Suchergebnisse

What is cosmopolitanism and how did and does it operate in the Middle East? How does the term apply to persons, milieus and ideologies? Sami Zubaida argues that cosmopolitanism is connected with certain lifestyles, that cross communal boundaries and stimulate the making of eclectical choices between elements of different cultures. Milieus in which these lifestyles flourish are usually produced by empires which bring together diverse peoples and cultures. Social mobility and the rise of a separate class of intellectuals are other preconditions for the adoption of a cosmopolitan attitude. In this paper Zubaida traces the historical instances of cosmopolitanism in the Middle East, its present condition and future prospects. He demonstrates that it is a rare and highly vulnerable phenomenon that goes against the grain of most modern homogenizing trends in politics and culture. (RECIPE/DÜI)

Foreign policy analysis (FPA) has long studied leaders and individual decision makers. In contrast, international relations (IR) long favored the system level of analysis, treating the state as an abstract unitary actor. However, IR has begun to rediscover the individual level of analysis, making this an opportune time to consider the contributions of both FPA and IR to the study of leaders and decision makers. This article reviews how FPA and IR study individual decision makers, highlighting prominent approaches in each field, comparing these approaches –highlighting similarities, differences, and connections –and discusses appropriate applications of each in empirical research. The contribution ends with suggestions for integrating the FPA and IR approaches to the study of leaders and individual decision makers, highlighting how this integration benefits the ability of both FPA and IR to address interesting research questions regarding the role of leaders and individual decision makers in international politics.

The study of armed non-state actors (ANSAs) has grown exponentially in the last two decades. This article explores the foreign policy of ANSAs as a new empirical domain for foreign policy analysis (FPA) by drawing on various examples from the Middle East to show the merit of this area for novel empirical and theoretical studies. The article identifies the domain of ANSAs' foreign policy showing how FPA research has so far remained state-centric and almost completely ignores ANSAs. While the external engagement of ANSAs were examined within the scholarship on civil wars, FPA can be adapted to provide systematic scholarly understanding of this phenomenon. Finally, the article explores how studying ANSAs' foreign policies can revitalize FPA and drive its agenda into new directions.

Egypt was at the beginning of the 1980s one of the few countries in the Middle East which seemed to have embarked on the road to democracy. When President Mubarak came to power after the assassination of Anwar Sadat, he promised to expand the scope for opposition and press freedom. Almost fifteen years later and three parliamentary elections wiser the future looks a lot less promising. While democratization has run up against a wall of governmental obstruction, and the development of civil society is hamstrung by restrictive laws, press freedom has become largely inconsequential. Against the background of the parliamentary elections of November 1995 Ahmed Abdalla has written a perceptive analysis of the prospects of democracy in Egypt. The editors have added an appendix with more specific information on the coming elections. (Amsterdam Middle East Pap/DÜI)

The present study is an attempt to evaluate the impact of what the European Union considers as its new Mediterranean policy on the Mediterranean region in general, and on Tunisia in particular. It will review the evaluation of Euro-Mediterranean relations up to the 1995 Barcelona Conference, the main areas of cooperation identified in the Barcelona Declaration and the Tunisia-E.U. Agreement. By using three different, but complementary, methods the study will conclude that in the absence of any real threats to EU interests in the Mediterranean, that could justify its present conservative policy, it can afford to adopt a more innovative approach that would enhance its rare short-term, and the more numerous long-term interests in the region. (RECIPE/DÜI)

This article begins by assessing, firstly, the various views on development and capitalism presented by Orientalism and by Islamic scholars; secondly it looks at the character of the state and industrial development before 1979; and finally it compares this to the post-1979 industrial development, which includes the Iran/Iraq war; it also highlights the continuity and change in the policies of the Islamic Republic since 1979. (RECIPE/DÜI)

This paper will discuss both settlers and settlements. Given their complex nexus to the State of Israel, settlers and settlements may be said to constitute the single most potent factor threatening to torpedo the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The author tries to answer three main questions: What is the extent of Israeli colonization? Which policy options inform current settlement efforts? And what alternatives exist for solving the settlement issue in the future? (RECIPE/DÜI)