{"title":"The Arabs and the Democratic Path","authors":"A. Baghdadi","doi":"10.1525/caa.2022.15.3-4.78","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/caa.2022.15.3-4.78","url":null,"abstract":"With the onset of the Arab Spring, concepts such as democracy, human rights, elections, governance, transparency, anti-corruption, and extremism became dominant motifs influencing progressive movements. These concepts are part of the problematic question of political authority and political culture. This paper poses some questions and challenges in relation to the extent to which such concepts are relevant to Arabs and if they are able to follow the democratic path and succeed in realizing democracy. Furthermore, the paper asks if the Arabs ever took this democratic path, would they succeed or fail as their modern experience indicates?","PeriodicalId":39004,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Arab Affairs","volume":"68 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79549272","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":"Déjà Vu in the Kingdom of Jordan?","authors":"Nur Köprülü, Pricillah Marisa","doi":"10.1525/caa.2022.15.3-4.34","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/caa.2022.15.3-4.34","url":null,"abstract":"The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan constitutes a remarkable case of regime stability in the Middle East and North Africa region. The 2011 Arab Uprisings that swept through most of the countries in the Arab Middle East did not engulf the Kingdom of Jordan, as foreseen. At the height of the protests, Jordan employed a decades-old regime-survival strategy to cope with increased opposition. Having said that, the June protests in 2018 and the subsequent increased socio-economic problems unlocked an ascendant phenomenon in Jordanian politics. In light of this, this article analyzes what is “new” in Jordanian politics since the 2011 Uprisings, and as a corollary, it will address the mobilization of East Bank tribes as the new source of opposition and also the newly emerging direction of state–opposition dynamics. This article also scrutinizes the shortcomings of the authoritarian persistence paradigm in the case of the Kingdom of Jordan.","PeriodicalId":39004,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Arab Affairs","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76930330","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":"Review: Women, Islam, and the Abbasid Identity, by Nadia Maria El Cheikh","authors":"Hala Akkawi","doi":"10.1525/caa.2022.15.3-4.109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/caa.2022.15.3-4.109","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39004,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Arab Affairs","volume":"95 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74409256","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":"Great Powers Competition in Syria","authors":"H. Maklad","doi":"10.1525/caa.2022.15.3-4.54","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/caa.2022.15.3-4.54","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the impact of the rivalry among the three great powers: the United States, Russia, and China in relation to a solution to the Syrian crisis and the reaching of a peaceful settlement. Each power has supported one or more sides among the regional and local actors, which has led to proxy wars among different rival parties. For example, the United States, Russia, and China are trying to maximize their own power and to increase their status in the regional and international system. However, each has different strategies and tools to achieve this goal. While Russia and the United States stress their military presence, China thinks political and economic power can be more effective, which explains why China is hesitant to get directly involved in the crisis.","PeriodicalId":39004,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Arab Affairs","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82329408","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":"Towards a New Arab Moment","authors":"Ahmad Yousef Ahmad","doi":"10.1525/caa.2022.15.3-4.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/caa.2022.15.3-4.3","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39004,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Arab Affairs","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78746173","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 Multimodal Framing Demands by Protesters’ Signs in Social Media","authors":"H. Numan","doi":"10.1525/caa.2022.15.3-4.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/caa.2022.15.3-4.7","url":null,"abstract":"Using the Iraqi Tishreen movement as a case study, this paper applies frame and content analysis to explore the multimodal framing of the 2019 popular protests in Iraq to understand how protesters’ signs framed mass demands on social media. It analyses themes in the signs used by Iraqi protesters during the October 2019 uprising which were later posted on social media. The author collected 2113 posts from social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), including digital images of people holding protest materials, graphic designs, and placard designs. Images of protesters and their signs were considered material data. The author stopped compiling images after finding duplicates. The images included textual and visual signs as well as icons and symbols. The analysis revealed four major themes and messages intended by the protesters: a willingness to sacrifice for the nation, national unity, feminism, and demands. The theme of the demands is divided into 14 subthemes, such as ending militias, the separation of religion and state, and the rejection of sectarianism. The findings revealed Iraqi political expression on social media and the developments of Arab visual protest culture.","PeriodicalId":39004,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Arab Affairs","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89429535","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":"Review: Environmental Politics of the Middle East, edited by Harry Verhoeven","authors":"M. Ammar","doi":"10.1525/caa.2022.15.3-4.102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/caa.2022.15.3-4.102","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39004,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Arab Affairs","volume":"199 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75905860","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":"Review: Knowledge, Ideology, and Civilization: An Attempt at Understanding History (Arabic Edition), by Ali Jarbawi","authors":"L. Habash","doi":"10.1525/caa.2022.15.2.103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/caa.2022.15.2.103","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39004,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Arab Affairs","volume":"70 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83780875","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":"Review: Palestine is Throwing a Party and the Whole World is Invited, by Kareem Rabie","authors":"Jamil M. Hilal","doi":"10.1525/caa.2022.15.2.100","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/caa.2022.15.2.100","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39004,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Arab Affairs","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74386211","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 Turkish Art of Offensive-Balancing from the Perspective of Neorealism","authors":"D. Grafov","doi":"10.1525/caa.2022.15.2.72","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/caa.2022.15.2.72","url":null,"abstract":"In his foreign policy, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has reconsidered commitments to the United States and NATO allies that limit his political ambitions. Turkey’s military power is actively involved in Syria, Iraq, Libya, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the South Caucasus in an attempt to alter the existing regional orders. Offensive realism, as a branch of neorealism, asserts that states are willing to use force to advance their own interests, and that their survival in the international system requires a maximization of power. Defensive neorealism holds that aggressive expansion clashes with the interests of other states and their desire to ensure their own security. According to the balance of power theory, the expansion and maximization of power reduces the security of an offensive state by countering a coalition of balancing states. At the same time, Turkish foreign policy strongly supports the formation of an Islamist, neo-patrimonialist, populist, and security-obsessed ruling bloc representing the resentment of Turkish society of the historical injustices committed by the West. This article attempts to determine Erdoğan’s strategy, examines it from the standpoint of the offensive/defensive approach of neorealism, and evaluates its effectiveness. Erdoğan has created a multi-polar balancing structure of foreign relations in which Turkish rivals restrain each other. This structure is similar to a pentahedron with Turkey in the center and its main rivals–partners arrayed around it at each point. Ankara, by shifting closer to one or another rival–partner, can effectively bargain with others using threats.","PeriodicalId":39004,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Arab Affairs","volume":"48 1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89196967","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}