CENTRE for MEDITERRANEAN, MIDDLE EAST & ISLAMIC STUDIES

The aftermath of the Arab spring not only saw a difficult regime transition in Tunisia and Libya but contributed to the revival of old and new security challenges in the Maghreb and the Sahel. The secessionist conflict that broke out in 2012 in northern Mali, followed by a military coup in Bamako and the French intervention a year later, is paradigmatic of how the fallout effects of the Libyan civil war and the difficult political transitions in Tripoli and Tunis affected the internal stability of neighbouring countries.

With Emiratis constituting only 15% of the total population of UAE, the majority non-citizen residents have come to be perceived as a challenge to both national security and emergent identity. This dual threat has been responsible for the UAE’s use of highly restrictive migrant labor policies for which it has been so widely criticized. Although it is necessary and inevitable that the UAE address the human rights concerns arising from this, this article focuses mainly on the factors that have created the need for these labor policies, clarifying the role of securitization discourse in the creation of their terms.

Experiencing a fast economic growth for approximately the past thirty years, China has in the last decade felt strong enough to play a much more active role compared to the recent past. Amid a debate regarding whether China will or will not be the next superpower challenging the US global hegemony, the Middle East is considered as among the first regions the potential Sino-American rivalry will take place. However, despite the truth such scenarios entail, reality is arguably more complex, especially in the now changing socio-political landscape of the Middle East.

Although a thorough analysis of the political situation in the Horn of Africa needs to take Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Yemen, Kenya, Somaliland and Puntland, as well as colonial history into consideration, this article will merely stress the recent developments in Somali government reconstruction and the end of the civil war in a background of ensuing Islamic militancy present in the whole of East Africa.

Hamid Dabashi has argued that the Arab Spring challenges the postcolonial identity and creates a new emancipatory geographical imagination. The rapidly changing political geography in Egypt is indicating that the Left is searching for its political identity in the post-Mubarak era. Even though the Islamist domination in the political scene is obvious, the Left and the workers’ struggle has been intensified, despite the quandary. The fluid identities of most of the nascent coalitions are struggling to secure a place in this new geographical imagination.

Mali, the tourism sweetheart and West African cultural melting pot, even though hailed as a stable democracy, has had an intense history witnessing a series of coups to this day. Interestingly enough, the coups have been alternating with Tuareg rebellions in the north of the country, which have been present on an on-and-off basis since the 1960s, when France ceased to be Mali’s colonial ruler. The current crisis in the Sahel is not a new phenomenon, nor was it totally unexpected, as I see it, after the buds of the Arab Spring blossomed to create an uncontrollable bullet garden at the edges of the Sahara.

The Arab Spring and the 2012 Malian coup brought to surface a new threat in North Africa; Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a once weak node of Al-Qaeda, has upgraded its capabilities, and it seems to be a growing threat for the local security and political stability. This article aims to present the structure of Al-Qaeda’s terrorist network in N. Africa, and to comment on its political and security pressure in the region.

The article is about the Iraqi stance on the Syrian crisis and in particular of the official government, the Sunni minority in Iraq, the Iraqi Kurds and the tribes in Iraq. Each party has its own goals and interests in the outcome of the Syrian civil war and we will see them unfold below.

Iran has been in the forefront of international interest during the last years due to its nuclear program and strategic position for the Middle Eastern affairs. However, Iran’s internal political arena is equally turbulent to its international relations. After the 2009 elections and the crush of the Green Movement a new power struggle has emerged within the Iranian regime. President Ahmadinejad’s attempt to create a loyal elite around him was met with a fierce response from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s side which stripped him off his power, attacked his associates and might even cancel the position of president itself. The outcome of this “internal war” is crucial for both regional and global politics

“Innocence of Muslims”, a very low budget movie without any artistic value, achieved what it meant to. The movie was condemned by all Muslims who felt offended and, led to demonstrations of Muslim population around the world. Further it was exploited as a pretext by Islamist extremists to stage terrorist attacks like the one that resulted in killing of 4 Americans including Christopher Stevens, US Ambassador to Libya.