ΚΕΝΤΡΟ ΜΕΣΟΓΕΙΑΚΩΝ, ΜΕΣΑΝΑΤΟΛΙΚΩΝ & ΙΣΛΑΜΙΚΩΝ ΣΠΟΥΔΩΝ

The “Gezi movement” marks one of the milestones in the recent Turkish political history. The Gezi park protests, which started from a small scale environmental demonstration in Istanbul on 31 May, have, after the violent intervention by the police forces, expanded all over the country in the form of an anti-government, or maybe more correctly as an anti-Erdo?an movement. The following paper will try to explore the ways in which the Gezi demonstrations can affect the future of the country, the political landscape and the society.

Στην Αίγυπτο έγινε πραξικόπημα. Ούτε επανάσταση, ούτε κίνημα, απλά στρατιωτικό πραξικόπημα με όλα τα χαρακτηριστικά που δίνουν στο φαινόμενο αυτό τα σχετικά επιστημονικά εγχειρίδια. Σαφώς το πραξικόπημα αυτό διευκολύνθηκε από ένα τεράστιο μαζικό κίνημα διαμαρτυρίας εναντίον της κυβέρνησης των Αδελφών Μουσουλμάνων και του ανατραπέντος Προέδρου Μόρσι. Να δούμε όμως πρώτα ποιά ήταν τα αίτια της προβληματικής διακυβέρνησης του Μόρσι και των Αδελφών.

The new Pew report is a sophisticated and deep report about the role of Islam in the Muslim world. The results of the survey show a high percentage of religiosity, especially in the countries were the Muslim population is dominant – at least - arithmetically. What we examine here is whether the historical transformations in every country in the postcolonial period reveal a common (till a certain point) trajectory regarding the social characteristics and whether an engaged “social religiosity” has been generated.

At the dawn of an era of multi-sourced global energy supplies, amidst simmering domestic grievances and cleavages in regional politics, Saudi Arabia stands firm. Buoyant oil revenues have allowed her to shun troublesome developments at home and play an integral role in the Middle East. However, the re-orientation of Saudi Arabia's development model currently seems insurmountable.

The outcome of the upcoming Presidential election in Iran has been sealed by the Guardian Council’s decision to exclude candidates at will and to favor the Supreme Leader’s trustees. The current appointed body has prevented Rafsanjani and Mashaei, along with several other hundreds, from running for the seat, while the Green Movement has been prosecuted. But even though none of the remaining eight candidates can be labeled as pure reformers or as liberals, they do have different approaches on important matters that have significant impact on the country and the region, such as their stances on the nuclear program and on the economy.

US President Barack Obama’s announcement regarding the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan has necessitated a reshuffling of the geostrategic relations of neighbouring countries in the region. The decision to hand security management back to Afghan authorities has raised questions concerning the stability of the country after the withdrawal of US troops. Afghanistan, Pakistan and India are now compelled to re-evaluate their policies towards each other.

Unlike the majority of protesters in the Arab Spring, protesters in Kuwait have rallied against their government on issues anchored in basic human rights rather than on material needs.[1] Instead of trying to topple the government, the focus has been on checking the authority of the ruling family and holding it accountable to its citizens. Arising from these efforts is the plight of the “Bedoon” – the stateless - of Kuwait, who despite living there for decades, hold no nationality. The Arab Spring protests of 2011 invigorated their demands for citizenship but after months of rallying and campaigning, what progress have they achieved?

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.