{"title":"The EU and Justice in Palestine: An Interview with Grace O'Sullivan","authors":"Roger Gaess","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12697","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12697","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Grace O'Sullivan of the Irish Green Party, affiliated with the European Green Party, has been a member of the European Parliament from Ireland for the South constituency since July 2019. In the European Parliament, she is a member of delegations on Palestine and Mercosur. O'Sullivan previously served as a senator in Ireland and was a sponsor of the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018, which sought to prohibit the import of goods produced in illegal settlements. O'Sullivan, an environmental activist, spent 20 years with Greenpeace and worked on the crew of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985, when it was bombed in New Zealand by French intelligence. She was interviewed by Roger Gaess via email in April and May 2023.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"30 3","pages":"16-23"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42825404","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Indispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in a Turbulent World By Robert J. Lieber. Yale University Press, 2022. 264 pages. $35, hardcover.","authors":"A.R. Joyce","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12691","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12691","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"30 2","pages":"173-177"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49270740","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Douglas A. Silliman, Mary Beth Long, David B. Des Roches, Asha Castleberry-Hernandez, Bassima Alghussein
{"title":"The Future of Security in the Middle East","authors":"Douglas A. Silliman, Mary Beth Long, David B. Des Roches, Asha Castleberry-Hernandez, Bassima Alghussein","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12692","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12692","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"30 2","pages":"3-24"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49196920","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hezbollah's Coercion And the Israel-Lebanon Maritime Deal","authors":"Daniel Sobelman","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12689","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12689","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In late 2022, Israel and Lebanon signed a US-brokered maritime agreement establishing their permanent maritime boundary and exclusive economic zones, and regulating their rights to gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean. Preceding the agreement was a sustained coercive-diplomacy campaign by Hezbollah. Between June and October, the organization conveyed overt and covert threats, and it pursued actions that were unprecedented in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict: openly threatening to target Israel's entire gas production and risk all-out war if Israel proceeded with its plan to unilaterally extract gas from the contested Karish gas field. A textbook case of coercive diplomacy, Hezbollah's maneuver was calculated and deliberate, which reflects the group's strategic expertise. Drawing on open-source materials and public statements in Arabic and Hebrew, this article analyzes Hezbollah's coercive-diplomacy campaign and examines its implications for escalation scenarios between Israel and its central military opponent.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"30 2","pages":"75-93"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mepo.12689","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49343220","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Iran and the SCO: The Quest For Legitimacy and Regime Preservation","authors":"Nicole Bayat Grajewski","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12684","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12684","url":null,"abstract":"<p>At the 2021 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, the Russian- and Chinese-led bloc announced the approval of Iran's longstanding bid for membership. Iran has viewed its involvement in the organization as a means of bolstering external legitimacy, fostering security-oriented regionalism, and promoting the transition toward the so-called multipolar world order. The SCO has served as a regime-preservation network by providing Iran with a source of solidarity against external pressure. Tehran's commitment to the normative order, sustained by the SCO's discourse of noninterference, sovereignty, and countering the “three evils”—terrorism, extremism, and separatism—has galvanized the organization's role as a common front against the imposition of liberal norms and challenges to regime security.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"30 2","pages":"38-61"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42190955","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nostalgia for the Empire: The Politics of Neo-Ottomanism By M. Hakan Yavuz. Oxford University Press, 2020. 336 pages. $38.95, hardcover.","authors":"Michael M. Gunter","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12690","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12690","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"30 2","pages":"166-169"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49374813","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Russia and the Kurds: A Soft-Power Tool for the Kremlin?","authors":"Anna Borshchevskaya","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12682","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12682","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Russia has been the Kurds’ patron for more than two centuries, motivated primarily by the cynical desire to use them against adversaries in broader great-power games while casting itself as a champion of the Kurdish cause. Russia's longstanding and multifaceted relationship with the Kurds demonstrates that when it comes to geopolitics, the United States has more than brute force to contend with. The Russian state also utilizes soft power as an authoritarian state defines it: a tool of pragmatic leverage. While the Kurds are not a monolith, they are anxious about the trajectory of US politics and feel they cannot rely on anyone. The Russian state has opportunities to undermine American interests in places such as Syria and Iraq through its connections with Kurdish groups. This article reviews tsarist, Soviet, and post-Soviet policies toward the Kurds, including Kurdish communities in Russia. It concludes with a discussion about implications for the United States, given that Moscow will not let go of its Kurdish card, including in the context of the Ukraine invasion.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"30 2","pages":"25-37"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44326831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Negotiated Desecuritization Of Turkey in Saudi Foreign Policy","authors":"Hazal Muslu El Berni","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12685","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12685","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Saudi-Turkey relations hit one of their lowest points due to the Arab uprisings and the regional shock of the Gulf crisis. The tension resulted from, and in turn exacerbated, a process of securitization of Saudi discourse, whereby officials labeled Turkey as a threat. But after three and a half years of the Gulf crisis, the Al-Ula accords allowed reconciliation among the regional states and opened the way for the construction of new understandings based on diplomacy, tolerance of differences on regional and domestic security, and respect of sovereignty. This spurred Saudi policy makers to de-securitize their discourse concerning Turkey—that is, to talk of it not as a threat, but as a potential partner. This process continues to develop gradually through cooperation on economics and investment, but it has required time to re-establish confidence among Saudi decision makers. This article analyzes the discourses of Saudi leaders and policy makers and shows how they affected Saudi Arabia's relations with Turkey, both negatively and positively.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"30 2","pages":"62-74"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43013518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Assessing Israel's Motives In Annexing the Jordan Valley","authors":"Fadi Nahhas","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12686","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12686","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article analyzes Israel's motives in annexing the Jordan Valley—a plan that, if approved, will eliminate any possibility of establishing a Palestinian state, even on a small part of historic Palestine. This promises to be one of the most critical strategic turning points in the contemporary Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The analysis reveals that the Israeli annexation decision, even if postponed, has become a reality imposed by Israel on the international community, insinuated into formal and official government announcements and declarations. In addition, the article highlights the danger of imposing Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley since it carries with it a threat to regional stability. As part of this examination, the study traces the development of the positions of successive Israeli governments toward the issue of annexing this region, from 1967 through the dissolution of the Netanyahu government in 2021.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"30 2","pages":"110-125"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48485355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Iran-Israel Conflict: An Ultra-Ideological Explanation","authors":"Farshad Roomi","doi":"10.1111/mepo.12687","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mepo.12687","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Iran's enmity with Israel is ideological in the first place and strategic in the second. Iran intends through anti-Israel actions and messaging to internally mobilize its populace and, externally, to claim the leadership of the Muslim world and strike a balance against a regional nuclear power. This article uses a critique based on constructivism and realism to reveal how Iran's confrontation with Israel has evolved historically from “identity-ideological” to “politico-strategic.” I argue that Iran's adoption of this approach without taking its internal and external capacities into consideration has ironically bolstered the Israeli far right, increased global sympathies for Israel, escalated Iranophobia, aligned conservative Arab states with Israel, and marginalized the issue of Palestine. To preserve its national interests and regional security, Iran needs to overcome this politico-historical stage and replace conflict with competition.</p>","PeriodicalId":46060,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Policy","volume":"30 2","pages":"94-109"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42502478","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}