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41. Syrian Scholar Finds Safe Haven at CCAS: A Conversation with Visiting Lecturer Mohammad AlAhmad

Author:
Will Todman, Mohammad AlAhmad, and Dana Dairani
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
On April 22, 2015, CCAS Visiting Lecturer Dr. Mohammad AlAmad and his family left their home and lives in Syria behind. “Human smugglers drove us to the Turkish border,” says AlAhmad, “and then my wife and I carried our two young children, walking through barbed wire and muddy water into Turkey. We were full of trepidation, fear, and the pain of being displaced.” Though AlAhmad left Syria because he had been accepted to participate in the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund, which provides support for threatened scholars and places them with visiting appointments at partner academic institutions, he did not yet know his family’s ultimate destination. Once in Turkey, AlAhmad learned that his appointment would be at Georgetown, starting in August.
Topic:
Authoritarianism, Refugees, Islamic State, Arab Spring, Syrian War, Literature, Revolution, and Higher Education
Political Geography:
Turkey, Middle East, Syria, North America, United States of America, and Raqqa

42. Revolutions and International Relations: The African Case

Author:
Paulo Fagundes Visentini
Publication Date:
06-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
In 1974, during the oil crisis, two apparently disconnected events shook the African continent and placed it at the center of the international agenda. A military coup in February in Ethiopia, the long-lived and oldest African empire, ended the monarchy in September, thus marking the beginning of a revolution and of a socialist regime. Meanwhile, in April, the longest fascist regime in Europe was overthrown (in the Carnation Revolution) and the first (and last) maritime empire crumbled. Angola, Mozambique and the Lusitanian enclaves in Africa became independent, under the leadership of national liberation movements of Marxist orientation. The fifteen years of armed struggle in the former Portuguese colonies gave place, in 1975, to civil wars and to an international conflict in Southern Africa between Cuba and the Warsaw Pact, who supported the new regimes, on one side, and South Africa and the NATO nations alongside the insurgents on the other. Likewise, the Horn of Africa became a hotspot in the Cold War. As always, revolutions became inter-state conflicts fomenting the heated debate between academic internationalists. Finally, what is the place of revolutions in International Relations? Do they comprise of a dysfunction within the world system? Here, we propose to discuss this question, focusing on the African revolutions of the 1970s.
Topic:
International Relations, Politics, Authoritarianism, History, and Revolution
Political Geography:
Africa and Brazil

43. Revolution, Civil War, and the 'Long' First World War in Russia

Author:
Evan Mawdsley
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
This essay has two related themes. The first is the causal link between the First World War and the Russian Revolution. The second is the periodization of Russia’s crisis; in particular the essay examines the ‘continuum’ between the First World War, the 1917 Revolution, and the Civil War of 1917-20 which formed, for Russia at least, a ‘long’ First World War. The link between war and revolution is important, especially as Imperial Russia was the only major participant in the Great War to fall victim to radical political overturn during the conflict, and the only one which continued to fight in 1917 after a drastic change of government. One of the most famous documents relating to the war-revolution link was a memorandum written by P. I. Durnovo to Emperor Nicholas II in February 1914, six months before the outbreak of the Great War. Durnovo had been Minister of the Interior during the 1905 Revolution; following his ministerial appointment he was one of the leaders of the State Council. The 1914 memorandum warned about the extreme danger of becoming involved in a war with Germany. [I]n the event of defeat, the possibility of which in a struggle with a foe like Germany cannot be overlooked, social revolution in its most extreme form is inevitable .... [I]t will start with the blaming of the government for all disasters. In the legislative institutions a bitter campaign against [the government] will begin, followed by revolutionary manifestations throughout the country, with socialist slogans, capable of arousing and rallying the masses, beginning with the complete division of the land and succeeded by a division of all valuables and property. The defeated army, having lost its most dependable men, and carried away by the tide of primitive peasant desire for land, will find itself too demoralized to serve as a bulwark of law and order. The legislative institutions and the opposition parties of the intelligentsia, lacking real authority in the eyes of the people, will be powerless of stem the popular tide, aroused in fact by themselves, and Russia will be flung into hopeless anarchy, the end-result of which cannot be foreseen.1 Durnovo died in 1915 and did not live to see how closely his fears would correspond to reality. However, since his Memorandum was published by the Soviet historians in 1922 it has been noted for its predictive quality; a recent Russian biography was published with the title ‘Russian Nostradamus’.2 Meanwhile, the notion of continuum has recently become an important theme in the study of early twentieth-century Russia, as the centenary of those events is reached. A major international research project, ‘Russia's Great War & Revolution’, is currently under development; it aims to ‘fundamentally transform understanding of Russia's “continuum of crisis” during the years 1914-1922’. The key phrase comes from the subtitle (Russia's Continuum of Crisis, 1914-1921) of a 2002 book by Peter Holquist’s on the Don region.3 To make more sense of both the link between war and revolution and the continuum, the period 1914-1920 can be divided into four periods - 1914-1917, 1917, 1917-18, and 1918-20.
Topic:
Communism, World War I, Revolution, and Russian Revolution
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Eastern Europe

44. On The New Vision for the Egyptian Foreign Policy After the Revolution

Author:
Amr Darrag
Publication Date:
03-2013
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
Dr. Amr Darrag is the member of the Executive Board and the Chairperson of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) in Egypt. In his article “On The New Vision for the Egyptian Foreign Policy After the Revolution” he shares his party’s visions for a prosperous and stabilized Egypt. As a member of the Party, Dr.Darrag provides a roadmap with main foreign policy objectives to achieve an imperative role in the international arena. The article also sheds light on the Egypt-Turkey partnership for their development in the economic and political platforms. Dr.Amr Darrag, Mısır’daki Özgürlük ve Adalet Partisi’nin yürütme kurulu üyesi ve partinin Dış İlişkiler Komitesi başkanıdır. “On the New Vision for the Egyptian Foreign Policy After the Revolution” başlıklı makalesinde kalkınmış ve istikrarlı bir Mısır için partisinin ortaya koyduğu vizyonu paylaşmaktadır. Aynı zamanda partinin bir üyesi olarak, uluslararası alanda önemli ve kalıcı bir aktör olmak yolunda izlenecek temel dış politika hedefleri için bir yol haritası sunmaktadır. Makale ekonomik ve siyasi platformlarda Mısır-Türkiye arasındaki ilişkilerin geliştirilmesi için de öneriler içermektedir. Makale yalnızca İngilizce olarak yayınlanmıştır.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Bilateral Relations, Arab Spring, and Revolution
Political Geography:
Turkey, Middle East, and Egypt

45. Viral Voices: Revolutionary Song, Social Media, and Youth Culture in the Arab Spring

Author:
Victor A. Vicente
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bilgi
Institution:
Değişim Yayınları
Abstract:
Focusing on three popular “anthems” of the Arab Revolutions (“Rais Lebled” by El Général, “#Jan25 Egypt” by Omar Offendum, and “Yalla Erhal Ya Bashar” by “Ibrahim Qashoush”) this article critically assesses the ways in which song has come to serve as a force for instigating socio-political and cultural change in the contemporary Arab World, particularly in Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria. The appeal and efficacy of these songs of the “Arab Spring,” as well as their characterization as “revolutionary,” are understood in aesthetic and technological terms. Hence, the article untangles a complex of interconnected, musically-related themes and issues at the core of the discourse on the recent uprisings; namely, those of self-expression and the power of the Arab youth “voice,” those of transitional dissemination via social media and information and communication technology, and those of documentation and representation through music, specifically through the genre of rap. Analysis of the songs and the themes surrounding them demonstrates substantive advancements in contemporary Arab musical, social, and political life, but also exposes serious shortcomings, naïve misconceptions, and willful exaggerations.
Topic:
Culture, Social Media, Arab Spring, Revolution, and Music
Political Geography:
Africa, Middle East, Syria, Tunisia, and Egypt

46. From Spring to Summer? Revolutionary Change in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya

Author:
Imad El-Anis and Ashraf Hamed
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bilgi
Institution:
Değişim Yayınları
Abstract:
This article offers an analysis of the early stages of the revolutions that have been taking place in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Here we consider the early stages of the revolutions from winter 2010-11 up until the summer of 2012 and offers a comparative study of the experiences of the early stage of the revolutions in each case study. In particular this study considers the roles of six variables on the process of regime change and transition as follows: 1) duration of the uprising up to regime change; 2) the initial outcome of the revolution/uprising; 3) the number of deaths and casualties; 4) the postregime change status of key members of the former governing elite; 5) the existence and nature of post-regime change elections; and 6) levels of international involvement. This study finds that in all three case studies, considering these variables offers insight into the nature and effect of the early stages of the revolutions. Furthermore, in each case there are key similarities in some of these variables but significant differences in others which suggest that the processes of transition are not directly comparable with each other. This article also offers some thoughts on how the early stages of these revolutions could affect the direction and pace of change in each state.
Topic:
Regime Change, Democracy, Arab Spring, and Revolution
Political Geography:
Africa, Middle East, Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia