Public Administration in the Middle East and North Africa

ABSTRACT

This article highlights the objective of the special issue which is to understand the status of public administration in six profiled countries – Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Turkey – in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The special issue explores public administration as a concept—the diversity of guiding general principles that determines how governments administer the affairs of state in the context of their governance frameworks—and as praxis—the diversity of public administration structures, procedures and practice, and reform initiatives. It is evident that the countries profiled have adopted a mode of public administration and governance that mirrors its history, and its cultural, geo-political, socio-economic, and conflictive environments. In this context, the editors hope that the articles presented in this special issue will contribute to advancing the public administration literature in MENA.     

Mining strategies in the Middle East and North Africa

This article provides a mapping exercise of the economic importance of non-hydrocarbon minerals (nhm) in the Middle East and North Africa (mena) and shows how governments in the region increasingly perceive them as strategic resources. The focus is on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, Turkey, Morocco and Iran. nhm like iron ore, phosphates, aluminium and uranium are important for development models in the region, either as export commodities or as vital input factors. Since the 1990s, and as elsewhere in the world, the sector has witnessed privatisation and the promulgation of new mining codes. Yet governments have retained core capabilities and manage most key commodities themselves either directly or indirectly. Mining projects have met with opposition from labour representatives. They also have considerable environmental impact. The article discusses rentier state and resource curse theories, but argues that nhm have also increased development options and have contributed to economic diversification rather than being just a curse.     

Jihadist Radicalization in East Africa: Two Case Studies

Al-Shabaab, the Somali militia currently fighting against African forces in Somalia, has seen varying degrees of success in its regional recruitment efforts. As it continues to struggle against the forces of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), the militia has tried to step up these efforts. To this end, the group has seen significant success in countries such as Kenya, while it has struggled in Somaliland. The strategies and tactics employed by al-Shabaab in order to successfully recruit vary depending on geographical location, as do the motivations to join, and drawing on fieldwork in both Kenya and Somaliland this study will compare and contrast the effectiveness al-Shabaab recruitment in both of these countries. In doing so, it will examine which local conditions either enhance or limit these efforts, identifying some of the determinants of the success and failure of jihadist recruitment in east Africa.     

Democratisation in the Middle East and North Africa: perspectives from democracy support

This article offers perspectives on the prospects for democratisation in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region in the light of political developments since 2010, with particular reference to international democracy support. An introduction shares certain assumptions about democracy support’s general record before threats and opportunities to democracy support arising from developments in the region are discussed. Next democracy support’s response to those developments is examined, while the fourth section highlights some challenges for democracy support in the region and beyond. Throughout, discussion is contextualised within the larger literature on democratisation. Final remarks lead to the conclusion that developments in the region both present challenges that should be viewed as opportunities, and offer opportunities that will be challenging to address, not just for democracy support in the region and further afield but in terms of the guidance that democratisation studies have to offer.     

Critics Within: Islamic Scholars' Protests Against the Islamic State in Iran

Islamic scholarship, in Iran and elsewhere, has a long tradition of debate and critique. This tradition has come to pose a challenge to the constitutional order of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as a number of seminary-trained scholars have applied their critical methods to basic issues of state legitimacy, in particular the state's right to insist on interpretive closure. The regime has responded with force, convening special clergy courts to silence and imprison scholars, in violation of seminary norms of scholarly debate. These conspicuous acts of discipline seem to have backfired, as each escalating punishment has generated new critics within.     

北非中东政局对欧盟的挑战及欧盟的政策应对

2011年年初以来,一场从突尼斯政局突变开始,迅速波及埃及和利比亚的阿拉伯政治危机风暴,正剧烈冲击和改变着北非中东的政治图谱。北非中东政局对近邻欧洲而言是巨大冲击和挑战。     

Institutional memory,institutional capacity: narratives of failed biomedical encounters in East Africa

Abstract

This paper focuses on a series of failed medical encounters that took place in East Africa in the 1950s and after, and explores how the organizations involved ? the Kenyan Division of Insect Borne Diseases, the East African Medical Survey, and the Tanzanian National Institute of Medical Research ? chose to document and remember these events. The examples focus on medical encounters characterized by disagreements and miscommunications that stymied productive work. In each case, failures were remembered in very stylized and restructured ways that stressed the validity of the science and the valor of the scientists while drawing on tropes of African communities as irrational and superstitious. Capacity is built and maintained by having a functional institutional memory, which includes recounting failure and an ability to integrate knowledge from failure, leading to new approaches. It is found that remembering failures in such stylized forms systematically diminished the functionality of their institutional memory.     

The global governance of informal economies: the International Labour Organization in East Africa

This article develops a Gramscian approach to the governance of ‘informal’ economies through a historical study of International Labour Organization (ILO) programmes in East Africa. Drawing on Gramsci’s conception of the ‘subaltern’, the article highlights the ways in which the articulation of ‘informality’ in policy documents is coloured by broader struggles over the political organisation of labour. The article develops this argument through two case studies. The first examines the World Employment Programme mission to Kenya in the 1970s that popularised the concept of ‘informal’ labour. The second is a contemporary programme on apprenticeships in the informal economy that originated in Tanzania.     

Thinking Outside the Plot: Insights on Small-Scale Mechanisation from Case Studies in East Africa

The changing agricultural sector and the challenges faced by smallholders call for the need for farm mechanisation suited to smallholder farming. Conventional four-wheeled tractors (4WTs) are not feasible for many smallholders owing to their high capital costs, unsuitability for fragmented holdings as well as topography and slope. More appropriate technologies are needed such as two-wheeled tractors (2WTs) and their requisite accessories. Our findings show that opportunities exist for the introduction of 2WTs in maize based systems through service provider models combining a number of operations that can be offered throughout the year and targeted to niche areas where 4WT access is unlikely. The paper also suggests that attention needs to be given concurrently to development of the 2WT supply chain to ensure that its profitability is sustainable.     

How Political Opportunities Strengthen the Far Right: Understanding the Rise in Far-Right Militancy in Russia

This article provides an overview of recent activities of the far right in Russia (2004–2006) and shows how formal organisations of the far right interact with skinhead subcultures and local communities. It argues that government actions have facilitated an increase in recent far-right militancy (2004–2006) in Russia: the authorities have provided the far-right with political opportunities that their organisations use to coordinate further actions, recruit new members and gain visibility.     

伊斯兰文化的和平思想

伊斯兰文化对于“和平”的认同 在中国人的认识中,阿拉伯民族是一个尊崇和平的民族,伊斯兰教的创始人穆罕默德是一位传播和平思想的先知,和平理论是伊斯兰教思想的根本。《古兰经》中这类经文很多,而且穆斯林每天都在理解、省悟“和平”的理念,平日见面时的寒暄语也离不开“和平”的问候。