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911. Iran's Security Sector: An Overview

Author:
Wilfried Buchta
Publication Date:
08-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
The intention of this paper is to give an overview of the internal structure of the security sector of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), one of the few states in the Islamic world in which in general the security sector is submitted to the control of the civilian leadership. This paper will not deal with the issues of WMD, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iran's open and covert support for militant Islamic groups abroad, the system's fight against exiled militant opposition groups or Tehran's policy towards Iraq prior to and after the US invasion, although some aspects of the security sectors' tasks are connected to these issues. Instead the paper will focus on the relationship between civilian leadership and the influential heads of the different branches of the security sector, a relationship which is extremely complex and often defies explanation. Therefore it is vital to offer some explanatory remarks on the overall political structure of the system and its main features.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Islam, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, Iran, Middle East, and Israel

912. Turkey “between East and West”

Author:
Metin Heper
Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
Metin Heper discusses the formation of Turkey's identity, which came to encompass both an "Eastern" and a "Western" (or European) dimension. Against this background, Heper discusses three main issues within the politics of Turkey that have remained problematic from the perspective of the EU: Islam in politics, nationalism and the consideration of Turkey's ethnic minorities, and the political role of the military. Based on the "identity history" of Turkey, Heper puts forward some suggestions about how the alleged divide between East and West, and Islam and Europe, may be bridged. The paper concludes by exploring the possibility that an intellectual departure from the concept of a "shared civilization" towards the idea of "sharing a civilization" may contribute to the construction of a Euro-Mediterranean region.
Topic:
International Relations, Islam, and Nationalism
Political Geography:
Europe and Turkey

913. Islam, Globalization, and Economic Performance in the Middle East

Author:
Marcus Noland and Howard Pack
Publication Date:
06-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
The Middle East is a demographic time bomb. According to the United Nations Development Program's (UNDP) Arab Human Development Report 2002, the population of the Arab region is expected to increase by around 25 percent between 2000 and 2010 and by 50 to 60 percent by 2020— or by perhaps 150 million people, a figure equivalent to more than two Egypts. Even under the UNDP's more conservative scenario, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates will be the only Arab countries in 2020 with median ages above 30.
Topic:
Demographics, Economics, Globalization, Islam, and Religion
Political Geography:
Middle East, Kuwait, Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates

914. Globalization and Islamisation

Author:
Yassine Essid
Publication Date:
12-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
In the eyes of many, 'Islam' has become a problem for the whole world, at times verging on a kind of obsession. But the Islam that I discuss in this paper is at the other extreme of a concept based on received ideas, ideas of an Islam that has been reduced to a conceptual totality, a system of thoughts, and a set of practices, forever identical to themselves, that reflect public and private behaviors of the Muslim world. In short, I am referring to a kind of Islam that has been narrowed down to the notions of practices and ideas common to all so-called Muslim societies from Morocco to Pakistan. It is indeed more convenient, when we are unable to understand a civilization, to reduce a whole nation and its people, despite their diversity and particularities, to a faith, a doctrine, and a set of rituals. In this field, the Islamists show a kind of perfect solidarity with the intellectuals of the West.
Topic:
Civil Society, Gender Issues, Globalization, Islam, and Religion
Political Geography:
Pakistan and Morocco

915. "East" and "West" from the Sociology of Knowledge Perspective

Author:
Sennur Özdemir
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
This study elaborates and (re)conceptualizes the 'east' and the 'west', representing the two distinct historical and 'socio-economic whole from a 'sociology of knowledge' dimension. The most important consequence of the defining characteristics of 'the west' (as being hierarchical, class-based and exclusive), lies in its class-based and partial nature resulting in an identification of knowledge with power. This is also responsible for the 'metaphysical nature' of the 'western' knowledge and science: 'Dualistic-exclusive and polaristic' character of 'western habitus' creating a large gap between 'theory and practice' can also be understood in this context. All these together explain the reasons for not being capable of 'universal and representative' of modern knowledge and science. As a result, this study projects that as 'eastern characteristics' has increasingly become more hegemonical on global level, a transition from cyclically reproducing 'exclusive and contradictory' relational and methodological 'western' 'style' to comprehensive new paradigmatic methodologies and syntheses will be expected.
Topic:
Islam, Religion, and Political Theory

916. Foreign Policy of Islamic Republic of Iran towards Central Asia and Azerbaijan

Author:
Atay Akdevelioglu
Publication Date:
06-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
While Iran did not have a clearly deliniated policy towards Central Aisa (and Azerbaijan) during the Soviet period and conducted its relations through Moscow, it tried to develop constructive engagement with the regional states since the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the same time, Iran clearly came to accept the dominant postion of Russia in the region. Although it avoided involvement in internal affairs of the regional countries, Iran's political relations with them have not develop into a satisfactory level. In this, American discouragement of the regional countries to enter close relations with Iran, their identification of political Islam as domestic threat and Iran as its external hub, as well as Iran's own economic and technological weaknesses played important roles. Despite this political weaknesses and US pressures, however, Iran, with its suitable geographic location and acceptance of trampa with the energy reach countries, has emerged as an importan regional economic partner and alternative transit route.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Islam
Political Geography:
United States, Iran, Central Asia, Asia, and Azerbaijan

917. Chaos in Internationality, A Civilizational Evolution and an Islamic (F)actor: The Case of MÜSİAD in Turkey

Author:
Sennur Özdemir
Publication Date:
09-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
A radical crisis in capitalist system has been determined in the first part of the study, in relation with the present chaotic international atmosphere, resulting in a civilisational turn (from the West to the East). The dominant role attributed to the (Islamic) East in this process will be argued in the second section. Lastly, this argument will be discussed around the MÜSİAD in Turkey, as an organisation (with an Islamic reputation) in recently declared 'model country' for the Islamic Middle East. The MÜSİAD has stamped on the agenda of 1990's in many respects with its multi-functional and multilateral positioning determined by the kinds of activities intersecting economic and socio-cultural (indirectly political as well) fields. This organisation is representative in reflecting Turkey's overall transformation in its multidimensionality (from a specific form of state capitalism to a specific form of market capitalism).
Topic:
Economics, Islam, and Religion
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East

918. Globalization, Western Modernization and Terrorism: Political Islam Against the West

Author:
Rasim Özgür Dönmez
Publication Date:
12-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
The aim of the article is to evaluate the relationship between globalization, modernity and violence in the context of the antagonistic relationship between political Islam and the West. To put it more succinctly, this study seeks an answer for the question "why and how do globalization and modernity breed global political violence?" It tries to answer this question by means of evaluating the formation, the development and the transformation process of political Islam by considering and examining the role of the West, modernity and the changing political, economic and psychological conditions stemming from globalization. In this framework, this study consists of two sections. The first section evaluates the effects of globalization and modernity on the formation of political violence. The second section explains and examines the relationship between globalization, modernity, violence and political Islam.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Globalization, Islam, and Terrorism

919. Europe's Identity and Islams

Author:
Renate Holub
Publication Date:
08-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
Until the break-up of the Soviet Union, dominant intellectual and educational cultures in Europe worked primarily with national concepts. In the twentieth century, nationalist ideologies have, of course, lost some of their glamour due to the impact of two disastrous world wars. But while leading European intellectuals over the past 50 years developed a research program that transcended the national spirit, they nonetheless remained bound by the concept of “modernity,” which comprises the concept of the modern nation state and the modern nation state system. Steeped in this cultural unconscious, Europe has neglected the systematic study of alternative modernities and alternative systems of governmentality -- including systems of democratic governmentality in the internet age -- especially as these alternative modernities relate to the influx of Muslim populations.
Topic:
International Relations, Ethnic Conflict, Islam, and Population
Political Geography:
Europe, Soviet Union, and Arabia

920. The U.S. Indictment of Palestinian Islamic Jihad Militants: The Iranian Connection

Author:
Ely Karmon
Publication Date:
03-2003
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On February 20, 2003, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictment of eight leading members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). The indictment provides a wealth of detail about the close connection between PIJ and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Topic:
Security, Islam, and Religion
Political Geography:
United States, Iran, Middle East, Palestine, and Arab Countries