Political uprisings in the Middle East, especially in Muslim nation states have placed Arabian politics back on the focus point of international politics. Political events in certain Arab countries had an excessive impact on the political development of other neighboring states. Resistances and anxieties within different Arab countries triggered unpredictable actions, sometimes sorely to observe and believe. The authoritarian governments of Arabian countries led from various dictators have created a precarious situation for their people, especially in providing national security and maintaining peace in the region. Jack Goldstone argues that the degree of a sultan’s weakness has been often only visible in retrospect; due in part to the nature of the military-security complex common across Middle East states (Goldstone 1). In addition, the existence of various statesmen with political affiliation is concerned in faithfulness of its armed forces. Usually, the armed national forces of several states, mainly those in Arab countries are loyal and closely affiliated to their leaders, which have a major role in state regimes. Arab uprisings in their early spreading appeared legally responsible and with concrete demands from representatives’ peoples, calling for a more open democratic system and reasonable governance. Even though, the system in which popular frustration with government imposes alters considerably from one state to another. These public revolts against different authoritative governments didn’t halt just in Arab states, but they sustained also in the Far East and in the Eastern Europe. Can we say that the popular uprisings in Arab countries could be attributed to the term of globalization? In fact, globalization is a multi...
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...n possess in the world, precisely in respect to conflicts. With the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, civil war in Syria, the Arab Spring, the Russian invasion of Georgia, and numerous other conflicts; it is clear that globalization does not end conflicts completely.
However, globalization could have an effect on conflicts and on who is involved fighting in these conflicts.
Works Cited
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International conflicts have contributed to regional conflict in Southwest Asia by forming borders without regards to the different ethnic
The authoritarian regimes of the Middles cycled through a pattern of anti-western policy until the globalization effects of economics and information demanded reform. As conservative Arab states try to maintain the autocracy they relied on after gaining independence, their citizens, affected by information and education expansion, challenge their resistant governments as typified by Syria’s unwillingness to capitulate. The proliferation of information and education underscored the protest movements of the Arab Spring because citizens’ contempt for their obstinate governments grew to large under economic pressures, as the current situation in Syria demonstrates.
Lisa Lowe’s introduction on the word “globalization” was interesting as it reminded me of the readings and lectures regarding colonization of the United States. Globalization is described conditions that increased economic, social, and political interdependence among people. The article allows for comparisons to be made with eighteenth century America. For example, the arrival of English colonists led to a change in the North American landscape. This could also be described as an invasion of native land as colonists felt the land belonged to them. Similarly, Globalization also mentions American invasion in the context of the conflicts against Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition, both seventeenth and twentieth century America appear to some effect
In the novel War and Peace In the Middle East, author Avi Shlaim argues that Arab nations have been unable to escape the post-Ottoman syndrome. In particular he describes how the various powers inside and outside the region have failed to produce peace. While some of Shlaim's arguments hinder the message, I agree with his overall thesis that the Middle East problems were caused and prolonged by the failure of both powers and superpowers to take into account the regional interests of the local states.
“A World on the Edge” by Amy Chua discusses in depth the link between globalization and ethnic violence in several countries. Chua, a Yale Law professor, published her article in 2002 to the Wilson Quarterly and updated it in 2014. She has many crucial points throughout her article, but her core argument would be the effects that market-dominant minorities have on developing countries. Market-dominant minorities would be considered any ethnic group that is not the majority, but are the leading source of revenue and the wealthiest group in that specific country. Chua follows up this argument by stating that globalization is powered by markets and democracy. She also states that capitalism is the best economic system devised because it is a major
“One Arab nation from Gulf to the Ocean,” gives meaning to the term “Pan-Arabism” in the Middle East. A notion where Arab nations transcend their state boundaries to form political mergers with other states and achieve an ‘Arab unity.’ The existence of Arab states had been tumultuous throughout the decline of the Muslim order, the end of the Ottoman Empire, the Palestinian defeat, Six Day War and Arab-Israeli war in 1973. This essay will critically examine Foud Ajami’s case for a raison d’état in the Middle East and his claim that there were six broad trends leading to the alteration of the balance of power away from Pan-Arabism and towards the state. It will be argued that Pan-Arabism was a romantic ideology that Arab states found convenient to support, all in advancement of their nationalistic state agendas. It was never a realistic endeavor that was physically undertaken by the Arab states and was thus never alive in a tangible sense. However, Pan-Arabism as an ideology had a place in the Middle East and was thus alive in an ideological sense.
Dalacoura, Katerina. "The 2011 Uprisings in the Arab Middle East: political change and geopolitical implications." International Affairs (2012): 63.
Early 2011 uprisings swept across the Middle East and North Africa, and many rebellions are still going on today. The Arab region has seen revolts and conflict since the 1800‘s, but only recently have these revolts been redirected to the problems of Arab society (Ghannam, J. 2011 pg 4-5)The Arab Spring Uprising was first sparked in Tunisia and eventually struck Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen and then spread to other countries. Citizens throughout these countries were dissatisfied with the rule of their local governments. Issues like human rights violations, political corruption, economic decline, unemployment, extreme poverty, dictators...
This has caused an absence of a core state for the Islamic world. There have been individual revolutions in several countries such as Omar Al Mukhtar in Libya, the Million Martyrs Revolution in Algeria…against Western colonization but the strategic centre of gravity had already shifted.
Advances in technology and the expansion of trade have, without a doubt, improved the standard of living dramatically for peoples around the world. Globalization brings respect for law and human rights and the democratization of politics, education, and finance to developing societies, but is usually slow in doing so. It is no easy transition or permanent solution to conflict, as some overly zealous proponents would argue. In The Great Illusion, Norman Angell sees globalization as a force which results from and feeds back into the progressive change of human behavior from using physical force toward using rational, peaceful methods in order to achieve economic security and prosperity. He believes that nations will no longer wage war against one another because trade, not force, yields profit in the new global economy, and he argues that “military power is socially and economically futile” because “political and military power can in reality do nothing for trade.” While the economic interdependence of nations should prove to be a deterrent from warfare, globalization is not now, and was not a century ago, a prescription for world peace. At the turn of the twentieth century, formal colonialism was still profitable in some regions, universal free trade was not a reality, nationalism was not completely defunct, military force was necessary to protect economic investments in developing locations, and the arms race of the previous century had created the potential for an explosive war if any small spark should set the major powers off against one another. The major flaw in Angell’s argument is his refusal to acknowledge the economic advantages that colonizing powers, even after globalization has started to take shape, can actuall...
“Since December 2010, the wave of uprisings and protests across the Middle East has produced spectacular changes in the region’s authoritarian republics but has largely bypassed its autocratic monarchies” (Yom and Gause, p. 1). The most interesting aspect of this trans-national movement of uprisings is how it “has largely bypassed the autocratic monarchies”. In this paper, I will focus on how the Arab Spring affected two such autocratic monarchies: the State of Qatar and the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Bahraini public motivated and frustrated with the way things were went to the streets to protest in mass in February 2011 (Freedom House, Countries at a Crossroads, p. 1). Since this could potentially weaken the existing government, as it did in Egypt and Tunisia, the autocratic government of Bahrain saw the protests as a threat to their power and legitimacy and met the protesters with a brutal crackdown and further political repression. These protests and the subsequent violence did not, however, occur in Qatar. So, why did the Arab Spring affect the domestic stability of the oil-producing constitutional monarchy of the Kingdom Bahrain but not the oil-producing constitutional monarchy of the State of Qatar? Domestic stability here is defined as “the absence of large-scale violence in a country” (Nathan). Energy-rich countries that have recently changed from absolute monarchies to constitutional monarchies are more likely to suffer domestic instability if two things occur. First, that the profits from energy resources have declined and are unequally distributed among its citizens among other policies of sectarian-based economic discrimination. Second, that in the case of the religious minority monarchy that hold the political majorit...
As the Arab Spring enters its second year, major uprisings and revolts have occurred all over the Middle East, pushing for an end to the corrupt autocratic rule and an expansion of civil liberties and political rights. Most recently, images from Syria have emerged, depicting the government’s use of force to suppress the voice of its people. One might ask, “Is this the beginning of a revolution? Is the country on the path to democracy?” To assess this question and examine the future trends in the region, one must look back on the country’s somewhat tumultuous history, the relationship between the citizens and the state, and the political economy.
Whether it be genocides, wars or revolutions, there still are tensions and conflicts occurring in the world today. These tensions and conflicts not only affect the country or region they take place in, they often affect the rest of the world. For this reason, the Contemporary World theme of Tensions and Conflicts was chosen. The critical concepts of this theme are ideology, human rights, demand, diplomacy, intervention and interference.
Globalization affects this world and the people of this world in many ways. It is the idea of making the entire world like a single country.
Al-Rodhan, Nayef. Definitions of Globalization:A Comprehensive Overview and a Proposed Definition. Geopolitical Implications of Globalization and Transnational Security . Geneva: GCSP, 2006.