Research Papers
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Mark C. Thompson
A strong entrepreneurial streak runs through young Saudis, who today are becoming “incredibly open to starting up a business of their own,” according to Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Saudi Arabia 2016/17 National Report, produced by the Prince Mohammed Bin Salman College for Business and Entrepreneurship (MBSC), a business school based in the King Abdullah Economic City. There is a reason for this: the demographics of the kingdom serve as a double-edged sword, says Marc Andreessen, a prominent American entrepreneur. On the one hand, “the vast numbers o
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The growing ideological gap between the Islamic state and its people, particularly youth and women, has never been wider in Iran. Women and youth advocating modern and Western lifestyles and norms are undermining the regime’s Islamic legitimacy. This article examines the hard-liners’ attempt to re-revolutionize Iran and to bring back the ideological Islamic values that increase the likelihood of societal insecurity and domestic disorder. Through this lens, it attempts to explore the increasing discontent among a large segment of Iranians, including liberal and secular groups, women’s rights groups, and the ever-increasing sociopolitic
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Saud al-Sarhan
On Monday, October 27, 2017, The Levant Committee arrested several former leaders of al-Nusra Front, including Sami al-Aridi and Iyad al-Tubasi, and their Jordanian comrades linked to al-Qaeda have turned into stalkers and hidings on charges of working to establish a branch of Al-Qaeda in Syria
This report presents a background of the relationship between al-Qaeda and The Levant Liberation Organization (formerly Al Nusra Front), the reasons behind these arrests, and the new
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Saud Alsarhan & Sebastian Maier
The Sinai peninsula, and, in particular, the affected land strip in the vicinity of the northern coastal town of El-Arish, has been the staging ground for a variety of spectacular militant attacks in recent years. In 2015, a suicide bombing and subsequent shooting shattered the Swiss Inn Resort in Arish, while in October 2014 and March 2016 local security checkpoints were targeted, killing dozens of security personnel from both the army and the police. In all in
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Faris Al-Sulayman
Research Fellow
The first half of 2017 has seen Saudi Arabia take substantive steps in the renewable energy space, as the newly formed Ministry of Energy, Industry, and Mineral Resources aims to fulfill the goals set in Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program 2020, a broad blueprint for the Saudi economy, and the more detailed interim plan. Underlying these goals is the aim of transforming the Saudi economy from a centralized, oil-based economy to a model that is more diversified and reliant on private-sector growth.
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The recent ratcheting up of tension between the Trump administration and the Islamic Republic has cast the spotlight once again on the regional activities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the controversial elite body that handles most of Iran’s regional Middle Eastern policy. Caught on the defensive after the substantial failure of candidates considered to be allied, or very close to it, in the May 2017 presidential elections in Iran, such as Ebrahim Raisi and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the IRGC has also been hit by an increasing offensive coordinated by the president, Hassan Rouhani, against its sprawling domestic economic empire. Y
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This report attempts to examine Moroccan elections held in 2016 where the Justice and Development Party (JDP) took the lead. This win, though, did not give the party the power to form a new government by itself and was forced to seek help from other party/parties. Moroccan parties were very versatile in hampering JDP’s attempts to form a new government, wasting 5 months of effort from Abdullah Bin Kiran and forcing the Monarchy institution to call on another person from the party (Saadeddine Othmani) who was able to form a government in 15 days. What did Othmani achieve and Bin Kiran fail in?; What were the alliances forged?; What are its effects on the political future of
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Mohammed Aldujayn
Iraqi Kurdistan’s referendum on Monday, September 25, 2017, which resulted in more than 90% of the votes in support of independence from Iraq, has triggered an international debate among Kurdistan’s neighbors. Turkey views this ongoing independence referendum with many doubts, and it has condemned the vote process as illegal and the referendum itself as threatening to regional security and a unified Iraq. In addition, nations other than Turkey are also concerned. In particular, Iraq and Iran share the same attitudes regarding what has been going on in the de facto capital of Erbil.
(Continued
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Hasan Radi
This study begins with a quick overview of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, its emergence, its political, military, security and economic objectives that were behind its establishment. The study then moves on to view the Guard’s economic activity and the economic aspects it controls in Iran through the creation of its own companies, or the takeover of existing companies with established economic activities. This tactic, in turn, enabled the Revolutionary Guard to gain complete control of Iran’s security and economic policies. The author shows – through statistical data, tables
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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