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Begin New Search Publishing Institution The Fletcher School, Tufts University Publication Year within 25 Years

141. "Notions of Islam and the West in the US-Libyan Relationship: An Historical Perspective"

Author:
Farah Bushashia
Publication Date:
04-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
“Oh my God, they found me, I don't know how, but they found me,” frantically sputters Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown, the eccentric inventor of the time machine car in Robert Zemeckis' highly successful 1985 film Back to the Future, “[It's] the Libyans!” As Alan Silvestri's background music crescendos, the camera cuts to a Volkswagen bus slowly and sinisterly weaving down a well-manicured, deserted backroad toward the empty Twin Pines Mall parking lot where at 1:15 AM the Doctor and his young protégé Marty tinker with the plutonium-powered time machine. Suddenly the hat-covered head of an unnamed, swarthy, machine-gun-wielding Libyan emerges from the roof of the careening bus as unintelligible, crazed Arabic words vaguely including 'Allah' pass between him and the driver, presumably verifying that the white-haired man in the lab coat and yellow rubber gloves is indeed the same Doc Brown who took their plutonium and provided them with an atomic bomb consisting of little more than pinball machine parts! After an inordinate number of shots, Doc Brown is taken for dead and Marty hops into the time machine car under hot pursuit from the Libyans who cannot manage to eliminate the unarmed witness as they screechingly circle around the JC Penney department store, cursing both the “damn Soviet gun” and the “damn German car.” Finally, Marty achieves the critical speed for time travel and in the bright flash of light the Libyans lose control of the Volkswagen and dramatically crash into a Fox Photo booth promising one-hour photograph development to suburban Californian families.
Topic:
Islam
Political Geography:
Libya

142. Does the Price of Watermelons Matter? Economic Performance and Political Legitimacy in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Author:
Nicholas Gossen
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
Despite Ayatollah Khomeini's famous comment that the Iranian revolution was “not about the price of watermelons,” the Islamic Republic of Iran was in part founded on economic promises of redistribution, equality, and justice. The strength of this rhetoric has formed a core basis of political support for the regime, but it has also established public expectations that the Islamic Republic has been chronically unable to meet. Many analysts have cited Iran's poor economic performance since the revolution and resulting public dissatisfaction as a key weakness of the clerical regime and a potential source of its downfall. Indeed, this is a crucial element of the argument advanced by advocates of stronger multilateral economic sanctions against Iran in the dispute over its nuclear program. However, underlying this logic is an implicit assumption that regime legitimacy is tied to economic performance. While intuitively appealing, this assumption bears further scrutiny, particularly if it forms a basis for American policy decisions towards Iran. The primary goal of this paper is to examine the political and economic factors that have caused the gap between economic rhetoric and performance in Iran, and to assess the extent to which that gap has affected the political legitimacy of the Iranian regime.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
America, Iran, Middle East, and Beijing

143. The Rise of Islamic Banking and Finance in Central Asia

Author:
Geoffrey F. Gresh
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and rise of new nation-states in 1991, the Muslim republics of Central Asia and the southern Caucasus have witnessed the arrival of Islamic banking and finance to the region. The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has been a catalyst for the increased spread of finance projects in the region that are compliant with Islamic principles like no usury or riba. This paper examines the important role of the IDB and other Islamic banking and financial institutions in promoting socio-economic development across the region. Moreover, a majority of the Central Asian and southern Caucasian republics view Islamic banking and finance as important tools with which to channel the energies of radical Islamic opposition groups. Despite moderate success in the region, the IDB has confronted significant obstacles in trying to propose Islamic finance to these governments because of a strong Soviet legacy and volatile politics. Although the Muslim republics remain influenced by elements from their Soviet past, including a command economy and one-party political system, Islamic banking and finance has grown in the last decade to become a significant force for positive change.
Political Geography:
California

144. Iraqi Kurdistan: The Internal Dynamics and Statecraft of a Semistate

Author:
Matan Chorev
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
The semistate possesses many of the features commonly associated with the modern nationstate but remains unrecognized as a sovereign entity. Semistates (such as Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, Transnistria, and Iraqi Kurdistan) inhabit the central conflict fault-lines of Southwest Asia's strategic landscape at the dawn of the twenty-first century. In order to concoct effective conflict management approaches, policymakers must develop a framework for comprehending internal dynamics and statecraft of these entities. How do they function in the absence of international recognition? What impact did the dynamics of conflict and political development under such conditions have on the nature of the semistate? What is the entity's resultant worldview and statecraft?
Political Geography:
Mumbai

145. Charisma in Modern Islamic Revolutionary Movements: The Case of Ahmad Shah Massoud

Author:
Casey Johnson
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
Security Studies is inundated with scholarship devoted to highlighting the ways in which technology (particularly the internet) is defining terrorist organizations, militias, revolutionary movements, and criminal networks. Still, much as technology has altered our perspective of daily life, there is a danger of becoming too narrowly focused on technology as a means of explaining emerging and evolving revolutionary movements. And not enough focus on the charismatic leaders that continue to motivate, define, and drive revolutionary movements It is far from certainthat the Internet has deposed the charismatic leader of his or her central role in rallying, organizing, and spurring revolutionary movements. Indeed, for every virtual cell and skillfully produced martyrdom video, there is a Moqtada al Sadr or a Sheik Hassan Nassrallah.

146. Review of The Price of Fear: The Truth Behind the Financial War on Terror by Ibrahim Warde

Author:
Rebecca Hekman
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
On November 7, 2001, amid much fanfare, the U.S. led a global shutdown of Al-Barakaat, a large Somali remittance company headquartered in Dubai. The first major target in the financial war on terror, the company stood accused of providing $15-25 million annually to Al-Qaeda. U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill called Al-Barakaat “the quartermasters of terror” Bush announced that the strike was predicated on “solid and credible” evidence that the company was “operating 'at the service of mass murderers.” Simultaneous police raids in four U.S. states, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, and the UAE were hailed as a resounding success. Having ostensibly interrupted Al-Qaeda's communications and made a significant dent in the organization's finances, the strike was also to uncover a wealth of information for law enforcement
Political Geography:
United States, Canada, Italy, and Switzerland

147. Interview with Itamar Rabinovich: Walking the Tightrope of Middle East Diplomacy

Author:
Michael Mylrea
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
In an attempt to revive peace talks, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently met with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas at his residence in Jerusalem. Once again, Palestinian and Israeli leaders appear to be at an important crossroads. Is peace on the horizon? Or will violence erupt? Tough questions loom ominously. The complex environment of Middle East diplomacy is like walking a tightrope, where each negotiation rests on a delicate balance between peace and war. As Israel's former Ambassador to the United States and Chief Negotiator to Syria, Itamar Rabinovich has walked this tightrope, negotiating through some of Israel's most challenging times. Former Ambassador Rabinovich sat down with al Nakhlah to shed light on his diplomatic experience, offering important lessons from the past and his unique perspective on the future challenges and opportunities in the Middle East.
Topic:
International Relations and Diplomacy
Political Geography:
United States, Middle East, Israel, and Palestine

148. Aceh's Struggle for Independence: Considering the Role of Islam in Separatist Conflict

Author:
Robert Shaw
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
Tension and conflict marred the relationship between the Indonesian government in Jakarta and Indonesia's northernmost province of Aceh for most of the last half century. At the core of the center-periphery rift between Jakarta and Aceh was the Acehnese desire for political autonomy, although that desire has enjoyed varying degrees of support in Aceh since the region was incorporated into an independent Indonesian state in 1953. Shortly after the formation of the Indonesian state, Acehnese joined with the national resistance movement, Darul Islam, to launch the first post‐colonial armed struggle in Aceh. Two decades later, the issue of political autonomy still had not been resolved. The Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka; GAM) formed in response and maintained a 29-year armed struggle against the government of Indonesia to a political system in Aceh free from the authority of the Indonesian state.

149. Like Father, Like Son – Personalized Succession: Bashar Asad and the New Challenges to the Ba'thist State

Author:
David Ethan Corbin
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
Historically, Syria has had a unique position in the Arab world. Today is no different. Though overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, Syria is run by a nominally Shi'a Islam, Alawi minority. Its population is a virtual ethnic and religious mosaic, comprised of Arabs, Alawis, Druze, Kurds and Armenians each belonging to various Muslim and Christian denominations and speaks Arabic, Kurdish, Armenian, Circassian and Aramaic. To complicate matters further, Syria's main ally in the region is Iran—the decidedly non-Arab, Shi'a Persian state and, in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion in Iraq, burgeoning regional hegemon. Damascus also plays host to many non-state armed groups that pose a persistent threat along Israel's borders.
Political Geography:
Mumbai

150. Interview with Said T. Jawad, Afghanistan's Ambassador to the US: “Where the Road Ends the Taliban Begins”

Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
Southwest Asia is experiencing an epoch of unprecedented change. Every day it appears history ebbs and flows. Both uncertainty and optimism are in the air. While globalization has spurred economic development and social reform, instability continues to present security challenges. With upcoming presidential elections in Afghanistan looming there is much at stake. Many are questioning the future of this dynamic region: How current changes underway will affect regional security, economic development and relations vis‐à‐vis the West?
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, and Southeast Asia