Why Is the Middle East a Conflict Area?
Why Is the Middle East a Conflict Area? Over the last hundred years, the Middle East has been one of the most troubled regions in the world. According to the Economist, "With barely an exception, [the Arab world's] autocratic rulers, whether presidents or kings, give up their authority only when they die; its elections are a sick joke; half its people are treated as lesser legal and economic beings, and more than half its young, burdened by joblessness and stifled by conservative religious tradition, are said to want to get out of the place as soon as they can." However, at one time, the Middle East eclipsed the West in intellectual, scientific, and literary achievements. To examine what factors contribute to the Middle East's present circumstances, a team of scholars, headed by Egyptian sociologist Nader Fergany, published the Arab Human Development Report 2002, an analysis of the Arab world's strengths and weaknesses. The study found three key attributes for success in the modern world that the Arab community lacks: freedom, knowledge, and womanpower. According to the study, the absence of freedom is most visible in the region's absolute autocracies, sham elections, and restrictions on the media and on civil society. The authors contend that "the [global] wave of democracy that transformed governance . . . in the 1980s and early 1990s has barely reached the Arab states."
2nd Draft Dissertation - The invasion of Afghanistan, The Iraq conflict, and The dubious legality of Guantanamo bay.
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION i) Abstract -Page 2 ii) Is This A Real War? - Page 4 CHAPTER 1 - THE INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN i) The Security Council Resolutions - Page 7 ii) The Use of Force under the United Nations Charter - Page 9 iii) Customary International Law and the Right of Self Defence - Page 13 iv) Does The Afghanistan War Conform To The Caroline Formula? - Page 15 CHAPTER 2: THE IRAQ CONFLICT i) Self Defence - Page 21 ii) Humanitarian Intervention - Page 23 iii) The Breach of UN Resolutions - Page 25 CHAPTER 3:THE DUBIOUS LEGALITY OF GUANTÁNAMO BAY i) "Law Amid The Clash Of Arms" - Page 31 ii) International Conventions - Page 34 iii) Constitutional Issues - Page 38 iv) What Alternatives Are There? - Page 42 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSIONS i) The United States and International Law - Page 44 ii) Alterative Methods to Deal With Terrorism -Page 45 a) Exhaustion of Diplomatic and Peaceful Remedies - Page 46 b) Collective and Multilateral Action - Page 46 c) The Charter Post-9/11 - Page 47 d) Inter-State Co-operation - Page 48 APPENDICES a) List of Treaties Used In Text - Page 51 b) List of Statutes Used In Text - Page 51 c) List of Cases Used In Text - Page 51 d) List of Abbreviations Used In Text - Page 53 e) List of Websites Used - Page 53 f) Bibliography - Page 54 INTRODUCTION i) Abstract "Sovereign capacity is incapable of legal limitation" - John
Should the United States Get Involved with Problems in the Middle East?
Q. Should the United States Get Involved with Problems in the Middle East? The United States sends Israel about $3 billion in financial and military aid every year. Most Americans--60 to 70 percent--approve of U.S. support of Israel. Others argue that this foreign aid intensifies the tension between the United States and Arab countries, who believe that Israel should withdraw from territories that rightfully belong to Palestinians. Indeed, terrorist Osama bin Laden, who masterminded the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America, cites U.S. support of Israel as a major reason why many Arabs resent the United States. In light of this hostility, many Americans wonder why the United States continues its support of Israel. Stephen Zunes, the Middle East editor of Foreign Policy in Focus, contends that the United States supports Israel to further its own interests in the Middle East. According to Zunes, since its inception in 1948, Israel has proven a useful ally to the United States, especially during the Cold War. For instance, Israel's powerful military, the strongest in the region, keeps potential enemies of the United States--such as Syria, a Soviet ally during the Cold War--under control. In addition, Israel's numerous wars provided battlefield testing of American arms, often against Soviet weapons. Furthermore, Israel's intelligence department has helped U.S.
The Failure of the Israeli - Palestinian peace process and Israeli oppression
THE FAILURE OF THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE PROCESS and ISRAELI OPPRESSION The Israeli Palestinian conflict has been with us for more than fifty years, and recent developments don't indicate that a peaceful solution is imminent. Steps towards peace have been taken in other conflicts (like Northern Ireland, for example), with some success, but the Palestinian-Israeli problem has remained. Why have so many attempts failed? I submit and will attempt to illustrate in the following pages that the failure to reach a comprehensive, lasting and durable peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians is seemingly due to systematic oppression by Israel of the Palestinian people and the blame for this failure most probably lies primarily with Israel and failed Israeli policies and practices, especially since Israel's big land grab in 1967. This systematic oppression of the Palestinian people and these failed Israeli policies and practices include eight main areas which I have identified and which I will attempt to expand upon. They are: Israel's human rights abuses of the Palestinians, Israel's appropriation of Palestinian resources (including land, water and other resources necessary for the normal functioning of the Palestinian economy), Israeli confiscation and occupation of Palestinian land, Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories ( West Bank and Gaza),
How has the success of the Extreme Right in France come about and what impact has it had on National and European politics? A detailed examination of the Extreme Right in France and its National and European success
Table of Contents Acknowledgements 2 Glossary of Terms 3 Abstract 4 Introduction 5 Chapter 1: Policy Areas Attributed to the Extreme Right 7 Chapter 2: The French Exception 12 Chapter 3: The FN's Success in the 1999 and 2004 European Elections 17 Chapter 4: The FN's Success in National Elections from 1995-2007 26 Conclusion 35 Bibliography 37 Statement of Originality 43 Glossary of Terms Front Nationale FN Jean-Marie Le Pen Le Pen Vlaams Blok VB Pim Fortuyn List PFL Freedom Party of Austria FPO European Union EU United States US World War Two WWII Member of the European Parliament MEP Mouvement National Republicain MNR Mouvement Pour la France MPF Abstract: The rise of the extreme right in Europe is a contentious issue. Extreme right parties, such as the FN, have flourished in Western Europe in recent years and many academics have attempted to explain why this has happened. Mudde has attempted to explain this phenomenon by identifying a criteria of the extreme right in order to analyse the policy areas they are able to gain support from. This dissertation will apply this criteria to the FN to assess the ways in which the party has been allowed to thrive in France. Additionally, due to the vast amount of success the FN have had, both electorally and in setting the political agenda, the dissertation will also address the issue of whether this rise
Manning's Quasi-Masterpiece: The Nature of International Society Revisited
Manning's Quasi-Masterpiece: The Nature of International Society Revisited (For publication in The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, Sept 2004). Peter Wilson, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, LSE, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE. Email: [email protected] I am grateful to Barry Buzan, Michael Donelan, Christopher Hill, Carsten Holbraad, Robert Jackson, Alan James, Hayo Krombach, Brian Porter, Geoffrey Stern and Hidemi Suganami for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this essay. Abstract Manning's The Nature of International Society was the consummation of a lifetime's thinking about the fledgling subject of International Relations (IR). Many have found its pages impenetrable. For this reason it has become almost invisible in contemporary debates about IR theory. Yet for some it is a highly influential work, and one of rare originality and creative flair. This article seeks to restore the reputation of this neglected work. It analyses Manning's understanding of international society as a 'notional society of notional entities', one of many different layers of world social and political reality. It examines his belief, more generally, that the social world is by and large comprised of notions. It explores his commitment to the relationship between understanding and social progress. It highlights the continued importance
Convergence or Divergence: An Overview of the Positions of the EU Member States.
Convergence or Divergence: An Overview of the Positions of the EU Member States Dr Roderick Pace The debate on the "Future of Europe" has gathered momentum. Outsiders might at first find it somewhat confusing not only because of the many ideas and proposals that are being put forward but also because of the often-vague manner in which positions have been and continue to be (perhaps deliberately) presented. Member State governments are obviously hedging their positions on the details of the reforms they would like to see eventually approved. The negotiating phase is still far away. As was to be expected, the more academically-inclined contributions have been freer and bolder in what they discussed. If Governments have tended to hold back on proposals, they have been more forthcoming on the principles that ought to guide this latest round of EU reform. This also partly explains their reluctance to engage in defining the concepts employed in this debate. This stage of the debate on the "Future of Europe" has been aptly described as the "brain storming" phase. One hopes that at the Laeken European Summit this December, the debate will be given a more coherent structure and all the parties involved begin to approach the issues in a more detailed and concrete manner. It is important that the applicant states are participating in this debate, after all the "Future of Europe" is an
Golda Meir: A Light Amidst the Hours of Dark
Chapter One: Introduction Childhood and Familial Experiences: When Golda Meir, whom was born Golda Mabovitch, came into the world on May 3rd, 1898 in Kiev, Ukraine, hostilities against the Jewish civilization gained greater intensity and manifested into a series of hate crimes in the form of pogroms across Russian borders. Since she was a young girl, Meir was always attuned to the overwhelming burdens of her family's financial constraints and the effect that anti-Semitism maintained over their standard of living. Her father, Moshe Mabovitch, was a carpenter whose work was consistently underappreciated and thus led to his growing incapability of sufficiently providing for his family. When Golda was five years old, she, her mother and her two sisters, Shaina and Tzipka, moved in with her grandfather in Pinsk in order to give her father time to get back on his feet. Once this move occurred, Moshe began to formulate his plans of emigration to the United States so that he can raise the necessary funds to support his family. Moshe remained in the United States for three years before the rest of the family relocated. During this time, Meir didn't attend school but received private lessons in the academic fields of arithmetic, reading, and writing. While the family initially planned on reuniting when Moshe returned to Pinsk, it was due to the revolutionary political activities
Industrial Labor Policy in Canada and Australia: A Comparative Approach.
McGill University INDR 459: International Human Relations Final Assignment Industrial Labor Policy in Canada and Australia: A Comparative Approach TABLE OF CONTENTS .0 INTRODUCTION 3 2.0 CANADA 4 2.1 Context 4 2.2 Actors 4 2.3 Processes 5 2.4 Outcomes 6 3.0 SWEDEN 8 3.1 Context 8 3.2 Actors 9 3.3 Processes 10 3.4 Outcomes 10 4.0 AUSTRALIA 12 4.1 Context 12 4.2 Actors 12 4.3 Processes 13 4.4 Outcomes 14 5.0 DISCUSSION 16 5.1 Union Density 16 5.2 Alternatives to Unions 16 5.3 Role of Unions in Government 17 5.4 Decentralization Due To Globalization 17 6.0 OUR RECOMMENDATIONS 19 7.0 CONCLUSION 21 .0 INTRODUCTION The main purpose of this research is to analyze how union power has changed in Canada, Sweden and Australia over the past 30 years. These three countries provide a good basis for comparison, as they are advanced economies showing similarly high degrees of industrialization, democratization and globalization. Nevertheless, these nations have fundamental differences in their industrial relations systems. In this paper, we have focused on four aspects of union power that we believe are important in explaining the changes to union power over the past thirty years. These are: * Union density * Alternatives to unions * Role of unions in government * Decentralization due to globalization, and The framework of this research will be based on the
Nato's Istanbul Cooperation Initiative. NATOs Istanbul Initiative inscribes itself in the Anglo-Saxon geopolitical vision that dominates the Atlantic Alliance, more particularly since the disintegration of the USSR.
HS 263 Prof De Caprariis Shubailat Badis THE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION'S (NATO) ISTANBUL COOPERATION INITIATIVE (ICI) NATO's Istanbul Initiative inscribes itself in the Anglo-Saxon geopolitical vision that dominates the Atlantic Alliance, more particularly since the disintegration of the USSR. Anglo-American geopolitical thinkers set out then to consider the need for a change in western military thinking that was justified by what was perceived as the necessity to seize the history-shaping opportunity of increasing the realm of democracy that 1990 has given the West. Consequently, the purpose of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization became the focal point of a debate on both sides of the ocean. Conservatives argued that the ideas NATO has been defending have triumphed. Yet, if the specific problem for which the NATO Alliance was created to deal with vanishes - or gets smaller, and goes farther away - NATO cannot pretend that nothing has happened. There may be other problems, and it would be sensible to deal with them by co-operative action. Liberals, carried away by their temptation not to think that nothing has changed, but to think everything has, perceived the absence of any danger of war with Russia. Europe is free from any serious military preoccupation for as far ahead as the mind can. Alliances can then be dissolved to be replaced by "collective
