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6601. FEMALE STEREOTYPES IN LEBANESE CONTEMPORARY SONGS: A CASE STUDY OF TEN SONGS

Author:
Roy Jreijiry
Publication Date:
06-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
Many studies have shown that popular music is a dynamic medium in the construction of personal and social identities. This study analyses the image of women in ten Lebanese songs produced between 2010 and 2014; each song ranked as big hits. Typical of contemporary popular songs, these songs do not accord to the woman the value of an equal partner of the man. While rarely mentioning the ideas of sharing, exchanging, or reciprocity, they circulate many stereotypes such as the threatened/beaten woman, the housewife won through presents and flattery, the woman under the care of a man, and the woman as an owned and sexual object.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Culture, Women, Feminism, and Music
Political Geography:
Middle East, Lebanon, and Beirut

6602. LEBANON IS BECOMING A NEW OIL AND GAS PRODUCER UNDER THE WATCHFUL EYES OF ITS CIVIL SOCIETY

Author:
Laury Haytayan
Publication Date:
06-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
This short article is an overview of the recent oil and gas developments in Lebanon with a focus on the role of civil society in holding the decision makers accountable. From one side, it highlights the governance challenges and political uncertainties facing Lebanon. Corruption, ineffective oversight bodies and political deadlocks are some of the many challenges facing the country. From the other side, it puts emphasis on the role of civil society as the alternative oversight body capable of overseeing the management of the sector. A strong and informed civil society has a role in taking a seat on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) multi-stakeholder group, in assisting the government in formulating policies and in informing the citizens about the many complex issues related to the oil and gas sector in the country.
Topic:
Civil Society, Oil, Gas, and Economic Development
Political Geography:
Middle East, Lebanon, and Beirut

6603. RETHINKING, RETURNING, REFLECTING

Author:
V Spike Peterson
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
After almost four decades of feminist International Relations (IR), I here rethink the journey this has entailed – for myself and others -- and contemplate where it has taken us. I first consider my own introduction to the discipline of IR and interpret activist commitments of the ‘first generation’ of participants. I then return to early developments and initial questions that fostered boundary-transgressing feminist contributions. Recalling three ‘imagined’ critical conversations – regarding empirical criteria, epistemological frames and normative/political strategies – I then reflect on the feminist journey of many into, within, and increasingly beyond the constraining boundaries of disciplinary IR.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Women, Feminism, and Intersectionality
Political Geography:
Global South

6604. QUEER FEMINIST INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: UNEASY ALLIANCES, PRODUCTIVE TENSIONS

Author:
Darcy Leigh
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
This article examines the ‘uneasy alliance’ between Feminist IR and Queer IR. The article focuses on three areas of tension and continuity between the fields: (1) sexuality, sexual deviance and gender variance; (2) the roles of liberalism in gendered, sexualized and racialized violence; and (3) binaries relating to sex, gender and sexuality. The article argues that it is around tensions between Queer and Feminist IR that a Queer Feminist IR can be productively articulated. In particular, a Queer Feminist IR should: centre women and femmes as well as sexuality and gender variance; disrupt of binaries and fixed identities without losing the political leverage that sometimes comes with them; and acknowledge entanglements with the institutions Feminist and Queer IR seek to transform while also resisting being neutralized by assimilation. Keywords: International Relations, Feminism, Queer, Gender, Sexuality.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Women, Feminism, and Sexuality
Political Geography:
Global

6605. THE INTERCONNECTION BETWEEN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND THE CLIMATE CHANGE NEGOTIATIONS: THE PARIS AGREEMENT CASE

Author:
İzzet Ari
Publication Date:
12-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
The year of 2015 was an important milestone in terms of new progresses in development and climate change areas. Adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement for climate change were two successful issues because of country-driven and comprehensive processes. SDGs which replaced to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), includes 17 goals and 169 targets. The Paris Agreement aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There are significant direct and indirect interconnections between SDGs and the Paris Agreement. Due to negotiations of the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and SDGs continued in different platforms, both the Agreement and SDGs could not sufficiently provide input for each other. There is still room to ensure alignment between these two processes and outcomes while implementation, monitoring and reporting of the Paris Agreement and SDGs. In this paper, the key elements of the Paris Agreement, namely, adaptation, mitigation, finance, capacity building, technology transfer, cooperation and partnerships are determined, then these elements are tracked under the SDGs in order to analyze the connections and missing parts between SDGs and Paris Agreement. The findings present that the direct linkages between SDGs and Paris Agreement were not strong but, there are substantial and implicit interconnections among the Agreement and SDGs. Countries should nationalize their own SDGs targets and respective indicators in order to integrate climate change issue in their national development agenda. monitoring and reporting of the Paris Agreement and SDGs. In this paper, the key elements of the Paris Agreement, namely, adaptation, mitigation, finance, capacity building, technology transfer, cooperation and partnerships are determined, then these elements are tracked under the SDGs in order to analyze the connections and missing parts between SDGs and Paris Agreement. The findings present that the direct linkages between SDGs and Paris Agreement were not strong but, there are substantial and implicit interconnections among the Agreement and SDGs. Countries should nationalize their own SDGs targets and respective indicators in order to integrate climate change issue in their national development agenda. monitoring and reporting of the Paris Agreement and SDGs. In this paper, the key elements of the Paris Agreement, namely, adaptation, mitigation, finance, capacity building, technology transfer, cooperation and partnerships are determined, then these elements are tracked under the SDGs in order to analyze the connections and missing parts between SDGs and Paris Agreement. The findings present that the direct linkages between SDGs and Paris Agreement were not strong but, there are substantial and implicit interconnections among the Agreement and SDGs. Countries should nationalize their own SDGs targets and respective indicators in order to integrate climate change issue in their national development agenda. capacity building, technology transfer, cooperation and partnerships are determined, then these elements are tracked under the SDGs in order to analyze the connections and missing parts between SDGs and Paris Agreement. The findings present that the direct linkages between SDGs and Paris Agreement were not strong but, there are substantial and implicit interconnections among the Agreement and SDGs. Countries should nationalize their own SDGs targets and respective indicators in order to integrate climate change issue in their national development agenda. capacity building, technology transfer, cooperation and partnerships are determined, then these elements are tracked under the SDGs in order to analyze the connections and missing parts between SDGs and Paris Agreement. The findings present that the direct linkages between SDGs and Paris Agreement were not strong but, there are substantial and implicit interconnections among the Agreement and SDGs. Countries should nationalize their own SDGs targets and respective indicators in order to integrate climate change issue in their national development agenda. The findings present that the direct linkages between SDGs and Paris Agreement were not strong but, there are substantial and implicit interconnections among the Agreement and SDGs. Countries should nationalize their own SDGs targets and respective indicators in order to integrate climate change issue in their national development agenda. The findings present that the direct linkages between SDGs and Paris Agreement were not strong but, there are substantial and implicit interconnections among the Agreement and SDGs. Countries should nationalize their own SDGs targets and respective indicators in order to integrate climate change issue in their national development agenda.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Environment, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Global Focus

6606. Aftermath of the Terror Attack on Breitscheid Platz Christmas Market: Germany’s Security Architecture and Parliamentary Inquiries

Author:
Sebastian von Münchow
Publication Date:
08-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies
Abstract:
On December 19th 2016, Anis Amri, a Tunisian citizen, hijacked a truck and crashed into a Christmas market at Breitscheid Platz in Berlin. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, which resulted in twelve deaths and fifty additional casualties. Amri escaped the crime scene and travelled through Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France to Northern Italy where police officers killed him near Milan three days later. This assault was the first major terrorist event in Germany for decades. Prior to this event, the most recent attacks were the Red Army Faction plots in the 1970s, the Olympics hostage-taking in 1972, and the right-wing motivated attack on Munich’s Oktoberfest in 1980. This attack, in which a vehicle rammed into a crowded Christmas market in the center of Berlin, not only sparked a debate about Berlin’s migration policy at large, but also focused the conversation on specific questions. How could Amri be seeking asylum in Germany despite his criminal record in Italy? How did he operate inside Germany using fourteen different identities? Did he rely on a network of supporters? How did he manage to travel through half of Europe before his life ended? Some political voices called for security-related reforms aimed at improving video surveillance, data exchange, and deportation processes, while others demanded a thorough parliamentary investigation of the plot. This paper will briefly touch upon those parliamentary attempts on state and federal level to explore the plot. It will then revisit federal inquiries into matters related to the security architecture over the past twenty-seven years as well as the coverage of these inquiries in the media. Finally, this study will conclude with some thoughts about whether a federal parliamentary inquiry should have been used to investigate what happened before, during, and after the attack.
Topic:
Migration, Terrorism, Violent Extremism, and Islamic State
Political Geography:
Europe, Germany, Italy, Berlin, and Central Europe

6607. Footprints in Paradise: Ecotourism, Local Knowledge, and Nature Therapies in Okinawa

Author:
Andrea E. Murray
Publication Date:
06-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Berghahn Books
Abstract:
The economic imperative of sustainable tourism development frequently shapes life on small subtropical islands. In Okinawa, ecotourism promises to provide employment for a dwindling population of rural youth while preserving the natural environment and bolstering regional pride. Footprints in Paradise explores the transformation in community and sense of place as Okinawans come to view themselves through the lens of the visiting tourist consumer, and as their language, landscapes, and wildlife are reconstituted as treasured and vulnerable resources. The rediscovery and revaluing of local ecological knowledge strengthens Okinawan or Uchinaa cultural heritage, despite the controversial presence of US military bases amidst a hegemonic Japanese state.
Topic:
Environment, Imperialism, Tourism, and Local
Political Geography:
United States, Japan, Asia, and Okinawa

6608. URBAN CONFLICTS IN NORTHERN AMAZON REGION: DISORDERED GROWTH OF WETLANDS/RESSACAS IN MACAPÁ

Author:
Bianca Moro de Carvalho
Publication Date:
05-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
Abstract:
Internationally recognized for its immense wealth of natural resources, the Brazilian Amazon Region and its enormous forest are characterized by significant urban conflicts. The growth of illegal settlements in Amazon cities is a sad reality that has transformed the region’s space. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate part of my doctorate investigation in which I present the squatter-settlement development process (called favelização) of wetlands in the city of Macapá where there is intense occupation of environmental protection areas for precarious housing construction. Also by virtue of such phenomenon, the Federal University of Amapá, via its extension project called “Planning with the Community,” has been seeking to answer some questions relating to informal urbanization processes and their effects on communities living in ressaca areas.
Topic:
Environment, Urbanization, Conflict, and Settlements
Political Geography:
Brazil, South America, and Amazon Basin

6609. KIDNAPPING OF MIGRANTS IN TRANSIT THROUGH MEXICO AND THE TRANSNATIONAL ADVOCACY NETWORKS FOR THEIR HUMAN RIGHTS: SCOPE AND STRATEGIES

Author:
Monica Salmon Gómez
Publication Date:
05-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
Abstract:
The human rights crisis in Mexico and particularly the one with migrants in transit through Mexico is not coincidental. The increased securitization of migration has transformed it into a security issue, causing it to be a threat to the national security. The mechanisms and strategies to fight against this crisis has led to terrible consequences to the thousand of migrants that pass through Mexico every year. As stated by David Harvey, the conceptualization of the irregular migration as a threat to the Nation-States has occurred as a consequence of the “global unequal capitalist integration”. This is a structural process that promotes global inequality in a parallel way, creating the undocumented as the others unwanted (Álvarez and Guillot, 2012:24). We then have migration as a phenomenon characterized by the economic globalization and the predominance of the logic of social exclusion, that it reveals itself as a feature for nations and families in their need to seek, among other things, improved living conditions in places that are different from their place of origin
Topic:
Security, Human Rights, Migration, United Nations, and Inequality
Political Geography:
United States, South America, Latin America, North America, and Mexico

6610. DECOLONIZATION IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM: INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AND LEGAL PLURALISM, A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN BOLIVIA, COLOMBIA, AND ECUADOR

Author:
Sergio Miranda Hayes
Publication Date:
05-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
Abstract:
In the academic world, scientific literature comes mainly from the western part of the globe. Ramón Grossfoguel believes that knowledge is determined by power relations in the "post-colonial" era (Grossfoguel, 2002: 16). This means that Western powers dominate the academic world. In constitutional law, this is not the exception. However, while we can accept that it is true that many constitutional provisions, doctrine, jurisprudence and theories of Western constitutional law have influenced Latin American countries, most of these countries have also developed their own constitutional systems that have specific and new features, whose unique identity differentiates them from other systems in the world. In this paper, I will try to study the special features that Bolivia, Ecuador, and Colombia have in the recognition of indigenous rights and legal pluralism, whose discursive axis entails a “decolonizing” spirit which is the retrieval of their own institutions against the trends of hegemonic governance of the western culture as I will explain later. Latin America has faced numerous problems concerning social differentiation. In the opinion of one of the most cited authors in Latin American constitutional law, Raquel Yrigoyen, the disadvantaged were left behind from the social, economic and political issues through legal measures created by people of a favored minority, in order to maintain privileges (Yrigoyen, 2011: 139). In the case of Latin America, many of the disadvantaged match to be those survivors of the brutal Spanish conquest; the native Indians. I have chosen these three countries since they have a significant indigenous population; more than 36.6 million indigenous people in the region. In Bolivia, the number rises to 4,115,222 natives, in Ecuador 1018176,and in Colombia 1392623. (World Bank, 2014: 24-25) The Constitutions of Colombia (1991), Ecuador (2008) and Bolivia (2009) reflect the new “decolonizing” ideology; Colombia through its jurisprudence, on the one hand, and Bolivia and Ecuador, proclaiming themselves "Plurinational”countries on the other. All made great strides in recognizing indigenous rights and, consequently, in gaining their social inclusion. (Gargarella, 2014: 175) Constitutional systems are a product of history and the struggle of peoples. In these cases, the effort to include indigenous peoples in the economic, political and social spheres resulted in these new constitutional models which can be understood through a comparative study.By understanding this, advantages and disadvantages of each country to improve social inclusion of indigenous peoples in all the mentioned spheres can be found. In the first title, I will talk about the meaning of legal pluralism. In the second, I will discussthe new models of statewhich are conditioned by legal pluralism and indigenous rights. In the third, I will address indigenous autonomies and jurisdictions that are the subject of our study. And in the remaining two titles, I will discuss the most distinctive features, and rights arising from the recognition of this unique legal pluralism. All this with the purpose of exposing the new constitutional spirit of "decolonization" of these countries.
Topic:
Human Rights, Post Colonialism, Legal Theory, Colonialism, Decolonization, and Economic Inequality
Political Geography:
United States, Colombia, South America, Latin America, North America, Ecuador, and Bolivia