Acta Politica (Volume 55, Issue 4)

Before constitution-making: the struggle for constitution-making design in post-revolutionary Egypt

By: Tereza Jermanová

Abstract: Scholars have recently become attentive not only to the institutional designs that constitutions set up, but also to the constitutional change processes. Most authors, who are concerned with the effects the design of constitution-making processes have on outcomes, have focused on the main constitution-making bodies and their characteristics, leaving aside the question of what happens before members of constituent assemblies meet to deliberate. This article makes the point that to better understand constitution-making and its outcomes, we need to take into account the overlooked early stage of constitutional change when political actors debate and set the rules for how a constitution will be made. Building on various political science perspectives and the case study of the 2011–2012 constitutional reform in Egypt, it underscores the inevitably contentious nature of the design of a constitution-making process. It also highlights the impact that unresolved conflicts over the design can have for the agreement on a constitution between political opponents in the context of a democratic transition. In Egypt, adoption of a broadly accepted constitution was hindered by on-going struggles between Islamists and non-Islamists over their preferred constitution-making designs. The article also outlines the factors that make the settlement on constitution-making rules unlikely.

British Journal of Political Science (Volume 50, Issue 4)

The Future is a Moving Target: Predicting Political Instability

By: Drew Bowlsby, Erica Chenoweth, Cullen Hendrix, Jonathan D. Moyer

Abstract: Previous research by Goldstone et al. (2010) generated a highly accurate predictive model of state-level political instability. Notably, this model identifies political institutions – and partial democracy with factionalism, specifically – as the most compelling factors explaining when and where instability events are likely to occur. This article reassesses the model’s explanatory power and makes three related points: (1) the model’s predictive power varies substantially over time; (2) its predictive power peaked in the period used for out-of-sample validation (1995–2004) in the original study and (3) the model performs relatively poorly in the more recent period. The authors find that this decline is not simply due to the Arab Uprisings, instability events that occurred in autocracies. Similar issues are found with attempts to predict nonviolent uprisings (Chenoweth and Ulfelder 2017) and armed conflict onset and continuation (Hegre et al. 2013). These results inform two conclusions: (1) the drivers of instability are not constant over time and (2) care must be exercised in interpreting prediction exercises as evidence in favor or dispositive of theoretical mechanisms.

Do Islamic State’s Deadly Attacks Disengage, Deter, or Mobilize Supporters?

By: Joan Barceló, Elena Labzina

Abstract: What are the consequences of committing violent attacks for terrorist organizations? Terrorist attacks might broaden the base of supporters by increasing the perceived group efficacy. However, terrorist attacks might also lead its supporters to believe that the organization is excessively violent or involvement may become too dangerous. This article employs a unique dataset with 300,842 observations of 13,321 Twitter accounts linked to the Islamic State (IS), collected during a 127-day period, to empirically investigate the impact of terrorist attacks on the number of the organization’s supporters. By exploiting the exogenous timing of terrorist attacks as a natural experiment, we find that the number of followers of IS-related Twitter accounts significantly reduces in the aftermath of the attacks. Additionally, we provide some suggestive evidence to disentangle two mechanisms: disengagement – a change in supporters’ beliefs – and deterrence – demobilization due to fear. Because we do not find support for the latter, we conclude that the disengagement effect might explain our main result.

Comparative Political Studies (Volume 53, Issue 13)

The Power to Resist: Mobilization and the Logic of Terrorist Attacks in Civil War

By: Sara M. T. Polo, Belén González

Abstract: Existing research has argued that terrorism is common in civil war because it is “effective.” Surprisingly, however, only some groups use terrorism during civil wars, while many refrain altogether. We also see considerable variation in the use of terrorism over time. This article presents a theory of terrorism as a mobilization strategy in civil war, taking into account benefits, costs, and temporal dynamics. We argue that the choice and the timing of terrorism arise from the interaction between conditions for effective mobilization and battlefield dynamics. Terrorism can mobilize support when it provokes indiscriminate government repression or when it radicalizes rebels’ constituency by antagonizing specific societal groups. The timing of attacks, however, is influenced by battlefield losses, which increase rebels’ need to rally civilian support. The analyses of new disaggregated data on rebels’ terrorist attacks during conflicts (1989–2009) and of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) tactics in Iraq and Syria support our theoretical argument.

Comparative Politics (Volume 53, Issue 1)

Threat Perception and Democratic Support in Post-Arab Spring Egypt

By: Shimaa Hatab

Abstract: The article examines the reasons why Egyptian elites and masses withdrew their support for democracy only two years after they staged mass protests calling for regime change in 2011. I draw on basic tenets of bounded rationality and recent advances within the field of cognitive heuristics to demonstrate how cues generated from domestic and regional developments triggered stronger demands for security and stability. Drawing on elite interviews and public opinion surveys, I show how both elites and the masses paid special attention to intense and vivid events which then prompted a demand for the strong man model. Fears of Islamists pushed both elites and masses to update their preferences, seek refuge in old regime bargains, and reinstate authoritarianism.

Rebuilding the Ba`thist State: Party, Tribe, and Administrative Control in Authoritarian Iraq, 1991–1996

By: Lisa Blaydes

Abstract: How do authoritarian states establish control in the wake of regime threatening shocks? The 1991 Uprisings—anti-regime protests across Iraqi provinces—were a turning point for Saddam Hussein and the Ba’th Party. I discuss two strategies deployed by the Ba’thist regime to reconsolidate political authority after the rebellion, both influenced by concerns about extending control to geographically-challenging locations. First, the regime collaborated with tribal intermediaries to outsource monitoring and social control of rural areas, particularly in border regions. Second, the regime expanded Ba’th Party influence in Iraq’s “second cities,” like Basra and Mosul, major population centers located near the border of rival states Iran and Turkey. These findings suggest weak states seek to increase their strength through investment in local political actors and in ways that are geographically differentiated across regions.

Women in Legislative Committees in Arab Parliaments

By: Marwa M. Shalaby, Laila Elimam

Abstract: Extant studies have predominantly focused on women’s numerical presence in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)’s legislatures, yet, research examining the role played by female politicians continues to be limited. To bridge this gap, we study one of the most important, albeit overlooked, bodies within these assemblies: legislative committees. Using an original dataset on committee memberships (n=4580), our data show that females are significantly marginalized from influential committees and tend to be sidelined to social issues and women’s committees. To explain this, we develop a theory of provisional gender stereotyping. We argue that the duration of quota implementation shapes women’s access to influential committees. We focus on two mechanisms to support our argument: a redistribution of power dynamics within legislative bodies and women’s political expertise.

Comparative Studies in Society and History (Volume 62, Issue 4)

Small Warriors? Children and Youth in Colonial Insurgencies and Counterinsurgency, ca. 1945–1960

By: Stacey Hynd

Abstract: Child soldiers are often viewed as a contemporary, “new war” phenomenon, but international concern about their use first emerged in response to anti-colonial liberation struggles. Youth were important actors in anti-colonial insurgencies, but their involvement has been neglected in existing historiographies of decolonization and counterinsurgency due to the absence and marginalization of youth voices in colonial archives. This article analyses the causes of youth insurgency and colonial counterinsurgency responses to their involvement in conflict between ca. 1945 and 1960, particularly comparing Kenya and Cyprus, but also drawing on evidence from Malaya, Indochina/Vietnam, and Algeria. It employs a generational lens to explore the experiences of “youth insurgents” primarily between the ages of twelve and twenty. Youth insurgents were most common where the legitimate grievances of youth were mobilized by anti-colonial groups who could recruit children through colonial organizations as well as family and social networks. While some teenagers fought due to coercion or necessity, others were politically motivated and willing to risk their lives for independence. Youth soldiers served in multiple capacities in insurgencies, from protestors to couriers to armed fighters, in roles that were shaped by multiple logics: the need for troop fortification and sustained manpower; the tactical exploitation of youth liminality, and the symbolic mobilization of childhood and discourses of childhood innocence. Counterinsurgency responses to youthful insurgents commonly combined violence and development, highlighting tensions within late colonial governance: juveniles were beaten, detained, and flogged, but also constructed as “delinquents” rather than “terrorists” to facilitate their subsequent “rehabilitation.”

Deception and Violence in the Ottoman Empire: The People's Theory of Crowd Behavior during the Hamidian Massacres of 1895

By: Ali Sipahi

Abstract: This article is an historical ethnography of the popular conceptualizations of crowd behavior during the pogroms against the Armenians in the Ottoman East in 1895–1896. It draws on contemporary sources like official telegrams, governmental reports, letters of American missionaries, and Armenian periodicals to show that observers with otherwise highly conflicting views described the structure of the event in the exact same way: as an outcome of sinister deception. Without exception, all parties told some story of deception to explain the violent attacks of the Kurdish semi-nomadic crowds on the Armenian neighborhoods of the city of Harput. The article analyzes these cases of disguise, deluding, and inculcation to reveal how contemporary observers theorized crowd behavior in general and the atrocities they witnessed in particular. They did not perceive violence as an index of social distance or deep societal divisions. On the contrary, they described a world in which Armenians and Muslims lived a shared life, and where one attacked the other only when deceived. Methodologically, the article lifts barriers between intellectual history and social history on behalf of an historical ethnography of people's theories about their own society.

Nationalist Spirits of Islamic Law after World War I: An Arab-Indian Battle of Fatwas over Alcohol, Purity, and Power

By: Leor Halevi

Abstract: In 1922, one of the most famous Muslim scholars of modern times, the Syrian-Egyptian reformer Rashīd Riḍā, published in his journal a detailed fatwa in defense of alcohol. He did so in reaction to an obscure Indian jurist's fatwa that had warned Muslims not to use alcoholic products. On the surface, the authors of the fatwas appeared to be principally concerned with the right way to interpret sacred laws of purity and pollution. However, this article reveals that their disagreement had much to do with differing approaches to the politics of independence. Their divergence is intriguing because the cities where they lived, Cairo and Bombay, had just experienced the convulsions of anti-British consumer boycotts. And it emerged at a time when anti-imperial Muslim activists from the Middle East and South Asia were rallying together for a pan-Islamic cause—to prevent the final collapse of the caliphate. These movements swayed both Riḍā and his rival, who may well be described as Muslim nationalists. Yet they embraced radically different strategies for independence. One aimed for national purity, the other for national power. This discrepancy led to the battle of fatwas—a forgotten battle that is worth remembering because it suggests some of the difficulties that Muslim jurists of Arab or Indian ancestry faced during the interwar period when they tried to turn Islamic law into an effective nationalist discourse.

Democratization (Volume 27, Issues 6 & 7)

State of the world 2019: autocratization surges – resistance grows

By: Seraphine F. Maerz, Anna Lührmann, Sebastian Hellmeier, Sandra Grahn, Staffan I. Lindberg

Abstract: This article analyses the state of democracy in the world in 2019. We demonstrate that the “third wave of autocratization” is accelerating and deepening. The dramatic loss of eight democracies in the last year sets a new record in the rate of breakdowns. Exemplifying this crisis is Hungary, now the EU’s first ever authoritarian member state. Governmental assaults on civil society, freedom of expression, and the media are proliferating and becoming more severe. A new and disturbing trend is that the quality of elections is now also deteriorating in many countries. Nevertheless, there are also positive signs: pro-democracy protests reached an all-time high in 2019. People are taking to the streets to protest the erosion of democracies and challenge dictators. Popular protests have contributed to substantial democratization in 22 countries over the last ten years – including Armenia, Tunisia, and Ecuador. This was before the Covid-19 pandemic. Responses to the crisis, including many states of emergencies, risk further accelerating autocratization.

Mobile emergency rule in Turkey: legal repression of protests during authoritarian transformation

By: Mert Arslanalp, T. Deniz Erkmen

Abstract: One of the challenges of autocratizing governments in regimes with nominally democratic institutions is how to repress fundamental democratic rights while claiming to uphold the rule of law. Post-9/11 socio-legal debates point to the emergency rule as a legal framework within democratic constitutions that can be potentially used to hollow out citizens’ rights. But the study of emergency rule is often limited to its enactment under extraordinary situations. This article takes the crucial case of Turkey’s authoritarian transformation and develops the concept of mobile emergency rule to argue that emergency-like suspensions of rights also occur in highly localized and temporary forms in the absence of an officially declared state of emergency. Based on an original dataset, it examines all legal bans on protests issued by authorities between 2007 and 2018 in the name of maintaining order and security. The results illustrate how the use of this tool dovetailed with key turning points of authoritarian transformation in Turkey and reflected the changing needs of the regime as it tried to build and sustain a new hegemonic project. In effect, mobile emergency rule created a highly ambiguous terrain for protest rights even before the declaration of state of emergency in July 2016.

Youth quotas and “Jurassic Park” politicians: age as a heuristic for vote choice in Tunisia’s new democracy

By: Kirstie Lynn Dobbs

Abstract: Countries that undergo a democratic transition often adopt youth quotas to ensure stability and legitimacy in the eyes of a potentially rebellious youth cohort. Tunisia followed this trend by instating a youth quota after undergoing a youth-led democratic revolution in 2011. This subsequently led to youth representing 52% of the candidates (aged 18–35) in the 2018 municipal elections. However, it has yet to be tested whether a candidate’s age matters when evaluating politicians and casting a ballot in elections among Tunisian voters. This article explores the link between age and candidate evaluations which has been largely understudied in the political behaviour literature. Using an original survey experiment fielded in Tunisia, I run a series of regressions that model the relationship between several age treatments and candidate evaluations. Overall, I find that most Tunisians do not use age as a heuristic cue when evaluating political candidates running for office with the exception of the oldest voters who tend to prefer a candidate that is in their 50s. These results showcase the potential limitations of youth quotas serving as a mechanism ascertaining governmental legitimacy in the eyes of young people.

Cross-ideological coalitions under authoritarian regimes: Islamist-left collaboration among Morocco’s excluded opposition

By: Alfonso Casani

Abstract: The 2011 popular uprisings across the MENA region demonstrated the organization of broad cross-ideological collaborations that were able to overcome some of the political cleavages that have traditionally characterized these societies, and more remarkably, the division between left-wing and Islamist actors. However, political tensions soon arose in the new post-uprising scenarios, with secularist-Islamist polarization increasing once again across the region. Contrary to this trend, Morocco saw an increase in collaboration between the opposition Left and Islamist movements. This article delves into the reasons why the opposition in Morocco has been able to avoid polarization, with, instead, an increase in cross-ideological coalitions opposing the regime. To that end, it analyses the rapprochement between the Islamist association Al-Adl wa-l-Ihsane and the country’s left-wing parties, more noticeably the Democratic Way party. It argues that it is due to the excluded nature of these actors and their lack of electoral interests, that they have overcome political pressures and found new forms of collaboration. By drawing on an extensive corpus of in-depth interviews carried out in the Rabat-Casablanca region, this article examines the development of cross-ideological coalitions in the Moroccan opposition, while contributing, more broadly, to the study of cross-ideological coalitions under authoritarian regimes.

Authoritarian diffusion or cooperation? Turkey’s emerging engagement with China

By: Gözde Yilmaz, Nilgün Eliküçük Yıldırım

Abstract: With the recent trend of autocratization in the world, scholars have begun to focus on authoritarian diffusion, cooperation, and autocracy promotion. Despite still being at an early stage theoretically and empirically, this expansion of diffusion literature has informed us about the possibilities of authoritarian diffusion and cooperation. In contrast to the recent focus on regional patterns of authoritarian diffusion and cooperation, this article explores a global process of authoritarian cooperation between Turkey and China. Focusing on the growing economic and political linkages between Turkey and China, we argue that, rather than authoritarian diffusion or autocracy promotion from China to Turkey, the increasing pragmatic cooperation among authoritarian states is the new game in town, shaped by interest-driven calculations to bolster power internally and internationally.

Electoral Studies (Volumes 67 & 68)

Social identity and coethnic voting in the Middle East: Experimental evidence from Qatar

By: Bethany Shockley, Justin J. Gengler

Abstract: What explains widespread coethnic voting in the Middle East? The prevailing understanding revolves around clientelism: the view that MENA citizens support coethnic parties and candidates in order to most easily or effectively extract resources from the patrimonial state. Previous research has thus neglected non-economic explanations of ethnic-based preferences and outcomes in MENA elections, including social biases long identified in other settings. This study presents findings from a conjoint survey experiment in Qatar, where symbolic elections lack distributional implications. Consistent with expectations derived from social identity theory, results reveal strong favoritism of cosectarian candidates, whereas objective candidate qualifications do not affect voter preferences. Bias is especially strong in a policy domain – promoting religious values – that prompts respondents to consider the candidate’s ethnic identity. Findings offer clear evidence that ethnic-based voting in Qatar and likely elsewhere is not merely epiphenomenal but can reflect actual preferences for members of social in-groups.

Vote with your rabbi: The electoral effects of religious institutions in Israel

By: Michael Freedman

Abstract: How do religious parties mobilize local support and what impact does different political strategies have on neighborhoods? Previous literature focuses on the social welfare benefits distributed by religious parties. In this paper, I analyze how religious political parties in Israel generate grassroots support among voters by allying with Jewish religious institutions. Using original data, I examine the association between the timing of entry of religious institutions into neighborhoods and local voting patterns for Israeli national elections. I find that religious institutions are associated with a 4-percentage point increase in the local vote share for religious parties, where this effect is larger for religious institutions with connections to political parties. My results suggest that the primary mechanism driving these results are that these institutions influence the vote choice of existing residents by distributing tangible goods. In contrast, changes to the composition of the neighborhood through in-migration has a more limited effect on voting patterns. These findings highlight the impact of religious institutions on the social and political fabric of local communities.

European Journal of International Relations (Volume 26, Issue 3)

Frontier justice: international law and ‘lawless’ spaces in the “War on Terror”

By: Alexandria J Nylen

Abstract: How does the discourse of international law facilitate extraterritorial state violence? This paper synthesizes insights from International Relations, comparative politics, and legal studies in order to explore how the sovereign foundations of international law may render “frontier territories” exceptionally vulnerable to external military intervention. I argue that international law’s focus on sovereignty constitutes frontier territories as “ambiguous,” which leads to discursive conflicts over how to define these spaces, what is considered “legal” and “illegal” action within them, and who gets to define their status. All of this creates a conducive environment for powerful international governments to denigrate frontier territories as “lawless,” by rhetorically constructing them as exceptional legal spaces that do not deserve the same protections as areas ordered by sovereign ideals. To illuminate this empirically, I conduct a discourse analysis of 16 distinct legal documents from the Obama White House, including internal memorandums and public speeches on the legal standing of drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia.

Transforming refugees into migrants: institutional change and the politics of international protection

By: Lama Mourad, Kelsey P Norman

Abstract: Since the 2015 refugee “crisis,” much has been made of the distinction between the legal category of refugee and migrant. While migration scholars have accounted for the increased blurring of these two categories through explanations of institutional drift and policy layering, we argue that the intentional policies utilized by states and international organizations to minimize legal avenues for refugees to seek protection should also be considered. We identify four practices of policy “conversion” that have also led to the increasingly problematic distinction between migrants and refugees: (1) limiting access to territory through burden-shifting and other practices of extraterritorialization; (2) limiting access to asylum and local integration through procedural and administrative hindrances; (3) the use of group-based criteria as a basis of exclusion; (4) the inclusion of non-Convention criteria within resettlement schemes. Drawing upon a historical institutionalist approach and a wide array of empirical sources—including 3 years of combined primary field research conducted in Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey between 2013 and 2016—we demonstrate that states are actively pursuing a greater degree of control over the selection of refugees, in practice making refugee resettlement closer to another immigration track rather than a unique status that compels state responsibility.

European Journal of Political Research (Volume 59, Issue 4)

In‐group solidarity or out‐group hostility in response to terrorism in France? Evidence from a regression discontinuity design

By: Steven M. Van Hauwaert, Robert A. Huber

Abstract: Conventional wisdom holds that terrorism has a wide‐ranging impact on a polity. At the same time, a complementary, yet less extensive body of research discusses the impact of terrorism on the crux of representative democracy, namely its citizens. In contribution to that literature, and to further explore how external shocks affect public opinions, we propose a two‐dimensional analytical framework to examine the effects of the November 2015 terrorist events in Paris and Saint Denis. Drawing from extant scholarship, we argue that we can expect both in‐group solidarity and out‐group hostility to increase in direct response to these events. This study relies on a regression discontinuity design to analyse a representative survey (DREES) that was in the field at the time of the events. Findings are two‐fold. First, and perhaps surprisingly, we find no conclusive evidence of increasing out‐group hostilities as a direct consequence of the terrorist events. Second, we find a definite strengthening of in‐group solidarity indicators following the events. This not only confirms that citizens adjust their opinions in response to environmental stimuli, but also highlights the democratic resilience of citizens, particularly when faced with a collective threat. Altogether, these findings add to our understanding of why and how individual behaviour changes in light of exogenous shocks.

Global Change Peace & Security (Volume 32, Issue 3)

Opposition from within – Israeli soldiers resist the occupation

By: Maia Hallward, Lina Tuschling

Abstract: Protests in response to Israeli military action in the Occupied Territories have a long history in Israel. While such opposition movements in many countries are comprised of civil society activists, the dynamics of protest differ in Israel because of the country’s mandatory military service. From the 1980s to present day, former and current Israeli soldiers have used a wide range of methods, tactics, and strategies to challenge Israeli military actions. Using insights from nonviolent resistance theories, we examine how the approaches and goals of military opposition groups in Israel have changed over the past decades. Specifically, we develop a typology to explain why different types of protest arise from within the Israeli Defense Force that garner strong reactions – whether laudatory or derogatory – from the Israeli government and general public. The paper concludes with lessons learned for military opposition movements in the context of nonviolent resistance theory and practice.

Government and Opposition (Volume 55, Issue 4)

Ambiguities of Radicalism After Insurgents Become Rulers: Conflicting Pressures on Revolutionary State Power in Western Sahara’s Liberation Movement

By: Alice Wilson

Abstract: Armed insurgents seeking to seize the state often aim to transform the nature of state power. Yet for insurgents who become ruling authorities, how do radical visions of state power influence governance after the urgency of war? This article examines state-building in the liberation movement for Western Sahara, a partially recognized state which has ruled an exiled civilian Sahrawi population in Algeria from wartime through to a prolonged ceasefire. Drawing on in-depth qualitative fieldwork, and engaging with theories of radicalism, post-war sociopolitical reconstruction and anomalous forms of state power, the article traces how post-ceasefire international and domestic contexts created conflicting pressures and opportunities for both the moderation, and the continuation, of Sahrawi refugees’ wartime radical governance. This case of insurgents-turned-rulers suggests how radicalism and moderation are overlapping processes, how moderation is not necessarily an ‘undoing’ of radicalism, and how radical ideas matter for leadership and grassroots militants in different ways.

Cross-Class and Cross-Ideological Convergences over Time: Insights from the Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutionary Uprisings

By: Gianni Del Panta

Abstract: The 2010–11 Arab uprisings continue to prompt a great deal of discussion. By focusing specifically on Tunisia and Egypt, this article aims to present a more dynamic account of revolutionary moments in these countries. It does so in two ways. First, the changing nature of structures and mechanisms of authoritarian domination over time is explored. Second, the convergences of different social classes and political forces during the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt are not treated as unique and static occurrences. By showing how the two revolutionary networks gradually emerged and enlarged, a truer picture is thus provided. By doing so, this article aims to contribute to a more nuanced interpretation of the two revolutionary outbursts and to the development of the fourth generation of revolutionary studies.

Explaining the Kurdish Democratic Union Party's Self-Governance Practices in Northern Syria, 2012–18

By: Burcu Özçelik

Abstract: On 17 March 2016 the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (Partîya Yekîtî ya Dêmokrat, PYD) unilaterally proclaimed the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria in three cantons, Afrin and Kobane in northern Aleppo province, and Jazira in Hassakeh. The party's ideology claims to endorse the participation of civilians and certain Arab tribes and minorities in its governance councils. However, the PYD and its armed militia, the People's Protection Units (Yekîneyên Parastina Gel, YPG), have been accused of committing human rights violations against civilians and installing one-party rule. Given its stated normative commitments and ideas on democracy, this ideology–practice gap begs the question: what factors facilitated the PYD to conform to its democratic pronouncements on power-sharing and inclusivity under certain conditions and, conversely, what factors permitted their abandonment or violation? By analysing the PYD's governance record and strategies in northern Syria between 2012 and 2018, this article argues that the PYD displayed a mix of democratic adherence and transgression in its governance practices. This has meant that the PYD engaged hybrid mechanisms of democracy-building, coercion, displacement and violence in order to consolidate territorial control and assert ideological hegemony. I argue that complex networks of local, state and third-party interests complicate Kurdish self-rule in Syria, requiring a multilevel approach to understand the interrelated challenges to democratization in the post-war transition. I identify four major types of relations that have influenced the PYD's hybrid governance practices: intra-organizational factionalism; civilian–rebel relations, especially in mixed demographic areas; international sponsors and rivals; and rebel–regime relations.

International Affairs (Volume 96, Issues 5 & 6)

Sexual violence in the border zone: the EU, the Women, Peace and Security agenda and carceral humanitarianism in Libya

By: Paul Kirby

Abstract: The last decades have seen a striking increase in international policy seeking to protect against conflict-related sexual violence. Norms of protection are, however, unevenly applied in practice. In this article, I address one such situation: the significant and growing evidence of widespread sexual violence at detention sites in Libya where migrants are imprisoned after interception on the Mediterranean Sea. Drawing on policy documents, human rights reports, interviews with advocates and officials, and an analysis of debates in the EU Parliament and UNHCR's humanitarian evacuation scheme in Libya, I examine how abuses have been framed, and with what effects. I argue that decisions about protection are shaped not only by raced and gendered categorizations but also by a demarcation of bodies in the border zone, where vulnerability is to some degree acknowledged, but agency and responsibility also disavowed by politicians, diplomats and practitioners. The wrong of sexual violence is thus both explicitly recognized but also re-articulated in ways that lessen the obligations of the same states and regional organizations that otherwise champion the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. The combination of mass pullback and detention for many migrants with evacuation for a vulnerable few is an example of carceral humanitarianism, where ‘rescue’ often translates into confinement and abuse for unwelcome populations. My analysis highlights the importance of the positionality of migrants in the Libyan border zone for the form of recognition they are afforded, and the significant limits to the implementation of the EU's gender-responsive humanitarian policies in practice.

Bytes not waves: information communication technologies, global jihadism and counterterrorism

By: Michael Chertoff, Patrick Bury, Daniela Richterova

Abstract: Rapoport's conceptualization of the last, religious wave of four global waves remains highly influential. But it, and other typologies, have placed too little emphasis on the influence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the evolution of global jihadist activities. This article makes two new contributions by developing both a new ICT-based typology for understanding jihadist evolutions, and by focusing on successful attacks. Our central argument is that ICTs’ impact on global jihadism has facilitated dramatic transformations of its strategy, organization and tactics since the 1990s, and that these can be understood as four overlapping iterations. ‘Jihadism 1.0’ describes the hierarchical, top-down directed and overseas financed and trained terrorist organizations that conducted iconic attacks at the turn of the millennium. Jihadism has since evolved into ‘Jihadism 2.0’ and then ‘Jihadism 3.0’. Jihadism 2.0 recognizes that a number of smaller, coordinated attacks can have a global impact. Jihadism 3.0 is inspired terrorism that has no links to the central terror organization, utilizing individuals and crude tactics. Finally, jihadism is evolving toward ‘Jihadism 4.0’, or cyberterrorism. We argue this typology provides a useful basis for scholars and practitioners to conceptualize the ICT dynamics influencing global jihadism, and these may be applicable to other global terrorists. The conclusion analyses how counter-terrorism services can respond to these evolutions and charts areas for future research.

Water weaponization in the Syrian conflict: strategies of domination and cooperation

By: Marwa Daoudy

Abstract: How do actors weaponize water in intrastate conflicts? Existing typologies of water weaponization make deterministic differentiations between state and non-state actors and invoke opaque labels like ‘terrorism’. Furthermore, these typologies ignore how various actors engaged in violent conflict also cooperate over water, and whether water weaponization occurs beyond war. I propose a new typology for water weaponization in an analysis of the case of Syria, drawing on the leaked ‘ISIS papers’ as well as primary sources and interviews. The study begins by charting how the Ba'athist regime used water as a weapon of domination and legitimacy against its Kurdish population with infrastructure that would later facilitate the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria's (ISIS) ability to take hold of northeast Syria. I then turn to how non-state armed groups like ISIS and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) have adopted strategies of water weaponization similar to the Syrian government by targeting and channelling water systems with major tactical implications. Finally, I show how enemy parties such as ISIS and the al-Assad regime weaponized cooperative water agreements to advance their mutual interests with violent implications for civilians. As such, I sort strategies of water weaponization into four categories: domination and legitimacy, military tools, military targets, and cooperation. In doing so, this new typology makes three main contributions, by: 1) accounting for how water is weaponized in state-society relations outside conflict; 2) refining existing definitions of water as a military tool and target; and 3) appraising the weapon-like effects of water cooperation.

Multinational security coalitions and the limits of middle power activism in the Middle East: the Saudi case

By: Rory Miller, Sarah Cardaun

Abstract: This article examines Saudi Arabia's decision in recent years to use novel and hitherto unexplored informal alliance formats, which we term multinational security coalitions (MSCs). This development was initiated by the new Saudi political leadership under King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who have a much greater inclination to pursue proactive foreign and security policies than their predecessors. However, it will be highlighted that beyond the priorities of individual personalities, this shift in Saudi Arabia's behaviour occurred against the backdrop of significant changes in the existing security environment, including the perceived withdrawal of the United States from the security affairs of the region during the presidency of Barack Obama, and crucially also Saudi Arabia's frustration over the failure of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to develop into a viable security mechanism. The article begins with the introduction of the key ideas relating to institutional design, the conceptual framework for this study. Section two outlines the most important reasons for Saudi Arabia's choice of the MSC format. The third section examines the strengths of the MSC format—especially informality, the resulting low entry-thresholds and the low risk of entrapment—that provided Saudi Arabia with partial and temporary success in recruiting coalition partners and thus bolstering its leadership role. The final section demonstrates, however, that ultimately MSCs are not a panacea. The informality of MSCs that makes it easy for the pivotal state to assemble a coalition also makes it hard for it to forge, and enforce, a common vision.

International Interactions (Volume 46, Issue 4)

Private military and security companies, corporate structure, and levels of violence in Iraq

By: Benjamin Tkach

Abstract: This article analyzes the effect of private military and security companies (PMSCs) on levels of civilian casualties in Iraqi governorates from 2004 to 2007. Within a principal-agent framework, we argue that the capacity to monitor and evaluate PMSC performance is conditioned by the availability of performance-related information. Crucially, PMSC corporate structure impacts the information available to the employer. Differences in PMSCs’ corporate structure (e.g., whether a firm is publicly traded or closed ownership) influences the disclosure of different levels of information about a firm’s performance. A closed ownership PMSC is opaque, obstructing access to information. Publicly traded PMSCs, by contrast, have legal obligations to release information on corporate performance, policies, and contracts. Closed ownership PMSCs are correlated with increases in the likelihood of civilian casualties while publicly traded PMSCs have no effect on civilian casualties.

International Political Science Review (Volume 41, Issues 4 & 5)

Democratic disillusionment? Desire for democracy after the Arab uprisings

By: Niels Spierings

Abstract: Have the Arab uprisings influenced the desire for democracy in the Middle East and North Africa? This study presents a systematic explanation of the different impact the uprisings had on people’s desire for democracy across the region. It applies the relatively new consequence-based theory of democratic attitudes, and integrates the notion of deprivation into it. The expectations derived from this framework are tested empirically by examining data from 45 public opinion surveys in 11 Middle East and North Africa countries (2001–2014) and combining them with a systematic country-level case comparison. The study shows that the desire for democracy drops mainly in countries of major protest and initial political liberalization, but no substantial democratization (e.g. Egypt, Morocco) indeed, and that a lack of major protest or initial reform (e.g. Algeria, Yemen) ‘prevents’ disillusionment. The seemingly exceptional Lebanese and Tunisian cases also show the mechanism holds for specific groups in society: Lebanese Sunnis and the poorest Tunisians.

A new approach to measuring legislators’ activity

By: Osnat Akirav

Abstract: How do we measure the activity of legislators? I argue that, in addition to using measures such as how many bills they pass, we must also consider activities such as parliamentary questions, early day motions, motions for the agenda and one-minute speeches. One means for doing so is Akirav’s activity scale developed in Israel. I use this scale to measure legislators’ activity in two additional political systems – the United States and the United Kingdom. I also identify the characteristics shared by the most active legislators and the least active. The findings indicate that opposition, junior and committee chair legislators are more active than other representatives. While previous studies have investigated the cost–benefit analysis in which legislators engage regarding where and how to invest their time in their legislative work, this study is the first to conduct such an analysis about both their legislative and non-legislative activities. This more complete picture reveals their incentives for engaging fully in parliamentary work.

On the construction of identities: An autoethnography from Turkey

By: Funda Gençoğlu

Abstract: In this article I analyze, on the basis of my personal experience, the discontents of contemporary Turkish politics; more specifically, neoliberal conservative hegemony, and its three manifestations: stability of instability; a religio-conservative gender regime; and anti-intellectualism. I illustrate how these manifestations are intertwined in the process of identity construction: how an individual’s identity as a citizen, as a woman, as an academic is being constantly constructed/de-constructed/reconstructed in a manner integral to the social and political context. The contribution of this article is threefold: it shows how personal experiences are a legitimate source of knowledge; it enables an understanding of how political identities are in a constant state of making; it challenges dominant conceptions of politics and the political through challenging binaries such as individual/social, personal/political, and emotional/rational.

Referendums as a political party gamble: A critical analysis of the Kurdish referendum for independence

By: Dylan O’Driscoll, Bahar Baser

Abstract: This article brings the case of the Kurdish referendum for independence into the wider literature on independence referendums. It examines the decision to hold an independence referendum and explores the pre-referendum conditions and the post-referendum consequences. The article argues that the referendum in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq was held due to internal political competition and party politics rather than the ripeness of the timing for independence. Theoretically, this article adds a new dimension to the scholarship on independence referendums, as it demonstrates that the purposes of independence referendums can go beyond the question put to the population – such as consolidating popular support by connecting to the population’s nationalist desires, despite independence not being a realistic prospect. Finally, it brings further support for previous findings of the importance of international support for independence referendums.

The creation of new states through interim agreements: Ambiguous compromises, intra-communal divisions, and contested identities

By: Nina Caspersen

Abstract: For some separatist movements, interim agreements offer a possible route to recognized statehood. However, such agreements require these movements to compromise on their demand for immediate independence and risk the preservation of the joint state. How is this reconciled with their claim to self-determination and how is it received by the community they claim to represent? This article examines four post-Cold War cases where an interim agreement has been accepted (New Caledonia, Bougainville, Montenegro and South Sudan). It finds that interim agreements are more easily accepted when the community is significantly divided on the issue of independence and when an inclusive and flexible construction of the community predominates. Somewhat paradoxically, this suggests that new states are more likely to emerge in cases without a determined, cohesive, ethnically defined demand for independence.

International Political Sociology (Volume 14, Issue 3)

Requiem for Risk: Non-knowledge and Domination in the Governance of Weapons Circulation

By: Anna Stavrianakis

Abstract: Analyses of risk in international political sociology and critical security studies have unpicked its operation as a preventive and preemptive political technology. This article examines the countercase of the governance of weapons circulation, in which risk has been mobilized as a permissive technology. Examining UK arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the war in Yemen, I demonstrate how risk assessment constitutes a regime of recklessness in which risk is made not to matter in three main ways: systematic not-knowing about international humanitarian law violations; claims of unintentional harm and practices of reputation management; and future-proofing the inherent temporality of risk. I argue that risk has served to facilitate arms exports despite the potential for harm: it has been mobilized as a mode of domination. This does not suggest a failure of risk as a governance strategy or a contradiction in its operation, however. Rather, it illustrates the generative character of risk as a regulatory technology in contexts marked by asymmetrical power dynamics. If the potential for domination is built into the operation of risk, we need a requiem for risk and a search for alternative grounds of repoliticization that can generate more adequate modes of regulation and accountability.

Aesthetic Elisions: The Ruins of Palmyra and the “Good Life” of Liberal Multiculturalism

By: Elif Kalaycioglu

Abstract: Palmyra's capture and destruction by ISIS resonated widely with an international audience. Drawing on Lefebvre's theory of the production of space and affect theory's key insights on object attachment, this article argues that the attachment to Palmyra manifests desire for a particular “good life” of an idealized liberal multiculturalism: a virtuous cycle of trade and tolerance represented by aesthetic flourishing. This widely circulated representation is grounded on excisions of power and inequality. I analyze the political stakes of such excision through the invisibility of Tadmor, positioned as a neighboring town rather than an afterlife of Palmyra in this representation. Through Tadmor, we see Palmyra as entangled in economic inequality and consolidation of power and complicit in their elision through its aesthetic representation as a multicultural haven. At stake is the question of what it means to attach the desire for coexistence to this representation of Palmyra at the detriment of places like Tadmor. While this paper makes its key intervention into the affective terrain and limits of a current global political moment, my argument also contributes to discussions of the global production and circulation of affect, bringing into view its attachment to sites and spaces.

International Studies Quarterly (Volume 64, Issue 3)

Swinging Shale: Shale Oil, the Global Oil Market, and the Geopolitics of Oil

By: Inwook Kim

Abstract: Is shale oil “revolutionizing” the global oil market and the geopolitics of oil? If so, how? While two aspects of the shale boom—a new source of supply and a cause for the price collapse in 2014–2015—dominate the conventional wisdom, I argue that the most revolutionary change is the least understood aspect of shale oil—shale oil producers’ rise as new swing suppliers due to its unique extraction technique and cost structure. Shale oil producers also differ from traditional swing producers in motives, contexts, and an amount of accessible excess capacity such that while shale oil lowers the medium-term price ceiling, it does not eliminate short-term price volatility. By examining the geopolitics of oil since the advent of shale oil, I analyze how such new market realities have or have not altered the US foreign policy on issues involving possible oil supply disruptions, Saudi Arabia's long-held special status in US grand strategy, rationale for US withdrawal from the Persian Gulf, and the foreign policy of China, the largest oil importer today, and Russia, a major petrostate.

Community-Level Postmaterialism and Anti-Migrant Attitudes: An Original Survey on Opposition to Sub-Saharan African Migrants in the Middle East

By: Matt Buehler, Kristin E Fabbe, Kyung Joon Han

Abstract: Why do native citizens of the Middle East and North Africa express greater opposition to certain types of migrants, refugees, and displaced persons? Why, particularly, do they express greater opposition to sub-Saharan African migrants? This article investigates these questions, leveraging results from an original, nationally representative survey of 2700 native Moroccan citizens. We find support for traditional theories, mostly developed from studies of Western Europe, that hypothesize that the perceived cultural, economic, and security threats migrants pose provoke citizen opposition to certain migrant subtypes. Diverging from past research, however, we argue that the importance of these threats waxes and wanes dramatically at the subnational level due to variation in community-level postmaterialism. In areas where economic development is high, and many citizens live in European-style conditions, postmaterialism—preoccupation with cultural, identity, and security-based concerns—helps to predict greater citizen opposition to sub-Saharan African migrants. However, in areas where economic development is low, and many citizens do not live like Europeans, this greater opposition to African migrants derives from economic concerns, notably job competition. While postmaterialism is considered an individual-level phenomenon, our work highlights its importance at the community level: The personal circumstances of citizens and the circumstances of the community in which they live interact to condition which perceived threats become more (or less) important to explaining anti-migrant attitudes.

Journal of Economic Cooperation and Development (Volume 41, Issue 3)

Challenges for the Islamic Finance and banking in post COVID era and the role of Fintech

By: M. Kabir Hassan, Mustafa Raza Rabbani, Mahmood Asad Moh’d Ali

Abstract: Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19) pandemic has created a huge disruption in the finance world and it poses another challenge to Islamic finance after the global financial crisis to provide an alternative and sustainable finance. Islamic finance has a large market share in industries such as, microfinance, small and medium enterprises, and retail lending. They are the worst hit during the ongoing pandemic. The magnitude of the ongoing financial crisis is expected to be different from the global financial crisis of 2008; therefore, it poses different challenges for Islamic finance and banking. It requires a different set of financial services, strategies, and technologies to overcome this challenge. Against such a backdrop, the present study aims to analyze the challenges posed by COVID19 to the Islamic finance and how disruptive technological innovation called Fintech can be utilized to address those challenges. The study also presents a critical analysis of the Islamic finance and the role of Islamic finance in creating a more sustainable financial system post COVID.

Journal of Peace Research (Volume 57, Issue 6)

Terrorism and internet censorship

By: Stephen A Meserve, Daniel Pemstein

Abstract: The internet provides a powerful tool to terror organizations, enhancing their public messaging, recruitment ability, and internal communication. In turn, governments have increasingly moved to disrupt terror organizations’ internet communications, and even democracies now routinely work to censor terrorist propaganda, and related political messaging, in the name of national security. We argue that democratic states respond to terror attacks by increasing internet censorship and broadening their capacity to limit the digital dissemination of information. This article builds on previous work suggesting this relationship, substantially improving measurement and estimation strategy. We use latent variable modeling techniques to create a new measure of internet censorship, cross nationally and over time, from internet firm transparency reports, and compare this measure to an expert-survey based indicator. Leveraging both measures, we use a variety of panel specifications to establish that, in democracies, increases in terror predict surges in digital censorship. Finally, we examine the posited relationship using synthetic control methods in a liberal democracy that experienced a large shock in terror deaths, France, showing that digital censorship ramped up after several large terrorist attacks.

Journal of Social History (Volume 53, Issue 3)

Counting the Population and the Wealth in an “Unruly” Land: Census Making as a Social Process in Ottoman Kurdistan, 1830–50  

By: Nilay Özok-Gündoğan

Abstract: This article examines the earliest modern Ottoman censuses in Kurdistan in the mid-nineteenth century from a social history perspective. Echoing the efforts of its contemporaries, the Ottoman state set out to conduct its first modern population census in 1830. This early census reflected the state’s aims for standardization and centralization, yet it was conducted “successfully” only in provinces geographically close to the capital. In Kurdistan, a border area controlled by ancient Kurdish chiefdoms and tribes, the census remained a herculean task for over four decades. Following recent society-centered views of global census history, this article approaches the modern Ottoman census experience in this early period as a social process rather than a top down enterprise. It argues that what determined the content, structure, and the format of these early censuses was not the discussions in the meeting rooms of the Ottoman imperial bureaucracy but social encounters between local and central, state and nonstate actors situated in the locality.

Perspectives on Politics (Volume 18, Issue 3)

A Path out of Patriarchy? Political Agency and Social Identity of Women Fighters

By: Güneş Murat Tezcür

Abstract: Violent movements in different parts of the world have employed large numbers of women fighters. I address the question of how and why so many women from diverse backgrounds join an ethnic insurgency. Informed by an intersectional approach, I suggest that when gender and ethnic inequalities overlap, an ethnic insurgency promising gender emancipation would have strong appeal among women. At the same time, the intersection of class and gender shapes distinctive patterns of mobilization among women of an ethnic minority. In particular, uneducated women with lower class backgrounds join the movement because it provides them with the most viable way out of patriarchal relations. I employ a multi-method research design to study a paradigmatic case of women in arms, the Kurdish insurgency. I use an original large dataset containing information about more than 9,000 militants, from extensive fieldwork entailing dozens of in-depth interviews, and an archival study of sources in primary languages. My findings reveal the effects of unequal relationships based on ethnicity, gender, and class on violent political mobilization and the ambivalent relationship between women’s political agency and empowerment.

Explaining Ethnoreligious Minority Targeting: Variation in U.S. Anti-Semitic Incidents

By: Ayal Feinberg

Abstract: Over the last two decades alone, the United States has suffered well over ten thousand religion-motivated hate crimes. While racism and religion-motivated prejudice have received considerable attention following the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville that resulted in deadly violence, there is little systematic scholarship evaluating where and when incidents targeting ethnoreligious minorities by non-state actors are likely to occur. Utilizing the FBI’s reported anti-Semitic hate crime data from 2001–2014, my main theoretical and empirical exercise is to determine which factors best explain where and when American ethnoreligious groups are likely to be targeted. I propose that there are four essential mechanisms necessary to explain variation in minority targeting: “opportunity” (target group concentration), “distinguishability” (target group visibility), “stimuli” (events increasing target group salience) and “organization” (hate group quantity). My models show that variables falling within each of these theoretical concepts significantly explain variation in anti-Semitic incidents in the United States. Of particular importance for scholars and practitioners alike, Israeli military operations and the number of active hate groups within a state play a major role in explaining anti-Semitic incident variation.

Political Science Quarterly (Volume 135, Issue 3)

Political Trust in Nonconsolidated Democracies: The Turkish Case in Comparative Perspective

By: Kursat Cinar, Tekin Kose

Abstract: Kursat Cinar and Tekin Kose explore individual- and country-level determinants of political trust in 17 nonconsolidated democracies with particular emphasis on the case of Turkey. They situate their findings in the growing body of literature on political trust, identifying similarities and differences, and offer insights on the correlates of political trust throughout the world.

Political Studies (Volume 68, Issue 4)

Enhancing the Legitimacy of Offices for Future Generations: The Case for Public Participation

By: Graham Smith

Abstract: Independent offices for future generations are rare among institutional designs that aim to ameliorate short-termism in democracies. Drawing on the experience of offices for future generations in Israel, Hungary, and Wales, the article argues that such institutions face at least three challenges to their legitimacy: first, the capacity of an unelected agency to constrain government and law-making; second, the ability of a single office to adequately represent the plurality of interests within and across future generations; and third, their political fragility and vulnerability. The article develops the counterintuitive argument that offices for future generations can enhance their democratic legitimacy through embedding systematic public participation in their activities, in particular through the institutionalization of deliberative mini-publics.

Review of International Political Economy (Volume 27, Issue 5)

Changing modes of market integration, domestic developmental capacities and state-business alliances: insights from Turkey’s automotive industry

By: Julia Langbein, Olga Markiewicz

Abstract: This article investigates how different modes of transnational integration shape developmental state capacities in peripheral economies. The Turkish automotive industry serves as an ideal case to investigate this question. Turkey is a country that was exposed to different integration strategies, and we can trace the effects of these changing strategies on the evolution of developmental state capacities in a strategic sector. We make two arguments: first, we argue that the character of the domestic state-business alliance is an important factor that filters the effect of different modes of integration on developmental state capacities. Second, we argue that in cases with limited state autonomy the shallow mode of integration helps to increase the political and economic power of pre-existing rent-seeking alliances and with it, to consolidate the institutional status quo. Should the state be endowed with larger autonomy from vested interests, it helps to preserve the institutional status quo of at least some developmental capacities. By contrast, the deep mode can alter the domestic balance of forces and help to induce institutional changes leading to increased developmental capacities. Our dynamic analysis reveals important insights into the developmental advantages and disadvantages of different modes of integration.

Review of Radical Political Economics (Volume 52, Issue 3)

Emerging Forms of Social-Union Organizing Under the New Conditions of Turkish Capitalism: A Class-Capacity Analysis

By: Efe Can Gürcan, Berk Mete

Abstract: How has Turkey’s working-class movement adapted to the new conditions of capitalism? What alternative forms of struggle have emerged to address precarization under neoliberalism? Providing a bottom-up account of social-union activism based on interviews with union activists, we argue that neoliberal capitalism structurally incapacitates working-class organizing in Turkey through a process of precarization, strongly expressed in the flexibilization of labor and further amplified by sociogeographical unevenness and cultural identities. These challenges are addressed through innovatory methods of bottomup organizing such as white-collar forums of exchange, internet activism, the accentuation of the emotional and gendered dynamics of class struggle, solidarity actions with blue collars, and various forms of street activism.

Third World Quarterly (Volume 41, Issues 9-11)

Hezbollah and the framing of resistance

By: Marco Nilsson

Abstract: Hezbollah is a holistic network whose social, political, military and cultural dimensions are all parts of a discourse of resistance. Conducting a qualitative frame analysis of speeches by Hezbollah’s General Secretary Nasrallah, supported by interviews with Hezbollah leadership privy to its ideology, this study analyses the construction of muqawama (resistance). It argues that resistance is a complex social phenomenon, which can be manifested, for example, in the differences in how resistance is framed in varying contexts, often addressing different audiences. However, three unifying themes emerged from the frame analysis: diversity of resistance, normalisation of resistance and social dimensions of resistance.

UNESCO, world heritage and the gridlock over Yemen

By: Lynn Meskell, Benjamin Isakhan

Abstract: Since March 2015, the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen has had devastating consequences for the country, its people and its rich cultural heritage. This article traces the responses of the world’s foremost multilateral body concerned with heritage promotion and protection, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Drawing on extensive interviews, archival research and long-term ethnographic research on UNESCO itself and, more specifically, its responses to the war in Yemen, it documents UNESCO’s profound failures in protecting Yemen’s heritage and in confronting the Saudi-led coalition. To do so, the article utilises the framework of ‘gridlock’ to analyse how and why multilateral bodies such as UNESCO become hamstrung in confronting powerful member states in conflict. The article concludes by arguing that UNESCO’s failures in Yemen hold powerful lessons about the role of multilateral institutions in addressing conflict.

The ‘Juffair dilemma’: Arab nationalism, alignment and ‘national-popular collective will’ in Bahrain

By: Hsinyen Lai

Abstract: This paper challenges ‘the myth’ of the demise of Arab nationalism after the Arab–Israeli War in 1967 that appears in the scholarship of international relations of the Middle East (IRME). I argue instead that Arab nationalism plays a constitutive role in ideologically linking the issue of Bahrain’s post-colonial state sovereignty and foreign policy on alignment, showing its political salience after 1967 in what I call ‘the Juffair dilemma’: the Al Khalifa regime’s dilemma in aligning with the US after Bahrain’s formal independence. Drawing on Antonio Gramsci’s ‘national-popular collective will’ to re-conceptualise Arab nationalism, the paper further argues that the impact of Arab nationalism on Bahrain’s alignment was revealed through a political struggle between the Al Khalifa regime and the Bahraini New Arab Left, corresponding to wider regional and international anti-imperialist movements in the context of the Cold War. This struggle manifested Arab nationalism as a non-collective will, in which ideological disconnections existed between ‘the people’ and the regime, in Bahrain. It then created the context where the issue of alignment was related to the contestation of sovereignty and the Palestinian question, which was the source of the Al Khalifa regime’s dilemma in making alignment with the US.

Political solutions among Palestinian university students: different models and conceptions

By: Fathi Nemer

Abstract: Once a baseline resolution to the question of Palestine, the two-state solution has become contested after decades of failed negotiation and renewed support for a one-state solution. This study measures Palestinian university students’ understandings of these different solutions through a representative survey. Results indicate that despite being unconvinced by it, the majority of respondents prefer a two-state solution, although their conception of its specificities differs to that of the Palestinian Authority. Most respondents held unclear ideas of the meaning of the one-state solution. Finally, a model based on analysis of this data explains the reasons and circumstances behind students’ preferences.

American Economic Review (Volume 110, Issue 10)

Misperceived Social Norms: Women Working Outside the Home in Saudi Arabia

By: Leonardo Bursztyn, Alessandra L. González, David Yanagizawa-Drott

Abstract: We show that the vast majority of young married men in Saudi Arabia privately support women working outside the home (WWOH) and substantially underestimate support by other similar men. Correcting these beliefs increases men's (costly) willingness to help their wives search for jobs. Months later, wives of men whose beliefs were corrected are more likely to have applied and interviewed for a job outside the home. In a recruitment experiment with a local company, randomly informing women about actual support for WWOH leads them to switch from an at-home temporary enumerator job to a higher-paying, outside-the-home version of the job.

American Journal of Political Science (Volume 64, Issue 3)

Can Terrorism Abroad Influence Migration Attitudes at Home?

By: Tobias Böhmelt, Vincenzo Bove, Enzo Nussio

Abstract: This article demonstrates that public opinion on migration “at home” is systematically driven by terrorism in other countries. Although there is little substantive evidence linking refugees or migrants to most recent terror attacks in Europe, news about terrorist attacks can trigger more negative views of immigrants. However, the spatial dynamics of this process are neglected in existing research. We argue that feelings of imminent danger and a more salient perception of migration threats do not stop at national borders. The empirical results based on spatial econometrics and data on all terrorist attacks in Europe for the post‐9/11 period support these claims. The effect of terrorism on migration concern is strongly present within a country but also diffuses across states in Europe. This finding improves our understanding of public opinion on migration, as well as the spillover effects of terrorism, and it highlights crucial lessons for scholars interested in the security implications of population movements.

Repression Technology: Internet Accessibility and State Violence

By: Anita R. Gohdes

Abstract: This article offers a first subnational analysis of the relationship between states' dynamic control of Internet access and their use of violent repression. I argue that where governments provide Internet access, surveillance of digital information exchange can provide intelligence that enables the use of more targeted forms of repression, in particular in areas not fully controlled by the regime. Increasing restrictions on Internet accessibility can impede opposition organization, but they limit access to information on precise targets, resulting in an increase in untargeted repression. I present new data on killings in the Syrian conflict that distinguish between targeted and untargeted events, using supervised text classification. I find that higher levels of Internet accessibility are associated with increases in targeted repression, whereas areas with limited access experience more indiscriminate campaigns of violence. The results offer important implications on how governments incorporate the selective access to communication technology into their strategies of coercion.

Arab Media & Society (Issue 30)

Impact of US Drama Binge-Watching in the Emirates: Third-Person Effect and Cultural Self-Conceptual

By: Azza Abdel-Azim Mohamed Ahmed

Abstract: The study investigates respondents’ perception of the negative effects of US drama binge-watching on their cultural values as compared with its perceived effects on the cultural values of others. The study helps in understanding the extent to which Arab residents in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) perceive media’s imperialist influence upon themselves as compared with others. It examines the perceptual and behavioral components of the third-person effect (TPE) in relation to binge-watching TV. Cultural background traits (individualism and collectivism) are studied as an intervening variable. The results showed that binge-watchers of US drama tend to perceive the potential negative influences of US drama to exist more for others than for themselves. The presence of individualist vs collectivist cultural tendency did not have a significant impact on the workings of TPE. The perceptual component of TPE was proved, while the behavioral component was not significant.

The Role of Smartphone Applications in Risk and Natural Disaster Communication Management (Arabic)

By: Shaymaa Salem and Dina Elkhattat

Abstract: Natural disasters are one of the most dangerous challenges facing societies because of the heavy human, economic, and social losses they cause, besides the damages in infrastructure and holdings. While it is difficult to prevent some risks or disasters, the efficiency and effectiveness of communications during these periods can reduce their consequences and serious damage, especially in light of the development of digital communication technology, the increased use of social media platforms, and the widespread use of smartphones that have come to be an essential part of our daily activities. In this context, thousands of smartphone applications have emerged in various fields including commercial, medical, industrial, entertainment, public services, etc. Faced with grave risks and disasters, the importance of smartphone technology has developed, which has helped to mitigate the devastating effects of such disasters by saving the lives of thousands of citizens and enhancing the ability of affected communities to help themselves. This study adopts the case study method with the aim of extrapolation and reasoning, by reviewing the most popular smartphone applications used in risk and disaster communication management. To explore the role of these applications in increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of risk and disaster communications and their benefits in reducing the serious damage caused by these disasters. The study concluded a set of results; researchers emphasize the important role of smartphone applications as an integrated information guide to educate users about all types of natural disasters and risks, and as an interactive social network, that saves many lives, property, and natural resources. Moreover, the researchers concluded a proposed model that illustrates six quality standards of smartphone applications in general, and in times of emergency and natural disasters in particular in terms of operating specifications, information quality, design quality, reliability, interactive, privacy, and security.

Factors Influencing Public Attitudes Towards Paying for Online News: Field study (Arabic)

By: Elsayed Bekhit Darwish and Haythem M. Younis

Abstract: Despite the implementation of new business models in several Western media organizations, most Arab newspapers have not yet explored these models, and little is known about public attitudes towards their willingness to pay for online news. The study sought to identify factors that encourage the public to pay. It was applied to a sample of 530 newspaper consumers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Oman. The study concluded that there are unfavorable trends in the public regarding their interest in following up on the news and did not show willingness for paying for online news. Most of them prefer to pay for entertainment materials. The study found that demographic variables such as age and income were important indicators of the public’s willingness to pay. Most respondents were not yet exposed to the paywall and anticipated difficulty in implementing the culture of paying for online news in Arab societies. They also expected that many print newspapers will disappear in the near future, and the idea of paying for online news was not seen favorably.

Freedom Issues Management in Digital and Traditional Media Platforms: A Comparative Study among Egyptian and Saudi Youth (Arabic)

By: Souraya A. El Badaoui and Bassant Attia

Abstract: With the expansion of the digital public sphere, tackling freedom issues has been widely transferred from traditional mass media to digital platforms. Based on the constructive approach that demonstrates the recipient’s active ability to give meaning to what he/she is exposed to, and what "Binge-watch", this study aims at identifying the various visions of youth in Egypt and Saudi Arabia on the political, social, and religious freedom issues discussed in series presented on Netflix digital platform as well as traditional television channels. The study adopted a survey approach to a sample made up of (300) Egyptian and Saudi youth. Thus, this study reveals the excessive increase of binge-watching Netflix series at the side of the collected sample of Egyptian and Saudi youth, in comparison to the decline in the rate of their exposure to series presented on traditional TV channels. Furthermore, the study also shows the limited role of traditional and new media platforms in forming the youth vision of freedom issues. It is, moreover, manifested that generating meanings related to such issues is subject to several internal and external factors associated with youth and their surrounding context, not to their exposure to any platform viewing patterns or content.

Knowledge, understanding, and adherence to Social Media regulations by youth in the United Arab Emirates

By: Thouraya Snoussi, Ahmed Farouk Radwan and Sheren Ali Mousa

Abstract: The study deals with legislation and guidelines related to the use of virtual space, especially social media. A special focus has been placed on youth in the United Arab Emirates, where a set of regulations are being implemented, in addition to a series of media campaigns to spread awareness and ensure positive use compatible with Emirati culture. Thus, this article aims to explore young people's level of knowledge, understanding, and adherence towards social media regulations. The authors raised the problem related to perceptions and behaviors of a sample of students enrolled in two Emirate Universities in this regard. The stress was put on the correlation between participants’ understanding and their practices, to test their adherence to the online regulations they are aware of; three hundred (300) students volunteered to answer the online survey questions via Google Forms. Search data were then analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics (version 26). The results highlighted a heavy use of social media but a moderate level of awareness, as participants announced a wide and regular range of virtual practices with limited knowledge of general regulations. In the meantime, a special understanding of the UAE's standards on the use of social media was tracked, which led to a level of adherence to it. The authors recommend intensifying awareness campaigns that focus on raising the level of knowledge and understanding of rational uses of digital platforms and increasing compliance with regulations among young people.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Diffusion of Fake News through Social Media in the Arab World

By: Hussein Khalifa, Mujeeb Al-Absy, Sherif Badran, Tamer Alkadash Qais Almaamari, and Muskan Nagi

Abstract: Social media platforms are among the most widely used sources of information in the world. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, the public needs access to timely and reliable information about the disease symptoms and their prevention. Thus, this study aims to determine the respondents’ perception of their trust level in the information published on social networking sites regarding the coronavirus. In addition, it aims to identify the most popular social media sites spreading rumors related to coronavirus. Further, it explores the respondents’ interaction with news and information relating to coronavirus published on social media. A non-probability sampling technique was used. The questionnaire was administered to respondents through the internet; posted on social media accounts, internet newsgroups, discussion groups, and emails sent to colleagues and friends to respond to the questionnaire. A total of 1274 self-selected cases from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates were investigated. This study revealed that respondents have more confidence in the information published by Twitter, Followed by Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Facebook. However, they have less confidence in the information published by Tik Tok or other networks. Regarding spreading rumors, the study found that the most popular social networking platform spreading rumors related to coronavirus is WhatsApp. Further, the study found that respondents are interactive with all news and information of coronavirus published on social media.

Virtual Brand Communities: Engagement Profiles and Typology

By: Ahmed Taher and Heba El Shahed

Abstract: Within the prevalent digital communication era, users have utilized digital connectivity to form social aggregations and virtual communities (VC) with unique features.  Recently, millions of internet users have joined one or more brand virtual communities to serve their communication, knowledge-seeking, entertainment, and self-fulfillment needs. Virtual communities represent different contexts, objectives, and technical configurations catering to diverse consumption patterns. This article is the first to present virtual communities’ typology focusing on passion, professional, social, and commercial brand communities. This article also explores a comparative framework for brand communities’ engagement profiles in the four types of brand communities. Moreover, it outlines recommendations for future research relating to VC’s engagement in behavioral studies.

The Effect of using Artificial Intelligence Technologies in Presenting News Stories in Virtual Reality Immersive Experiences (Arabic)

By: Marwa Atyah

Abstract: This study aims at uncovering the effect of using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques on two levels of virtual reality (360° video and immersive 3D) while presenting news stories in recipients’ immersive experiences. To achieve this goal, a field experiment was designed to collect the feedback and responses from individuals. Later, we designed and applied the immersive measure on these responses and found that there are differences for recipients while using 360° video and immersive 3D in the spatial dimension during the experiment. On the other hand, there is no difference between the two technologies in terms of the dimensions of time or sense. The results also showed that the 360° video technology supports the knowledge dimension when compared to immersive 3D. From this study, we can conclude that applying immersive journalism with the support of virtual reality technologies has started to appear clearly in the media field, especially with the major strides in AI technologies that support digital platform algorithms being used in presenting this kind of content.

Gender and Issues of Digital Identity among Arab Women: An Ethnographic Study of a Sample of Facebook Users in Algeria (Arabic)

By: Mostapha Tabet and Hanane Hadji

Abstract: Not available

“I'll See You on Zoom!" International Educators' Perceptions of Online Teaching Amid, and Beyond, Covid-19

By: Adity Saxena and Sahar Khamis

Abstract: When the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world in 2020, it affected every aspect of life, including education. The spread of this pandemic compelled the world to shift from traditional classroom education to online learning. This exploratory qualitative research study investigates the critical and timely topic of the sudden transition to online teaching amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It studies its multiple implications through in-depth interviews with a diverse group of international educators from different higher education institutions, representing different nationalities, ethnicities, genders, ranks, and generations. The findings reflect an early snapshot of the continuous teaching and learning development efforts on a large scale, across different regions of the world, and provide insights for future research and practice in the field of international education. The results also reveal some areas of concern in the educational digital environment, requiring further investigation moving forward, such as the digital divide, the gender gap, especially the gender digital gap, and the importance of meeting the needs of students with various physical and mental disabilities. The study offers suggestions to improve online education strategies, both amid the pandemic and in the post-pandemic era.

Daesh and the Power of Media and Message

By: Jamileh Kadivar

Abstract: This paper, as a part of an on-going research project, examines Daesh's media (2014-2017) and seeks to provide a deeper understanding of how Daesh spreads its messages. It focuses on the importance of media as one of the main factors behind Daesh’s power. It also demonstrates that in order to export a powerful self-image to the outside world, Daesh considers media a significant part of Jihad, and consequently perceives the media war as equally, or even more important than the military war.  In this process, Daesh relies on its own media to spread its content, while mainstream media enthusiastically release the news relevant to Daesh. Besides studying Daesh’s media, this paper highlights the importance of ‘message’ for Daesh: to present itself as a powerful and a victorious actor, while seeking to portray a weak and coward-like picture of its enemies to the outside world. This paper also examines the group’s communication strategy.

Countering Counterfeits: The Digital Challenge of Fake News

By: Abdulrahman Elsamni

Abstract: This article reviews the most recent academic scholarship and professional literature pertinent to fake news, in order to provide a better understanding of its challenge in the digital era. In so doing, the article outlines fake news phenomenon, its political and financial motives, its impacts on quality journalism, as well as the controversy surrounding its effects, particularly with regard to social media, drawing examples from Germany, the United States, and Egypt, and discussing possible practices to counter the digital challenge of fake news.

Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (Issue 384)

The Ördekburnu and Katumuwa Stelae: Some Reflections on Two Grabdenkmäler

By: K. Lawson Younger Jr.

Abstract: The recent discovery of the Katumuwa Stele and the new edition of the Ördekburnu Stele have invigorated the study of ancient Yādiya/Samʾal, in particular the study of its Grabdenkmäler. This article will investigate some of the ways in which the two are mutually informing of one another. It will address some of the important interpretive difficulties in these monuments, especially as they bear on religion in that ancient polity.

Marble Sculptures from the Great Eastern Baths of Gerasa (Jordan): The Sources of the Marbles

By: Khaled Al-Bashaireh, Thomas M. Weber-Karyotakis, Nizar Abu-Jaber, Thomas Lepaon

Abstract: This paper aims to examine the provenance of Roman marble statues uncovered from the Eastern Roman Baths (Gerasa of the Decapolis, Jordan) during the 2016 and 2017 excavation campaigns. The samples were characterized using magnifying lenses, an x-ray diffractometer, a stable isotope mass spectrometer, and a polarized light microscope. The results show that the Aphrodite and drapery marbles are dolomitic and most probably from the Cape Vathy of Thassos Island (Greece); the Asklepios and Zeus marbles are fine-grained and most probably from Docimium (Turkey); the Melopmene, Demetrius Aphrodite, and eagle marbles are fine-grained and most probably from Penteli (Greece); the dancing satyr and Apollo marbles are coarse-grained and most probably from Lakkos (Paros Island, Greece); and the marble fragments of unknown statues are coarse-grained and most probably from Marmara (Proconnesus-1) Island, Turkey. The results indicate that sculptors preferred fine white marbles for carving sculptures in spite of their source, price, and sculpture workshop. The results agree with previous studies that showed a wide variety of marble sources, indicating that Gerasa prospered in its location on the King’s Highway and participated in a well-established trade network with the major cities and marble sources in the Roman Empire.

Basileus Meets Imperator: Herod’s Evolving Honors to Augustus

By: Barbara Burrell

Abstract: This paper uses recent finds and reinterpretations (archaeological, epigraphic, and historical) to re-examine and place in a wider context Herod the Great’s actions towards honoring Augustus in his realm. As a king formerly allied with Antony, Herod needed to placate Augustus quickly after Actium. At first he showered his new overlord with service, money, and supplies, but it may have been in imitation of cities like Pergamon in Asia that he established a festival in Augustus’s honor in Jerusalem. We hear nothing of actual temples, however, until after Augustus granted Herod new territories; it was there, in non-Jewish areas, that Herod founded cities (which was what kings did), named them in honor of his sole superior, and built in them temples to Augustus and Roma, perhaps again on the model of Hellenic cities of Asia or Bithynia, or of Alexandria in Egypt. Herod did this not for the sake of Hellenization or Romanization, but to reify his relationship with Augustus before his kingdom and the world, enshrining him in the sole place in the hierarchy that a king could tolerate, and also, not incidentally, to show his own magnificence.

Hazon Gabriel: A Display of Negligence

By: Årstein Justnes, Josephine Munch Rasmussen

Abstract: How do recently crafted objects of dubious provenance become ancient manuscripts of serious scientific interest? In this article, we will explore the curious case of Hazon Gabriel. We will demonstrate how this unprovenanced stone inscription was turned into an “authentic” artifact with an ideal provenance, and we will discuss the role of the owner and the scholarly community in this process.

Crime and Punishment: Deportation in the Levant in the Age of Assyrian Hegemony

By: Jonathan Valk

Abstract: Assyrian imperialism is closely associated with the practice of mass deportation. This practice has been explained by recourse to many different motivations. But can we hope to pinpoint the logic informing deportation rather than merely identifying its advantages? This paper surveys the evidence of deportation in the Levant in the period 745–620 b.c.e. Focusing on deportation in this circumscribed time and place enables a more concentrated account of its use. Deportation is generally argued to have served three broad ends: bolstering the supply of human resources in the Assyrian heartland, meeting particular strategic needs, and dealing with dissent. This paper finds that despite the many uses of deportation, it was first and foremost a punitive instrument intended to curb resistance to Assyrian hegemony. This punitive dimension constituted the foundation of Assyrian deportation in the Levant in the age of Assyrian hegemony.

Foreigners at Beni Hassan: Evidence from the Tomb of Khnumhotep I (No. 14)

By: Anna-Latifa Mourad

Abstract: The procession of Asiatics in the tomb of Khnumhotep II (No. 3) at Beni Hassan is one of the most famous scenes alluding to ancient Egypt’s interactions with its neighbors. Khnumhotep II, however, was not the only official at Beni Hassan to include representations of foreigners. The tomb of his possible grandfather, Khnumhotep I (No. 14), additionally features unique depictions of a number of individuals who can be identified as of non-Egyptian origin. These foreigners signal that particular cross-cultural relations could remain under the auspices of specific families in the early Middle Kingdom, perhaps influencing power and political dynamics that helped shape the 12th Dynasty. The following presents the most recent recordings of the depictions as completed by The Australian Centre for Egyptology, commenting on their nature and historical significance in relation to Khnumhotep I and the Oryx nome.

“Beloved of the Lady Are Those Who …”: A Recurring Memorial Formula in the Sinaitic Inscriptions

By: Aren M. Wilson-Wright

Abstract: This paper proposes a revised interpretation of the recurring sequence ḏ t b ṯ n m ṯ found in the early alphabetic inscriptions from Serabit el-Khadem, an Egyptian turquoise mining facility located in the Sinai Peninsula. I argue that this sequence combines with the well-known phrase m(ʾ)hb(b)ʿlt “beloved of the Lady” in Sinai 351, 353, 360, and 361 to form a memorial formula meaning “Beloved of the Lady are those who tell people about Māṯ.” It thus expresses a sentiment similar to contemporaneous Egyptian inscriptions from Serabit el-Khadem: the author of the inscriptions—in this case Māṯ—asks the reader to perform some action on his behalf. In return, he assures the reader that they will be beloved of the Lady (i.e., Hathor, the patron goddess of the mining district).

The People Behind the Stamps: A Newly-Found Group of Bullae and a Seal from the City of David, Jerusalem

By: Anat Mendel-Geberovich, Ortal Chalaf, Joe Uziel

Abstract: The article presents a group of thirteen inscribed bullae and a stamp seal, dated to the late 8th–early 6th centuries B.C.E., discovered in the recent excavations of Area U in the City of David, Jerusalem. Following the presentation of the archaeological context and palaeographic analysis of the finds, we discuss the names appearing on them and their contribution to the broader topic of the history of Jerusalem, with a special emphasis on the connection of the findings to the importance of the Gihon Spring and to the debate regarding Israelite refugees in Judah.

The Morphology of Iron Age Storage Jars and Its Relation to the Handbreadth Measure (Biblical Tefach)

By: Avshalom Karasik, Ortal Harush, Uzy Smilansky

Abstract: In this paper we compare morphological features of three groups of Iron Age storage jars that were unearthed in several Judahite and Israelite sites. The most famous group is the royal Judahite storage jars with stamped handles (“lmlk,” “rosette,” etc.). The other two groups are the “Hippo” jars found abundantly in Israelite sites and the jars from Khirbet Qeiyafa (Judah), assigned chronologically to the early 10th century b.c.e. We scanned most of the available jars in 3D and compared them in a detailed morphological study. We extracted several metric measures and observed large variations between jars within a group and, to a larger extent, between jars from different groups. The only exception is the inner rim diameter, which shows surprising uniformity. Moreover, the distribution of inner rim diameters is consistent with anthropometric measurements of the handbreadth of the human male. We provide a detailed description of our methodology and findings and offer a few alternative explanations for the clear correlation between the measured inner rim diameter and the human tefach.

Yehud Stamp Impressions from Ramat-Raḥel: An Updated Tabulation

By: Oded Lipschits, David S. Vanderhooft

Abstract: The 2011 publication of the corpus of the Yehud stamp impressions of the Persian and Early Hellenistic periods included 582 items—307 of them were excavated at Ramat Raḥel. A few additional handles with Yehud stamp impressions were discovered since then, mainly in Jerusalem, but 33 more stamped handles were discovered in the “Babylonian-Persian Pit” at Ramat Raḥel (five of these were previously published and one is unidentified). Forty-one more were discovered during processing, cataloging, and restoration of material from the 2009–2010 seasons (three of them are unidentified), bringing the total number of identified Yehud stamp impressions from all sites to 647. In this paper we present all the unpublished stamped handles, as well as a final tabulation of Yehud stamp impressions excavated at Ramat Raḥel, and reflect on the significance of the site for the administration of the province during the Persian and early Hellenistic periods.

Radiocarbon-Dating the Late Bronze Age: Cultural and Historical Considerations on Megiddo and Beyond

By: Mario A. S. Martin, Israel Finkelstein, Eli Piasetzky

Abstract: Megiddo, with its tight stratigraphy and well-controlled ceramic typology, yielded more than half of the radiocarbon determinations for the time span of the Middle Bronze II to the Iron I in the southern Levant. Here we present two radiocarbon models for this entire sequence, focusing on the Late Bronze Age—1) for Megiddo; 2) for Megiddo and Beth-Shean—adding a third model for sites which provide results relevant to the Middle Bronze III/Late Bronze I transition. We then discuss the impact of the results on the material culture and history of Megiddo in particular and the southern Levant (and eastern Mediterranean) in general.

Constellations (Volume 27, Issue 3)

They don't represent us? Synecdochal representation and the politics of occupy movements

By: Mathijs van de Sande

Abstract: In 2011 and the ensuing years, the world witnessed a global wave of various “occupy movements,” from the Spanish 15‐M and the Greek anti‐austerity protests of 2011 to Occupy Wall Street (OWS), and from the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul to Nuit Debout in Paris. Inspired by the Arab Spring earlier that year—and by the iconic image of an occupied Tahrir Square in particular—protesters in different parts of the world took possession of public spaces in order to oppose the austerity measures of their governments, to challenge the power of financial industries and economic elites, and to voice their widely shared experience of a democratic deficit. I emphasize from the outset that there are many, and often very substantial, demographic, cultural, economic, and political differences among these various occupy movements and among the contexts in which they intervened. There is thus no particular reason to assume, as some enthusiastic commentators suggested at the time, that they were all exponents of a single global movement (Hardt & Negri, 2012; Mason, 2011). But it is also clear, on the other hand, that they often expressed a strong sense of solidarity with each other, and referred to each another as important sources of inspiration (Graeber, 2013, p. 237). Notwithstanding the many differences between these movements, they did share at least a number of important points in common.

What is asylum? More than protection, less than citizenship

By: Nanda Oudejans

Abstract: Increasingly, European and other Western States no longer wish to accept refugees but rather explore and implement extraterritorial asylum policies that seek to keep refugees safe in their region of origin or transit. Australia recently reached an agreement with Cambodia to permanently transfer recognized refugees (see Gammelthoft‐Hansen, Pijnenburg, & Rijken, 2018, p. 366). Likewise, Israel reached transfer agreements with Uganda and Rwanda to exchange recognized refugees (see Bar‐Tuvia, 2018, p. 475). States promote protection outside their territories as a mechanism that prevents the unmanaged inflow of refugees into their societies while also claiming that regional protection facilitates the return of refugees once their country of origin has become safe. For instance, the EU Migration Partnership Framework launched in 2016 identifies two main objectives of the EU's cooperation with third states: “enable … refugees to stay close to their homes” and “increase the rate of returns to the country of origin or transit countries” (European Commission, 2016, p. 5).

Journal of Near Eastern Studies (Volume 79, Issue 2)

Muhammad and Justinian: Roman Legal Traditions and the Qurʾān

By: Juan Cole

Abstract: Not available

The Language of Filiation in the Code of Hammurapi

By: Christoph Schmidhuber

Abstract: Not available

Destined for Slaughter: Identifying Seasonal Breeding Patterns in Sheep and Goats in Early Babylonia

By: Magnus Widell

Abstract: Not available

On an Incised Palette from the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Date, Suggested Provenance, and Use Practices of Grinding Palettes with Engraved Animal Figures

By: Axelle Brémont

Abstract: Not available

“Isn’t she a Woman?”: The “Widow of Ephesus” in the Ottoman Empire

By: Nazlı İpek Hüner Cora

Abstract: Not available

The Literary Dynamic of Loyalty and Betrayal in the Aramaic Ahiqar Narrative

By: Saul M. Olyan

Abstract: Not available

Solomon and The Petrified Birds on the Dome of the Rock

By: Elon Harvey

Abstract: Not available

Excavations at Barveh Tepe: New Insights into the Early Bronze Age in Northwest Iran

By: Mahnaz Sharifi

Abstract: Not available

See Ḫattuša and Die: A New Reconstruction of the Journeys of the Babylonian Physician Rabâ-ša-Marduk

By: Elena Devecchi, Irene Sibbing-Plantholt

Abstract: Not available

Progress in Development Studies (Volume 20, Issue 4)

Early Marriage in Perspective: Practicing an Ethics of Dialogue with Syrian Refugees in Jordan

By: An Van Raemdonck, Marina de Regt

Abstract: This article discusses rationales for development and humanitarian intervention through the lenses of poststructuralist policy analysis and a postcolonial politics of the womb. It aims to show a variety of perspectives on early marriage and the limitations of dominant policy responses. The article argues that humanitarian logics easily blend with developmentalist models, especially in conditions of protracted displacement. The response to the rise of early marriage among Syrians in Jordan mainly consists of educational activities such as awareness raising that are based on imparting knowledge. The article suggests that responses based on an ethics of dialogue may be more adequate to meet refugees’ needs and, second, may help to shift the balance from developmentalist reproductive governance towards realizing the humanitarian goal of identifying and addressing women refugees’ needs.

The Journal of Politics (Volume 82, Issue 4)

Identity and Provocation: Dynamics of Minority Assimilation

By: Xiaoli Guo

Abstract: This article formalizes how extremists manipulate an ethnic or religious identity to generate intergroup tension in society. I argue that Islamic extremists seek to reinforce the Islamic identity of Muslims. To do so, they launch terror attacks against a majority non-Muslim population as a provocation strategy to trigger a backlash against Muslims. This backlash makes it more difficult for Muslims to assimilate, pulling them away from the mainstream and promoting their in-group solidarity. I find that this strategy of provocation succeeds only if Muslims manage to provide sufficient in-group favoritism to counteract the backlash. If the majority shuns unassimilated Muslims more, or if the Muslim community is more economically unproductive, it is easier to mobilize Muslims, and extremists can induce more Muslims to stop assimilating. Provocation efficacy increases if the government excludes the Muslim community and, surprisingly, decreases when the Muslim community is more extreme or more homogeneous.

The Washington Quarterly (Volume 43, Issue 3)

“Pax Americana” Is a Myth: Aversion to War Drives Peace and Order

By: John Mueller

Abstract: Not available