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21. American Jews and Israel: The End of ‘Israel, Right or Wrong’

Author:
Dov Waxman
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:
Although Jews make up just 2 percent of the United States population, they have exercised a disproportionate influence on the relationship between the United States and Israel. The strength of the U.S.-Israeli alliance is driven by numerous strategic, political, cultural, and economic factors, but American Jews have played a key role in the promotion and defense of the U.S.-Israel alliance in large part through the work of the pro-Israel lobby (represented by powerful groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee). Today, however, American Jewish political support for Israel can no longer be taken for granted, as growing numbers of American Jews become increasingly critical of Israel. In contrast to the old attitude of “Israel, Right or Wrong,” more and more American Jews, especially younger ones, are challenging the Israeli government’s policies and actions, particularly those concerning Palestinians. In short, the age of unconditional American Jewish support for Israel is over.
Topic:
Bilateral Relations, Ethnicity, Judaism, and Alliance
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, North America, and United States of America

22. A Life in the Margins: Understanding the Roma Experience

Author:
Michelle Nicholasen
Publication Date:
04-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
In one of the popular Madeline children’s stories, the well-known redheaded French schoolgirl runs away with her friend Pepito to join a caravan of Gypsies who train them to perform in their traveling circus. At first they are thrilled not to have to go to school or brush their teeth. But when they become homesick, the Gypsy mother sews them into a lion costume, effectively kidnapping them. Of course it ends well, with a rescued Madeline exchanging farewells with the affectionate Gypsy mother and children and returning to boarding school. Is this a harmless children’s adventure story or does it perpetuate an enduring stereotype of criminality and indifference among a little-understood ethnic group? The educational crisis of Romani children (pejoratively referenced as “Gypsies”) is just one of many research topics spearheaded by a faculty team from the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center on Health and Human Rights at Harvard. Ask an American if they know someone of Roma heritage, and they will likely draw a blank. But mention the word “Gypsy” and a flood of associations will come to mind, especially from childhood.
Topic:
Culture, Ethnicity, and Diversity
Political Geography:
Global Focus

23. Ethnic Minorities and Land Conflicts in Southwestern Nigeria

Author:
Jeremiah O Arowosegbe
Publication Date:
09-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Social Science Research Council
Abstract:
One central aspect of the national question within the discourse on Nigeria concerns the conflicts and disputes historically driven by struggles over land-based resources. Examples of such conflicts include that of Ife- Modakeke in Osun State, the Jukun-Chamba conflict in the Takum Local Government Area of Taraba State, the Tiv-Jukun conflict in Benue and Plateau States, and the Umuleri-Aguleri war of attrition over Otuocha land in Anambra State. Drawing on primary data generated from focus group discussions and oral interviews between October 2009 and March 2015 across locations with pronounced incidents of land-based conflicts in Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, and Oyo States in southwestern Nigeria, this work examines the impact of economic considerations on ethnically motivated conflicts in the country over land from 1999 to 2015. It examines land conflicts in southwestern Nigeria—which have been occurring since the 1980s and stubbornly resurfaced in recent times—as a major economic and sociopolitical problem at the national and state levels. This study examines the following questions: How has land been connected with some of the historical conflicts across Nigeria? How has the character of the state in Nigeria affected the management of ethnically motivated land conflicts? What does this case study suggest in terms of the resolution of land-based conflicts across the country? This study argues that colonialism—through its policies and programs as well as the administrative structures and political systems put in place by the colonial state—not only changed the material conditions of populations across Nigeria by forcefully integrating them into the colonial and later global capitalist system (by compelling them to participate in colonial economic activities largely dominated by profit motive, thereby negating the autonomous development of the emergent postcolonial state), but also radically altered the complexities and directions of the land question. Hence Okwudiba Nnoli’s assertion that colonial and postcolonial societies are characterized by struggles that do not originate in local changes in the prevailing systems of class relation and material production.
Topic:
Minorities, Ethnicity, Conflict, and Land
Political Geography:
Africa and Nigeria

24. The Political Polarization of Afghan Society and its Democratic Failure (1973-2001) / La polarización política de la sociedad afgana y su fracaso democrático (1973-2001)

Author:
Francisco Berenguer López
Publication Date:
06-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal on International Security Studies (RESI)
Institution:
International Security Studies Group (GESI) at the University of Granada
Abstract:
The article analyzes the complex Afghan political situation that the international community found when the fall of the Taliban happened in December 2001 and how it was reached. It describes how the Afghan Islamism developed during the eighties in its various interpretations to reach the emergence of the Taliban movement, and the contradictions that this ideology represents to come to constitute an element of national integration. It is argued that precisely has been the lack of understanding of the Afghan political sociology by many countries that have formed part of the international effort to rebuild the Afghan state, which has determined the animadversion to meddle in specific regeneration projects and integration of a fragmented elite after more than twenty years of war.
Topic:
Politics, Religion, Sociology, Ethnicity, and Conflict
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and South Asia

25. How Sectarian Conflicts Overtook the Arab Spring

Author:
Alexander Henley
Publication Date:
04-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
Reflections on the problem of sectarianism in the wake of the Arab Revolutions from CCAS’ inaugural American Druze Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow. Why has Sunni-Shi’i sectarianism become the leading issue of debate in Middle East politics over the last few years? Led by rival Sunni and Shi’i theocracies, Saudi Arabia and Iran respectively, the region seems to have fallen into opposing camps in a sectarian cold war. Along the fault-lines in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain, Sunnis and Shi’is are fighting for supremacy, backed and incited by coreligionists across the region. The Middle East is in a lamentable state, but this is not— despite what we are increasingly told by news media and political leaders—its natural state. The Middle East’s problems are not “rooted in conflicts that date back millennia,” the excuse President Obama used to explain away foreign policy failures in his final State of the Union address. Phrases like “ancient conflict” or “deep-rooted hatreds”—heard more and more commonly—do not explain the actions of our contemporaries in the Middle East any more than they do yours or mine. And they certainly don’t explain why sectarianism, which emerged as a central feature of regional politics only in the past decade, is so new.
Topic:
Islam, Sectarianism, Authoritarianism, Ethnicity, Arab Spring, and Protests
Political Geography:
Middle East, Arab Countries, and North America

26. Challenges of Separatism in East Pakistan and Tamil Nadu: Comparative Appraisal of Political Leadership

Author:
Rizwan Ullah Kokab and Mahboob Hussain
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
South Asian Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
Separatist tendencies emerged in India and Pakistan even before the end of colonial rule in both countries in 1947. The political leadership of these states while dominating the political systems in their respective countries equally demonstrated much determination to curb the separatism. However their response to the challenge of separatist movements, particularly in Indian Tamil Nadu and Pakistani East Bengal, was different to each other. The outcome of separatist movements in two regions were altogether dissimilar. Indian leadership succeeded in repealing the Tamil Movement while Pakistani leadership fell short to the Bengali Movement. This paper is an attempt to expose that India and Pakistan both remained leader centred political systems during most of the time when they were confronted with the challenge of separatism in Tamil Nadu and East Pakistan respectively. While revealing the features of Tamil and Bengali Movement it compares the responses of Indian and Pakistani leadership to the challenges in their relevant spheres. The measures adopted by the political leadership of these countries to appease these movements have been explored in comparison with each other. The dealing of language issue, central to the separatism in both cases, has been specially assessed for the comparative study of response to challenge of separatism.
Topic:
Politics, History, Governance, Culture, Ethnicity, Language, and Separatism
Political Geography:
Pakistan, India, Punjab, and Tamil Nadu

27. The Constitutional Reform and the Position of Ethnic Minorites in the Republic of Armenia

Author:
Francesco Trupia
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Liberty and International Affairs
Institution:
Institute for Research and European Studies (IRES)
Abstract:
This article aims to examine the ethnic minorities’ state of affairs in light of the constitutional reforms in Armenia since President Serzh Sargsyan decided to open the consultations with the parliamentary factions in November 2005. Policy-makers and representatives on behalf of ethnic minority groups have been taking relevantly place at the recent wave of democratic protests throughout the process of constitutional reforms in order to entrench a more stable multiparty system, an independent judiciary, new balances between State and civic society. Hence, what is the reason to endorse those tiny ethnic groups such as wealth of minority rights and political recognition? Why have ethnic Armenian minority groups not had objections or particular regrets in the constitutional reform processes? In turn, may this high level of internal recognition of ethnic minority groups foster assistance to Armenian minorities and protect Armenian heritage into the de facto entities of the South Caucasus?
Topic:
Religion, Minorities, Reform, Constitution, Ethnicity, and Freedom of Expression
Political Geography:
Armenia

28. The Ohrid Framework Agreement: A Strategic Tool for Electoral Party Competition in Macedonia

Author:
Josipa Rizankoska and Jasmina Trajkoska
Publication Date:
06-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Liberty and International Affairs
Institution:
Institute for Research and European Studies (IRES)
Abstract:
The myth that the Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA) can be the ‘cure’ for fragile heterogeneous societies has been debunked shortly before its 10th anniversary. The general research question of this article is how political parties in Macedonia assess the role of the OFA in building functioning multiethnic society, while the specific puzzle is what accounts for the radicalism of the nationalistic rhetoric of the political parties in Macedonia? We argue that the assessment of the success of the OFA implementation would depend on the parties’ position of power and the type of ethnic community (the majority, majority-minority or non-majority minority). We find the bad economic situation and the exclusion from the government to be the most perceived radicalizers of nationalistic party rhetoric in Macedonia. This case study uses qualitative analyses of thirty semi-structured interviews with high representatives of the 26 most important political parties in Macedonia.
Topic:
Nationalism, Treaties and Agreements, Minorities, Ethnicity, and Strategic Competition
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe and Macedonia

29. Book Review: Diaspora Lobbies and the US Government: Convergence and Divergence in Making Foreign Policy By Josh DeWind and Renata Segura, eds. New York, NY: Social Science Research Council and New York University Press, 2014. 320 pages.

Author:
Thomas Ambrosio
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal on Migration and Human Security
Institution:
Center for Migration Studies of New York
Abstract:
While concerns about the loyalties of “hyphenated Americans” remain, the widespread acceptance of multiculturalism in American society has legitimized activities by ethnic groups to advocate within the US political system on behalf of their country of origin and its interests. This phenomenon is not new, but it has received heightened scholarly attention since the end of the Cold War for three reasons. First, given the level of American power, the United States has fewer constraints on its actions on the international stage and therefore its internal sources of conduct are more important — interest groups of all types could potentially influence US foreign policy to a greater degree than before. Second, the United States’ highly diverse ethnic composition means that nearly every event outside the country has an impact on at least some of its citizens; moreover, there are a multitude of ethnic groups vying for influence over US foreign policy. This diversity and mobilization has increased over the past few decades. Lastly, the decentralized nature of the American political system (and, in particular, the US Congress) allows for multiple points of entry into the policy-making process, which, in turn, grants these groups greater influence. Ethnic interest groups are a core part of this system and they must be taken into account when seeking to explain American foreign policy.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Cold War, Politics, and Ethnicity
Political Geography:
United States of America

30. Anti-Discrimination Exceptionalism: Racist Violence before the ECtHR and the Holocaust Prism

Author:
Ruth Rubio-Marín and Mathias Möschel
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Over the past years, the European Court of Human Rights has significantly developed and strengthened its Article 14 non-discrimination jurisprudence, including in a number of ground-breaking international law cases establishing increased state responsibility with regard to ethnic segregation in education and gender violence. However, in the type of cases that constitute a large part of its non-discrimination case load, namely physical violence against racial minorities, the Court has so far failed to adequately address Article 14 discrimination claims raised by the victims. We posit that this could be caused in part by what we call the ‘Holocaust Prism’. Put briefly, the experience of the Holocaust has shaped the manner in which continental European courts understand racism and race discrimination, at least (or especially) when it is combined with violence. Paradoxically, this entails that in the most heinous cases of race discrimination, the discrimination threshold is raised to the level of criminal conduct. Moreover, to the extent that it is, only the ethnic dimension of such discrimination is foregrounded even in cases that present obvious intersectional (for example, ethnicity plus gender) dimensions. We exemplify this phenomenon by discussing recent case law on forced sterilization of Roma women and argue that the Court should become aware of this issue, recognize intersectional discrimination and align its case law on racist violence with the discrimination doctrine emerging in its gender violence and educational race segregation cases, both for the sake of internal consistency and to better capture the structural nature of racial discrimination in Europe.
Topic:
International Law, Ethnicity, Gender Based Violence, Holocaust, Roma, and Discrimination
Political Geography:
Europe and Czech Republic