Statecraft in the Middle East

Statecraft in the Middle East PDF Author: Imad Mansour
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 178673141X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
What role do ideas play in state-building and state activity? Thisbook argues that government policies in both foreign relationsand domestic politics must always be situated within a broaderideational and societal context. Imad Mansour analyses how governments in thecontemporary Middle East have governed internally and acted externally basedon societal narratives, which bring together a variety of ideas about a society'shistory and place in the world. He argues that there is a dominant societalnarrative that acts as a primary building block of statecraft, where statecraftis understood as an ongoing set of local, regional and global state-buildingprocesses. Mansour investigates the ways in which statecraft in the Middle Easthas been guided by narratives through a close historical reading and comparativediscussion of the political activity of six states - Egypt, Israel, Syria, Turkey,Saudi Arabia and Iran - in the second half of the twentieth century and the earlytwenty-first century. His book demonstrates the analytical power of narrativesin understanding statecraft and explains why governments' decisions need to beunderstood in complex ways.

Statecraft in the Middle East

Statecraft in the Middle East PDF Author: Imad Mansour
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 178673141X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Get Book Here

Book Description
What role do ideas play in state-building and state activity? Thisbook argues that government policies in both foreign relationsand domestic politics must always be situated within a broaderideational and societal context. Imad Mansour analyses how governments in thecontemporary Middle East have governed internally and acted externally basedon societal narratives, which bring together a variety of ideas about a society'shistory and place in the world. He argues that there is a dominant societalnarrative that acts as a primary building block of statecraft, where statecraftis understood as an ongoing set of local, regional and global state-buildingprocesses. Mansour investigates the ways in which statecraft in the Middle Easthas been guided by narratives through a close historical reading and comparativediscussion of the political activity of six states - Egypt, Israel, Syria, Turkey,Saudi Arabia and Iran - in the second half of the twentieth century and the earlytwenty-first century. His book demonstrates the analytical power of narrativesin understanding statecraft and explains why governments' decisions need to beunderstood in complex ways.

Statecraft in the Middle East

Statecraft in the Middle East PDF Author: Eric Davis
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 9780813010588
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Tension in the Middle East is seldom examined outside a narrow political or economic perspective. Without underestimating the role of conflict in state formation in Arab oil countries, this work argues for an understanding of state formation - and its attendant friction - as an historical process.

The Economic Statecraft of the Gulf Arab States

The Economic Statecraft of the Gulf Arab States PDF Author: Karen E. Young
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0755646681
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
This book is a study of a shift in the politics and finance of development from one centered in the institutions and ideas of the post-World War II global political economy to the emergence of South-South economic ties and the rise of authoritarian or state capitalism as an alternative model of development. This is a study of the economic statecraft of the Gulf Arab states, specifically the deployment of aid, investment, and direct support from some of the wealthiest petrostates of the world to their surrounding sphere of influence within the Middle East, Horn of Africa, and West Asia. These new models of development finance, aid, and intervention include distinct institutional designs and ideological bases. For the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, the preference for state-led and often state-owned development is a strategic priority in the energy sector, a mechanism for domestic economic growth and consolidation of wealth among leadership and ruling families. Exporting that agenda as a foreign economic policy tool continues all of the domestic benefits, while also affirming broader regional political goals.

Religious Statecraft

Religious Statecraft PDF Author: Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231545061
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 395

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Book Description
Since the 1979 revolution, scholars and policy makers alike have tended to see Iranian political actors as religiously driven—dedicated to overturning the international order in line with a theologically prescribed outlook. This provocative book argues that such views have the link between religious ideology and political order in Iran backwards. Religious Statecraft examines the politics of Islam, rather than political Islam, to achieve a new understanding of Iranian politics and its ideological contradictions. Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar traces half a century of shifting Islamist doctrines against the backdrop of Iran’s factional and international politics, demonstrating that religious narratives in Iran can change rapidly, frequently, and dramatically in accordance with elites’ threat perceptions. He argues that the Islamists’ gambit to capture the state depended on attaining a monopoly over the use of religious narratives. Tabaar explains how competing political actors strategically develop and deploy Shi’a-inspired ideologies to gain credibility, constrain political rivals, and raise mass support. He also challenges readers to rethink conventional wisdom regarding the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, the U.S. embassy hostage crisis, the Iran-Iraq War, the Green Movement, nuclear politics, and U.S.–Iran relations. Based on a micro-level analysis of postrevolutionary Iranian media and recently declassified documents as well as theological journals and political memoirs, Religious Statecraft constructs a new picture of Iranian politics in which power drives Islamist ideology.

From Sheikhs to Sultanism

From Sheikhs to Sultanism PDF Author: Christopher M. Davidson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197650317
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 451

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Book Description
Muhammad bin Salman Al-Saud and Muhammad bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the respective princely strongmen of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have torn up the old rules. They have spurred game-changing economic master plans, presided over vast anti-corruption crackdowns, tackled entrenched religious forces, and overseen the mass arrest of critics. In parallel, they also appear to have replaced the old 'sheikhly' consensus systems of their predecessors with something more autocratic, more personalistic, and perhaps even analytically distinct. These are the two wealthiest and most populous Gulf monarchies, and increasingly important global powers--Saudi Arabia is a G20 member, and the UAE will be the host of the World Expo in 2021-2022. Such sweeping changes to their statecraft and authority structures could well end up having a direct impact, for better or worse, on policies, economies and individual lives all around the world. Christopher M. Davidson tests the hypothesis that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are now effectively contemporary or even 'advanced' sultanates, and situates these influential states within an international model of autocratic authoritarianism. Drawing on a range of primary sources, including new interviews and surveys, From Sheikhs to Sultanism puts forward an original, empirically grounded interpretation of the rise of both MBS and MBZ.

Sovereignty, Statecraft and Stability in the Middle East

Sovereignty, Statecraft and Stability in the Middle East PDF Author: F. Gregory Gause
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Middle East
Languages : en
Pages : 38

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Book Description


Statecraft

Statecraft PDF Author: Dennis Ross
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374708320
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
How did it come to pass that, not so long after 9/11 brought the free world to our side, U.S. foreign policy is in a shambles? In this thought-provoking book, the renowned peace negotiator Dennis Ross argues that the Bush administration's problems stem from its inability to use the tools of statecraft—diplomatic, economic, and military—to advance our interests. Statecraft is as old as politics: Plato wrote about it, Machiavelli practiced it. After the demise of Communism, some predicted that statecraft would wither away. But Ross explains that in the globalized world—with its fluid borders, terrorist networks, and violent unrest—statecraft is necessary simply to keep the peace. In illuminating chapters, he outlines how statecraft helped shape a new world order after 1989. He shows how the failure of statecraft in Iraq and the Middle East has undercut the United States internationally, and makes clear that only statecraft can check the rise of China and the danger of a nuclear Iran. He draws on his expertise to reveal the art of successful negotiation. And he shows how the next president could resolve today's problems and define a realistic, ambitious foreign policy. Statecraft is essential reading for anyone interested in foreign policy—or concerned about America's place in the world.

Statecraft In The Dark

Statecraft In The Dark PDF Author: Aharon Klieman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000313115
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
Covert agreements and operations are a fact of world affairs. Secrecy in diplomacy remains as much a challenge for international politics as it is for national and foreign policy. This study undertakes to address aspects of clandestinely at both the domestic and external levels. Secret diplomacy's mixed fortunes in this century are first surveyed,

Israeli Statecraft

Israeli Statecraft PDF Author: Yehezkel Dror
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136706380
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
"This book provides a comprehensive study of Israeli statecraft, using an interdisciplinary framework to enable an in-depth understanding of its characteristics, challenges, and responses"--

Islam and Statecraft

Islam and Statecraft PDF Author: Jon Hoffman
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
ISBN: 0755655680
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Instead of religion influencing political outcomes, this analysis examines how politics influences religious outcomes. Dominant analyses examining the utilization of religion as a tool of statecraft in the Middle East remain overwhelmingly fixated on how Islam influences the foreign policies of different state actors – not how political considerations often influence the forms Islam assumes and how religion itself is often molded according to strategic considerations of political elites. That Islam, due to its “unique” or “exceptional” relationship with politics, drives political outcomes at the international level in the Middle East is a myth this book shatters by demonstrating how the political considerations of ruling elites – specifically, the intersection of domestic and foreign threats – influence and constrain the kinds of religious soft power strategies adopted by states in the region. This book develops a comprehensive analytical framework for the notion of “religious soft power” capable of incorporating power-based, identity-based, and ideational variables to examine how states couple religion with their broader foreign policy conduct. This framework is applied to the Middle East through the specific examination of three countries - Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates - in the period following the Arab Uprisings to demonstrate how specific religious narratives, identities, histories, and ideologies are constructed by political elites in the Middle East for the advancement of what are inherently political objectives, namely the imperatives of regime preservation and power projection.