Civil Society and Change in the Middle East
Author: Cenap Çakmak
Publisher:
Published: 2013
Total Pages: 324
ISBN-13: 9786055386078
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The Power of Civil Society in the Middle East and North Africa
Author: Ibrahim Natil
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-05-24
Total Pages: 239
ISBN-13: 0429560028
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book investigates the power of civil society in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), in the context of the post-Arab Spring era, as well as more long-standing challenges and constraints in the region. In recent years, local civil society actors have faced significant challenges from social conservatism, conflict, violence, and the absence of democracy and exclusive political systems. Over the course of the book, the authors investigate how the sector has succeeded in achieving its own objectives despite these shifting conditions, the restrictive political environment and the complexity of the socio-cultural and economic context. Structured around the three themes of peace-building, development, and change, the book also addresses challenges faced by civil society organizations linked to ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversities as well as religious salient differences that are crucial markers of social and political identity. Case studies are drawn from the Palestinian Occupied Territories, Jordan, Iran, Nigeria, Niger, Egypt, and Morocco, and particular effort has been made to showcase original research from contributors who are from the region . This book will be of particular interest to researchers working on development, peace-building, conflict resolution, civil society, and politics within the MENA region.
The Arab Revolutions in Context
Author: Benjamin Isakhan
Publisher: Melbourne Univ. Publishing
Published: 2012-08-01
Total Pages: 138
ISBN-13: 052286161X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFrom late 2010 a series of dramatic and unprecedented events swept across the Middle East and North Africa, toppling several autocratic regimes that had held power for decades and ushering in a new climate of dissent and democratisation. The Arab Revolutions in Context seizes a unique opportunity to reflect on these seismic events, their causes and consequences, and the core issues facing the region as it moves forward. This volume is more than a collection of detailed thematic essays. It situates the Arab Revolutions within their broader contextual backgrounds—showing that a unique set of historical events, as well as local, regional and global dynamics, has converged to provide the catalyst that triggered the recent revolts-and also within a new conceptual framework. The argument here is that the Arab Revolutions pose a very specific challenge to conventional wisdom concerning democracy and democratisation in the Middle East. The Arab Revolutions in Context is the first volume of its kind to address the Arab Revolutions and the varying analyses, debates and discussions that they have stimulated. Islamic Studies Series - Volume 12
Uncharted Journey
Author: Thomas Carothers
Publisher: Carnegie Endowment
Published: 2010-03
Total Pages: 313
ISBN-13: 0870032860
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe United States faces no greater challenge today than successfully fulfilling its new ambition of helping bring about a democratic transformation of the Middle East. Uncharted Journey contributes a wealth of concise, illuminating insights on this subject, drawing on the contributors' deep knowledge of Arab politics and their substantial experience with democracy-building in other parts of the world. The essays in part one vividly dissect the state of Arab politics today, including an up-to-date examination of the political shock wave in the region produced by the invasion of Iraq. Part two and three set out a provocative exploration of the possible elements of a democracy promotion strategy for the region. The contributors identify potential false steps as well as a productive way forward, avoiding the twin shoals of either reflexive pessimism in the face of the daunting obstacles to Arab democratization or an unrealistic optimism that fails to take into account the region's political complexities. Contributors include Eva Bellin (Hunter College), Daniel Brumberg (Carnegie Endowment), Thomas Carothers (Carnegie Endowment), Michele Dunne (Georgetown University), Graham Fuller, Amy Hawthorne (Carnegie Endowment), Marina Ottaway (Carnegie Endowment), and Richard Youngs (Foreign Policy Centre).
Religion and Civil Society in the Arab World
Author: Tania Haddad
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2018-06-14
Total Pages: 208
ISBN-13: 0429871171
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book examines the links between civil society, religion and politics in the Middle East and North Africa region. The chapters in the volume explore the role of religion in shaping and changing the public sphere in regions that are developing and/or in conflict. They also discuss how these relations are reflected on civil society organizations and the role they are expected to play in transitional periods. This volume: investigates the conceptual dilemmas regarding what is ‘civil society’ in the Arab world today examines the dynamic roles of civil society organizations and religion in the Middle East and North Africa explores the future of the Arab civil society post-‘Arab Spring’ events, and how the latter continues to reshape the demand for democracy in the region. A comprehensive study of how the Arab civil society has come into being and its changing roles, this eclectic work will be of interest to scholars and researchers of politics, especially political Islam, international relations, Middle East Studies, African Studies, sociology and social anthropology.
Women, Civil Society and Policy Change in the Arab World
Author: Nasser Yassin
Publisher: Springer
Published: 2019-03-19
Total Pages: 180
ISBN-13: 3030020894
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book examines the ways in which Arab civil society actors have attempted to influence public policies. In particular, the book studies the drive towards a change of policies that affect women and their well-being. It does so through the lens of women civil society activism and through analysis of cases of policy reform in three Arab countries namely: Lebanon, Morocco and Yemen. The book addresses the tension between policy change and state repression; between Islamic traditional/religious values and civil/secular ones; between the formal and the informal channels for policy-making. One of the first books to reflect on the capability of Arab civil society actors to influence change, it traces recent policy evolution from before the Arab Uprisings in 2011 until the present day, and describes the limited ability of civil society actors to induce change and substantiate it over recent decades. The book explores the use of policy theories in the analysis of cases, and reflects on the possibility of applying and “adapting” those concepts, largely applied in the Western world, to encompass policymaking in the Arab world without conceptual 'overstretch'.
Regional Integration and National Disintegration in the Post-Arab Spring Middle East
Author: Imad El-Anis
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Published: 2016-09-23
Total Pages: 265
ISBN-13: 1443896357
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis edited collection explores the processes of change currently shaping the Middle East in the post-Arab Spring context. The national and transnational challenges that have emerged since the uprisings in 2011 – particularly the increase in extremism, and the emergence and intensification of civil wars – have garnered significant attention in both media coverage and academic research. However, simultaneous (and far older) processes of regional integration – varying in form from free trade agreements like the Greater Arab Free Trade Area to economic and political unions like the Gulf Cooperation Council – have also been influenced by the changes of the past few years. This text draws together innovative new research from different fields to explore how far the changes shaping the Middle East are leading to the region’s polarisation between states that are integrating politically and economically with each other on the one hand, and states that are disintegrating internally on the other. The book includes contributions from scholars and practitioners from around the world, and who work in different fields including Middle Eastern studies, international relations, international political economy, foreign policy studies, and security studies. Chapters vary in focus and approach, with the first section focusing on security-related issues, particularly civil wars and terrorism. A second group of chapters looks at political economy in the region, and examines domestic, regional and global practices and processes, including foreign aid, trade, and development. A final group of chapters investigates socio-political and socio-cultural issues, including the role of civil society in the region, migration, and international law.
Middle East Politics Today
Author: Tareq Y. Ismael
Publisher:
Published: 2001
Total Pages: 510
ISBN-13: 9780813020983
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAccessible to students and useful to the expert, this up-to-date volume offers a comprehensive study of important and complicated issues in the contemporary Middle East. This account, covering all Middle Eastern countries, examines major trends in the history, politics, and economics of the region, with a special focus on events since the 1991 Persian Gulf War. It emphasizes regional comparative groupings of states such as the Fertile Crescent, the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Nile Valley, Turkey, and Iran.Tareq Ismael provides readers with an understanding of the forces that shape local and regional politics as well as a basis for how the region locates itself in international affairs. He looks at the new dynamics that have developed since the Gulf War, especially the decay of postcolonial state structures and the strength of American influence in politics. His account of each state stresses historical background, development of political institutions and processes, and socioeconomic issues and institutions.Considering forces local to particular areas, Ismael discusses such topics as terrorism, Islamic activism, the growth of state coercive agencies, and the subversion of democratic institutions and processes by regimes.
Civil Society and Political Change in Morocco
Author: James N. Sater
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2007-06-11
Total Pages: 452
ISBN-13: 113412645X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKTaking Morocco as its focus, this book looks at the political change in the country since 1990. It places particular emphasis on key topics, such as civil society, human rights and reform, as vital issues for understanding the developments in the contemporary Middle East.
Non-State Actors in the Middle East
Author: Galia Golan
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-11-26
Total Pages: 241
ISBN-13: 131793119X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAs the recent revolutions in the Middle East have demonstrated, civil society in this part of the world is on the move. The increasingly important role of non-state actors – a phenomenon of globalization- has characterized developments throughout the region, affecting the struggle for democracy and for peace. This volume brings together scholars primarily form the region to analyse the varied activities and contributions of NGOs, the private sector and the new media, from Morocco to Iran, along with the involvement of diaspora groups. The chapter on facebook in the recent Egyptian revolution captures the role of this new media while the study on similar technology in Iran outlines the barriers raised by the authorities in the current struggles there. Even the fledgling process of democratization in Saudi Arabia is driven by non-state actors while the veteran women's movements in the Maghreb serve as an example for the post-Arab spring era in those countries. Providing one of the first assessments of the role of non-state actors in the Middle East, this book will be essential reading for students of Political Science, Sociology and Civil Society, amongst others.
