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11. The Rise Of The IS (Islamic State) In Syria And Iraq After The Arab Spring

Author:
Alper Y. Dede
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
The Arab Spring is a social movement triggered by a complex set of social, political and economic factors. Despite the initial success of the Arab Spring in ousting some of the bureaucraticauthoritarian status-quo oriented regimes, mass mobilization of people could not oust all dictatorships and introduce meaningful reforms toward more democratization in the region. Worse, the mass protests that started as part of the Arab Spring later deteriorated into utter chaos and even civil war in some parts of the region. With the disappearance of state authority in those places, sub-state actors gained ground, challenging the stability and order that were once provided by authoritarian regimes through coercion. The IS’s sudden expansion has mainly resulted from large scale instability in Iraq and Syria and the disappearance of nation-state borders between the two states. The IS, which emerged as a sub-state actor, is currently in the process of becoming a proto state. Thus, this paper has two simultaneous research goals. The first is to establish the link between lack of institutionalization of the Arab Spring and its failure to bring about positive and meaningful political change in the region with the power vacuum created in the region and subsequent emergence of sub-state actors and groups like the Al- Qaeda in Iraq and the IS (Islamic State) in Iraq and Syria. The second is to study and evaluate the emergence and growth of the IS in conjunction with the deteriorating security situation in Iraq and Syria, and how the international involvement with the IS might have shaped the tactics and the course of action that the IS has taken since the IS captured the city of Mosul in June 2014, shocking the whole world. Assessment of the IS’s AP AP the rise of the IS (islamic state) in syria and iraq 169 military, economic and political prospects will also be provided in the concluding section. Keywords: The Arab Spring, the IS (Islamic State), Abu Mus’ab Al-Zarqawi, Abu Bakr Al
Topic:
Social Movement, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Arab Spring, and Institutionalism
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, Middle East, and Syria

12. Politics Of Gender In The Recent Democratic Transitions In The Middle East And North Africa

Author:
Canan Aslan Akman
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Abstract:
The weakness of a direct causality between democratic transitions and women-friendly outcomes remains a major finding of research on the gendered impacts of transition processes. In the recent Arab uprisings leading to regime changes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), women’s mobilization was a significant aspect of the regime changes. By contextualizing the gender dynamics and the outcomes of the democratic transitions in Tunusia, Egypt, Morrocco and Libya, this article analyzes and compares Arab women’s transitional politicization. It also inquires into women’s roles, demands and predicaments within the patriarchal structures of the transitional polities. These transitions presented both opportunities as well as challenges for Arab women under new constellations of balance of power in their respective political systems, which led to the rise of a new gender agenda. It is contended here that specific structural and agency-related factors have been intertwined to constrain women’s transitional mobilization and the post-transitional quest for empowerment. The fragility of the gender equality agenda in the post-dictatorship Arab world has been shaped, to large extent, by the legacies of previous state-led gender equality projects on by women’s (pro-) feminist activism, as well as by the nature of the transition processes and women’s civil society participation during and in the aftermath of the transitions.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Social Movement, Women, Democracy, and Political structure
Political Geography:
Africa, Middle East, Libya, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia

13. Women In The Lebanese Daily Newspapers Cartoons

Author:
Roy Jreijiry
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
Many thousands of people demonstrated on March 8, 2014 demanding the promulgation of the law to protect women from domestic violence. It was the biggest feminist manifestation in the history of Lebanon and which started after a number of cases largely covered by the media of women killed or beaten by their husbands. In this context we have decided to observe how the daily press reflected the emergence of the feminist movement and what place it has reserved for women during this period through the cartoons. This article proposes the examination of a corpus of cartoons in four Lebanese daily newspapers (An-Nahar, As- Safir, Al-Mustaqbal and al-Balad) during a period of one year. The result that we reached is that the Lebanese cartoonists give little importance to the feminine figure. At the same time the struggle conducted by the feminist movements during the period of the study were almost absent from the cartoonists’ work. These cartoonists seem to be led by stereotypes that they reproduce, a rearguard struggle. One of these stereotypes is the model of the beautiful and sexy woman, an erotic object par excellence.
Topic:
Social Movement, Social Media, Gender Based Violence, Feminism, and Protests
Political Geography:
Middle East, Lebanon, and Beirut