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The turbulent changes in the Middle East which were seen at the very beginning as good news for Israel, at the end of the day became more ambiguous. The Arab Spring and then the war in Syria that had erupted along with massive social protests ended up with regime changes, but what was crucial, the primary success of the Arab awakening was captured by Islamist movements. The changes in the Middle East were even deeper due to at least two factors – Russia "coming into"and the United States "going out" of the region. These new regional circumstances ombined with the geopolitical shift in the Middle East and a crumbling American supervision made Israel conclude that its security has become more complex and the U.S has no more been the only significant great power player in the region. Hence the difficult political and military situation around Israel has created a need to adapt to security challenges and simultaneously, to take political opportunities. The goal of this paper is to highlight basic ramifications for Israeli security and diplomacyof the American and Russian factors in the current Middle East politics. The key questions are: How to secure Israeli interests in these new circumstances? How to assess, on the one hand, the risk of the ongoing decline of American interests in the region and, on the other hand, the complexity of the Russian strategy in the Middle East? Finally, whether Israel might be able to gain recognition by the Arab world, not to mention to keep its strategic domination in the region which is already being challenged by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its nuclear ambitions.

During the 1980s and 1990s, energy security declined in importance as oil prices fell and spare capacity stood at high levels. This was reversed in the decade that followed and once more energy security became a priority in policy agendas of most oil-importing countries. High oil prices, threats of terrorist attacks, instability in many oil-exporting countries and the rise in so-called 'oil nationalism' have raised serious concerns about the security of oil supplies. In the background, there are fears that the world may be running out of oil with many observers predicting an imminent oil supply crunch (Campbell and Laherrère, 1998) and raising doubts about the size of proven oil reserves in the Middle East and elsewhere (Simmons, 2005). These doom-laden predictions about the availability of oil supplies and the size of reserves are gaining popular credence at times when oil market conditions are tight. Many international agencies, such as the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and International Energy Agency (IEA), are also predicting a healthy growth in global oil demand in the next 20–25 years, driven primarily by high growth rates of non-OECD Asian economies.

Spring 2011 was a historic year in the Middle East and was momentum for the rise of people power to overthrow the long-reigning authoritarian regime. This event is known as The Arab Spring. However, on the way, the Arab dream did not come easy. This book tries to capture the opportunities and challenges of democratization in Arab countries after the Arab Spring. There are three countries, namely Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria, which are the focus of this book's study. The interests of the United States (US) emerged as the trigger for democratization efforts. The US does not hesitate to hinder democratization in a country with leaders who are not pro-Western. It is not surprising that democratization in Arab countries is only seen as a US political project to safeguard its national interests. From this book, we can reflect on the situation in Indonesia. Does that also happen?

Social media has transformed the awareness of events around the world as it allows for instant, up-to-the-second data transmission and communication for a variety of interested parties. Due to the ongoing turmoil surrounding the Middle East and its heightened media attention, I chose to research what types of emotions and interactions are found on Twitter with regard to the region and related topics. I selected Twitter due to the relative accessibility, workability, and anticipated sufficient size of data samples available. Twitter reports 1 billion created accounts with 320 million active accounts as of December 31, 2015. These active accounts, defined as a ratio of followers to followed accounts, generate roughly 500 million tweets per day from around the world. In this research, I am looking at scholarly works, journalism sources, and other reports to learn more about some of the ways Twitter has been used as it relates to the Middle East and better establish context for my data analysis. This information helps guide me in performing real-time sentiment analysis – or opinion mining – on Twitter data using open-source sentiment dictionaries with machine learning algorithms to provide highly accurate analysis of emotional response as it relates to the Middle East. This sentiment analysis is performed by assigning numerical values to words to help quantify positive, neutral, or negative emotion associated with my topic. My findings will help to draw conclusions as to whether there are specific emotions correlated with the region and associated topics, the degrees of emotion felt when tweeting about specific subjects, and how spot-checked dates after different events influence the sentiment broadcast on Twitter. This unfiltered look at people's emotions on Twitter serves to quantify how Twitter users perceive the Middle East and related topics.

The democratic peace theory has two complementary variants regarding intrastate conflicts: the "democratic civil peace" thesis sees democratic regimes as pacifying internal tensions; the "anocratic war" thesis submits that due to nationalism, democratizing regimes breed internal violence. This paper statistically tests the two propositions in the context of the contemporary Middle East and North Africa (MENA). We show that a MENA democracy makes a country more prone to both the onset and incidence of civil war, even if democracy is controlled for, and that the more democratic a MENA state is, the more likely it is to experience violent intrastate strife. Interestingly, anocracies do not seem to be predisposed to civil war, either worldwide or in MENA. Looking for causality beyond correlation, we suggest that "democratizing nationalism" might be a long-term prerequisite for peace and democracy, not just an immediate hindrance. We also advise complementing current research on intrastate and interstate clashes with the study of intercommunal conflicts and the democratic features of non-state polities.

Throughout past history Jordan has participated in Arab-Israeli conflicts that took place in the Middle East. This country has participated in two wars against Israel, the first in 1967, and the second in 1973. Jordan lost both of these wars, resulting in the loss of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and causing a large number of Palestinian refugees to flee to Jordan. In the first half of the 90's dramatic changes occurred in the world; such as the fall of the Soviet Union, Iraq invading Kuwait, and then an alliance with the United States as leader forcing Iraq to leave Kuwait. The affects of these changes led to a so called "peace" between Arab countries and Israel. In this period of peace, Jordan had participated in peace talks between Arab countries and Israel in Madrid, Spain. Then Jordan signed peace treaty with Israel in 1994 watched over by the U.S.A.Entering these peace treaties in 1994, gave rise to many important questions. Most of which focused on the true reasons behind why Jordan agreed to peace with Israel and the American role in the process. Thus, the researcher shall attempt to answer these questions, as well as shedding some light on the factors that affect the relations between Israel and Jordan which will be divided into internal and external affairs. The researcher will try to predict how these factors will affect the future of Jordanian-Israeli relations, especially the role of the U.S.A.

55 pages ; This report is the eighth in an annual series of publications, dating back to 2012, designed to share the latest stories, trends and research in social media usage from across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Using a wide variety of academic, industry and media sources, this White Paper identifies important insights from social media's development over the previous year. Of particular note in 2019 is the continued, growing, importance of social media in the lives of Arab Youth, outside of Saudi Arabia and Turkey the declining usage of Twitter (once the poster child social network for the Arab Spring,) as well as greater scrutiny of social media usage by platform owners and governments alike. Last year's report highlighted the increasing weaponization of social networks, a trend which continued in 2019. Facebook, Twitter and Telegram each closed hundreds of accounts due to inappropriate use by state sponsored actors and terrorist groups. Social networks were also the target of governments across MENA, in the midst of protests in many countries throughout the region. Meanwhile, the importance of social video and visually-led social networks, continued to grow from strength to strength. Snapchat introduced new advertising formats to the region and other exclusive functionality, Google highlighted the importance of YouTube in supporting parents and parenting, and in major markets such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Twitter has emerged as a leading platform for online video consumption. The year ahead is likely to result in a continuation of many of the trends outlined in this report, as social media becomes increasingly engrained across the lives of businesses, governments and residents across the MENA region.

The conventional Anglophone wisdom about the Middle East is that "they" are mired in timeless, ancient antagonisms and enduring traditions: virtually changeless. Yet during the careers of today's senior scholars, there have been many surprises: the 1979 Iranian revolution, Saddam Hussein's occupation of Kuwait, two Anglo-American invasions of Iraq, the 2010/11 Arab uprisings, subsequent civil wars in Syria, Libya, Yemen, and elsewhere, and plenty of other events. Each upheaval wreaks havoc with research designs. Visas or research permits for holders of foreign passports or stipends can be revoked. Interlocutors or corner grocers may become suspicious. Security agents may follow you around, noting whom you have coffee with. Men, especially, might have their phones or laptops confiscated. A few have been brutalized. Junior scholars must be nimble, flexible, and defensive. A narrowly defined investigation, possibly framed by texts rather than interviews, is not only safe but potentially lucrative. Interpreting "local voices" brings them to "foreign" audiences and encourages dialogue.

Today, the Islamic factor and its influence in the system international relations are growing. Analyses of the changes taking place in world politics show that one of the most The article is divided into two parts. The first part is related to the growing importance of the Islamic factor; the demographic growth of believers, the economic, scientific and political development of Muslim countries; the politicization of Islam and the recent events in the Arab countries. The second part describes the concept of geopolitics, various definitions of the Middle East countries by different political schools, and shows the position of the countries such as the United States, China and Russia, which play an important role in the geopolitical formation of the region. Over the past two centuries, the Middle East has been an important target of various external forces. The peculiarity of the geopolitical situation in the region is that external forces skillfully used religious denominations and interethnic contradictions in the region. Recently, the geopolitical and geoeconomic rivalry of these external forces in their own interests has aggravated the situation in the region. For examples, the Arab Spring, the armed conflict in Syria and Yemen, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and current relations between the United States and Iran

The Middle East is undergoing a phase of crucial geopolitical and social transformations. Bottom-up uprisings are spreading from Lebanon to Algeria. A dangerous regional rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia is playing out throughout the region, involving actors supported by either party in proxy wars ranging from Yemen to Syria. The United States and Russia are both, albeit very differently, involved in local and regional politics, in ways that may also be exposing the European southern flank to risk. Washington, under the aegis of Donald J. Trump, is simultaneously providing support to traditional regional allies, such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, and retreating from the region, as illustrated, for example, by the decision to withdraw US forces from the border region between Turkey and Syria, de facto betraying the Kurdish forces that had been crucial in the fight against IS. And Moscow has been quick to seize upon the opportunity provided by the US' moves and the local instability to portray itself as a steady, most reliable partner for the countries of the region. Is a new Cold War playing out in the Middle East? Not quite. Yet understanding how the original bipolar rivalry played out in the region is key, as many consequences of policies enacted by the superpowers and their allies during those four fateful decades are still with us today.

Public sector hiring has been an essential component of the social bargains that have maintained political stability in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). As these bargains eroded, public sector workforces contracted in relative terms owing to a partial freeze on hiring and the promise of lifetime job security for incumbent workers. This had profound effects on the age composition of the workforce. The upcoming retirement of many workers provides an opportunity to restructure public sector hiring to emphasize meritocratic recruitment processes and performance-based compensation systems.

This item is part of the Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements (PRISM) digital collection, a collaborative initiative between Florida Atlantic University and University of Central Florida in the Publication of Archival, Library & Museum Materials (PALMM).

64 pages ; This report is the ninth in an annual series of publications, dating back to 2012, showcasing the latest developments in social media across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This year's study is produced in partnership with the New Media Academy. The New Media Academy was inaugurated in June 2020, by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister, and ruler of Dubai, to work within the space of development, with a focus on harnessing opportunities in the digital space. Using a broad range of industry, academic and media sources, we dive into the trends - and biggest stories - which shaped MENA's relationship with social media during the past year. Not surprisingly, this study is heavily influenced by the impact of COVID-19. The novel coronavirus impacted on everyone's lives around the world, including the Middle East. One by-product of the pandemic could be seen in our changing media habits. Social media usage - across all platforms - increased during the early stages of the outbreak. More widely, given the importance of social media in our media diets, platforms, industry and governments alike sought to use these networks to promote public health messages, as well as counter misinformation related to the COVID crisis. Alongside these developments, we have also seen continued investment in content on social media platforms - especially during Ramadan - and growing partnerships between traditional media players and social media channels and influencers. These developments reflect the popularity of high quality digital content consumed on social media, and a desire to reach audiences on these platforms, or bring existing social audiences onto other networks. We expect that this synergy will only rise, not least because many media habits developed during the pandemic may well continue post-COVID. As a result, social networks will become an increasingly important source for talent spotting, as well as a key avenue for content and information consumption. This trend, as we outline at the end of this report, matters for brands, creators and influencers, as well as governments and other public entities. Social media is already an important part of digital media habits and digital marketing strategies. In 2021, that importance looks set to continue and grow even further. ; New Media Academy

"First published in one volume, May 1898." ; I. A.D. 378-1278--II. 1278-1485. ; Mode of access: Internet. ; 2

The unravelling of the Middle-East peace process continues to baffle the pundits. The early optimism of the Oslo peace accord has now turned into despair. Prime minister Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist. The Palestinians have embarked on a new Intifada. And Israel has re-occupied much of the West Bank. What brought this reversal? How deep are the fractures? Can they be healed?.