Digest of Middle East Studies最新文献

Humanitarian aid is often accompanied by broad media coverage. In academic research, there is a dominant bias toward Western studies on the topic. Following studies that emphasize the negative role of autocratic regimes using their media to frame threats as an intra-state diversionary strategy, this study contributes to our understating of how autocratic regimes use the media and illuminates how they employ a diversionary benevolent strategy in the media through framing humanitarian activities. We illustrate this theory by using the case of media strategy models used by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) that frame its provision of humanitarian aid to global and national audiences. The empirical approach is based on an analysis of 263 articles from four leading Saudi newspapers published online in English and Arabic. The result indicates that the KSA encourages two different diversionary benevolent strategies. The first strategy is aimed at increasing the KSAs international community prestige, focusing on mediatization that depicts its alliance with global efforts while employing “threat” strategy towards its adversaries. The second strategy is aimed mainly at Saudi nationals with the purpose of increasing their support of the royal family.

This study joins recent studies that explore the meanings of the political representation of women resulting from a gender quota, through examination of their media representation. Drawing on studies on gendered mediation and women's political representation and using a content analysis method, we examine the quantity and the quality of gender media representation of Egyptian members of parliament. The findings show a nuanced picture in which the media simultaneously propagates a conservative perspective alongside progressive and egalitarian ones. Female representatives receive less media coverage and are associated with feminine topics in a way that reproduces the gender hierarchical masculine/feminine and private/public distinction within the political sphere. Nevertheless, this biased coverage coexists with an empowering representation whereby women are more heard than seen and associated with core parliamentary activities. We conclude by addressing the potential and limits of this representation, which may alter perceptions regarding women's political participation under authoritarianism.

This research attempts to analyze Arabic heritage elements employed in Muhammad al-Thubayti's poetry as his poetry highlights modern issues. Heritage becomes a cornerstone in al-Thubayti's poetry for it produces new meanings and contexts. It is used in visionary and creative ways enabling him to shape his poetic experiences. Heritage is no longer sacred or static, but it is manipulated in a way that serves the poet's messages. Thus, this paper shows how al-Thubayti explores the present frustrations and failures at individual and national levels by employing heritage and symbols balancing between his belonging to this heritage and his creative and experimental poetic experience. Through the intelligent adaptation of heritage, he makes connections between the past and modern life to reveal the dilemmas of the present and the glory of the past. The research's main contribution is to shed a new light into the race, milieu, and experience of al-Thubayti's poetry through utilizing Arabic heritage. This research examines four poems taken from al-Thubayti's diwan (poetry collection), Tahjit hulman, tahjit wahman [I Spell out a Dream, I Spell out an Illusion]. As a theoretical framework, the analysis of the poems is based on historical theory and formalism.

Iran's pursuit of a civilian nuclear program raises concerns over the potential security threat it poses to the United States and its Middle East allies. The US suspects that Tehran's lack of compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signifies its intention to build atomic weapons. This article aims to examine the strategies implemented during the presidencies of Obama, Trump, and Biden to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear arsenals. Employing a constructivist theory, the study examines how each administration constructed identities, perceptions, and norms regarding Iran, and how these shaped their diplomatic approaches. Drawing on a comprehensive data of primary and secondary sources, this research sheds light on the identities, perceptions, and power dynamics shaping US–Iran relations.

This essay explores two types of population policies common in Arab countries: pro-natalist policies, aimed at encouraging higher birth rates, and anti-natalist policies, aimed at reducing birth rates. Determining their practical impact is often challenging due to the lack of control or comparison groups. However, historical policy patterns in two groups of Arab countries over the past six decades offer a unique opportunity for comparison. Between the 1970s and 1990s these two groups implemented opposing programs (pro- vs. anti-natalist), followed by predominantly anti-natalist policies in both groups. By comparing fertility rates between these groups and discussing various factors influencing fertility changes, this study suggests that the influence of population policies in Arab countries may have been smaller than anticipated, to the point that it is questionable whether they have been worthwhile.

During the last decade, a significant amount of academic research focusing on the causes of, and the actors involved in the Yemen conflict has been published in peer-reviewed journals, edited volumes, and books. Yet this research has emerged in a fragmented way that renders a comprehensive understanding of the conflict a challenging enterprise. Through our systematic review of peer-reviewed academic articles and meta-analysis of their findings, we identified and analyzed three main debates about the Yemen conflict. We conclude that each of these discussions contributes valuable insights but alone cannot fully explain the complex reasons behind the Yemen conflict. Instead, they offer individual pieces of the puzzle. We argue that a comprehensive understanding of the conflict necessitates considering and synthesizing all three debates.

The Middle East is a region of chronic insecurity due to internal and external tensions. These tensions and insecurity have made the Middle East one of the world's leading regions in military armaments. This study investigates the stochastic convergence of military burden in 10 selected Middle Eastern countries using comprehensive unit root analysis. Stochastic convergence for each country from 1977 to 2020 is examined using conventional, structural break, nonlinear, and Fourier-based unit root tests. Empirical results provide strong evidence of convergence with regional averages in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Oman. There is also some evidence of convergence in the case of Israel, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Turkiye. However, evidence for the existence of convergence in Iran and Jordan is weak.

The latest royal committee headed by Samir Al-Rifai to modernize Jordan's political system is often portrayed as a significant step toward political reform. However, this narrative overestimates the committee's impact and overlooks historical limitations and institutional obstacles to reform in Jordan. This study highlights how political reform initiatives in Jordan can be manipulated to serve the regime's objectives rather than the people's will. Historically, despite public pressure for genuine political reform, the regime's responses have been minimal. Royal committees and initiatives have rarely produced tangible results, serving more to provide the regime with narratives of superficial reform than to achieve real change.

This issue of the Digest of Middle East Studies includes a particularly timely set of articles on sectarianism, refugees, political economy and state power, the effect of advertising on self-esteem, and the verbal tactics of presidential candidates. Drawing on cases across the region from Egypt to Iran and from Turkey to Saudi Arabia, the authors in this issue present careful research and interesting findings.

Our first article, Dukhan and Hawat's “Memory, fear, and manipulated sectarianism: Exploring Christian views and intercommunal dynamics in al-Hasakah amidst the Syrian Uprising” (2024), contributes to a growing body of sectarianism scholarship, including that in an earlier special issue of the Digest of Middle East Studies. Building on the concepts of sectarianism “from above” and “from below,” as developed by earlier authors including Menshawy (2022) and Wahab (2022), Dukhan develops the understanding of sectarianism in the Syrian case beyond the well-studied Sunni and Alawite cases to that of Syrian Christians and their relationship to state and non-state actors in the context of the Syrian uprising. Arguing that sectarianism is a product of the Syrian regimes’ manipulation of Christian fears in the context of conflict, the article presents an analysis of a complex set of factors shaping community identity and its political importance.

The perennially important issues of refugee status determination processes (RSD) is examined by Magdy and Yasser in “I Balance Suffering(s): The politics and moralities of humanitarian caseworkers in Egypt as a refugee transit point” (2024). Refugee status is a legal issue, a policy issue, a topic with economic and security aspects, but it is also a designation with deep implications for individual well-being and suffering, and that is what this issue examines through first-hand accounts. Magdy and Yasser offer a reflection on the situation of caseworkers who are expected to act with neutrality and in accordance with objective criteria, but who must find ways to weigh and balance claims of human suffering which, because they cannot all be granted refugee status, are effectively competing for limited resources. The understanding of types and degrees of suffering is a matter of extremely high stakes not only at the policymaking stage, but at the “street-level bureaucrat” stage where individuals must present their claims and caseworkers must award or deny recognition as refugees.

In Mason's “Power and competition in the transitions towards post-rentierism,” (2024), he argues that in the cases of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, political and economic development have not yet produced the “virtual states” described by (Rosecrance, 1986; Rosecrance & Thompson, 2003) in earlier research; rather, these two countries, despite significant developments in recent years, continue t