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4571. A Fight for the Spoils: The Future Role of Syria's Armed Groups

Author:
Stephen Starr
Publication Date:
08-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
CTC Sentinel
Institution:
The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
Abstract:
ON AUGUST 6, 2012, President Bashar al-Assad's prime minister defected, dealing another blow to the Syrian leader's efforts to preserve his regime. Since the start of the Syrian uprising in March 2011, the strong central authority the al-Assad regime built and institutionalized during four decades has been rapidly crumbling. Yet the factors that made Libya's uprising succeed—a united and organized opposition, sparse population patterns and a weak army—are absent in Syria. The country becomes more militarized after each passing week, with various, competing rebel groups gaining more leverage and territory—and even reportedly committing their own massacres. For now, the rebels—habitually termed the Free Syrian Army s¬(FSA)—mostly operate independently on tribal and geographic bases, and interaction between them, violent or cooperative, is for the most part relatively rare. Jihadist groups, such as Jabhat al-Nusra, have also definitively entered the fray.
Political Geography:
Libya and Syria

4572. Comparing Individual Attitudes about EU Membership in Turkey and in Post-Communist Central and Eastern European Countries

Author:
Çiğdem Kentmen
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
The Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
This article examines whether theories previously developed to explain variations in individual attitudes toward European Union (EU) membership in post-communist Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) also explain attitudes in Turkey. In CEECs, attitudes reflect whether individuals feel they win or lose in economic and democratic transitions. Although Turkey did not experience a transition from communism to liberal democracy, its political and economic spheres have nevertheless changed to meet EU membership conditions. Using 2002.2 and 2003.2 Eurobarometers, I found that, while satisfaction with economic circumstances significantly increased pro-EU attitudes, satisfaction with the democratic system did not increase pro-EU attitudes in Turkey and many CEECs.
Political Geography:
Turkey

4573. China Reaches Turkey? Radio Peking's Turkish Language Broadcasts During the Cold War

Author:
Çağdas Üngör
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
The Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
A young socialist regime with few diplomatic ties in the 1950s and 1960s, the People's Republic of China (PRC) made significant attempts to reach foreign audiences through the use of mass media. Shortwave broadcasting was a particularly significant means of disseminating the PRC's worldview abroad. Radio Peking's Turkish language section, which was established in 1957 along with Arabic and Persian broadcasts, signaled China s desire to reach countries in the Middle East. Predating official Sino-Turkish ties and providing a direct cultural link between China and Turkey at a time when few such channels existed, Radio Peking s Turkish language broadcasts should be regarded as a significant aspect of Sino-Turkish relations during the Cold War years. Based on recently available Chinese language sources, as well as interviews with retired staff, this article examines Radio Peking s Turkish language section with regard to its organization, program content and audience from 1957 to 1976. It is significant that the PRC regime continued its Turkish language broadcasts amidst various challenges, such as administrative instability, lack of trained personnel, poor technical equipment and unsatisfactory audience numbers.
Political Geography:
China, Turkey, and Middle East

4574. The Arab Spring – Contemporary Revolutions in Historical Comparison

Author:
Mark Almond
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
The Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
In 1971 it was apparently "too early" for Zhou Enlai to give Henry Kissinger his assessment of the significance of the French Revolution. It is certainly too soon to sum up the importance of the events in the Arab world since January 2011. However, it seems reasonable to attempt an interim assessment of how the "Arab Spring" fits into the pattern of major revolutions and waves of upheaval since 1789. Such a review of similarities and contrasts between current events and past developments should provide some historical foundations for comparative analysis of the comparative revolutionary wave in the Middle East.
Political Geography:
Middle East

4575. The Dynamics of Turkish-Israeli Relations

Author:
Onur Gökçe
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
The Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
This article examines Turkish-Israeli relations from 1948 to 2012 in light of domestic and international events hat have impacted the two countries throughout the years. The article examines each country's threat perceptions, which emanate from developments in the Middle East. The author points out commonalities and confrontations between the two countries, and discusses how the latter can be avoided. The article explores how to improve relations in view of the rapid changes occurring in the region, and discusses how the two countries are positioning themselves in the current restructuring of the Middle East and emerging new power balances, some of which are created by these two major regional players themselves.
Political Geography:
Turkey, Middle East, and Israel

4576. Can Iran be Contained? Thoughts on the Possibility of Extended Deterrence in the Middle East

Author:
Carlo Masala and Ivo Hlaváček
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
The Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
"Extended deterrence," or "active deterrence," as it is sometimes called, threatens a nuclear-strategic response in case of a nuclear attack on the territory or troop of one's allies. This paper aims to explore the possibilities of extended deterrence in the Middle East in light of an Iranian nuclear military capability. Two preliminary remarks are necessary in order to frame the line of reasoning on the issue.
Political Geography:
Middle East

4577. Bringing Religion Back In? Debating Religion in International Politics

Author:
Eyüp Ersoy
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
The Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
Observing the shattering of the European society's axiological foundations and traditional systems of meaning, which had been constituted and sustained by and through Christianity, under the rampant secularism of his time, Nietzsche has a madman declare the death of God in The Gay Science: "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him". His observation was also valid for the international politics of the time, in which secular ideologies had long replaced religion as the ideational aspect of international politics. The competition among these new ideologies, after contributing in varying degrees to several upheavals in international politics, arguably ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union with socialism as its avowed ideology, leaving liberalism as the lone secular ideology with the United States as its avowed political custodian.
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, and Soviet Union

4578. Charticle: The Social Inclusion Index

Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
What really is social inclusion? From scholars to multilateral banks to President Ollanta Humala of Peru, social inclusion has become the term du jour. Implicitly, most of us understand it as more than development; it includes elements of political participation, social rights, civil liberties, and equal access—across race, ethnicity and gender—to social services and labor markets.

4579. Heroes of Social Inclusion

Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
Two things stand out in my memory about the year 1957, when I was 11 years old. The first is the death of my beloved grandfather, James Eldridge Cassidy. I had lived with my grandparents in Hope, Arkansas, for a time as a small child, and got to help my grandfather around his little grocery store which, unusual for that time and place, served both black and white customers. Nineteen fifty-seven was also the year President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the National Guard to enforce the Supreme Court's order to desegregate Little Rock Central High School—the direct result of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, argued for the plaintiffs by the masterful NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall; one of the 29 cases he would win before the high court, while losing only three.

4580. Global Poverty Amid Global Plenty: Getting Globalization Right

Author:
Dani Rodrik
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
To lift their people out of poverty, nations need to enter the global economy.
Topic:
Economics, Education, and Government
Political Geography:
Japan, China, and Asia