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2481. Assessing The Surge In Iraq

Author:
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Middle East Review of International Affairs
Institution:
Global Research in International Affairs Center, Interdisciplinary Center
Abstract:
Adopted at the end of 2006--by far Iraq's bloodiest year--the troop "surge" marked a major shift in the George W. Bush administration's Iraq strategy. Indeed, the Iraq Body Count (IBC) project, which prefers to rely on confirmed media reports rather than studies extrapolating death tolls based on relatively small samples, estimates that there were 27,850 civilian deaths in 2006, compared with just 3,576 in 2010.1One analysis by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) concluded that by November 2006, conditions on the ground resembled anarchy and "civil war."2It was around this time that two competing strains of thought on what change of course should be implemented were circulating among U.S. officials.
Political Geography:
United States and Iraq

2482. Fragmented Syria: The Balance Of Forces As Of Late 2013

Author:
Jonathan Spyer
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Middle East Review of International Affairs
Institution:
Global Research in International Affairs Center, Interdisciplinary Center
Abstract:
Syria today is divided de facto into three identifiable entities. These three entities are: first, the Asad regime itself, which has survived all attempts to divide it from within. The second area is the zone controlled by the rebels. In this area there is no central authority. Rather, the territory is divided up into areas controlled by a variety of militias. The third area consists of majority-Kurdish northeast Syria. This area is under the control of the PYD (Democratic Union Party), the Syrian franchise of the PKK. This article will look into how this situation emerged, and examine its implications for the future of Syria.
Political Geography:
Syria and Kurdistan

2483. Political islam in morocco: is there an "exception marocaine"?

Author:
Ana Belen Soage
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Middle East Review of International Affairs
Institution:
Global Research in International Affairs Center, Interdisciplinary Center
Abstract:
Contrary to the other countries that appeared after the French decolonization of the Maghreb, Morocco is a monarchy. Its reigning dynasty, the Alawis, has been ruling the country since the mid-seventeenth century. Its monarch is both the temporal and the religious ruler, both malik (king) and amir al-mu'minin (Commander of the Faithful). In fact, he derives his legitimacy from the claim that he is a descendent of Muhammad. The official mottoof the country is Allah, al-malik,al-watan (God, king,and country), and the picture of the king is omnipresent not only in public buildings, but also in private residences.
Political Geography:
Uzbekistan

2484. Conceptualizing Containment: The Iranian Threat and the Future of Gulf Security

Author:
Zachary K. Goldman and Mira Rapp-Hooper
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
ZACHARY K. GOLDMAN and MIRA RAPP-HOOPER discuss American security interests in the Persian Gulf region and the prospects for effective cooperation among Gulf states to contain Iran. They find that it is unlikely that the United States will be able to establish a containment regime that relies upon the Gulf Cooperation Council and that informal, bilateral ties to states in the region are a preferable policy recourse. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19163#sthash.yMWmTk6Q.dpuf
Topic:
Security
Political Geography:
United States and Iran

2485. Philosophical Pragmatism and the Constitutional Watershed of 1912

Author:
Trygve Throntveit
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
TRYGVE THRONTVEIT argues that intellectuals and activists indebted to the pragmatist tradition of American philosophy decisively shaped the debate between Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson during the election of 1912. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19164#sthash.lspgECHu.dpuf
Political Geography:
America

2486. Did Bush Democratize the Middle East? The Effects of External–Internal Linkages

Author:
Bruce Gilley
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
BRUCE GILLEY examines how the so-called Freedom Agenda of President George W. Bush affected politics in the Middle East. He concludes that this agenda generally exerted positive effects on democratic change in the region, although often working in unintended ways and usually interacting with domestic factors. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19165#sthash.BVzmnkw7.dpuf
Political Geography:
Middle East

2487. International Influence, Domestic Activism, and Gay Rights in Argentina

Author:
Omar G. Encarnacion
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
IN JULY 2010, ARGENTINA BECAME THE FIRST NATION in Latin America, and only the second one in the developing world after South Africa, to pass a law legalizing same-sex marriage; shortly thereafter, the country enacted what is arguably the most progressive transgender law of any country in the world. It allows for a change of gender without under-going surgery or receiving authorization from a doctor or a judge. Both laws have put Argentina in a select group of nations regarded as being on the cutting edge of gay rights and atop international rankings of countries most open to issues of concern to the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) community, such as the recently developed "Gay Friendliness Index." Neither societal factors nor political conditions could have predicted this cascade of gay rights advances.
Political Geography:
Argentina

2488. The India Lobby and the Nuclear Agreement with India

Author:
Dinshaw Mistry
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
DINSHAW MISTRY discusses the campaign of Indian-American lobbying for a civilian nuclear agreement with India. He argues that Indian Americans were part of a broader “India lobby” which helped advance legislation on the civilian nuclear agreement through Congress. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19167#sthash.M88rbr7G.dpuf
Political Geography:
America and India

2489. The Postcolonial State in Africa: Fifty Years of Independence, 1960-2010, Crawford Young

Author:
Gretchen Bauer
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
To use one of Crawford Young's favorite words, his latest book, is "masterful." The Postcolonial State in Africa: Fifty Years of Independence, 1960-2010 provides a rare retrospective on the first 50 years of African independence from one whose own distinguished career in teaching and learning African politics coincided completely with those years. The book's stated aim is to capture the unfolding dynamic of African politics across five decades. Young suggests striking similarities in the trajectories of many African states between independence and the early 1990s, followed by "itineraries [that have] diverged sharply" since, resulting in a range of outcomes (p. 8). Overall, Young identifies three cycles in the first 50 years of independence, fluctuating between "high optimism, even euphoria, followed by disappointment, even a despairing 'Afropessimism,' in the first two and a mingling of hope, even audacious, and skeptical uncertainty in the current stage, reflecting sharply divergent itineraries" (p. 9). The cycles of hope and disappointment are elaborated in Part Two of the book in chapters on decolonization, independence, and the colonial legacy; the road to autocracy; state crisis; and democratization and its limits. Young is in his prime in his thematic chapter in Part Three on Africanism, nationalism, and ethnicity and the critical roles they have played in defining the political itineraries of African states. The book is refreshing in its steadfast treatment of the entire African continent, not just sub-Saharan Africa, as is usually the case in our discussions of "African" politics.
Topic:
Nationalism
Political Geography:
Africa

2490. The Undeserving Rich: American Beliefs about Inequality, Opportunity, and Redistribution.

Author:
Robert Y. Shapiro
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
Income inequality was a major issue in the 2012 presidential election. While the Occupy Wall Street movement may fade into history, the substantial media coverage it received drew national attention to the unequal distribution of income between the top 1 percent versus the bottom 99 percent of Americans after years of increasing inequality. This and the Republican nomination of Mitt Romney, the poster child for the top 1 percent (even before the videotape of him claiming that 47 percent of Barack Obama\'s base of support were people who paid no taxes and believed that the government should take care of them), enabled Obama to use inequality—and redistribution—as a major campaign issue. He used it along with an array of other domestic issues that divided the parties in an election in which the Democrats focused on mobilizing their ideological partisan base, abandoning a centrist campaign. In the context of existing public opinion and other research, the resonance of the income inequality issue was in fact surprising—a puzzle. Although completed and drawing on data well before the 2012 election, The Undeserving Rich—and with its title—provides an explanation.
Political Geography:
Germany