Suchergebnisse

"Eduardo Wassim Aboultaif critically analyzes civil-military relations and the way armies are constructed in divided societies. To achieve that, the book looks at four case studies with deep divisions and whose armed forces have been reconstructed after civil wars. Lebanon and Bosnia-Herzegovina represent two examples of consociational power-sharing arrangements with functioning armed forces that enjoy wide popular support and neutral in internal affairs. Iraq and Burundi, however, have semi-consociational provisions that have politicized the army and made it a partisan military that has either led to disintegration (as in the case of Iraq) or politicization and loss of legitimacy (as in Burundi)"--

This book studies the origins and evolution of power sharing in Lebanon. The author has established a relationship between mobilization, ethnurgy (ethnic identification), memory and trauma, and how they impact power sharing provisions. The book starts with the events in the 1820s, when communities politicized their identities, which led to the first major outbreak of civil violence between the Druze and the Maronites. Consequently, these troubled four decades in Lebanon led to the introduction of various forms of power sharing arrangements to establish peace. The political systems introduced in Lebanon are: the Kaim-Makamiya (dual subgovernorship), a quasi-federal arrangement; the Mutassarifiya, the prototype of a power sharing system; the post-independence political system of Lebanon which the book refers to as semi-consociation, due to the concentration of executive powers in the Presidential office; and finally, the full-consociation of the Taif Republic. In each of these phases, there was a peculiar interaction between the non-structural elements that had a direct impact on power sharing; sometimes this led to instability, and at other times it brought down the system, as in 1840-1860 and 1975. Power Sharing in Lebanon is the first academic work that promotes the influence of non-structural elements that hinder power sharing. This volume is now a key resource for students and academics interested in Lebanese Politics and the Middle East.

This article revisits the concept of semi-consociational democracy and distinguishes it from full consociationalism. Semi-consociationalism features just two of the characteristics of full consociationalism, proportionality and segmental autonomy, and exists without strong grand coalitions and veto powers. The case studies of prewar Lebanon and post-invasion Iraq demonstrate this new category of power sharing, which relies on three conditions: concentration of executive powers in the presidential office (prewar Lebanon) or premiership (post-invasion Iraq), communal hegemony in the system, and communal control over the armed forces. Full consociationalism then is mistakenly blamed for democratic failure in these two case studies.

AbstractI intend to study three characteristics of deeply divided societies that hinder consociationalism: ethnurgy (politicisation of ethnic identities), mobilisation, memory and trauma. My argument is that consociational practices may be hampered by non‐structural elements, which is a break‐away from the classical study of consociationalism which focuses on institutional functions and external actors. By studying consociationalism from this new dimension, I intend to show that internal factors are critical in understanding the threats and pressure of any consociational arrangement, in an attempt to create better power sharing arrangements and/or improve the existing consociational provisions in deeply divided societies.

In Regional and International factors that Prolong the Syrian Crisis, Eduardo W. Aboultaif provides an analytical survey of the various regional and international players who are directly or indirectly involved in the Syrian crisis. Aboultaif elucidates the subtle differences between political and economic concerns and explains, for example, how states often are willing to ignore their immediate economic interest when faced with political factors that are seen as national security threats. Aboultaif further describes the inter-consecutiveness of events in Syria and events in Russia, China and Iran, thereby revealing the logic underlying support to the Asad regime. Perhaps most important, and up to the time in which Aboultaif completed this article, the unwillingness of Arab states, and to a lesser extent Turkey, to act directly in the region without American support has served to define the nature of the regional conflict and, explains, to a large extent, the continuity of the crisis. ; Publisher PDF

Lebanese and Syrian state-to-state relations have not been studied extensively by researchers despite their importance. This article will evaluate the relationship and will consider three stages for their evolution of the affairs; the first stage demonstrates cooperation and harmony for the sake of independence and managing their differences. The second stage is characterized by the Ba'ath domination of Lebanon. The third and final stage deals with the search for Lebanese sovereignty after the withdrawal of Syria from Lebanon in 2005.

In Regional and International factors that Prolong the Syrian Crisis, Eduardo W. Aboultaif provides an analytical survey of the various regional and international players who are directly or indirectly involved in the Syrian crisis. Aboultaif elucidates the subtle differences between political and economic concerns and explains, for example, how states often are willing to ignore their immediate economic interest when faced with political factors that are seen as national security threats. Aboultaif further describes the inter-consecutiveness of events in Syria and events in Russia, China and Iran, thereby revealing the logic underlying support to the Asad regime. Perhaps most important, and up to the time in which Aboultaif completed this article, the unwillingness of Arab states, and to a lesser extent Turkey, to act directly in the region without American support has served to define the nature of the regional conflict and, explains, to a large extent, the continuity of the crisis.

AbstractThis paper studies collective memory in divided societies. To do so, we begin by studying national memory in civil societies, where the nature of this memory is hegemonic. We use Gramsci's concept of hegemony to explain national memories in civil societies and differentiate it from that of contested memories in divided places. In order to explain memory in divided societies, we apply Ibn Khaldoun's concepts of 'aAsabiyah and Istitba'. Societies deeply divided tend to have contested memories at two levels: within a community which creates an internal other and outside the community where groups compete to impose their memory at the state level. We use examples from Lebanon, Northern Ireland and Bosnia‐Herzeogvina to explain the memory dynamics from a Khaldounian perspective.