{"title":"“Discoursing sectarianism” approach: What and how to analyze in sectarian discourses","authors":"Abdulaziz Alghashian, M. Menshawy","doi":"10.1111/dome.12265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/dome.12265","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43254,"journal":{"name":"Digest of Middle East Studies","volume":"122 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87703075","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 analyze visual propaganda in the Middle East: An analysis of imagery in the “Saudi Strike Force Movie”","authors":"Tom Walsh","doi":"10.1111/dome.12262","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/dome.12262","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43254,"journal":{"name":"Digest of Middle East Studies","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87498369","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 analyze visual propaganda in the Middle East: An analysis of imagery in the “Saudi Strike Force Movie”","authors":"Tom Walsh","doi":"10.1111/dome.12262","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/dome.12262","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper provides an innovative approach to visual analysis in the Middle East. It addresses a fundamental problem in the fields of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Securitization Theory (ST): they largely ignore the visual. This project develops a methodology for visual analysis. Its utility is demonstrated through an examination of a Saudi propaganda video, entitled “Saudi Strike Force Video.” When observing the Saudi-Iranian rivalry on social media, there is a prevalence of visceral visual propaganda. Thus, the need for the construction of a systematic model for its analysis is important in addressing this conceptual gap. CDA and ST are aligned on an essential belief that discourse is a power-laden process, and that to affect change, scholars must attempt to understand its production, articulation, and impact. Yet, both of these approaches tend to focus on the written and spoken word, negating the importance of the visual. This paper contends that the visual is equally power-laden, having a profound effect as a tool of propaganda</p>","PeriodicalId":43254,"journal":{"name":"Digest of Middle East Studies","volume":"31 2","pages":"96-112"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/dome.12262","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71987327","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":"The Bigh Daddy Show: The potentiality and shortcomings of countering Islamic State through animated satire","authors":"Balsam Mustafa","doi":"10.1111/dome.12261","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/dome.12261","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper is motivated by the following question: how can animated satire constitute a tool of resistance against terrorist groups and their extremist narratives? To answer this question, I examine an Iraqi animated satirical show produced from late 2015 to 2017 to support the military campaign against Islamic State (IS) by turning the self-proclaimed caliph and other IS terrorists into objects of derision, detached from Iraq and Islam. Engaging with critical approaches to satire and counter/alternative narratives, I argue that the case under analysis has possibilities and limitations. On the one hand, the show attempted to alienate IS from Iraqis and Muslims and unite them in one front in the fight against the group by highlighting the Iraqi identity and exposing contradictions in its narratives. On the other hand, it reinforced problematic conspiracy theory discourses about IS's origin, as well as racial and gender stereotypes, ironically producing another set of contradictions.</p>","PeriodicalId":43254,"journal":{"name":"Digest of Middle East Studies","volume":"31 2","pages":"113-130"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/dome.12261","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71986341","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":"The Bigh Daddy Show: The potentiality and shortcomings of countering Islamic State through animated satire","authors":"Balsam Mustafa","doi":"10.1111/dome.12261","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/dome.12261","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43254,"journal":{"name":"Digest of Middle East Studies","volume":"113 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79787933","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":"Editor's introduction to April 2022 issue","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/dome.12260","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/dome.12260","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43254,"journal":{"name":"Digest of Middle East Studies","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73069532","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":"Editor's introduction to April 2022 issue","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/dome.12260","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/dome.12260","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43254,"journal":{"name":"Digest of Middle East Studies","volume":"31 2","pages":"82"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71986159","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 UN special tribunal for Lebanon (2009–2021): Who cares?","authors":"Benjamin Muller","doi":"10.1111/dome.12257","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/dome.12257","url":null,"abstract":"<p>More than 15 years after the assassination of Lebanese PM Rafik al-Hariri, the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) delivered its judgement in the Ayyash et al. Case (STL-11-01) in August 2020. Reflecting on earlier critical scholarship on the STL, this essay considers the role of the STL in the regional and global geopolitical architecture, and the domestic context, in terms of justice, politics, economy and society. Despite the devastating impact of the assassination, persistent crises over the past decade and a half, have eroded the importance and relevance of the STL to Lebanon, its citizens, and even regional geopolitics. Within this context, this brief intervention considers who does and does not care about the STL and why it has or has not had the desired impact, socially, geopolitically, legally, and even within academic scholarship.</p>","PeriodicalId":43254,"journal":{"name":"Digest of Middle East Studies","volume":"31 1","pages":"72-77"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/dome.12257","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71963897","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":"The UN special tribunal for Lebanon (2009–2021): Who cares?","authors":"Benjamin J Muller","doi":"10.1111/dome.12257","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/dome.12257","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43254,"journal":{"name":"Digest of Middle East Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75258327","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":"Party corruption in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq: Context and implications","authors":"Farhad Hassan Abdullah Mamshai","doi":"10.1111/dome.12258","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/dome.12258","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Party corruption is not only a problem in developing democracies but also in developed ones. Since its establishment in 1991, corruption among political parties has been a key feature of Kurdish governance in the Kurdistan Region. This corruption can be categorized into two periods, the first from 1991 to 2003, and the second from 2005 to the present, mainly among the ruling parties the KDP and the PUK. These two parties have ruled the region for nearly three decades, each with its geographic hegemonic zone; since 2005 they have ruled the region jointly, therefore sharing the responsibility for the mismanagement and corruption in KRG institutions. This article argues that the system of a dominant party (or parties) within a weak multi-party system, which in Kurdistan the KDP and (to an extent until 2009) the PUK have controlled, is responsible for increasing the scope of corruption. It also argues that the dominant party has utilized the electoral system, particularly the closed party list and recently semi-open party list, within a single electoral cycle to secure governmental positions for its own officials for a prolonged time and thus escape the electorate's control.</p>","PeriodicalId":43254,"journal":{"name":"Digest of Middle East Studies","volume":"31 1","pages":"25-42"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/dome.12258","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71967435","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}