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2772. Meditations on a Middle-East Pilgrimage: Impasse, Memory, Hope/Promise
- Author:
- Dr. Lucy A. Forster-Smith
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- The human community yearns for a home, for place, for a “storied space,” as Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann says, where meaning is attached to a place “because of the history lodged there.”1 This yearning is no more evident than in the daily reality of those living in Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories. For Christians, Muslims, Jews, and Baha'is who live in this region and those drawn to it as a pilgrimage destination, it is a place where the power of history and the impasse of the present weigh upon the pilgrim's stride. Often the assumption for those from lands beyond the Middle East is that by leaving their home community and going to seek the sacred in a holy place, they will strengthen or restore their faith. Yet many times those who come from far-off places to seek the holy in the Holy Land encounter the pilgrim spirit in those who long for home, those whose pilgrim's way longs for a homeland, but hits walls, stumbles on slippery slopes, is snared by economic challenges—and their faith falters as they locate their story in the painful quest for the Holy Land. The pilgrim way heeds impasse, memory, and hope. In my encounter with this land, I also navigated the complex pilgrim's way through the eyes of university students, faculty members, administrators, and workers for peace.
- Political Geography:
- Middle East
2773. An Israeli Strike on Iran
- Author:
- Steven Simon
- Publication Date:
- 11-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- Successive Israeli governments have held that a nuclear weapons capability in the region, other than Israel's own, would pose an intolerable threat to Israel's survival as a state and society. Iran's nuclear program—widely regarded as an effort to obtain a nuclear weapon, or put Tehran a “turn of a screw” away from it—has triggered serious concern in Israel. Within the coming year, the Israeli government could decide, much as it did twenty-eight years ago with respect to Iraq and two years ago with respect to Syria, to attack Iran's nuclear installations in order to delay its acquisition of a weapons capability.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, War, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Power Politics
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, Iran, Middle East, Israel, Tehran, and Syria
2774. Water Crisis in the Middle East: An Opportunity for New Forms of Water Governance and Peace
- Author:
- Joshka Wessels
- Publication Date:
- 09-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
- Institution:
- School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
- Abstract:
- The Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA) is the most water scarce region in the world. Worldwide, the average water availability per person is close to 7,000 m3/person/year, whereas in the MENA region, only around 1,200 m3/person/year is available. The region also has the highest variability of precipitation in the world. Moreover, with the population expected to grow from around 300 million today to around 500 million in 2025, per capita availability is expected to halve by 2050-Worldbank, 2009.
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and North Africa
2775. Liberalism and the Collapse of the Oslo Peace Process in the Middle East
- Author:
- Jonathan Rynhold
- Publication Date:
- 03-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
- Institution:
- School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
- Abstract:
- The end of the Cold War signaled the triumph of liberal democracy and thus 'the end of history,' according to Fukuyama. In Central and Eastern Europe, the iron curtain came down and was replaced by a peace grounded on liberal mechanisms for peace building: regional institutions, economic integration, democratization, mutual recognition of national rights, and the development of mutual trust. The end of the Cold War initiated the Middle East peace process with the 1991 Madrid Conference and the 1993 Oslo Accords signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Here, too, attempts were made to use liberal peace building mechanisms, albeit without democratization.
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Middle East, and Oslo
2776. A Zero-Sum Game
- Author:
- Daniel Diker
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Journal of International Security Affairs
- Institution:
- Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
- Abstract:
- In the nearly seventeen years since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993, radical Islamic terror and failed Middle East peace processes have claimed the lives of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians. Ironically, one of the greatest casualties of this conflict has been diplomatic creativity.
- Topic:
- Islam
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Israel, and Gaza
2777. President Obama's Speech in Cairo: A new climate of hope on the world scene
- Author:
- Ozdem Sanberk
- Publication Date:
- 03-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Global Political Trends Center
- Abstract:
- Will President Obama's speech in Cairo prove to have been a historic turning point in relations between the Islamic world and the United States? There is no doubt that the President himself sincerely intended it to be. And it is easy to see why. The antagonism between the USA and substantial sections of world Muslim opinion, particularly in the Arab Middle East and Iran, is one of the biggest challenges faced by US foreign policy, a clear threat to world peace. But can things change while the USA is closely aligned with Israel? How ?
- Political Geography:
- United States and Middle East
2778. Strategic Reassurance if Iran "Goes Nuclear": A Framework and Some Propositions
- Author:
- Lewis A. Dunn
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Strategic Insights
- Institution:
- Center for Contemporary Conflict
- Abstract:
- Faced with continuing uncertainties about Iran's nuclear weapon ambitions, reassurance and deterrence have figured prominently in our discussions of Gulf and wider Middle East security. During this workshop, presentations also have addressed what may yet be done in an attempt to influence Iran's nuclear weapons calculus as talks begin between the P - 5 + 1 and Iran. My presentation seeks to address issues of strategic reassurance if Iran crosses the nuclear weapon threshold.
- Topic:
- Nuclear Weapons
- Political Geography:
- Iran and Middle East
2779. Energy and the 3 Levels of National Security: Differentiating Energy Concerns within a National Security Context
- Author:
- Phillip E. Cornell
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Connections
- Institution:
- Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
- Abstract:
- The past several years have seen a renewed interest in the confluence of energy security and national security policy. Defining the intersection between such wideranging policy areas has been predictably inconsistent, and highly dependent on respective national and agent-based interests. At both national and multinational levels, conflicting objectives and definitions have driven confused attempts to develop singular "energy security" policies within an international security context. Since 2006, NATO has been engaged in a concerted if arduous and controversial process of defining the value the organization adds to the security environment. The new U.S. administration has put energy security front and center on its agenda, particularly in relation to foreign and security policy, but a confused interagency jumble has left many hands on the rudder of foreign energy policy. In the media as well as policy circles, cut-offs of Russian gas, Somali piracy, SCADA system vulnerabilities, terrorist attacks on Middle East pipelines, nuclear safety, and volatile gasoline prices have been too often lumped together.
- Topic:
- Security and NATO
- Political Geography:
- United States and Middle East
2780. Preventing Conflict Over Kurdistan
- Author:
- Henri J. Barkey
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- The consequences of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq will doubtless be debated for years to come. One result, however, is already clear: the long suppressed nationalist aspirations of the Kurdish people now dispersed across four states—Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Syria—have been aroused, perhaps irrevocably, by the war. Already in Iraq, Kurdish regions, which have benefited from Saddam Hussein's overthrow, have consolidated themselves into a federal region. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is a reality and a force for further Kurdish empowerment as it seeks to incorporate other Kurdish-majority areas and the oil-rich Kirkuk province in particular into its domain. The KRG's existence and demands have already alarmed all of Iraq's neighbors and the Baghdad government. The issues are far from being settled. If ignored or badly handled, Kurdish aspirations have the potential to cause considerable instability and violence in Iraq and beyond at a particularly delicate time.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, Nationalism, and Armed Struggle
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, Turkey, Middle East, and Kurdistan