Pub Date : 2017-09-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-4216388
Syaza Shukri, I. Hossain
Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been accused of Islamizing society through its family-centered policies that overlap with discourses originating from the Islamic faith. At the same time, the AKP government has maintained that it abides by Turkish laicism. This essay identifies and analyzes the extent to which the AKP’s discourse and rhetoric have changed over the years to discover whether the party truly has a hidden agenda or if the shifts serve as strategies to win votes. The essay highlights how the observed changes are related to the perceived strengths of the party, with Islamic rhetoric rising and falling with the support the party receives. The results suggest that the AKP cannot be seen as a party that had always intended to turn Turkey into a religious country. The strategies undertaken by the party since early in the twenty-first century show that the shifts in discourse were meant to manage the support of conservative Turks rather than to challenge the secular establishment.
{"title":"Strategic Shifts in Discourse by the AKP in Turkey, 2002–2015","authors":"Syaza Shukri, I. Hossain","doi":"10.1215/10474552-4216388","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10474552-4216388","url":null,"abstract":"Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been accused of Islamizing society through its family-centered policies that overlap with discourses originating from the Islamic faith. At the same time, the AKP government has maintained that it abides by Turkish laicism. This essay identifies and analyzes the extent to which the AKP’s discourse and rhetoric have changed over the years to discover whether the party truly has a hidden agenda or if the shifts serve as strategies to win votes. The essay highlights how the observed changes are related to the perceived strengths of the party, with Islamic rhetoric rising and falling with the support the party receives. The results suggest that the AKP cannot be seen as a party that had always intended to turn Turkey into a religious country. The strategies undertaken by the party since early in the twenty-first century show that the shifts in discourse were meant to manage the support of conservative Turks rather than to challenge the secular establishment.","PeriodicalId":298924,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Quarterly","volume":"100 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133655265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-09-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-4216421
L. Tichý
Abstract: This essay focuses on the global terrorist and militant group the Islamic State (IS), specifically on its use of terrorism targeting the energy sector as a strategic political instrument in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in 2014–16. The essay has two main thrusts. First, it analyzes the importance that the IS attributes to energy in general and, more specifically, to the strategy of terrorist attacks targeting the energy sector. Second, the essay describes examples, goals, and motives of terrorist attacks on the energy sector and the accompanying criminal activities conducted by the IS in selected MENA countries.
{"title":"Terrorist Attacks on the Energy Sector: A Strategic Instrument of the Islamic State in the Middle East and North Africa","authors":"L. Tichý","doi":"10.1215/10474552-4216421","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10474552-4216421","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: This essay focuses on the global terrorist and militant group the Islamic State (IS), specifically on its use of terrorism targeting the energy sector as a strategic political instrument in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in 2014–16. The essay has two main thrusts. First, it analyzes the importance that the IS attributes to energy in general and, more specifically, to the strategy of terrorist attacks targeting the energy sector. Second, the essay describes examples, goals, and motives of terrorist attacks on the energy sector and the accompanying criminal activities conducted by the IS in selected MENA countries.","PeriodicalId":298924,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Quarterly","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122724334","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-09-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-4216410
Spyridon N. Litsas
Abstract: This essay analyses one of the most common yet stagnated concepts of European politics—the common security and defense prospects of Europe. The analysis shows that although a common security and defense cooperation scheme has been a mainstay of European political discourse since the end of World War II, discussion never resulted in a concrete or realistic plan. The reasons for this emphatic failure can be found in the political complexities of the European structure and in the difficulties of implementing such a challenging plan.
{"title":"The European Common Security and Defense Concept: Opportunities and Challenges","authors":"Spyridon N. Litsas","doi":"10.1215/10474552-4216410","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10474552-4216410","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: This essay analyses one of the most common yet stagnated concepts of European politics—the common security and defense prospects of Europe. The analysis shows that although a common security and defense cooperation scheme has been a mainstay of European political discourse since the end of World War II, discussion never resulted in a concrete or realistic plan. The reasons for this emphatic failure can be found in the political complexities of the European structure and in the difficulties of implementing such a challenging plan.","PeriodicalId":298924,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Quarterly","volume":"84 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121884685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-09-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-4216399
Aeshna Badruzzaman, Matthew S. Cohen, Sidita Kushi
Abstract: The debate over the ban on women wearing headscarves in Turkey has served as a central symbol for Turkey’s soul, torn between secular and religious identities. This essay explores the multifaceted narratives of Turkish secular and religious groups that have supported and opposed the ban on women wearing headscarves on government property. Progressing from nationalism literature and image framing in public policy, the essay applies quantitative and case study analysis to reveal how the reframing of the headscarf debate— via narratives of inequality, secularism, religious freedom, modernity, and education—evolved across political coalitions to redefine issues and alter policy outcomes.
{"title":"Contending Images in Turkey’s Headscarf Debate: Framings of Equality, Nationalism, and Religion","authors":"Aeshna Badruzzaman, Matthew S. Cohen, Sidita Kushi","doi":"10.1215/10474552-4216399","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10474552-4216399","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: The debate over the ban on women wearing headscarves in Turkey has served as a central symbol for Turkey’s soul, torn between secular and religious identities. This essay explores the multifaceted narratives of Turkish secular and religious groups that have supported and opposed the ban on women wearing headscarves on government property. Progressing from nationalism literature and image framing in public policy, the essay applies quantitative and case study analysis to reveal how the reframing of the headscarf debate— via narratives of inequality, secularism, religious freedom, modernity, and education—evolved across political coalitions to redefine issues and alter policy outcomes.","PeriodicalId":298924,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Quarterly","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122826918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-09-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-4216432
G. Bahgat
This essay examines the relations between the United States and Iran under the Donald Trump Administration. It finds that, rhetoric aside, less tense and less confrontational ties between these nations may be possible. A key reason for this possibility is that the Republic of Iran enjoys tremendous economic and strategic assets of potential interest to the United States. The essay also examines the fast-growing relations between Tehran and Asian and European powers.
{"title":"US-Iran Relations under the Trump Administration","authors":"G. Bahgat","doi":"10.1215/10474552-4216432","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10474552-4216432","url":null,"abstract":"This essay examines the relations between the United States and Iran under the Donald Trump Administration. It finds that, rhetoric aside, less tense and less confrontational ties between these nations may be possible. A key reason for this possibility is that the Republic of Iran enjoys tremendous economic and strategic assets of potential interest to the United States. The essay also examines the fast-growing relations between Tehran and Asian and European powers.","PeriodicalId":298924,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Quarterly","volume":"2014 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127562226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-06-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-4164259
Tina Mavrikos-Adamou
There remains a void between the legal framework of immigration in Greece and its implementation. The essay explores this theme, first by providing an overview of Greek legislative acts and immigration laws from 1991 to 2015. This discussion is then placed within the Greek political arena by focusing on three political parties in Greece that have espoused anti-immigrant rhetoric. The essay concludes with suggestions of ways in which reconciliation can occur between Greek immigration law and the political environment.
{"title":"Immigration Law and the Politics of Migration in Greece","authors":"Tina Mavrikos-Adamou","doi":"10.1215/10474552-4164259","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10474552-4164259","url":null,"abstract":"There remains a void between the legal framework of immigration in Greece and its implementation. The essay explores this theme, first by providing an overview of Greek legislative acts and immigration laws from 1991 to 2015. This discussion is then placed within the Greek political arena by focusing on three political parties in Greece that have espoused anti-immigrant rhetoric. The essay concludes with suggestions of ways in which reconciliation can occur between Greek immigration law and the political environment.","PeriodicalId":298924,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Quarterly","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114449704","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-06-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-4164281
Zafer Kizilkaya
Abstract: This essay first examines how Lebanese Hezbollah’s wars have changed the content and saliency of its several identities. It then focuses on the role of these identities on the group’s moral conception of using force. The analysis includes Hezbollah’s conflicts against Israel and its more recent military involvement in the Syrian conflict. The essay argues that Hezbollah exhibits five different identities: Islamic, Shiite, Lebanese, Arab, and resistance. Each has played a significant role in the group’s legitimizing of its war decisions, which in turn has provided Hezbollah the grounds to remain an armed non-state actor in the Middle East.
{"title":"Identity, War, and Just Cause for War: Hezbollah and Its Use of Force","authors":"Zafer Kizilkaya","doi":"10.1215/10474552-4164281","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10474552-4164281","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: This essay first examines how Lebanese Hezbollah’s wars have changed the content and saliency of its several identities. It then focuses on the role of these identities on the group’s moral conception of using force. The analysis includes Hezbollah’s conflicts against Israel and its more recent military involvement in the Syrian conflict. The essay argues that Hezbollah exhibits five different identities: Islamic, Shiite, Lebanese, Arab, and resistance. Each has played a significant role in the group’s legitimizing of its war decisions, which in turn has provided Hezbollah the grounds to remain an armed non-state actor in the Middle East.","PeriodicalId":298924,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Quarterly","volume":"57 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122993517","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-06-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-4164314
Petros Vamvakas
Set in the increasingly relevant and complex eastern Mediterranean, Costas Melakopides’s RussiaCyprus Relations: A Pragmatic Idealist Perspective, deals with a subject that has been overlooked in contemporary geopolitical literature. Through a chronological examination of the relationship between Russia and Cyprus, Melakopides attempts to make a strong statement on two levels. First, he provides a distinct theoretical insight into the motivations driving Russian foreign policy in the region, and second, he juxtaposes the Russian approach to that of Britain and the United States. Melakopides argues from what he describes as a “practical idealist” perspective. For him, this means that there are ideas and notions that tie states and peoples together, such as those between Russia (or the former Soviet Union) and Cyprus. He argues that the political realism coming from London and Washington since 1878 has consistently tilted policy outcomes toward Turkey, even though Turkey has been a gross violator of international normative and ethical behavior. Moreover, he argues that British and US influence in the region since the 1940s has consistently placed Cyprus on a course toward failure. This path, he writes, has included the unworkable constitutional arrangement that included three guarantor regimes; the acceptance of the illegal 1974 invasion; the unilateral declaration of independence by the Turkish Cypriots; the disastrous, “sinful,” and “illegal” Annan Plan of 2004; and the “punitive” “bailin” of 2013 during Cyprus’s financial crisis. Throughout, Melakopides argues that the only consistent supporter and friend of a weak Cypriot state has been Moscow, which recognized
{"title":"Russia-Cyprus Relations: A Pragmatic Idealist Perspective by Costas Melakopides (review)","authors":"Petros Vamvakas","doi":"10.1215/10474552-4164314","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10474552-4164314","url":null,"abstract":"Set in the increasingly relevant and complex eastern Mediterranean, Costas Melakopides’s RussiaCyprus Relations: A Pragmatic Idealist Perspective, deals with a subject that has been overlooked in contemporary geopolitical literature. Through a chronological examination of the relationship between Russia and Cyprus, Melakopides attempts to make a strong statement on two levels. First, he provides a distinct theoretical insight into the motivations driving Russian foreign policy in the region, and second, he juxtaposes the Russian approach to that of Britain and the United States. Melakopides argues from what he describes as a “practical idealist” perspective. For him, this means that there are ideas and notions that tie states and peoples together, such as those between Russia (or the former Soviet Union) and Cyprus. He argues that the political realism coming from London and Washington since 1878 has consistently tilted policy outcomes toward Turkey, even though Turkey has been a gross violator of international normative and ethical behavior. Moreover, he argues that British and US influence in the region since the 1940s has consistently placed Cyprus on a course toward failure. This path, he writes, has included the unworkable constitutional arrangement that included three guarantor regimes; the acceptance of the illegal 1974 invasion; the unilateral declaration of independence by the Turkish Cypriots; the disastrous, “sinful,” and “illegal” Annan Plan of 2004; and the “punitive” “bailin” of 2013 during Cyprus’s financial crisis. Throughout, Melakopides argues that the only consistent supporter and friend of a weak Cypriot state has been Moscow, which recognized","PeriodicalId":298924,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Quarterly","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122275762","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-06-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-4164303
I. Torbakov
This essay investigates the ideational aspect of contemporary Turkey’s identity politics and international conduct and compares these to Russia’s. Over the past decade, several analysts have speculated that Russia and Turkey could form a strategic axis based on the shared vision of “Eurasia” and that there is similarity between Moscow’s and Ankara’s strategic outlooks: Russian neo-Eurasianism and Turkey’s Kemalist Eurasianism. Yet the outlook that defines Ankara’s understanding of Turkish national interest is not so much a permutation of Eurasianist ideas as it is a homegrown postimperial (and post-Kemalist) strategic vision, also known as neo-Ottomanism. Despite their philosophical affinity, neo-Eurasianism and neo-Ottomanism contain significant potential for confrontation.
{"title":"Neo-Ottomanism versus Neo-Eurasianism?: Nationalism and Symbolic Geography in Postimperial Turkey and Russia","authors":"I. Torbakov","doi":"10.1215/10474552-4164303","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10474552-4164303","url":null,"abstract":"This essay investigates the ideational aspect of contemporary Turkey’s identity politics and international conduct and compares these to Russia’s. Over the past decade, several analysts have speculated that Russia and Turkey could form a strategic axis based on the shared vision of “Eurasia” and that there is similarity between Moscow’s and Ankara’s strategic outlooks: Russian neo-Eurasianism and Turkey’s Kemalist Eurasianism. Yet the outlook that defines Ankara’s understanding of Turkish national interest is not so much a permutation of Eurasianist ideas as it is a homegrown postimperial (and post-Kemalist) strategic vision, also known as neo-Ottomanism. Despite their philosophical affinity, neo-Eurasianism and neo-Ottomanism contain significant potential for confrontation.","PeriodicalId":298924,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Quarterly","volume":"85 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131558583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-06-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-4164248
D. Sanders
Abstract: Traditional maritime security challenges have returned to the Black Sea, and this has had a negative effect on the ability of the six littoral states to address newer security challenges. Traditional maritime security challenges include the buildup of Russian forces in Crimea, the return of conflict to the shores of the Black Sea, uncertainty over the demarcation of maritime borders, and strained relations between Turkey and Russia. As a result, newer and no less important maritime security challenges have, in effect, been pushed off the agenda.
{"title":"Maritime Security in the Black Sea: Out with the New, In with the Old","authors":"D. Sanders","doi":"10.1215/10474552-4164248","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10474552-4164248","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Traditional maritime security challenges have returned to the Black Sea, and this has had a negative effect on the ability of the six littoral states to address newer security challenges. Traditional maritime security challenges include the buildup of Russian forces in Crimea, the return of conflict to the shores of the Black Sea, uncertainty over the demarcation of maritime borders, and strained relations between Turkey and Russia. As a result, newer and no less important maritime security challenges have, in effect, been pushed off the agenda.","PeriodicalId":298924,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Quarterly","volume":"148 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132720191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：