{"title":"How to Survive as an Armed Non-state Actor? An Assessment of the Syrian Democratic Union Party","authors":"Fatih Oğuzhan İpek","doi":"10.1177/23477989221100042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23477989221100042","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the case of the Syrian Democratic Union Party (Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat or PYD) to explain the survival strategies of the non-state armed actor (NSAA). Although the Middle Eastern State System remarkably remained stable after the end of Mandates, the legitimacy of states has been eroded by a combination of colonial legacy, neo-patrimonialism, and authoritarianism, laying the seeds for the rise of non-state challengers to states. At the beginning of the Syrian uprising, the PYD did not fight against the Syrian regime but established its autonomy in northern Syria by taking advantage of the chaos. Using the process-tracing method, the article explains the survival of the PYD until the territorial defeat of the so-called Islamic State and offers parameters of the territorial logic, its organizational structuring, and relations with the states to explain the survival strategies of the PYD. Finally, the study concludes that while the territorial and organizational structuring logics of the NSAA shape its strategies, its complex relationship with states determines its survival.","PeriodicalId":41159,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Review of the Middle East","volume":"9 1","pages":"341 - 361"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49466598","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":"Visit to the Jama’at Mosque during Ramzan","authors":"P. Kumaraswamy","doi":"10.1177/23477989221099989","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23477989221099989","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41159,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Review of the Middle East","volume":"9 1","pages":"267 - 269"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47949105","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":"Sethumadhavan (2017), Aliyah: The Last Jew in the Village; Esther David (2018), Bombay Brides","authors":"Rohita Sharma","doi":"10.1177/23477989221080817","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23477989221080817","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41159,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Review of the Middle East","volume":"9 1","pages":"258 - 260"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41844374","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}
Any Docu Axelerad, Alina Zorina Stroe, Lavinia Florenta Muja, Silviu Docu Axelerad, Dana Simona Chita, Corina Elena Frecus, Cristina Maria Mihai
{"title":"Benefits of Tango Therapy in Alleviating the Motor and Non-Motor Symptoms of Parkinson's Disease Patients-A Narrative Review.","authors":"Any Docu Axelerad, Alina Zorina Stroe, Lavinia Florenta Muja, Silviu Docu Axelerad, Dana Simona Chita, Corina Elena Frecus, Cristina Maria Mihai","doi":"10.3390/brainsci12040448","DOIUrl":"10.3390/brainsci12040448","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The present study examines the efficacy of tango therapy on motor and non-motor symptomatology in Parkinson's disease, as detailed in articles published over the previous four decades (1980-2022). All data was collected using PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Science Direct. The present descriptive study outlines the advantages of tango in the rehabilitation of Parkinson's disease's motor and non-motor symptoms. Numerous studies have been conducted to determine the usefulness of tango for people with PD. Information from various research is critical for determining if tango is a useful supplementary therapy for the variety of symptoms related to Parkinson's disease. The purpose of this review was to describe the present state of research on this subject. Thus, the objective of this review is to promote awareness of tango therapy's therapeutic benefits for Parkinson's disease.</p>","PeriodicalId":41159,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Review of the Middle East","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9031475/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78010087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Target Saudi Arabia: To Demonize and Belittle","authors":"J. Kéchichian","doi":"10.1177/23477989221086382","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23477989221086382","url":null,"abstract":"David Ottaway (2021), Mohammed bin Salman: The Icarus of Saudi Arabia? Lynne Rienner Publishers. Price: US$89.95, 232 pp. ISBN: 978–1–62637–978–7 (Hardcover). David Ottaway, a fellow in the Middle East program at the Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, and a long-time journalist at The Washington Post, concludes his most recent book on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its heir apparent with the following:","PeriodicalId":41159,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Review of the Middle East","volume":"9 1","pages":"362 - 370"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49146665","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":"Flying to Jerusalem over the Years","authors":"P. Kumaraswamy","doi":"10.1177/23477989221082441","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23477989221082441","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41159,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Review of the Middle East","volume":"9 1","pages":"135 - 137"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46033705","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":"Business as Usual? The Post-Brexit Impacts on UK and UAE Relations","authors":"J. Gibbins","doi":"10.1177/23477989221080641","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23477989221080641","url":null,"abstract":"Since the formal leaving of the United Kingdom from the European Union on January 31, 2020, much discussion has focused on the consequences for British foreign policy. Predictions broadly fit into two outcomes: internationalism, echoed in the “global Britain” mantra, and isolationism, with a Britain struggling to be heard on the world stage. As British foreign and trade policies are being shaped by a desire to seek out new friends, and reaffirm contacts with old ones, the United Arab Emirates, a Gulf Cooperation Council country with a palpable set of linkages to the UK, will be impacted. Military, diplomatic and economic ties are robust, but the UAE’s position, particularly in light of its rising-power regional status, requires investigation. With some believing British influence will be stymied by its non-EU status, and with a UAE that has reversed its traditional nonintervention status to become more regionally resurgent, what would this mean for future UK–UAE relations? This article seeks to provide an early snapshot of the post-Brexit relationship between the two.","PeriodicalId":41159,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Review of the Middle East","volume":"9 1","pages":"200 - 217"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46871177","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":"China’s Conflict Management in the Middle East: Involvement without Impact?","authors":"İrem Aşkar Karakır","doi":"10.1177/23477989221080632","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23477989221080632","url":null,"abstract":"China’s foreign policy toward the Middle East has traditionally been shaped by its national interests based on energy security, arms exports, and technology transfers. To complement its interest-driven regional policies, China has expanded its diplomatic contacts and promoted cultural ties. Over the last two decades, China has also engaged in conflict management in several regional issues, despite its declared commitment to nonintervention in other countries’ domestic affairs. This article aims to analyze China’s conflict management policies in the region, focusing on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Iran’s nuclear program and the Syrian conflict. Compared with other major external powers, prospects for China’s conflict management seem high given two significant advantages. First, unlike Western powers or Russia, China has not left any bitter taste in the region associated with colonialism, religious or historical engagement. Secondly, China has been careful not to take clear-cut sides in regional conflicts, making itself an ideal candidate to act as an honest broker. It is argued that despite these advantages, Chinese conflict management in the region has remained considerably modest and lacked any practical solutions to the critical problems.","PeriodicalId":41159,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Review of the Middle East","volume":"9 1","pages":"240 - 257"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48837027","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 Relationship between the State and the New Media in Egypt: A Dynamic of Openness, Adaptation, and Narrowing","authors":"Limor Lavie, Bosmat Yefet","doi":"10.1177/23477989221080620","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23477989221080620","url":null,"abstract":"This article offers a new perspective on the extensive discussion of the role of new media in facilitating the 2011 Egyptian uprising by placing it within the historical context of how the state responded to new media in the previous decades. This article uses an archaeological analysis of state media to reveal how the state coped with the news media (newspapers, radio, television, satellite television) in the past to infer the present relationship between the state and the new media (the internet and social media). We discerned a recurring cyclical pattern characterized by a dynamic of openness–adaptation–narrowing, which sheds light on the media’s ability to challenge state authority and on the state’s ability to contain and limit new media. We suggest that the role of the internet and social media in the Egyptian “Arab Spring” should be viewed as being on this continuum, as an extension of processes of state–media relations that had developed in the preceding decades.","PeriodicalId":41159,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Review of the Middle East","volume":"9 1","pages":"138 - 157"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45374110","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}