Suchergebnisse

The volume deals with competition among regional and external players for the redistribution of power and international status in the Middle East and North Africa, with a focus on Russia's renewed role and the implications for US interests. Over the last few years, a crisis of legitimacy has beset the liberal international order. In this context, the configuration of regional orders has come into question, as in the extreme case of the current collapse in the Middle East. The idea of a "Russian resurgence" in the Middle East set against a perceived American withdrawal has captured the attention of policymakers and scholars alike, warranting further examination. This volume, a joint publication by ISPI and the Atlantic Council, gathers analysis on Washington's and Moscow's policy choices in the MENA region and develops case studies of the two powers' engagement in the countries beset by major crises.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of economic freedom level on investment efficiency; predicted by market return and volatility; using data covering the period from 1996 tell 2015 for the MENA region countries. Simple regression models and multivariate regression models were applied to test our hypothesis. The results show that the economic freedom level has a little impact on market return, and the capital market performance get better as the government regulations get highly efficient and the financial system is accessible and effi­ciently functioning. In the same time, the evidence points out that economic freedom decrease market returns' volatility (risk), indicating that; if government's regulation in banking and financial systems doesn't assure transparency and honesty, then financial markets efficiency will be hindered, the cost of financing will increase and the completion will be limited. Keeping in mind that the two fundamental aspects of investment are risk and return; it is obvious that economic freedom enhances the risk-return investment efficiency in the MENA region.

The volume deals with competition among regional and external players for the redistribution of power and international status in the Middle East and North Africa, with a focus on Russia's renewed role and the implications for US interests. Over the last few years, a crisis of legitimacy has beset the liberal international order.
In this context, the configuration of regional orders has come into question, as in the extreme case of the current collapse in the Middle East. The idea of a "Russian resurgence" in the Middle East set against a perceived American withdrawal has captured the attention of policymakers and scholars alike, warranting further examination. This volume, a joint publication by ISPI and the Atlantic Council, gathers analysis on Washington's and Moscow's policy choices in the MENA region and develops case studies of the two powers' engagament in the countries beset by major crises.

The Arc of Crisis in the MENA Region volume deals with the countries of the Middle East and North Africa that are facing a particularly troubled period in their historical development. Syria, Iraq, Libya, Egypt and to a lesser extent Jordan and Tunisia have plunged into a legitimacy crisis that in some cases has turned into civil war or violent upheaval. As traditional authorities lose their legitimacy, two alternatives are emerging. The first is a more decentralized system of government, evinced by the empowerment of subnational government bodies and the growing legitimacy of local authorities; in this trend, the local authorities are able to keep the state united and more functional. The second is a growing number of political groups that act as opposition to authoritarianism, which is experiencing a revival. The analysis herein also focuses on Islamist movements; namely, their organizational and ideological development as well as how the shrinking of the political space affects them and the entire polity. This Report explores the distinctive dynamics and characteristics of these challenges in the post-Arab Spring era.

The Arc of Crisis in the MENA Region volume deals with the countries of the Middle East and North Africa that are facing a particularly troubled period in their historical development. Syria, Iraq, Libya, Egypt and to a lesser extent Jordan and Tunisia have plunged into a legitimacy crisis that in some cases has turned into civil war or violent upheaval. As traditional authorities lose their legitimacy, two alternatives are emerging. The first is a more decentralized system of government, evinced by the empowerment of subnational government bodies and the growing legitimacy of local authorities; in this trend, the local authorities are able to keep the state united and more functional. The second is a growing number of political groups that act as opposition to authoritarianism, which is experiencing a revival. The analysis herein also focuses on Islamist movements; namely, their organizational and ideological development as well as how the shrinking of the political space affects them and the entire polity. This Report explores the distinctive dynamics and characteristics of these challenges in the post-Arab Spring era.

The MENARA study area has undergone signifi cant transformation over twenty years decades, resulting from a combination of ideational and material factors. In this report, we examine the agnitude, distribution and trends in key environmental and energy factors that materially affect the economic, social and political profi le of the MENA region. We do this by conducting a geographical analysis and by building a web-based policy support system for understanding strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) at scales from pixel through regional to national considering environment, water, energy, food, economy and population, which we call the MENARA policy support system (PSS). It is a tool for scanning the horizon to identify material threats, opportunities and choke points that may precipitate confl ict, and it is designed to help thinking through locally appropriate policy responses. The MENARA PSS enables better understanding of material factors (climate, population, landscape, energy), which combine with elements of governance, politics and ideology to shape regions and determine trajectories of change at scales from local to global. We use the tool, combined with literature review and other available data, in order to examine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats throughout the Middle East and North Africa (the MENARA study area) and in greater spatial detail for the country of Syria. Analyses indicate a complex pattern of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that produce challenges at the local scale, at the regional scale and, for some countries, also at the national scale. No one strength, weakness, opportunity or threat dominates, as different regions within each country have different SWOTs and different countries are affected by different magnitudes and types of SWOT. Understanding material factors and using them to generate a geographical prognosis at multiple scales for a region enables us to set the context for later ideational research in this region as part of the ...