MI(R), G(R) and British covert operations, 1939–42

The Military Intelligence (Research) department of the British War Office was tasked in 1940 with encouraging and supporting armed resistance in occupied Europe and the Axis-controlled Middle East. The major contention of this paper is that, in doing so, MI(R) performed a key role in British strategy in 1940–42 and in the development of what are now known as covert operations. MI(R) developed an organic, but coherent doctrine for such activity which was influential upon the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and its own sub-branch, G(R), which applied this doctrine in practice in East Africa and the Middle East in 1940–41. It was also here that a number of key figures in the development of covert operations and special forces first cut their teeth, the most notable being Major Generals Colin Gubbins and Orde Wingate.     

Critical junctures and institution-building: regional cooperation on free trade and food security in East Asia

This study examines conditions under which states in East Asia engage in the development of regional institutions. It assumes that crucial external events and shocks, which produce specific historical breakpoints – critical junctures – constitute a significant breakpoint at which the regional states willingly elevated a path to develop regional institutions to a new level. The analysis of the development of regional institutions for a free trade area and food stock for emergency revealed that regional states in East Asia changed their views on the evolving reality created by external shocks and such changes led to the creation of new regional institutions.     

China–Japan interaction in the Middle East: a battleground of Japan's remilitarization

As most studies on Middle East–East Asian relations focus on the interregional dimension, the manner in which relations between East Asian powers influence, and are influenced by, their policies in the Middle East are largely overlooked. Attempting to add another layer to the study of Sino-Japanese relations, this article explores whether Sino-Japanese rivalry extends to the Middle East. This undertaking requires a conceptual distinction between measures related to Sino-Japanese competition in the Middle East and measures which are related to their rivalry. Building on a minimal definition of interstate rivalry, the article argues that neither the effort to secure energy supply nor their economic or political competition there is shaped by their rivalry. The only field that can be associated with that rivalry is Japan's quasi-military activity in the Middle East, which may enhance its security policy's revision. That, in turn, causes much concern and criticism in Beijing, thus assigning the region a certain role in their relations.     

Misplaced Applications of Economic Theory to the Middle East

Tyler Cowen in this issue proposes an application of publicchoice and game theory as a means of understanding the MiddleEast conflict and viewing the ``Road Map for Middle EastPeace''. Cowen's approach is not based on appreciation of the``hidden agendas and rules of the game'' that are present inthe Middle East. Economic theory may indeed usefullycontribute to understanding aspects of the Middle East war,but through different avenues and in different directions fromthose suggested by Cowen. In this paper I suggest a viewconsistent with the institutional characteristics of theconflict and the objectives of the participants.     

The Saudi–Turkish antagonism

The long-standing rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Turkey has given way to open hostility and a power struggle extending across the Middle East and the Horn of Africa. The antagonism is affecting Ankara and Riyadh’s ties with actors from outside the region and complicating the policies of these actors in the Middle East.     

Rivalry in the Middle East? Japan’s CEAPAD initiative and China’s rise

Abstract

Ever since the so-called rise of China has started, Sino-Japanese relations have been increasingly described as a rivalry between both states. For the most part, this assumed rivalry has been analyzed on the global level or within the boundaries of the East Asian region, while the consequences of this rivalry for other world regions, such as the Middle East, have been largely neglected in the literature. In order to fill this gap, this article investigates how China’s growing presence in the Middle East, and in particular regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, influences Japan’s own foreign policy in this troubled region. It utilizes a modified concept of the strategic rivalry approach, called ‘asymmetric rivalry’, which challenges the widespread notion that rivalry needs to be mutually perceived by both sides and thus analyzes the assumed Sino-Japanese rivalry in the Middle East from a Japanese perspective. By focusing on the case of Japan’s CEAPAD initiative, which aims at coordinating East Asian countries’ developmental assistance towards the Palestinian Authority while deliberately excluding China, the present article shows that the perception of Japan’s foreign policy elite of China as a rival decisively influences how Japan’s foreign policy is shaped in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.     

The Political Economy of the Sino-Middle Eastern Relations

This paper attempts to understand the Sino-Mideast relations in terms of energy cooperation and the subsequent cooperation in the areas of trade and arms sales. It also examines the political economy of China’s energy policy toward the Middle East. The paper argues that the objective of China’s engagement in the Middle East is energy security rather than undermining the United States’ interests in the region. Contrary to realist assumptions, China is utilizing the existing Western institutions to achieve its goals in the region, a step highly welcomed and encouraged by Middle Eastern states. The paper attempts to develop a tridimensional and triangular approach to the political economy of the region in relation to the rapid pace of China’s involvement in the Middle East. Such involvement is generating substantial intellectual interests and anxiety among major players in the region in terms of its nature, goals and mechanisms. In so doing, China maintains a balance in its relations with protagonists in the region and skillfully navigates its national interest in the region.     

Bringing People Back in Politics: The Role of Civil Society,Political Parties,and Regional Organizations in a Changing Middle East

The Introduction briefly presents the ideas behind this collection of articles, namely to analyze popular mobilization and the role of civil society, political parties, and regional organizations in relation to the developments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) over the last years, and to discuss theoretical approaches and paradigms of relevance for the analysis of these new regional dynamics. The MENA region experienced, in connection with and following the Arab uprisings, a hitherto unseen popular mobilization. Despite the recent highly problematic situation in several Middle Eastern states, the Introduction emphasizes the continued relevance of focusing on a repoliticized MENA reality. The Middle East is still on the move away from the established image of unshakeable authoritarianism attributed to the region, which made the upgrading authoritarianism paradigm seem forever relevant and without any realistic alternative for the decades to come—therefore, the relevance, offered in this collection of articles, of bringing people back in politics.     

From Anthropology to Human Geography: Human Terrain and the Evolution of Operational Sociocultural Understanding

Human terrain is a complicated term. It has been plagued with controversy in recent years stemming from US Army implementations in the Middle East. This paper reviews the history of human terrain in three forms: as a human behavioral concept, a conflict based application, and a multidisciplinary area of research. It investigates the history of the term and its evolution from anthropological foundations to human geography and geospatial intelligence. Recommendations are given and practices are suggested to gain knowledge and understanding of people that can assist in helping in hazardous situations and avoiding conflict.     

British Security Liaison in the Middle East: The Introduction of Police/Security Advisers and the Lebanon–Iraq–Jordan ‘Anti-Communist Triangle’ from 1949 to 1958

Abstract

Using newly released and previously unexploited records, this article explores the existence of Anglo-Arab secret liaison and cooperation in instituting anti-communist measures in the early Cold War. It shows that owing to their concern about a war against the Soviet Union, the placing of a British security/police adviser in specific countries was the preferred method by Britain for checking and combatting communism in the Middle East. It argues that the development of the ‘anti-communist triangle’ (the security liaison between Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan) was largely influenced by British concern about the expansion of communist influence. Moreover, the expansion of British influence in the region also converged with the demands from Middle Eastern countries for a British expert in anti-communist measures. The article implies the importance of the role of secret liaison in historical enquiries.     

Citizenship and Surveys: Group Conflict and Nationality-of-Interviewer Effects in Arab Public Opinion Data

Political Behavior - More research than ever before uses public opinion data to investigate society and politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Ethnic identities are widely theorized...     

The Islamic State and Southeast Asia

Up to a thousand Southeast Asians have travelled to the Middle East to fight for the Islamic State. While some may return to Southeast Asia and engage in terrorist operations, the greater threat is that the Islamic State's rise in international prominence will foment homegrown extremism and terrorist activity.     

Divide et Impera? Foreign Aid Interventions in the Middle East and North Africa Region

Causes and consequences of the Arab Spring have received considerable attention since winter 2010/11. While concerns about the stability of regimes go back many decades, fears about the decreasing legitimacy of long-supported allies and the growing instability in the Middle East and North Africa are at a higher level now than before. The traditional trade-off between the foreign support channelled in the form of aid to ‘cooperative’ governments in the Middle East and benefits (stability) gained from such support has been challenged by the Arab Spring. The paper aims to explore the interactions between foreign aid and legitimacy by focusing on how Western foreign aid functions when channelled to parties with conflicting interests and values. The results suggest that foreign aid may contribute to stability as long as the internal legitimacy of the beneficiary is not challenged on the grounds of serving foreign interests.     

Corporate Identity and Solidarity Among the Railway Workers of Atbara, 1924-1946

This article examines the way in which railway employment and urban life have led to the development of a unique identity among the railway workers of Atbara, headquarters of the Sudan Railways. During the period covered by this article, Atbara's railway men formed the core of the Sudanese working class and inaugurated one of the best and most dynamic labor movements in Africa and the Middle East. As many scholars have noted, the development of labor activism, solidarity, and strong social bonds are among the most important characteristics of railway workers worldwide. This article argues that the development of these attributes were closely associated with the nature of railway employment, which involved intensive socialization and acculturation into the norms of the industry.     

‘Land grabbing’ or harnessing of development potential in agriculture? East Asia's land-based investments in Africa

Abstract

Large-scale foreign investment in Africa's abundant but largely underutilized arable land has been criticised by international NGOs and social movements as ‘land grabbing’, which limits access of smallholder farmers to land, deprives local people of their livelihoods and threatens local and national food security across the continent. By way of contrast, many host governments and some leading international development agencies regard land-based investments as beneficial for development in terms of providing the necessary capital and technological know-how for modernising the region's neglected agriculture including take-off in agribusiness and agro-industrialisation, which is vital to much needed economic diversification in many African countries. East Asia's participation in the global land rush on Africa is examined from the standpoint of these two different perspectives: while China's growing presence and involvement in trade and investment in mining, energy and infrastructure in Africa is well known, less recognised is its involvement and those of other East Asian countries such as South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam in agriculture through large-scale land acquisitions. The development consequences and policy implications of these foreign land-based investments are analysed from a political economy perspective, which identifies motives, interests and benefits of the different actors and addresses the question of governance in terms of transparency and appropriate institutional arrangements to safeguard land rights and food security. In the bigger picture, the paper argues that the negative consequences of land grab has to be seen alongside the benefits flowing to Africa from growing economic relations with China and other dynamic East Asian economies and learning from the development experiences of those countries. African countries however need to re-assess the current approach and relationship with foreign land-based investors and decide how best this trend can be used to forward their economic and social agendas.     

WESTERN EUROPE AND THE GULF CRISIS: TOWARDS A EUROPEAN FOREIGN POLICY?

If European union means anything, it means having a common foreign policy that amounts to more than expressions of pious platitudes. Europe cannot expect anyone to take it seriously if it leaves the United States to defend its interests in the Middle East. ( Independent , 3 August 1990)     

Exploring the semiotic meaning of the first oil city in the Middle East: Masjed Soleyman

This study aims to provide a perspective on the symbolic characteristics of oil cities by focusing on the example of the first oil city in the Middle East, Masjed Soleyman city. Studies of oil cities are generally based on their industrial characteristics rather than their symbolic meanings. However, since oil became a distinctive symbol in the Middle East, these cities need to be examined from an altered perspective. Therefore, the present study analyses the urban context of Masjed Soleyman city based on four concepts of “city as overall sign”, “image of city”, “language of city” and “interpretation/communication” as well as the derived indicators from each concept. It is concluded that given the critical importance of oil at both the national and international levels, oil production was arguably maintained or sustained by various treatments of this city's inhabitants. In the process of exploring this ancient city, the study portrays that Masjed Soleyman characteristically symbolises control, social segregation and surveillance.     

Should We Support Illiberal Religious Democracies?

The terms on which the US will agree to settle the conflict in Afghanistan reflect a much greater issue that the US faces in the Middle East: will it support only those who seek to establish democratic regimes that also respect individual, or ally itself with the often much more powerful groups that may be democratic, but are likely to foster regimes based on Shari'a law? At the very least, the West should urge all to respect the right to life, call on regimes to negotiate with protesters rather than machine‐gunning them, and insist that protesters follow the Egyptian and Tunisian model of peaceful uprising. Beyond such liberal basics, it is best to let each nation work out its own regime. As a matter of policy, in order to support democratic groups and evolving democratic regimes in the Middle East, western governments had best be prepared to ally themselves with political forces whose liberal credentials, one must recognise, are evolving but not yet particularly high.     

Of Anti-Zionists and Antideutsche: The Post-War German Left and Its Relationship with Israel

The semicentennial anniversary in 2017 of the 1967 Middle East War is an occasion to reflect on the impact of a war that brought dramatic changes to the Middle East and beyond. One of the ramifications of the Israeli victory in 1967 was the growing criticism of the Jewish state among the European Left—a movement that held largely positive attitudes regarding Israel up until the so-called Six Day War. These shifting sentiments also affected the relations between the Jewish State and the emerging “New Left” of the young Federal Republic of Germany—a country that would become one of Israel’s most important allies. This article examines the relationship between the German Left and Israel over five decades. It proceeds chronologically by tracing the shifting view toward Israel occasioned by the 1967 war, before examining the evolution of that relationship to the current era. We conclude with a discussion of the drivers behind the complex and uneven relationship, and we argue that these sentiments are closely connected to perceptions of self-identity among members of the German Left.     

After Brussels: understanding and countering ISIS's strategy

The recent attacks in Brussels confirmed Islamic State's strategy of supplementing its flagging effort to establish a Middle East caliphate with an out-of-area campaign of urban terror focusing on Europe. Unity among Europe's policymakers remains key to securing the continent against terrorism and addressing the root causes of Muslim radicalisation.