Search

Begin New Search Content Type Research Paper

251. Americans Say Threat of Terrorism at Lowest Level in Twenty Years

Author:
Dina Smeltz, Craig Kafura, and Liz Deadrick
Publication Date:
09-2014
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Abstract:
As President Obama prepares to address the nation tomorrow night regarding the threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Chicago Council Survey results from May 2014 show that the Americans remain concerned about the threat of international terrorism, though less intensely now than in the past. Still, combating terrorism remains a top foreign policy goal for the US public, and one of the few situations where majorities of Americans say they are willing to support the use of US troops. That support is reflected in recent polls from CNN/ORC International and ABC News/Washington Post, which find majorities of Americans in favor of conducting airstrikes against ISIS.
Topic:
Terrorism and Geopolitics
Political Geography:
America and Global Focus

252. Implications of the 2011-13 Syrian Uprising for the Middle Eastern Regional Security Complex

Author:
Fred H. Lawson
Publication Date:
12-2014
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Center for International and Regional Studies: CIRS
Abstract:
By the autumn of 2013, the Middle Eastern regional security complex (RSC) had taken on a new configuration, which was substantially different from—and much more explosive than—the one that existed prior to the large-scale popular uprisings that broke out across the Arab world in the winter of 2010-11. Foreign policies adopted between 2000 and 2010 by the Ba‘thi regime in Damascus, the leaderships of Hizbullah and HAMAS, and the Israeli government to parry overlapping internal and external threats created an unprecedented patchwork of strategic rivalries and alignments. Large-scale popular unrest in Iraq and Egypt in early 2011, along with the outbreak of full-scale civil war in Syria later that same year, generated an even more intricate web of interstate security dynamics. The reconfigured RSC that emerged out of the “Winter of Arab Discontent” is only beginning to be explicated, and can best be addressed by tracing the connection between domestic political conflicts and shifts in external belligerence and alignment across the region.
Topic:
International Relations and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Syria

253. Iran’s Northern Exposure: Foreign Policy Challenges in Eurasia

Author:
Manochehr Dorraj and Nader Entessar
Publication Date:
12-2014
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Center for International and Regional Studies: CIRS
Abstract:
This paper analyzes Iran’s evolving interest and geopolitical challenges to its foreign policy in Central Eurasia. Historically, Iran, Turkey, and Russia have wielded the greatest influence in Central Asia and the Caucasus region. Therefore, it is not surprising that these three countries reemerged as principal actors in the region during the first decade of the post-Soviet era. Since the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union, Iran performed a balancing act. That is, it aspired to develop closer relations with a region with which it shared significant historical and cultural ties. At the same time, Russia regards Central Eurasia as its sphere of influence and would like to keep the “intruders” at bay. Hence, the United States’ expanding presence in the region has added a new twist to Iran’s geopolitical calculations in how to define its policy toward the region. Turkish-Iranian cooperation and competition in the region is yet another piece in the strategic triangle that molds Iranian regional political posture. The looming impact of these three countries aside, as an emerging regional power with its own political agenda, perception, and calculus of its interests, Iran uses identity politics and shared cultural and religious values, where appropriate, to forge closer relations with Central Eurasian countries. Beyond this motif in Iran’s foreign policy, this paper concentrates on political, economic, and strategic variables affecting Iran’s foreign policy decisions in Central Eurasia. Islamic factors are treated as variables within the broader context of sociocultural factors that have played a role in shaping Iran’s foreign policy in the region.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Iran

254. State Terrorism and Resistance in Kerdasa: Battle Zone Report

Author:
Sherif Mohy El Deen
Publication Date:
07-2014
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
These two papers are the result of field investigations into the bloody events that have erupted in the region of Kerdasa on the outskirts of Cairo and in the Sinai peninsula in late 2013. The papers observe the mechanisms by which the Egyptian security forces are dealing with the protests of the citizens there, and shed light on their continuing activities and psychological repression more than two years after the outbreak of the revolution. This repression continues despite talk of the need to change the security institutions and the essential challenge of changing the relationship between the state and its citizens to allow for the construction of a democratic foundation.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Middle East

255. Judging the Judges - The present crisis facing the Egyptian judiciary

Author:
Ibrahim El-Houdaiby
Publication Date:
12-2014
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
With the charges against former President Mubarak thrown out of court - the Egyptian judiciary is being both praised and condemned by its citizens. "The crisis in the Egyptian judiciary is not that it needs legal and administrative “independence” from the executive… It’s that it needs to reform as a top priority… and emphasise its role of enforcing the law… and not permit anyone to act outside the context of the law or to act in a political manner that does not conform to the law."
Topic:
International Law
Political Geography:
Egypt

256. From Apparatus State to War State

Author:
Dina El Khawaga
Publication Date:
09-2014
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
On July 7, 2014, following the government’s announcement of its plan to reduce the fuel subsidy, President Abd al Fattah al Sisi stated that “Egypt is in a state of war, many are hostile to it within and outside the country who do not want this country to be saved.
Topic:
War and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Egypt

257. The Dynamics of Business Interest Group Advocacy on Economic Policymaking

Author:
Heba Abou Shnief
Publication Date:
08-2014
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
While the Arab awakening has impacted the political economies of Arab states differently, the message that state-business relations can no longer afford to rely on pre-existing models of business advocacy has reverberated across the region. Rent-seeking, cronyism, patronage, and state capture have long been―to varying degrees—all features of state-business relations in the Arab world. In post-uprising countries, the rise and fall of regimes, the adoption of new constitutions, the holding of theoretically more open legislative elections, the emergence new interest groups and a more scrutinizing public are all dynamics that are likely to influence the mechanics of policymaking, and with it, legacy systems of private sector advocacy. While it is still too early to ascertain with certainty precisely how older business advocacy models might evolve to adapt to new realities, or how soon such adaptations might occur, the dynamics have already changed—particularly with regards to ‘state capture’—where challenges to pre-existing networks have paralleled challenges to incumbent regimes. Combining a desk study with extensive field interviews with key persons from the business sector, government and civil society in both Egypt and Tunisia, the research makes a preliminary examination of the initial attempts at policy advocacy by business interest groups during the transitions. In doing so, a deeper understanding of how those dynamics seem to have changed thus far, as well as an initial assessment of whether or not state capture has, perhaps, come to an end in any of the countries studied is made. Finally, a brief set of policy recommendations are presented on ways and means of improving advocacy processes so that national business interests might be better reflected in the economic policymaking calculus.
Topic:
International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Middle East

258. Reforming Syria’s Security Sector in the Post-Assad Era

Author:
Murhaf Jouejati
Publication Date:
07-2014
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
Under the Assad regime, Syria acquired a well-deserved reputation as a repressive mukhabarat state dominated by vast, overlapping internal security agencies that operated with near impunity, reporting directly to the president. Having presided over so much destruction and division, however, it is likely that the Assad regime will eventually be replaced by a government with a better claim to legitimacy. Security sector reform will be a key challenge for establishing the legitimacy of any post-Assad political order, but what would such a system look like and how could it be constructed?
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Syria

259. Despair or Hope: Rural Livelihoods and Opium Poppy Dynamics in Afghanistan

Author:
Paul Fishstein
Publication Date:
08-2014
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:
AREU conducted field research in Badakhshan, Balkh, Helmand and Nangarhar Provinces during the three agricultural years from 2010-11 to 2012-13, to explore the dynamics of opium poppy cultivation: the history of government policies and programmes and the ways in which these policies and programmes affected the ability of rural households to maintain their livelihoods.
Topic:
Agriculture, Environment, Natural Resources, and Rural
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and South Asia

260. Religious Democracy and Civilizational Politics: Comparing Political Islam and Political Catholicism

Author:
Michael Driessen
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Center for International and Regional Studies: CIRS
Abstract:
Much of the recent literature on the evolution of political Islam in the Middle East and North Africa has debated the extent to which Islamist political parties have become “secularized” in their political goals and rhetoric. In these studies, a comparison between the political secularization of Islamism and Christian Democracy is often alluded to, but rarely explored in depth. The two political religious movements share much in common with regards to their historical encounter with political liberalism and their intuitions about an ideal religious society. An uncritical comparison, however, obscures significant differences in the relationship of either movement to democratic institutions, traditional sources of religious authority, and the religious citizens of their nations. This paper qualifies the historical, institutional, and theological similarities of political Islam and political Catholicism. In doing so, it emphasizes the importance of the legacies of Catholic Christendom and Muslim Dar al-Islam as transnational, pre-Westphalian religious political orders and the idea of religious authority found in either. After articulating these bases of comparison, the paper considers how these religious legacies remain present in the transition to Christian or Muslim Democracies by exploring the rhetoric of Catholic civilization or Muslim civilization found in Pope Pius XII and Rachid Ghannouchi’s discourses on democracy.
Topic:
Democracy
Political Geography:
Middle East