scholarly journals Crusaders in Reverse? The Emergence of Political Islam in the Middle East and the Reactions of British Foreign Policy, 1978–1990

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 196
Author(s):  
Ihab Shabana
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Middle East ◽  
International Relations ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Archival Material ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
British Foreign Policy

British foreign policy in the Middle East has been well researched. However, there are still aspects of Britain’s approach towards the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) that have yet to be researched. One such aspect is Britain’s encounter with the rise of political Islam in MENA and the way(s) in which this phenomenon was deciphered. Even though political Islam dates back to the late 19th and early 20th century, our study focuses on the period between the turbulent years of the outburst of the Iranian Revolution in 1978–1979 and its widely-felt influence until 1990. Our methodological tools include Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) archival material that addresses the phenomenon of political Islam and its implications for British interests and international relations in general. We choose the concept of political Islam and its adherents that are widely acknowledged as political, comparatively to those of da’wa and Jihadi Islamism. We argue that British officials were widely influenced by the intellectual debates of the period under consideration and that they mainly adopted four analytical schemas which focused firstly on the rise of sectarian politics in MENA, secondly on the gradual accommodation of non-state actors and organizations in political analysis, thirdly on the worrisome prospect of an alliance between Islamist and communist forces, and lastly on the prevalence of the idea of Islamic solidarity and Islamic exceptionalism in exerting international politics. Our findings suggest that, at times, the FCO approaches the issue of political Islam with a reassuring mindset, focusing on its divisions and weaknesses, while at other times it analyzes it with a grave concern over stability and Britain’s critical interests.

EDMOND YAFIL AND ANDALUSI MUSICAL REVIVAL IN EARLY 20TH-CENTURY ALGERIA

2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 671-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Glasser
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Social Basis ◽  
Music Making ◽  
The Social ◽  
Performance Tradition ◽  
Muslim Spain

AbstractEdmond Yafil was a key figure in the early 20th-century Algerian revival of Andalusi music, a high-prestige urban performance tradition linked to medieval Muslim Spain. Yafil's experiments with printing, transcription, audio recording, amateur associations, concert-hall performance, and new composition helped transform the production, consumption, and circulation of Andalusi music. Although Yafil was widely respected, his reputation was fraught with ambiguity during his lifetime and has remained so since. While not divorced from his position as a Jew in turn of the century Algiers, Yafil's ambiguity is best understood within the context of the complex Andalusi musical milieu of his day. This study of Yafil shows revival to have been a gloss for a partial but far-reaching shift in the social basis of Andalusi music making and calls for a broader rethinking of the familiar concept of revival in North Africa and the Middle East and beyond.

scholarly journals MILOVAN MILOVANOVIĆ’S VIEWS ON SERBIAN FOREIGN POLICY AND NATIONAL ISSUES AT THE END OF XIX AND THE BEGINNING OF XX CENTURY

2020 ◽  
pp. 017
Author(s):  
Nenad Anžel
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Political Scene

This paper examines the most important views of the Serbian statesman, a diplomat and a lawyer Milovan Milovanovic and his view of the solution of the Serbian national and state issue in the late 19th and early 20th century. Milovanović was one of the most educated people of his time in Serbia. As a good connoisseur of the European political scene and international relations, he implemented his ideas first as Minister of Foreign Affairs and later as Prime Minister of the Serbian Kingdom.

An international hierarchy of science: conquest, cooperation, and the 1959 Antarctic Treaty System

2021 ◽  
pp. 135406612110338
Author(s):  
Joanne Yao
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
International Status ◽  
Antarctic Treaty System

The Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), created in 1959 to govern the southern continent, is often lauded as an illustration of science’s potential to inspire peaceful and rational International Relations. This article critically examines this optimistic view of science’s role in international politics by focusing on how science as a global hierarchical structure operated as a gatekeeper to an exclusive Antarctic club. I argue that in the early 20th century, the conduct of science in Antarctica was entwined with global and imperial hierarchies. As what Mattern and Zarakol call a broad hierarchy, science worked both as a civilized marker of international status as well as a social performance that legitimated actors’ imperial interests in Antarctica. The 1959 ATS relied on science as an existing broad hierarchy to enable competing states to achieve a functional bargain and ‘freeze’ sovereignty claims, whilst at the same time institutionalizing and reinforcing the legitimacy of science in maintaining international inequalities. In making this argument, I stress the role of formal international institutions in bridging our analysis of broad and functional hierarchies while also highlighting the importance of scientific hierarchies in constituting the current international order.

Middle East Dilemma: Pakistan’s Role as Mediator for Conflict Resolution

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-18
Author(s):  
Zikriya ◽  
Naushad Khan ◽  
Asif Salim
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Middle East ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
East Region ◽  
Analysis Technique ◽  
Middle East Region

The development of International relations together with forces like globalization and technology has brought the world closer to each other. Friendly ties and relations with states create massive challenges during times of conflict. The focus of the paper is on the crisis evolving in the Middle East region and the role of Pakistan in solving those crisis considering relations with its closest allies, political and financial circumstances, and its foreign policy principles. A qualitative research approach with desk analysis technique has been applied to analyse the role of Pakistan as a mediator for the conflict resolution among Middle Eastern countries. The research highlights how the disputes created great problems for Pakistan but it is still striving to resolve conflicts among Middle Eastern countries because maintaining peace and prosperity in the Muslim world has always been a top priority of Pakistan’s foreign policy.

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