Suchergebnisse

The Westphalian system refers to the shifting of the supreme political authority from medieval practices to modern sovereign states and related concepts such as sovereignty, non-intervention, and international law. While the system has shaped the Western political environment since 1648, it has in fact not been validated for the rest of the world. In this paper, the idea that the Westphalian system has not opened a new avenue in the discipline of International Relations is exemplified by the case of the British occupation of the Mosul Vilayet. Contrary to the terms of the Mudros Armistice and Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, the British illegally occupied Mosul. The occupation was a clear violation of the Westphalian principles and thus the British mandate regime encountered resistance from both the Ottoman Empire and further the Republic of Türkiye. Despite all resistance, Mosul was ceded to the Iraqi government under the British mandate after the war.

The Cerattepe mining project for the extraction of gold and copper in the city of Artvin has been controversial since the mid-1980s. Local resistance against the project peaked in 2015-2016 in the form of blockages, sit-ins, social media protests, litigations, and signed petitions. This paper analyzes protests against the Cerattepe mining project in terms of their motivations, strategies, limitations, and political perceptions. Through an original survey analysis (N=253) and interview data, we find that the locals frame their activism as above party politics to keep a legitimate position in resisting the mining project. This strategy has remained intact for several years despite the politicization attempts of resistance from national-level political parties. We explain this strategy with the national consensus on prioritizing economic growth over environmental issues, neoliberal developmentalism with strong state support for private companies, and high levels of political polarization in society. Overall, the study offers an understanding of the challenges in front of environmental issue-based activism in Turkey and reveals the strategies of locals in resisting an environmentally destructive mining project.

As epitomized by the invasion of Ukraine, the lasting geopolitical power struggle between the West and the rising nations, including Russia, has been dragging the international system towards polarization again. Its epicenter lies in the contest over the meaning of modernity that becomes particularly evident in the antagonistic attitudes towards sexual rights. Linking sexual rights to modernity has been counteracted by the discourse on traditional values. This article aims to critically examine Russia's advocacy of traditional values in the geopolitical context. Built on the tripartite of cultural authenticity, sovereignty, and anti-Westernism, the discourse of traditional values conveys the resistance to the imposition of liberal values regarding gender equality and sexual diversity as the constitutive parameters of modernity. The investigation extends beyond a simplistic unipolar or bipolar worldview and argues that Russia's stance is not merely counter-hegemonic against the West but also serves its imperialist aims as evidenced by its invasion of Ukraine.

The Ottoman-Egyptian administration in Sudan received a serious blow from the Mahdist rebellion initiated by Muhammad Ahmad in 1881. After the British invasion of Egypt in 1882, the increasing British influence in the country through Egypt also made a reinforcing effect on the Mahdi movement. Declaring his Mahdiship and associating the salvation of Sudan and the Islamic world with his own struggle, Muhammad Ahmad won many of the battles he fought, increasing his popularity day by day. The rebellion, which essentially began as a reaction against some administrative practices in Sudan, eventually turned into a resistance against British imperialism. The Ottoman State followed the Mahdi movement closely, but did not want to get directly involved in the events in Sudan. Although Sultan Abdulhamid II was worried that the movement would cross the Red Sea and reach the Hejaz, he did not accept the British proposals to organize a joint operation in Sudan through Suakin. He thought that such an intervention in Sudan would be inappropriate and would harm the caliphate. According to him, in order to solve the Mahdi problem, first of all, England needed to leave Egypt. However, the attempts of the Sublime Porte in this direction did not yield any results, and Sudan moved further and further away from the Ottoman Empire with each passing day. The Mahdists won significant victories against the Egyptian-British soldiers, but the state founded by Mohammed Ahmad did not last long and was destroyed by the British after a while. Drawing on Turkish, Arabic, English sources and Ottoman archival documents, this essay analysed and assessed the course of the Mahdi movement in Sudan until the death of Muhammad Ahmad in 1885, the attitude of the Ottoman Empire towards the Mahdi rebellion, and Britain's intervention in the regional events.