{"title":"Transnational Ethnic Channels as Factors of Contagion, Internationalization, and the “Proxyfication” of Internal Conflicts: The Contrasting Cases of Amazighs and Kurds","authors":"D. Golubev","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2021.1877494","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2021.1877494","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The article raises the issue of why some transnational ethnic groups (TEGs) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are more effective transmitters of conflict and instability across established borders than others. The cases involving Kurds and Amazighs present some interesting variations of agency for both groups with regard to the external expansion of internal conflicts in some of the countries of their residence. A comparative analysis of the divergent experiences of Kurds and Amazighs with respect to contagion, internationalization (mostly through intervention), and what one might term the “proxyfication” of relevant conflicts in the region reveals some underlying factors that help construct the author’s main argument and working hypotheses for the large-N empirical part of this study. What emerges is strong empirical support for the proposition that four characteristics of MENA-based TEGs – namely, group discrimination, the relative size of the group, the ethnic polarization of the group’s state of residence, and the group’s territorial concentration – all to some extent serve as factors of external expansion of internal ethnic conflict. Out of these four features, group discrimination and the territorial concentration of the group, which are the factors about which the Kurds and Amazighs appear to differ the most, turn out to be the most reliable predictors of TEG-based conflict expansion.","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"12 1","pages":"19 - 48"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/21520844.2021.1877494","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49177236","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":"How to Prevent Coups d’État: Counterbalancing and Regime Survival","authors":"Ricardo A. Crespo","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2021.1892421","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2021.1892421","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"12 1","pages":"123 - 126"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/21520844.2021.1892421","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48839256","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":"Be Strong and of Good Courage: How Israel’s Most Important Leaders Shaped Its Destiny","authors":"R. Freedman","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2020.1846976","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2020.1846976","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"11 1","pages":"451 - 453"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/21520844.2020.1846976","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48376924","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":"European Union and Italian Migration Policy and the Probable Destabilization of Southern Libya and Northern Niger","authors":"R. Larémont, M. O. Attir, M. Mahamadou","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2020.1840883","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2020.1840883","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT European Union and Italian policies, while achieving their objectives of suppressing migration across the Mediterranean Sea, have at the same time created social and economic dislocation in southern Libya and northern Niger that will further destabilize the region. Using field research involving interviews and surveys, the authors document these dislocations, predict instability, and suggest future research.","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"11 1","pages":"359 - 380"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/21520844.2020.1840883","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46659231","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 Promise and Pitfalls of Security Sector Interventions: Examining the Medium-Term Impact of Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone","authors":"E. Roberts","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2020.1843303","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2020.1843303","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Development practitioners and scholars have touted security sector reform (SSR) in Sierra Leone as a model for intervention. Twenty years after such reforms began, the West African country presents one with the opportunity to study the medium-term impact of SSR. This article argues that specialists should consider this SSR along five dimensions: security institution building, military reform and integration, internal security reform, professionalization, and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration. This study further explores the impact these factors have had on security performance and legitimacy in the two decades since their implementation. Finally, this work concludes with an analysis of the current state of the security sector as well as a consideration of the lessons to be learned from the Sierra Leonean experience.","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"11 1","pages":"393 - 412"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/21520844.2020.1843303","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41510541","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":"Policy Transfer, External Actors and Policy Conditionality: Public Financial Management Reform in Turkey","authors":"Dimitris Tsarouhas","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2020.1832876","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2020.1832876","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Turkey’s economic turmoil of today is reminiscent of an earlier era, during which instability, high inflation, and financial mismanagement ruled the day. Yet until recently, Turkey was celebrated as an economic success story, enjoying rising prosperity, high GDP growth, and a healthy fiscal outlook. How was that success possible? Which mechanisms allowed for successful policy reform and how did internal reform dynamics interact with exogenous factors? This article examines the effects of EU and IFI policy conditionality on Turkey, arguing that EU-induced conditionality is more effective compared to IFI conditionality. Further, this work demonstrates the formation of a domestic epistemic community, which evolved into an advocacy coalition and became a crucial pillar for policy reform. Finally, shrewd policy entrepreneurs used a favorable window of opportunity and aligned with the reformist coalition to overcome barriers to policy change.","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"11 1","pages":"341 - 357"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/21520844.2020.1832876","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45913430","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 1964 Expulsion of Greek Citizens from Turkey: Economic and Demographic Turkification Under Ethnocultural Nationalism","authors":"Banu Eligür","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2020.1830606","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2020.1830606","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article argues that the Turkish government facing the 1964 Cyprus crisis applied the principle of negative reciprocity toward Greece and expelled Greek citizens living in Turkey. By doing so, Turkey aimed at pressuring Greece to bring the Greek Cypriot side to the negotiation table. Although Turkish policy proved to be a failure, the expulsions continued. The deportation resulted in the demise of the Greek minority in Turkey for the following reasons: first, there were intermarriages between the Greek citizens and the Greek minority; and second, Turkey’s Greeks finally lost their hope of being treated as equal Turkish citizens.","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"11 1","pages":"319 - 340"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/21520844.2020.1830606","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45135372","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":"Currency Warfare in the Middle East: Currency Counterfeiting in the 1953 Iranian Coup, the 1990–1991 Gulf War, and Yemen’s Current Civil War","authors":"Ricardo A. Crespo","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2020.1843319","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2020.1843319","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT When and why do policymakers engage in currency warfare by counterfeiting their enemy’s currency during Middle Eastern conflicts? Currency warfare, defined as the application of weaponized monetary or military force directed against an enemy’s currency, is a common feature of Middle Eastern conflicts, but its study remains peripheral. This article explores when and why policymakers contemplate or implement currency warfare via counterfeiting by examining: the 1953 American-backed coup in Iran, the 1990–1991 Gulf War, and the Iranian counterfeiting of the Yemeni rial. This study argues that states weaponize counterfeit currency when they perceive a threat to their national security interest and when they have a strategy of subversion.","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"11 1","pages":"413 - 429"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/21520844.2020.1843319","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49356210","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":"Europe, or the “Original West,” Muslims, and Migration: The Peculiar History of France and West Africans with Broader Implications","authors":"R. Hardy","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2020.1842708","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2020.1842708","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines the effects of colonialism and decolonization on Muslim migration to Europe. With French imperialism and West Africa as reference points, this study demonstrates that a peculiar relationship arose between ruler and ruled and addresses the broader implications of this historical development for European-Muslim relations today. Beyond its fears of terrorism as well as the added costs associated with providing social benefits to settled and migrant Muslim communities, a contingent of Europeans seeks that immigrants will adopt Western cultural traits which directly confronts Muslims who wish to retain their traditional Islamic lifestyles. Complexifying standard postcolonial analyses, this study highlights the ways in which colonizer and colonized collaborated and co-benefited, both beholden to a past that is not easily transcended.","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"11 1","pages":"381 - 391"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/21520844.2020.1842708","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47325699","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":"Narratives of Electoral Violence: Evidence from Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria","authors":"Faith I. Okpotor","doi":"10.1080/21520844.2020.1848139","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21520844.2020.1848139","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article addresses post-election violence (PEV) in Africa by drawing on the lived experiences of respondents in Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria. It takes an actor-centered approach steeped in interpretivism and reflexivity in analyzing Côte d’Ivoire’s 2010–2011 and Nigeria’s 2011 PEV. It examines PEV from the viewpoint of a variety of actors, including political party leaders, party activists, electoral commission officials, non-governmental organization (NGO) officials, academics, scholars, and human rights experts. With attention to methodological and personal positionality, the study draws on interviews conducted in 2014 and 2015. It also analyzes the dominant discourses that contributed to a violent reaction to a contested election outcome, and thus highlights the socially-constructed conditions that allow for the possibility of violence. Salient issues arising from these narratives include: the role of decades-long unresolved violence episodes in fueling PEV, the role of political leaders in exploiting grievances associated with these past violence episodes, and the power of electoral violence prevention strategies targeted at principal actors in curbing the progression to violence.","PeriodicalId":37893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Middle East and Africa","volume":"11 1","pages":"431 - 450"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/21520844.2020.1848139","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41843961","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}