Bound to Cooperate


Book Description

The Middle East is a region of crises, conflicts and wars as much as it is a region of great potential and opportunity. However, the European Union and its member states have not yet found a viable strategic approach to meet both the challenges and opportunities in their immediate neighbourhood. The Europeans have not yet developed sufficient foreign and security policy mechanisms to pursue their interests effectively. How the European Union can support economic and political transformation processes throughout the region and thus contribute to a more stable, more democratic Middle East remains the subject of intense debate. The objective of this book is to provide a platform for this debate about the European Union's future role as a player in the Middle East, at a crucial moment in EU-U.S-Middle East relations. As the European Union re-organizes its Mediterranean policies and the United States vote a new president into office, the authors of this book discuss a wide range of topics related to European foreign policy in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Gulf region, Europe's role in the Arab-Israeli conflict and the state of transformation processes in the region. Book jacket.




Bound to Cooperate - Europe and the Middle East II


Book Description

The Middle East is a region of crises, conflicts and wars as much as it is a region of great potential and opportunity. However, the European Union and its member states have not yet found a viable strategic approach to meet both the challenges and opportunities in their immediate neighbourhood. The Europeans have not yet developed sufficient foreign and security policy mechanisms to pursue their interests effectively. How the European Union can support economic and political transformation processes throughout the region and thus contribute to a more stable, more prosperous and more democratic Middle East remains the subject of intense debate. The objective of this book is to provide a platform for this debate about the European Union's future role as a player in the Middle East, at a crucial moment in EU-U.S.-Middle East relations. As the European Union re-organizes its Mediterranean policies and the United States vote a new president into office, the authors of this book discuss a wide range of topics related to European foreign policy in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Gulf region, Europe's role in the Arab-Israeli conflict and the state of transformation processes in the region.




The Middle East Peace Process and the EU


Book Description

EU policy-makers have in the past decade endeavoured to formulate a substantial redefinition of the organisation's international ambitions. Attempting to carve out a new role as a key foreign and security policy actor in international politics, the EU has been involved in peace negotiations across the globe. Here, Taylan Ozgur Kaya looks at how this is enacted, with particular reference to the Middle East peace process. Expanding its political, diplomatic, economic and security role in the region, the EU, whilst still being the junior partner to the US, has increasingly played a more conspicuous role in the attempts to resolve (or at least mediate) the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Bearing this in mind, Kaya examines to what extent the EU manages to live up to its self-image as a key player in conflict resolution and crisis management in the region and beyond. With the financial and diplomatic future of Europe ever more in the spotlight, this book will appeal both to researchers of the Peace Process and to policy-makers.




The European Union and Democracy Promotion


Book Description

Richard Youngs is the director of Fride, Madrid, and an associate professor at the University of Warwick. He has authored five books, including Europe㠒ole in Global Politics: A Retreat from Liberal Internationalism --Book Jacket.




European Union Policy towards the Arab-Israeli Peace Process


Book Description

What are the achievements, the limits and the failures of the EU's involvement in the Arab-Israeli conflict? This book sets out to answer this question by analysing the development of European policy towards the conflict over the last forty years.




Radicalism and Political Reform in the Islamic and Western Worlds


Book Description

Over the last decade, political Islam has been denounced in the Western media and in the surrounding literature as a terrorist or fascist movement that is entirely at odds with Western democratic ideology. Kai Hafez's book overturns these arguments, contending that, despite its excesses, as a radical form of political opposition the movement plays a central role in the processes of democratization and modernization, and that these processes have direct parallels in the history and politics of the West. By analyzing the evolution of Christian democratization through the upheavals of the Reformation, colonisation, fascism, and totalitarianism, the book shows how radicalism and violence were constant accompaniments to political change, and that these components - despite assertions to the contrary - are still part of Western political culture to this day.




Initiatives of Regional Integration in Asia in Comparative Perspective


Book Description

This volume offers to compare and explain variances of regionalism in Asia by disclosing the distinctive features of regional arrangements and how they evolved during the 1990s and 2000s against the background of a changing global environment. Moreover, it takes up a genuinely ‘inter-Asian’ perspective. By analysing and comparing diverse manifestations of regional integration agreements across Asia and its different sub-regions, it sets out to track their common characteristics and sub-regional facets with respect to their establishment, design and consequences. In addition, political processes accompanying their negotiation and implementation are scrutinized. The analysis encompasses nine case studies written by renowned scholars who together as a group combine an extraordinary mixture of different disciplinary backgrounds as well as expertise on shapes and processes of regional integration in different parts of Asia. The case studies seize on some of the most important features and controversial issues characterizing the second regionalism. Such are the emergence and impact of overlapping FTAs, regional financial and sub-regional economic integration and cooperation, power and the politics of regional integration as well as the nexus between conflict resolution, state failure and regional integration.




Social Media in the Arab World


Book Description

Following the Arab Spring, the use of social media has become instrumental in organising activist movements and spreading political dissent in the Middle East. New online behaviours have transformed traditional communication channels, enabling young people of all backgrounds to feel politically empowered. But now that spring has turned to winter, what are the long-term implications of internet activism in the region? Social Media in the Arab World provides a unique insight into the role of online communications as a force for change in the Gulf States. Featuring examples as diverse as neo-patrimonial politics in Saudi Arabia and the ways an online presence affects the status of women in Kuwait, the chapters examine shifts in the political, social and religious identities of citizens as a result of increased digital activism. With contributions from a variety of inter-disciplinary experts, this wide-ranging study examines the consequences of changing power dynamics brought about by popular social media. In doing so, this book offers an original perspective on the long-term implications of internet usage in the Arab world and is essential reading for students and researchers working across the region.




African Media Space and Globalization


Book Description

This book surveys the African media industry, examining various sections of the media at the elite level. Drawing on contributors from diverse regions and media and communication disciplines, the book provides definitive analyses of the switch from analogue to digital broadcasting in select African countries. This timely and relevant collection of essays covers trending topics in communication and media studies, as scholars globally continue to examine the impact of digital technology on media practice, training, and education. The contributors offer rich perspectives on crucial issues, blending practice and scholarship as former media practitioners and academics come together to fill a major gap in media practice and education in Africa. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of globalization and African media.




Doing Justice to a Wronged Literature: Essays on Arabic Literature and Rhetoric of the 12th-18th Centuries in Honour of Thomas Bauer


Book Description

Doing Justice to a Wronged Literature, a Festschrift for the Arabist and Islamicist Thomas Bauer, includes 17 essays by established academics on various themes and aspects of Arabic literature and rhetoric of the Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman periods (12th-18th centuries).