Mullahs, Merchants, and Militants

Mullahs, Merchants, and Militants PDF Author: Stephen Glain
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1466873574
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
A thousand years ago, a vast Arab empire stretched from the Asian steppe across the Mediterranean to Spain, pioneering new technologies, sciences, art and culture. Arab traders and Arab currencies dominated the global economy in ways Western multinationals and the dollar do today. A thousand years later, Arab states are in decay. Official corruption and ineptitude have eroded state authority and created a vacuum that militant Islam has rushed to fill. In Mullahs, Merchants, and Militants, Glain takes us on a journey through the heart of what were once the great Islamic caliphates, the countries now known as Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel/Palestine, Iraq and Egypt, to illustrate how a once prosperous and enlightened civilization finds itself at a crossroads between a Dark Age and a New Dawn. As late as a century ago, what we call the Levant was a prosperous trading bloc. By carving the region into proxy states and emirates after the First World War, the Western powers Balkanized and undermined the Levantine economy. That in turn prepared the ground for a regional autocracy that rejected economic openness and religious tolerance, qualities that had made the old Islamic caliphates great. Today the Arab world has opted out of the global economy, with tragic consequences. It is up to the new generation of leaders -- and the Western governments that created the modern Middle East -- to reverse the sclerosis and revive the region.

Mullahs, Merchants, and Militants

Mullahs, Merchants, and Militants PDF Author: Stephen Glain
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1466873574
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388

Get Book Here

Book Description
A thousand years ago, a vast Arab empire stretched from the Asian steppe across the Mediterranean to Spain, pioneering new technologies, sciences, art and culture. Arab traders and Arab currencies dominated the global economy in ways Western multinationals and the dollar do today. A thousand years later, Arab states are in decay. Official corruption and ineptitude have eroded state authority and created a vacuum that militant Islam has rushed to fill. In Mullahs, Merchants, and Militants, Glain takes us on a journey through the heart of what were once the great Islamic caliphates, the countries now known as Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel/Palestine, Iraq and Egypt, to illustrate how a once prosperous and enlightened civilization finds itself at a crossroads between a Dark Age and a New Dawn. As late as a century ago, what we call the Levant was a prosperous trading bloc. By carving the region into proxy states and emirates after the First World War, the Western powers Balkanized and undermined the Levantine economy. That in turn prepared the ground for a regional autocracy that rejected economic openness and religious tolerance, qualities that had made the old Islamic caliphates great. Today the Arab world has opted out of the global economy, with tragic consequences. It is up to the new generation of leaders -- and the Western governments that created the modern Middle East -- to reverse the sclerosis and revive the region.

Military Review

Military Review PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Military art and science
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Book Description


The Global History of the Balfour Declaration

The Global History of the Balfour Declaration PDF Author: Maryanne A. Rhett
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317312767
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
This book examines the development and issuance of the Balfour Declaration, the document that set the stage for the creation of the state of Israel, within its global setting. The heart of the book demonstrates that the Declaration developed and contributed to a juncture in a global dialogue about the nature and definition of nation at the outset of the twentieth century. Embedded in this examination are gendered, racial, nationalistic, and imperial considerations. The work posits that the Balfour Declaration was a specific tool designed by the manipulation of these ideas. Once established, the Declaration helped, and hindered, established imperial powers like the British, nascent imperial powers like the Japanese and Indians, and emerging nationalist movements like the Zionists, Irish, Palestinians, and East Africans, to advocate for their own vision of national definition.

Arab Women in Arab News

Arab Women in Arab News PDF Author: Amal Al-Malki
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1780931255
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 493

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Book Description
This book addresses east-west understandings of Arab women as portrayed through translated media. The vast majority of media studies on Arab women are western-based. They study the effect of western stereotypes in western media depictions of Arab women. There is a vast scholarly literature tracing western stereotypes of Arab women from medieval times to the present. From 1800, the dominant western stereotype of Arab women depicts them as passive and oppressed. Thirty years of social science media research in the west has shown that media images of Arab women reinforce this two hundred year old stereotype. Much of this research has studied silent "image bites" of Arab women, where women are pictured in veils and their own voices are replaced by western captions or voice-overs. This book sets out to answer this question. To answer it, we contracted with a global news translation service from the Middle East to collect and translate a sample of 22 months of new summaries from 103 Arab media sources belonging to 22 Arab countries. Filtering the summaries that contained one or more female keywords (e.g., woman, mother, aunt, sister, she) yielded 2, 061 summaries between September 2005 and June of 2007. Using the 2,061 summaries as input data, a coding scheme was developed for "active" and "passive" female behaviors based on verb-phrase analysis and conventions of English-language news-reporting.

A History of Social Justice and Political Power in the Middle East

A History of Social Justice and Political Power in the Middle East PDF Author: Linda T. Darling
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136220178
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
From ancient Mesopotamia into the 20th century, "the Circle of Justice" as a concept has pervaded Middle Eastern political thought and underpinned the exercise of power in the Middle East. The Circle of Justice depicts graphically how a government’s justice toward the population generates political power, military strength, prosperity, and good administration. This book traces this set of relationships from its earliest appearance in the political writings of the Sumerians through four millennia of Middle Eastern culture. It explores how people conceptualized and acted upon this powerful insight, how they portrayed it in symbol, painting, and story, and how they transmitted it from one regime to the next. Moving towards the modern day, the author shows how, although the Circle of Justice was largely dropped from political discourse, it did not disappear from people’s political culture and expectations of government. The book demonstrates the Circle’s relevance to the Iranian Revolution and the rise of Islamist movements all over the Middle East, and suggests how the concept remains relevant in an age of capitalism. A "must read" for students, policymakers, and ordinary citizens, this book will be an important contribution to the areas of political history, political theory, Middle East studies and Orientalism.

The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research

The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research PDF Author: Alex Schmid
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1136810404
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 737

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Book Description
This major new Handbook synthesises more than two decades of scholarly research, and provides a comprehensive overview of the field of terrorism studies. The content of the Handbook is based on the responses to a questionnaire by nearly 100 experts from more than 20 countries as well as the specific expertise and experience of the volume editor and the various contributors. Together, they guide the reader through the voluminous literature on terrorism, and propose a new consensus definition of terrorism, based on an extensive review of existing conceptualisations. The work also features a large collection of typologies and surveys a wide range of theories of terrorism. Additional chapters survey terrorist databases and provide a guide to available resources on terrorism in libraries and on the Internet. It also includes the most comprehensive World Directory of Extremist, Terrorist and other Organizations associated with Guerrilla Warfare, Political Violence, Protest and Organized- and Cyber-Crime. The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research will be an essential work of reference for students and researchers of terrorism and political violence, security studies, criminology, political science and international relations, and of great interest to policymakers and professionals in the field of counter-terrorism.

When Worlds Collide

When Worlds Collide PDF Author: Gene W. Heck
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742558564
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Argues that modern Middle Eastern terrorism stems from aborted efforts by Western intelligence agencies to co-opt political Islam as an opposing force against other global ideologies deemed more politically dangerous at the time.

Political Handbook of the World 2020-2021

Political Handbook of the World 2020-2021 PDF Author: Tom Lansford
Publisher: CQ Press
ISBN: 1544384734
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 5375

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Book Description
The Political Handbook of the World by Tom Lansford provides timely, thorough, and accurate political information, with more in-depth coverage of current political controversies than any other reference guide. The updated 2020-2021 edition will continue to be the most authoritative source for finding complete facts and analysis on each country′s governmental and political makeup. Compiling in one place more than 200 entries on countries and territories throughout the world, this volume is renowned for its extensive coverage of all major and minor political parties and groups in each political system. The Political Handbook of the World 2020-2021 also provides names of key ambassadors and international memberships of each country, plus detailed profiles of more than 30 intergovernmental organizations and UN agencies. And this update will aim to include coverage of current events, issues, crises, and controversies from the course of the last two years.

The Middle East

The Middle East PDF Author: Barry Rubin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317455770
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 1332

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Book Description
The Middle East is an area of great importance globally, yet misperceptions abound. Events have made it a region of special interest to the West and so the search for understanding gains momentum. This publication is intended to clarify the region’s complex history and issues. In developing this project, the contributors’ set out to explore seven significant themes that are usually not found in other sources. While many books focus on political history and conflicts, this two-volume work deals specifically with culture, religion, women, economics, governance, and media, as well as the role that the region’s modern history has played in shaping its society and worldview.

Political Handbook of the World 2018-2019

Political Handbook of the World 2018-2019 PDF Author: Tom Lansford
Publisher: CQ Press
ISBN: 1544327110
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 8471

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Book Description
The Political Handbook of the World provides timely, thorough, and accurate political information, with more in-depth coverage of current political controversies than any other reference guide. The updated 2018-2019 edition will continue to be the most authoritative source for finding complete facts and analysis on each country’s governmental and political makeup. Compiling in one place more than 200 entries on countries and territories throughout the world, this volume is renowned for its extensive coverage of all major and minor political parties and groups in each political system. It also provides names of key ambassadors and international memberships of each country, plus detailed profiles of more than 30 intergovernmental organizations and UN agencies. This comprehensive update will include coverage of current events, issues, crises, and controversies from the course of the last two years, including: Elections across Europe Referendum in Ireland Rohingya genocide in Myanmar The Venezuelan dictatorship The renaming of Swaziland to eSwatini Qatar diplomacy changes Historic meeting between the United States and North Korea Establishment of a new governing coalition in Liberia