Suchergebnisse

AbstractConflicts in the Middle East and North Africa have been multiplying and increasingly intersecting. This complicates and delays efforts to resolve them. Yet sooner or later they must come to an end. Once they do, it is fair to ask what comes next. Can the region recover? And if so, what shape will it take? Some patterns are already visible. National identities, which were subsumed by a series of competing sub‐national identities, are rebounding as an essential glue in uncertain times, reinforcing state borders and possibly state structures. And forms of local governance are thriving in some areas where the state has dissolved and its writ disappeared; they constitute important experiments that may prevent a return of fierce authoritarian states. Some obstacles to attempts by societies to reconstitute themselves are also evident. The current conflicts' intersecting nature is one; the other is unremitting external interventions that do yet greater harm by militarizing solutions to political problems, further polarizing divided polities, and undermining local efforts at renegotiating social contracts. Policy makers should gain a more nuanced understanding of the current crises and shape policies that do no further harm but instead contribute to a more stable future.

AbstractA Shiite resurgence in Iraq has generated a region-wide Sunni backlash, raising fears of an emerging sectarian rift that is colouring and aggravating local conflicts. After discussing the schism's origins, manifestations and implications, the author concludes that the primary battle in the region is not between Sunnis and Shiites but between the United States and Iran. A US–Iranian rapprochement would do much to reduce sectarian tensions, while the most effective long-term response to sectarianism itself will likely come from systemic restraints that exist in the form of countervailing loyalties that prevent any single allegiance, such as religious adherence, from becoming paramount.

A report on Israel's new crackdown on Palestinian trade unionists in the West Bank and Gaza, who are seen as playing an important role in the Palestinian struggle against the occupation. Light is shed, in particular, on the measures of administrative detention, which include deportation. Rabin's "iron fist" policy is said to have weakened successfully the mass movement among Palestinian workers. (DÜI-Asd)

Before the intifada began, Joost Hiltermann had already looked at local organizations in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and seen there the main elements that would eventually be used to mobilize the Palestinian masses. In the first comprehensive study of these organizations, Hiltermann shows how local organizers provided basic services unavailable under military rule, while recruiting for the cause of Palestinian nationalism