Japan was once a country that suffered from slow progress in its economic diversification away from agriculture. While the country modernized rapidly after 1868, the problem of a skills mismatch between education and industry remained throughout the first half of the 20th century. With a large number of educated but jobless citizens, youth unemployment continued to be a major economic problem. Nevertheless, a few decades later, the country developed a productive workforce harnessing its “youth bulge” demographics, and succeeded in building competitive export-oriented manufacturing industries. D

Federico V. Magdalena This paper examines the history of Islam in the Philippines and contemporary developments, with a focus on Philippine state policies and practices with regard to the Muslim Filipinos, including security issues and foreign relations, especially with Islamic countries like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. More specifically, it touches on the following domains: (1) the history of Islamic development and how it changed the course of the Philippine state, (2) the Philippine state’s traditional approach toward Philippine Islam and its adherents, and the mechanisms of religious cont

Ma Hailong The purpose of this paper is to examine the history of the Chinese Muslims who moved to Malaysia and explain the different factors that have influenced this migration at different historical stages. I separate this history mainly into two parts, namely, before the twentieth century and from the twentieth century onward. Before the twentieth century, the majority of Chinese Muslims who streamed into Malaysia were Chinese immigrants who became Chinese Muslims by converting to Islam. From the twentieth century onward, however, the majority of Chinese Muslims who came to Malaysia were Muslim

Ridwan Al-Seyyed The term “Politics” gained prominence in the Islamic way of life – in the context of the arts and means of managing city and state – in the mid 13th century Hijri / 9th century AD. This was during the times of Islamic philosophers such as Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi – who gave much attention to the term, Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd alongside philosophers in 4th century Hijri / 10th AD, known as Ikhwan al-Safa' (Epistles of the Brethren of Purity). As for jurisprudents of the four doctrines in Islam, the term “Politics” carried many interpretatio

Libya has recently been witnessing moves at the local, regional and international levels to find a national consensus and a vision for the future of the conflicting parties. This is in order to put the country on a solid political ground and to build stable institutions for a modern state after decades of tyranny and waste of wealth in a country that is rich in resources, distinguished by its strategic location at the regional level. Although the revolution that broke out in February 2011 was aimed at putting an end to the absolute authoritarianism of the former regime, it has so far failed to develop a road map that can achieve the

Emine Enise Yakar & Sumeyra Yakar This article focuses on the historically complex relations between the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and the Turkish state. It asserts that the Diyanet, from its establishment in 1924 to the present time, has experienced transformation from a strictly state-controlled institution to a more autonomous one. This transformational process transpired, sometimes overtly and sometimes covertly, within the borders of the secular state. In exploring this process, the article analyzes the ways in which the institution’s position has gradually risen within the state’s constitution and how its religio

Abdullah bin Khalid Alkhalifa The history of relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid state is characterized by competition, tension, and wars between them, not only on Iraq but beyond the countries of the region. This study will try - as far as possible - to focus on their frantic rivalry on Iraq, which did not diminish after the Safavid state and the arrival of the Kajari state, which continued until the establishment of the Turkish Republic by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923. (English translation of the study is currently

Askar H. Enazy On April 8, 2016, in the presence of Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the King of Saudi Arabia, and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, at the latter’s presidential palace of Al-Ittihadiyah in Cairo, Egypt’s prime minister and the Saudi deputy crown prince cosigned the maritime boundary delimitation agreement between the two countries concerning the area along the Red Sea. It quickly became known, in the media of both countries and beyond, as the “Tiran and Sanafir Accord,&r

Mona Alami The fall of Aleppo in December emphasized the prominent role played by Lebanese Hezbollah in the Syrian war. Since 2013, Hezbollah fighters have operated across the border alongside the Syrian army and forces loyal to the regime of President Bashar Assad. Hezbollah’s importance is twofold: first, it has enabled the regime to wrestle back areas from rebel control, and second, it has significantly increased the effectiveness of pro-regime forces. The war in Syria, which was triggered by the March 2011 peaceful protests against the regime of President Assad, was perceived as a dangerous threat by Hezbollah and its ba

Jack Caravelli & Sebastian Maier Russia has developed one of the world’s most extensive cyber warfare capabilities and views those capabilities as a means to advance its strategic objectives in both war and peacetime. This paper examines Russia’s approach to the use of its cyber capabilities and how they are integrated into Russia’s broader objectives for dealing with its adversaries. Particular focus is placed on Russia’s unprecedented use of cyber to influence political elections in the West, including in the United States, France and Germany. To further its objectives, Russia also has