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21. "Who is the Real Tariq Ramadan?"

Author:
Christopher DeVito
Publication Date:
04-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
Anyone following the debate about Islam in Europe over the last decade has undoubtedly heard of Tariq Ramadan. They have also surely heard the question: 'who is the real Tariq Ramadan?' His detractors have described him as 'a wolf in sheep's clothing.' Those who see promise in the project he has undertaken have called him a Muslim Martin Luther. Popular accounts, portray him as either the head of a fifth column intent on transforming Europe into Eurabia, or someone whose effort to establish an authentically European Islam offers the promise of heading off impending cultural strife. In these respects he has become a symbol for people's hopes and fears. He is a bogeyman for those who see Europe's Muslims as a threat to the continent's enlightenment and Christian heritage. To others he is a symbol of hope; a hope that Muslims can one day fully assume their rightful place in European cultural and civic life without watering down their faith. So the question remains: who is Tariq Ramadan? The purpose of what follows will be to explore the thought of Tariq Ramadan, his status as a symbol of both European Islam and Muslims, and how what he represents may fit within a liberal political order. The exploration of political liberalism aligns closely to the conception of political philosopher John Rawls, along with an interpretation of Rawls offered by Andrew F. March as applied to Ramadan and his project.
Topic:
Islam
Political Geography:
Kenya

22. "The Israeli Citizenship Model: The Role of Pluralism and Particularism in Drawing the Boundaries of the Israeli Polity"

Author:
Benedetta Berti
Publication Date:
04-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
This article examines the Israeli citizenship discourse, emphasizing the influence of Israel's historical experience, societal composition and constitutive values. The first section provides the theoretical foundation of the essay, describing the Israeli citizenship model, stressing its complex nature, and explaining how three alternative models of citizenship—liberal, republican, and ethno-nationalist—co-exist and interact in the Israeli polity.
Political Geography:
Israel

23. "Interview with Robert Baer, Author of The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower"

Author:
Michael Mylrea
Publication Date:
04-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
The ongoing showdown with Iran is one of the greatest US foreign policy challenges of this century. Iran's ambition to become the region's superpower has been bolstered by its large oil and gas supply, Shiites gaining control in Iraq, Hezbollah—an Iranian proxy army—fighting Israel to a standstill, and, its defiant move to become a nuclear power. Bold messages from Iran, such as that it will retaliate against the West and its allies if they try to impede its rise to power, are challenging to interpret.
Topic:
Nuclear Power
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, and Iran

24. "Interview with Mr. Gabe Kadell, Refugee Relocation Specialist: 'New Faces in a Different Land'"

Author:
Michael Mylrea
Publication Date:
04-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
War refugees have many faces and stories that the media tends to miss. While the news focuses on images of conflict and violence, it glosses over the fate of refugees who are forced to flee and start their lives over in completely foreign lands. Fearing the threat of violence, millions of Iraqis were forced or chose to flee from their homes to Jordan and Syria.
Political Geography:
Syria and Jordan

25. "Notions of Islam and the West in the US-Libyan Relationship: An Historical Perspective"

Author:
Farah Bushashia
Publication Date:
04-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
“Oh my God, they found me, I don't know how, but they found me,” frantically sputters Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown, the eccentric inventor of the time machine car in Robert Zemeckis' highly successful 1985 film Back to the Future, “[It's] the Libyans!” As Alan Silvestri's background music crescendos, the camera cuts to a Volkswagen bus slowly and sinisterly weaving down a well-manicured, deserted backroad toward the empty Twin Pines Mall parking lot where at 1:15 AM the Doctor and his young protégé Marty tinker with the plutonium-powered time machine. Suddenly the hat-covered head of an unnamed, swarthy, machine-gun-wielding Libyan emerges from the roof of the careening bus as unintelligible, crazed Arabic words vaguely including 'Allah' pass between him and the driver, presumably verifying that the white-haired man in the lab coat and yellow rubber gloves is indeed the same Doc Brown who took their plutonium and provided them with an atomic bomb consisting of little more than pinball machine parts! After an inordinate number of shots, Doc Brown is taken for dead and Marty hops into the time machine car under hot pursuit from the Libyans who cannot manage to eliminate the unarmed witness as they screechingly circle around the JC Penney department store, cursing both the “damn Soviet gun” and the “damn German car.” Finally, Marty achieves the critical speed for time travel and in the bright flash of light the Libyans lose control of the Volkswagen and dramatically crash into a Fox Photo booth promising one-hour photograph development to suburban Californian families.
Topic:
Islam
Political Geography:
Libya

26. Does the Price of Watermelons Matter? Economic Performance and Political Legitimacy in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Author:
Nicholas Gossen
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
Despite Ayatollah Khomeini's famous comment that the Iranian revolution was “not about the price of watermelons,” the Islamic Republic of Iran was in part founded on economic promises of redistribution, equality, and justice. The strength of this rhetoric has formed a core basis of political support for the regime, but it has also established public expectations that the Islamic Republic has been chronically unable to meet. Many analysts have cited Iran's poor economic performance since the revolution and resulting public dissatisfaction as a key weakness of the clerical regime and a potential source of its downfall. Indeed, this is a crucial element of the argument advanced by advocates of stronger multilateral economic sanctions against Iran in the dispute over its nuclear program. However, underlying this logic is an implicit assumption that regime legitimacy is tied to economic performance. While intuitively appealing, this assumption bears further scrutiny, particularly if it forms a basis for American policy decisions towards Iran. The primary goal of this paper is to examine the political and economic factors that have caused the gap between economic rhetoric and performance in Iran, and to assess the extent to which that gap has affected the political legitimacy of the Iranian regime.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
America, Iran, Middle East, and Beijing

27. The Rise of Islamic Banking and Finance in Central Asia

Author:
Geoffrey F. Gresh
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and rise of new nation-states in 1991, the Muslim republics of Central Asia and the southern Caucasus have witnessed the arrival of Islamic banking and finance to the region. The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has been a catalyst for the increased spread of finance projects in the region that are compliant with Islamic principles like no usury or riba. This paper examines the important role of the IDB and other Islamic banking and financial institutions in promoting socio-economic development across the region. Moreover, a majority of the Central Asian and southern Caucasian republics view Islamic banking and finance as important tools with which to channel the energies of radical Islamic opposition groups. Despite moderate success in the region, the IDB has confronted significant obstacles in trying to propose Islamic finance to these governments because of a strong Soviet legacy and volatile politics. Although the Muslim republics remain influenced by elements from their Soviet past, including a command economy and one-party political system, Islamic banking and finance has grown in the last decade to become a significant force for positive change.
Political Geography:
California

28. Iraqi Kurdistan: The Internal Dynamics and Statecraft of a Semistate

Author:
Matan Chorev
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
The semistate possesses many of the features commonly associated with the modern nationstate but remains unrecognized as a sovereign entity. Semistates (such as Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, Transnistria, and Iraqi Kurdistan) inhabit the central conflict fault-lines of Southwest Asia's strategic landscape at the dawn of the twenty-first century. In order to concoct effective conflict management approaches, policymakers must develop a framework for comprehending internal dynamics and statecraft of these entities. How do they function in the absence of international recognition? What impact did the dynamics of conflict and political development under such conditions have on the nature of the semistate? What is the entity's resultant worldview and statecraft?
Political Geography:
Mumbai

29. Charisma in Modern Islamic Revolutionary Movements: The Case of Ahmad Shah Massoud

Author:
Casey Johnson
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
Security Studies is inundated with scholarship devoted to highlighting the ways in which technology (particularly the internet) is defining terrorist organizations, militias, revolutionary movements, and criminal networks. Still, much as technology has altered our perspective of daily life, there is a danger of becoming too narrowly focused on technology as a means of explaining emerging and evolving revolutionary movements. And not enough focus on the charismatic leaders that continue to motivate, define, and drive revolutionary movements It is far from certainthat the Internet has deposed the charismatic leader of his or her central role in rallying, organizing, and spurring revolutionary movements. Indeed, for every virtual cell and skillfully produced martyrdom video, there is a Moqtada al Sadr or a Sheik Hassan Nassrallah.

30. Review of The Price of Fear: The Truth Behind the Financial War on Terror by Ibrahim Warde

Author:
Rebecca Hekman
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
al Nakhlah
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
On November 7, 2001, amid much fanfare, the U.S. led a global shutdown of Al-Barakaat, a large Somali remittance company headquartered in Dubai. The first major target in the financial war on terror, the company stood accused of providing $15-25 million annually to Al-Qaeda. U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill called Al-Barakaat “the quartermasters of terror” Bush announced that the strike was predicated on “solid and credible” evidence that the company was “operating 'at the service of mass murderers.” Simultaneous police raids in four U.S. states, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, and the UAE were hailed as a resounding success. Having ostensibly interrupted Al-Qaeda's communications and made a significant dent in the organization's finances, the strike was also to uncover a wealth of information for law enforcement
Political Geography:
United States, Canada, Italy, and Switzerland