Pub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1080/19436149.2023.2235862
Hassoup Awad
{"title":"Correction","authors":"Hassoup Awad","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2235862","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2235862","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47440013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1080/19436149.2023.2227935
Tezan Gűműş
Abstract This article focuses on Turkey’s crisis-ridden years, from 1973 to 1980. As an under-explored era in English language scholarship, it makes a distinct contribution to the literature on pre-1980 coup Turkish politics. In doing so, it illustrates the implications for the democratic order arising from the two central political leaders of the era Süleyman Demirel and Bülent Ecevit’s tussle for power across the decade. The study draws on fieldwork interviews and critical reading of Turkish and English sources to reveal new insights into the leaders’ actions and decisions that trapped the country in a state of political paralysis, inflamed left-right violence, and politicized state institutions, ultimately dragging Turkey down one of its most turbulent periods. It illustrates how the leaders played crucial roles in shaping conditions that eventually resulted in the termination of multi-party politics with a military coup on 12 September 1980.
{"title":"Leaders and the Breakdown of Democracy in Turkey, 1973-1980","authors":"Tezan Gűműş","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2227935","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2227935","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article focuses on Turkey’s crisis-ridden years, from 1973 to 1980. As an under-explored era in English language scholarship, it makes a distinct contribution to the literature on pre-1980 coup Turkish politics. In doing so, it illustrates the implications for the democratic order arising from the two central political leaders of the era Süleyman Demirel and Bülent Ecevit’s tussle for power across the decade. The study draws on fieldwork interviews and critical reading of Turkish and English sources to reveal new insights into the leaders’ actions and decisions that trapped the country in a state of political paralysis, inflamed left-right violence, and politicized state institutions, ultimately dragging Turkey down one of its most turbulent periods. It illustrates how the leaders played crucial roles in shaping conditions that eventually resulted in the termination of multi-party politics with a military coup on 12 September 1980.","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42577083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-29DOI: 10.1080/19436149.2023.2226887
Muhammed Khalaily, A. Ghanem
Abstract This article examines the steep rise in self-confidence among the Arab-Palestinian public in Israel over the last two decades. We suggest that this self-confidence is partially due to higher education levels and the rise of the middle class. We argue that these enhanced levels of human capital have led to more concerted cultural, political and social activism. Our analysis is grounded in the ‘politics of faith’ which we define as a willingness to change the status quo. As such, this article contributes to literature explaining how political and social developments affect collective activism in the public sphere—both within one’s one own community and in relation to the state.
{"title":"The Politics of Faith among the Palestinian-Arab Minority in Israel: Increasing Human Capital and Public Engagement","authors":"Muhammed Khalaily, A. Ghanem","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2226887","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2226887","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article examines the steep rise in self-confidence among the Arab-Palestinian public in Israel over the last two decades. We suggest that this self-confidence is partially due to higher education levels and the rise of the middle class. We argue that these enhanced levels of human capital have led to more concerted cultural, political and social activism. Our analysis is grounded in the ‘politics of faith’ which we define as a willingness to change the status quo. As such, this article contributes to literature explaining how political and social developments affect collective activism in the public sphere—both within one’s one own community and in relation to the state.","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46466806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-28DOI: 10.1080/19436149.2023.2229188
Christine Crone
Abstract Regaining control of Aleppo was an important symbolic victory for the Syrian state army, which has opened the way for state-sanctioned narrations of ‘post-war’ Syria. To elucidate the workings of this narration, I explore the TV drama Haris al-Quds (2020) as a fascinating window into Syrian state ideology in Bashar al-Assad’s ‘post-war’ Syria. I argue that the Syrian state holds on to future visions of the past while re-narrating history to fine-tune its ideological heritage in a state-endorsed and state-endorsing TV drama. The serial’s interweaving of selected historical times allows for the experience of alternative narrative times, constructing what I refer to as resistance time, Manichaean time, and restoration time. In this play with temporality, each time serves in different ways as a promotion of a particular ideological understanding of Syria.
{"title":"Re-Narrating the Past, Producing the Present and Unlocking the Future: Haris al-Quds, a TV-Dramatization of ‘Post-war’ Syria","authors":"Christine Crone","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2229188","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2229188","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Regaining control of Aleppo was an important symbolic victory for the Syrian state army, which has opened the way for state-sanctioned narrations of ‘post-war’ Syria. To elucidate the workings of this narration, I explore the TV drama Haris al-Quds (2020) as a fascinating window into Syrian state ideology in Bashar al-Assad’s ‘post-war’ Syria. I argue that the Syrian state holds on to future visions of the past while re-narrating history to fine-tune its ideological heritage in a state-endorsed and state-endorsing TV drama. The serial’s interweaving of selected historical times allows for the experience of alternative narrative times, constructing what I refer to as resistance time, Manichaean time, and restoration time. In this play with temporality, each time serves in different ways as a promotion of a particular ideological understanding of Syria.","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48172746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-28DOI: 10.1080/19436149.2023.2229678
Hani Awad
Abstract This article examines the institutional genealogy of Israeli colonial governance (ICG) and the accompanying patterns of Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. It argues that ICG has experienced three phases, each marked by a particular form of direct or indirect colonial rule. Each of these colonial rule forms has been resisted through a distinct pattern of centralized or decentralized collective political agency. I argue that both the form and governing logic of ICG are determined not only by colonialist aims, but also by their interplay with the Palestinian resistance.
{"title":"Israeli Colonial Governance vs. Palestinian Resistance: An Institutional Genealogy","authors":"Hani Awad","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2229678","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2229678","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article examines the institutional genealogy of Israeli colonial governance (ICG) and the accompanying patterns of Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. It argues that ICG has experienced three phases, each marked by a particular form of direct or indirect colonial rule. Each of these colonial rule forms has been resisted through a distinct pattern of centralized or decentralized collective political agency. I argue that both the form and governing logic of ICG are determined not only by colonialist aims, but also by their interplay with the Palestinian resistance.","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42445771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-27DOI: 10.1080/19436149.2023.2226886
M. Samiei, J. Webster
Abstract The use of chemical weapons (CW) by Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War appears to have been subject to far less decisive US responses than similar accusations against Syria during the Syrian civil war. However, the two instances have not yet been subject to direct scholarly comparison. This article treats the Iraqi and Syrian instances as two distinct cases and compares US actions to prevent, investigate and deter CW use on each occasion. After demonstrating that the US responded more decisively to the allegations against Syria, we then employ process tracing to locate both cases within existing theoretical discussions of US intervention in the global South generally, as well as CW norm enforcement in particular. In doing so, we propose that, in addition to other factors including the US aspiration to world dominance and its resultant framing of its material and security interests as well as a lesser regard for citizens of the global South, the anti-US stance of either the CW perpetrator or victim can also affect how the US responds to accusations of CW norm violation. This casts further doubt on the veracity of stated humanitarian motives for US intervention abroad.
{"title":"Hypocrisy & Norm Enforcement: US Responses to Chemical Weapons Allegations against Iraq and Syria","authors":"M. Samiei, J. Webster","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2226886","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2226886","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The use of chemical weapons (CW) by Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War appears to have been subject to far less decisive US responses than similar accusations against Syria during the Syrian civil war. However, the two instances have not yet been subject to direct scholarly comparison. This article treats the Iraqi and Syrian instances as two distinct cases and compares US actions to prevent, investigate and deter CW use on each occasion. After demonstrating that the US responded more decisively to the allegations against Syria, we then employ process tracing to locate both cases within existing theoretical discussions of US intervention in the global South generally, as well as CW norm enforcement in particular. In doing so, we propose that, in addition to other factors including the US aspiration to world dominance and its resultant framing of its material and security interests as well as a lesser regard for citizens of the global South, the anti-US stance of either the CW perpetrator or victim can also affect how the US responds to accusations of CW norm violation. This casts further doubt on the veracity of stated humanitarian motives for US intervention abroad.","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48185314","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/19436149.2023.2199484
M. Jouili
Abstract: Since the early 1970s, neoliberalism has not spared Tunisia’s subordinate integration into the global capitalist system. This process strengthened a dominant ruling class, closely connected to international capital interests, while leading to growing social polarization and rising socio-economic inequalities. Faced by popular resistance, authoritarianism, with the support of imperialist powers, became the needed political response to consolidate the neoliberal project. Beyond some democratic achievements, the 2011 uprising has failed to undo the development model at work. The imperialist powers, with the complicity of the ruling classes, were able to hijack the movement and direct it towards what I call an orderly transition, whose strategies entailed the use of financial aid and military assistance.
{"title":"Imperialism and Neoliberal Redeployment in Post-uprising Tunisia","authors":"M. Jouili","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2199484","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2199484","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Since the early 1970s, neoliberalism has not spared Tunisia’s subordinate integration into the global capitalist system. This process strengthened a dominant ruling class, closely connected to international capital interests, while leading to growing social polarization and rising socio-economic inequalities. Faced by popular resistance, authoritarianism, with the support of imperialist powers, became the needed political response to consolidate the neoliberal project. Beyond some democratic achievements, the 2011 uprising has failed to undo the development model at work. The imperialist powers, with the complicity of the ruling classes, were able to hijack the movement and direct it towards what I call an orderly transition, whose strategies entailed the use of financial aid and military assistance.","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46528920","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/19436149.2023.2199481
Corinna Mullin
Abstract: This article examines the rearticulation and reconfiguration of US-led imperialism vis-à-vis Tunisia in the aftermath of the 2010–2011 popular revolt. Challenging the prevalent economic-military binary in analyses of US-led imperialism in the region, it treats instead economic intervention in Tunisia as linked to and shaped by ‘security’ intervention, with the violence of the War on Terror laying the groundwork for a new wave of primitive accumulation. Employing conjunctural analysis, it considers how the 2015 attacks, largely targeting European tourists at a Sousse beach resort and the Bardo national museum, were mobilized to further Tunisia’s imbrications within imperialist security architecture through legal interventions, border violence, peripheral militarization, increased ‘security’ spending and neocolonial ‘expertise’, debt and racialized financialization. In doing so, the 2015 security conjuncture reinforced Tunisia’s peripheral status in the international system and enabled further surplus value drain, though not without resistance. The article concludes by reflecting on popular struggles and the current conjuncture, which is characterized not only by public health and economic crises, but also by the rise of a multipolar world order that, when combined with working class organization and mobilization, may provide an opening for Tunisia to delink from the imperialist core. Such a transformation would domore than any platitudes about human rights and ‘security sector reform’ to radically transform the nature of the Tunisian security state and the social relations it is designed to uphold.
{"title":"The ‘War on Terror’ as Primitive Accumulation in Tunisia: US-Led Imperialism and the Post-2010-2011 Revolt/Security Conjuncture","authors":"Corinna Mullin","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2199481","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2199481","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: This article examines the rearticulation and reconfiguration of US-led imperialism vis-à-vis Tunisia in the aftermath of the 2010–2011 popular revolt. Challenging the prevalent economic-military binary in analyses of US-led imperialism in the region, it treats instead economic intervention in Tunisia as linked to and shaped by ‘security’ intervention, with the violence of the War on Terror laying the groundwork for a new wave of primitive accumulation. Employing conjunctural analysis, it considers how the 2015 attacks, largely targeting European tourists at a Sousse beach resort and the Bardo national museum, were mobilized to further Tunisia’s imbrications within imperialist security architecture through legal interventions, border violence, peripheral militarization, increased ‘security’ spending and neocolonial ‘expertise’, debt and racialized financialization. In doing so, the 2015 security conjuncture reinforced Tunisia’s peripheral status in the international system and enabled further surplus value drain, though not without resistance. The article concludes by reflecting on popular struggles and the current conjuncture, which is characterized not only by public health and economic crises, but also by the rise of a multipolar world order that, when combined with working class organization and mobilization, may provide an opening for Tunisia to delink from the imperialist core. Such a transformation would domore than any platitudes about human rights and ‘security sector reform’ to radically transform the nature of the Tunisian security state and the social relations it is designed to uphold.","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44796604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/19436149.2023.2198668
Linda Matar, A. Kadri
Abstract: When Oman joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative to pursue economic diversification, the US intervened to stop it. Although the foundation stone for Chinese investment plans was laid in 2017, these projects were put on hold, while the US rushed to bolster its military presence in Oman. The article studies Chinese investment in Oman, accounts for what has developed so far, and highlights the reasons for which the US acted to stem the potential of non-oil development in Oman. The disruption of the China-Oman diversification project resembles the US’s targeting of China’s policy of expansion by mutual cooperation elsewhere, but with a twist: Oman sits close to two vital chokepoints, the Bab Al-Mandeb and the Hormuz straits. The article argues that such obstruction is central to the US’s mode of accumulation by militarism. Keeping Oman from auto-developing and building its autonomy makes of it a pliable client state ready to serve as an imperialist post to empire.
{"title":"China against US Imperialism in the Arabian Sea: The Case of Oman","authors":"Linda Matar, A. Kadri","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2198668","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2198668","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: When Oman joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative to pursue economic diversification, the US intervened to stop it. Although the foundation stone for Chinese investment plans was laid in 2017, these projects were put on hold, while the US rushed to bolster its military presence in Oman. The article studies Chinese investment in Oman, accounts for what has developed so far, and highlights the reasons for which the US acted to stem the potential of non-oil development in Oman. The disruption of the China-Oman diversification project resembles the US’s targeting of China’s policy of expansion by mutual cooperation elsewhere, but with a twist: Oman sits close to two vital chokepoints, the Bab Al-Mandeb and the Hormuz straits. The article argues that such obstruction is central to the US’s mode of accumulation by militarism. Keeping Oman from auto-developing and building its autonomy makes of it a pliable client state ready to serve as an imperialist post to empire.","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48823481","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/19436149.2023.2199487
Patrick Donovan Higgins
Abstract: Commentators across Anglophone media and academic institutions frequently have minimized the role of US-led imperialism in Syria. This trivialization has been made possible by the covert nature of the war’s initial phases. Therefore, this article aims to piece together some of the most conspicuous aspects of the empirical record of the war. It begins with a historical overview of major US attacks against Syria, as well as prevailing attitudes about Syria within the US National Security Establishment (NSE), between the end of the WWII and 2011. The second part aggregates and reviews the existing empirical record on the current war, beginning with the Bush Administration’s preparations for operations subsequently launched under the Obama Administration in 2011, then continuing to be waged under the following administrations. The conclusion offers some theoretical remarks on the wider regional context of the US’s aims in Syria, highlighting their connections to various developments elsewhere in the region, ranging from similar wars nearby, to recent political losses suffered by the Palestinian national movement.
{"title":"Gunning for Damascus: The US War on the Syrian Arab Republic","authors":"Patrick Donovan Higgins","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2199487","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2199487","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Commentators across Anglophone media and academic institutions frequently have minimized the role of US-led imperialism in Syria. This trivialization has been made possible by the covert nature of the war’s initial phases. Therefore, this article aims to piece together some of the most conspicuous aspects of the empirical record of the war. It begins with a historical overview of major US attacks against Syria, as well as prevailing attitudes about Syria within the US National Security Establishment (NSE), between the end of the WWII and 2011. The second part aggregates and reviews the existing empirical record on the current war, beginning with the Bush Administration’s preparations for operations subsequently launched under the Obama Administration in 2011, then continuing to be waged under the following administrations. The conclusion offers some theoretical remarks on the wider regional context of the US’s aims in Syria, highlighting their connections to various developments elsewhere in the region, ranging from similar wars nearby, to recent political losses suffered by the Palestinian national movement.","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49508439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}