Middle East Focus: Democratic Deficits & Sectarian Struggles

Middle East Focus: Democratic Deficits & Sectarian Struggles, Spring 2015Thursday, June 18, 2015
This issue of TPQ takes up a wide range of problems plaguing the Middle East and North Africa today: from internal conflicts and proxy wars to rising sectarianism and the predicament of minorities to strategic incoherence against a potentially global...

Nigâr Göksel

Turkey’s Middle East Policy, Spring 2015Friday, June 5, 2015
The Middle East is blessed with a rich heritage, is the birthplace of world’s three great monotheistic religions, and has contributed a great deal to humankind’s scientific, philosophical, and cultural progress throughout history. ...

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu

Democracy for Another Spring, Spring 2015Friday, June 5, 2015
Four years after a wave of protest movements swept across the Middle East in 2011, the revolutionary impulses and calls for democratic regime change have been all but stamped out. The author argues that the region is increasingly divided along...

Şafak Pavey

Cooperation as a Way Out of Turmoil for the Middle East, Spring 2015Friday, June 5, 2015
In discussing the turmoil that has recently engulfed the Middle East, the author considers a parallel with Europe in the 17th century and the beginning of the Westphalian order. The author lays out his vision for the future of the region, which is...

Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu

The Middle East In Conflict: The Empires Strike Back, Spring 2015Friday, June 5, 2015
In consideration of the general instability in the Middle East – the bloody Syrian civil war and its mounting refugee crisis, the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the emergence of ISIL and ongoing fighting in Iraq, and the war in...

Dov S. Zakheim

The Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s Role in Defeating ISIL, Spring 2015Friday, June 5, 2015
The summer of 2014 was a fatal summer, not only for the Iraqi Kurdistan Region but also for the Middle East and the rest of the world. It witnessed the rise of one of the deadliest terrorist groups: the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)....

Hemin Hawrami

Turkey’s Islamists: From Power-Sharing to Political Incumbency, Spring 2015Friday, June 5, 2015
The complex relationship between political Islam and the Turkish state – from political exclusion in the early Republican era, to power-sharing in the post-World War II multi-party era, to political incumbency in the 2000s – was crowned...

Behlül Özkan

The Turkmens of the Middle East, Spring 2015Friday, June 5, 2015
The Turkmens, descendents of the Oghuz confederation of Turkic-speaking nomadic tribes of the early Middle Ages, are currently scattered across the Middle East and Central Asia. Focusing on the Turkmen populations of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine,...

Erşat Hürmüzlü

Protecting Eastern Christianity in the Middle East: Russia’s New Diplomatic Tool?, Spring 2015Friday, June 5, 2015
The intensification of Russia’s diplomacy in the Middle East is combined with a clearly defined objective: positioning itself as the new protector of persecuted Christians in the region. The author highlights both the ambitions of the Kremlin...

Bernard El Ghoul

Hezbollah’s Ascent and Descent, Spring 2015Friday, June 5, 2015
Hezbollah today is Lebanon’s strongest political party. However, its military intervention in the Syrian conflict has put it at a crossroads. While the party’s domestic strength continues, largely due to the weakness of its Lebanese...

Lina Khatib

Turmoil in the Middle East and Turkish-American Relations, Spring 2015Friday, June 5, 2015
Turkey’s Middle East policy under the AKP government – in particular, its stance on Syria and the fight against ISIL – has had a damaging effect on not only its 60-year-old alliance with the US, but also its regional standing. The...

Sabri Sayarı

Turkey and Iran: The Best of Frenemies, Spring 2015Friday, June 5, 2015
Inheriting a legacy of imperial competition, the Turkey-Iran rivalry today manifests itself through the contest for leadership of the Arab Middle East, and Muslim hearts and minds more generally. The authors contend that Turkey and Iran’s...

Iran’s New Social Media-Friendly Approach, Spring 2015Friday, June 5, 2015
The Islamic Republic of Iran entered into a new era of public diplomacy following Hassan Rouhani’s victory in the June 2013 presidential election. Iran seeks both to revitalize its soft power tools and reach out to the international community...

Mojtaba Barghandan

Israel: Interrupted Democratic Development?, Spring 2015Friday, June 5, 2015
Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Israeli democracy has followed a unique trajectory. Despite its strengths – regular and fair elections, an independent judiciary, a pluralistic party system etc. – the author argues...

Itzhak Galnoor

Education for Social Change in Lebanon, Spring 2015Friday, June 5, 2015
Lebanon has been hosting refugees for over half a century. While the Palestinian refugees have been present since 1948, the recently incoming one million Syrian refugees have only exacerbated the already unstable assistance the country provides for...

Melek El Nimer

Turkey: The Almost Mediator State, Spring 2015Friday, June 5, 2015
Most analysts consider Davutogˆlu’s “zero problems with neighbors” strategy a failure, and typically cite Turkey’s decision to lend its support to religious conservative movements like the Muslim Brotherhood during the Arab...

Gabriel Mitchell

The Gender Dimension of the Authoritarian Backlash in Egypt, Spring 2015Friday, June 5, 2015
The campaign against the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood during its short-lived rule instrumentalized the notion of gender equality for political purposes – namely demonizing the Brotherhood and the subsequent overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi....

Liina Mustonen

Middle East Focus: Democratic Deficits & Sectarian StrugglesVol. 14 No. 1 - Spring 2015

Middle East Focus: Democratic Deficits & Sectarian Struggles
Vol. 14 No. 1 - Spring 2015