Research Papers
Number: 33
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On July 21, 2017, Lebanese Hezbollah fighters initiated an assault across the Qalamoun Mountains near Arsal in northern Lebanon’s Baalbek-Hermel governorate. Soon joined by the Syrian air force, the offensive was aimed at rooting out pockets of entrenched fighters affiliated with the former Syrian al-Qaeda branch, Jabhat al-Nusra, which was relabeled in 2016 as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS).
Just one week after the onset of the operation, Hezbollah declared victory over the militants who were stranded in the contested Jroud Arsal region. As an immediate result, the belligerent parties struck a deal, which was mediated and confirmed by Lebanon’s Gener
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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
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This research is concerned with the study and analysis of the relationship between the new virtual currency (Virtual Currency) - also called (Cryptocurrency encrypted currencies), characterized by great degrees of confidentiality, privacy and decentralization - and religious extremist groups that adopt violence as a means of action and expansion, and study indicators of the growing importance of these currencies in the trading, exchange and business transactions, as well as financing arms purchases and equipment used by those groups.
(English version of the research is currently not available)
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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
Number: 32
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Populism is said to be the major new political trend. From Brexit to the election of Donald Trump in the United States, old ideas and conceptions of the Left and Right are being deconstructed before our eyes faced with populist mantras. The French presidential election of 2017 was a story of a pro-European, pro-business, globalist centrist candidate and underdog, Emmanuel Macron, defeating the favored right-wing candidate, decimating the Socialist left, and going on to win a super majority in the National Assembly, with a movement turned-party he only recently created. However, what is not told, are the populist elements and narratives, coopted by all candidates in the French pr
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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
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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
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The seismic political events of 2016, such as Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as US President, highlighted the fact that globalization has exacerbated divisions within societies, in terms of the gap between rich and poor, elite and non-elite, and those who identify themselves with a national boundary and those who perceive themselves to be part of a wider community.
Nevertheless, a group of young educated Saudi male undergraduates at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in the Eastern Province identify the principal problem causing these societal divisions as not globalization per se but rather ‘uneven globalization&r
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On 19 May 2017, the Iranian electorate will go to the polls to choose the next president of the Islamic Republic. The poll will once again give an opportunity for Iranian society to make its views felt, and to choose from amongst a restricted but relatively diverse roster of candidates approved by the clerically-led vetting body, the Guardian Council. The elections are important on a number of levels. They provide society with the chance to approve or reject the significant developments of the last four years, from the rise of the moderate faction headed by the incumbent president, Hassan Rowhani, through to the nuclear deal signed in 2015 and its economic consequences.
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Author: Makio Yamada
King Salman’s four-day visit to Tokyo in mid-March, as part of his three-week tour to five Asian countries – Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Japan and China – was an event worthy of being described as ‘special’ in the history of Saudi–Japanese relations. Firstly, the visit was special because it was the first visit of a Saudi King to Japan for 46 years. Before King Salman, only King Faisal had visited this East Asian capital – in 1971 – and there is, in fact, a
noteworthy similarity between the visits of the two Kings. Both visits took place in the year following an announcement by the Saudi government of its new economic bluep