support for liberal values and support for elected government function independently in Egypt. A large minority of the survey respondents were liberal democrats, but the Egyptian public also includes sizable blocs of illiberal democrats and liberal non-democrats. These results suggest that, although there is real support for democracy in Egypt, there is less commitment to the values that can sustain democracy.","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"13 1","pages":"363 - 384"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48875273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Ecumenical Patriarchate as a Global Actor: Between the End of the Cold War and the Ukrainian Ecclesiastical Crisis","authors":"I. N. Grigoriadis","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2022.2075662","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2022.2075662","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Following the demise of the Ottoman Empire and the advent of republican Turkey, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has struggled to maintain its existence and its ecumenical role, despite the obstacles that the Republic of Turkey has set before it. Yet, challenges have abounded within the Orthodox world as well. The Patriarchate has viewed Russian involvement in Orthodox ecclesiastical affairs with suspicion, if not outright opposition. This is like its former stance regarding Russian involvement in Orthodox religious affairs in the Balkans and the Middle East throughout the nineteenth century. This competition has been rekindled since the end of the Cold War, as the Patriarchate has grown in importance as a global actor. The Ukrainian ecclesiastical crisis, which brought the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Moscow Patriarchate to loggerheads, provides an additional opportunity to measure the extent of Russian influence on the Orthodox Church. This article explores the history of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the republican Turkish era and the challenges it has faced. It also examines the dynamics that have developed since the end of the Cold War in its relations with Russia and Turkey through its confrontation with the Moscow Patriarchate particularly in light of the Ukrainian ecclesiastical crisis. This study aspires to shed light on the extent of Russian influence on Orthodox ecclesiastical affairs and explore the role of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the global era.","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"13 1","pages":"345 - 358"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44636269","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The “Proxy Wars” Strategy in Iranian Regional Foreign Policy","authors":"R. Cohen, Gadi P. Shamci","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2022.2061789","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2022.2061789","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Islamic Republic of Iran’s efforts to export its revolution in the Middle East is quite old news. The largest regional conventional war in recent history was the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988), which not only sharpened the historical enmities and hostilities between Arab-Sunnis and Persian-Shiʿi but also revealed Iran’s new foreign policy activism among the other Shiʿi communities in the Middle East – but not only them. This article argues that, after having failed to establish a pro-Iranian government in Iraq, Iran’s regional foreign policy, especially in the matters of managing its proxies and allies in its efforts to build a functional territorial corridor between Iran and Lebanon via Iraq and Syria, views the Syrian geographical region as the last important fortress it needs to complete this strategy. Even though Iran’s economic problems are acute because of decades of sanctions and isolation, Iran still invests billions of dollars in order to safeguard this bastion. The central argument of this work is that the tactical success that the proxies are presently providing for Iran and Syria has been limited to the very specific goal of preserving the Syrian regime since this is what has been enabling Iran to expand its regional stronghold. In terms of this being an effective long-term strategy, however, and despite Iran’s insistence that a proxy war is necessary, such a war benefits its rivals as well. This is because the strategy leads to Iran isolating itself even more in the region and to a loss of its territories of influence.","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"13 1","pages":"385 - 405"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59999993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"War and Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa","authors":"Luba Levin-Banchik","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2022.2057110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2022.2057110","url":null,"abstract":"The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is probably one of the most researched regions in the field of international relations. Sustained political violence and the strategic importance of the region to the national security of the United States and its main competitors necessitate a constant analysis and deep understanding of the regional dynamics. MENA is a beautiful region with a diversity of cultures, languages, religions, people, histories, and perspectives. At the same time, the wars and conflicts are so central and persistent, that some scholars claim that “The Middle East is violence.” While such exceptionalism of violence in MENA is a debatable topic in the literature, and one of the central topics in War and Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa, scholars generally agree that the region is home to some of the deadliest conflicts in the world. Ariel I. Ahram’s research on this book is therefore essential reading for students, scholars, and policymakers working on the Middle East, national security, conflict processes, causes of war, and international relations more broadly. Ahram’s focus on war and conflict distinguishes his work from other studies of the region. Instead of surveying the many various characteristics of the entire region or those of distinct countries in a broad comparative perspective, which is the common practice in books on MENA, the author focuses on an in-depth analysis of conflict processes and reasons for the regional wars. He organizes his book well as he examines the major causes, or “conflict traps,” of war and conflict in MENA, which include oil, identity, geopolitics, the role of fragmentation and integration, and peacekeeping processes. Ahram uses the term “conflict traps” to emphasize the enduring nature of the key social, political, and economic conditions that fuel and sustain protracted regional conflicts. Ahram grounds his analysis on theoretical scholarship and evidence-based research. This makes the book relevant for scholars interested in the specific region, and those exploring theoretical models of conflict and wars across the world. The author begins his study giving much-needed context and data visualization on what, when, and how wars and conflicts happen in MENA and explains how these fit with and differ from the worldwide trends. He analyzes the frequency, types, and magnitude of wars over time, and challenges some common assumptions. For instance, Ahram shows that “in terms of magnitude of violence, the Arab-Israeli wars have been comparatively modest.” (23) This finding is one example of how the author advances a nuanced and empirical understanding of the complex MENA region. Indeed, the monograph distinguishes itself by focusing on all key players and the entire region, including Israel, a country that is often excluded from the academic study and discourse of what is sometimes termed as “the Arab MENA region.”","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"13 1","pages":"359 - 361"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45482658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Speaking Truth to Power in a Dictatorship: Secular Ideology versus Islamic Realpolitik—A Fierce Dispute in Ṣaddām’s Iraq","authors":"Amatzia Baram, B. al-Maliki","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2022.2047366","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2022.2047366","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In July 1986, a dramatic top-secret meeting of the Baʿth Pan Arab Leadership, the party’s highest ideological body, fully recorded by Ṣaddām Ḥussein, took place in wartime Baghdad. This meeting is thrice unique. First, the medium, an unabridged, audio-recording. Second, the topic, the dilemma of many Middle Eastern ruling regimes, vacillating between a secular, or semi-secular ideology and Islamic political expediency. In the case of the Baʿth, a more secular and ideological movement than most, this dilemma is particularly poignant. Third, it is exposing a bitter clash between a brutal dictator, who had executed comrades for opposing him, and three brave lieutenants. On the surface it was convened to discuss a tactical alliance with a sworn enemy, the Muslim Brethren (MB). At a dangerous moment in the Iraq-Iran War, Ṣaddām identified swelling popular religiosity. He hoped that an alliance with the MB would blunt criticism of his regime’s secularism. All the same, some participants feared that secular Arabism, the central tenet of Baʿthi faith, was at stake. Unexpectedly, the meeting produced a startling drama. Albeit temporarily, it forced Ṣaddām to take one step back. Other ideologically oriented dictators, such as Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Ḥāfiẓ al-Assad, and the Ayatollah Khomeini, too, faced ideology-politics dilemmas, yet none of them left such a surprising chronicle. A similar audio recording also comes to mind that offers a rare verbatim meeting of the inner working of a county’s highest institution at a moment of crisis – the transcripts of Kennedy’s ExComm during the Cuban Missile Crisis. While it deliberated an existential global matter and took place in a democracy, one sees similarities, namely, its detail, the exposure of emotional charges, the ability to speak truth to power, and the benefit resulting from that ability.","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"13 1","pages":"317 - 343"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42604971","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Role of Arab Nationalists in the Establishment of the Emirate of Trans-Jordan, 1921–1924","authors":"Ronen Yitzhak","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2022.2064650","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2022.2064650","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The article discusses the relations between Arab nationalists and Amīr Abdullah in the Emirate of Trans-Jordan in the crucial period from 1921–1924. The first connections between the two arose due to the desire of the Arab nationalists to realize their ambition of throwing the French out of Syria and establishing an Arab government there instead. The nationalists thought that they would be able to achieve their goals through Abdullah, who had come to Trans-Jordan from Hejāz. Thus, they supported, encouraged, and gave him political backing in Trans-Jordan. The backing that he received from the nationalists was one of the considerations that the British government took into account in deciding whether or not to give him power in 1921. For his part, Abdullah encouraged the Arab nationalists by giving them political positions and integrating them into the Reserve Force (the military force established by the British), and by ignoring their activities directed against the French in Syria. The co-option of pan-Arab nationalists into Trans-Jordanian politics confirms that Abdullah did not want to develop local nationalism in Trans-Jordan in the first years of his rule. Nevertheless, as the rift between Abdullah and the British grew wider due to Arab nationalist activity, this led the Amīr to have concerns for his political future and drove him to tighten his ties with London and abandon those he had with the nationalists. Abdullah made his final decision in 1924, when he severed ties with the Arab nationalists and expelled their leaders from Trans-Jordan. From that time forward, Abdullah linked his political fate to Britain, which became the political and military mainstay of the Hashemite family in Trans-Jordan (and later in Jordan).","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"13 1","pages":"125 - 143"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45476009","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Role of External Factors in Regime Stability and Resilience-Building in the Multipolar Middle Eastern Region: The Experience of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan","authors":"László Csicsmann","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2022.2064103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2022.2064103","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article aims to bring together the factors of resilience, regime stability, and foreign penetration into one research project based on the example of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which marked the one-hundredth anniversary of its statehood in 2021. Even though it exists in a neighborhood that is in turmoil, the Jordanian monarchy has managed to survive all the spillover effects from such regional conflicts. This study argues that external influences have played an increasingly significant role in political developments in Jordan since the beginning of the New World Order in 1989. Scholars of international relations often argue that foreign penetration may cause state vacuums like those that have arisen in Syria, Libya, Yemen, and Iraq. Yet, this has not been the case with other states in the Middle East. One important factor behind this resilience and regime stability is related to the behavior of foreign actors. With respect to the Hashemite Kingdom, the United States has historically been the main provider of state security. Nonetheless, at the same time the European Union (EU) has adopted a pragmatic view toward Jordan and its new resilience-building approach also helps to maintain the status quo. Moreover, the regional hegemons and swing states of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region do not have an interest in altering the existing order save for a few radical groups. The author argues that the convergence of the national interests of the major regional stakeholders also contributes to regime stability and that outside support has increased the resilience of its political system despite the growing frustrations of many of the country’s citizens.","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"13 1","pages":"145 - 162"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42901253","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Barricade the King’s Highway! Deteriorating Core-Periphery Relations, Mobilization, and Repression in Jordan’s Hinterland","authors":"Daniel P. Brown","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2022.2071542","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2022.2071542","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Even before the Arab Uprising waves, the grievances of increased demands on services and subsidies, shifting economic policy, the deteriorating core-periphery relations between Amman and erstwhile major centers in the Jordanian hinterland (e.g., al-Karak, Maʿān, al-Ṭafilah) have all characterized one aspect of the delicate balance of power in the Hashemite Kingdom. This article will examine the nature of this deterioration, and how the monarchy has variously conceded to, repressed, and thereby withstood repeated protests emanating from the hinterlands. Finally, this article examines a case study of the city of Maʿān as a bellwether hub of popular protest in Jordan.","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"13 1","pages":"185 - 206"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47618813","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Introduction","authors":"Ronen Yitzhak","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2022.2064101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2022.2064101","url":null,"abstract":"The establishment of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (known as the Emirate of Trans-Jordan until 1946) was connected to several developments in the Middle East after the First World War. During that conflict, Great Britain had contacts with, Sharīf Hussein (H _ usayn bin ‘Alī), a descendant of the Prophet Muh _ ammad, who was one of the local Arab leaders in the Arabian Peninsula and who was serving as Amīr of Mecca at that time. In exchange for his agreement to take Britain’s side against the Ottoman Empire, and to initiate an Arab revolt, Britain promised Sharīf Hussein that he would head an independent Arab state that would be established after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The two parties discussed the borders of the state in negotiations between them in 1915–1916 and this was documented in the correspondence of Hussein-McMahon (the British High Commissioner in Egypt), which was first published in full by the Arab historian George Antonius in his book, The Arab Awakening, in 1938. At the end of the First World War, it became clear, however, that Britain, despite the promises it had made to Sharīf Hussein, had secretly signed a treaty with France (the Sykes-Picot Agreement), under which France would gain control over Syria and Lebanon with the cessation of hostilities. Thus, Sharīf Hussein’s ambitious plan to establish a greater Arab state in the Middle East under his leadership disintegrated. In July 1920, after General Henri Gouraud, the newly appointed French High Commissioner, arrived in Damascus and forcibly expelled Sharīf Hussein’s supporters, who had stayed in the city since the end of the war and who had already proclaimed Faisal, Hussein’s son, King of Syria. Many of them fled to the then British mandatory territory of Palestine and Amman, which was originally part of this, became an important site of refuge for some of these. In November 1920, intending to regain control of Syria for the Hashemite family, Faisal’s brother, Amīr Abdullah, the second son of Sharīf Hussein, traveled from Hejāz to Ma’ān in the south of Trans-Jordan. There, Abdullah began to recruit supporters for his campaign against the French in Damascus.","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"13 1","pages":"115 - 123"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47832320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}