Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons^™

No Soldier Left Behind? Breaking The Silence On Military Service, Values And Identity In Israel, Lina Tuschling

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

This dissertation explores the relationship between observed incidents and perceptions of value violation or confirmation among Israeli soldiers. Through content analysis of 900 testimonies, the work explores the intersection of social identity, military ethics and nonviolent movements. The data show that many soldiers do not see their tasks as supporting the overall mission of keeping their country and nation safe, leading to a decline in motivation and sense of purpose. Further, deeper reflections on whether actions on the ground are in line with proposed national values result in incidents of role conflict, individual cognitive dissonance and vicarious dissonance.

Findings from …

Taking Terrorists At Their Word: Testing The Co-Religionist Hypothesis In Islamic State Propaganda, Joel Elliott

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

This dissertation operates on the idea that, as conflict researchers, we can look to Islamic State’s (referred to from here on as ‘Daesh’) own recruitment propaganda to identify the best people to counter Daesh’s violent rhetoric. This project analyzes Daesh’s main print publication, Dabiq, to catalogue and classify the types of people and institutions Daesh targets most, and which types of arguments Daesh uses to attack those targets. It uses this information to test the Co-Religionist Hypothesis, which predicts that the most effective peaceful interveners in a religious conflict will be of the same religion as the belligerents. Conventional …

Moroccan Society’S Educational And Cultural Losses During The Years Of Lead (1956-1999), Brahim El Guabli

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

In this article, I argue that political repression during the Moroccan Years of Lead (1956-1999) engendered myriad losses in the fields of education and culture. However, the scholarly focus on the embodied effects of state violence on former prisoners and forcibly disappeared individuals has overlooked the intangible damages both education and culture sustained during this period. In investigating the imbrication of political conservatism, educational reform and censorship, the article opens a more critical space for the conceptualization of the broader implications of the Years of Lead for education and culture. Drawing on several primary sources in Arabic and French, including …

Panoptic Vision: Disjuncture, Transgressions, And Imagination In Laila Marrakchi’S Film Rock The Casbah, Touria Khannous

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This article focuses on Laila Marrakchi’s film Rock the Casbah (2013), which reflects the exchange between global and local cultural and sociopolitical ideologies of a new Morocco. The film highlights the contradictions of globalization as it occurs through disjuncture. Arjun Appadurai’s theory of the world in motion and “a world of flows” provides a relevant framework for this analysis. The article uses Appadurai’s notion of “disjuncture” as a theoretical framework to discuss the dynamics and interrelationships involved in the protagonist’s movement between Western mediascapes as a filmstar and her Moroccan family’s local context. Appadurai’s conceptualization of globalization is crucial for …

Empowering Rural Participation And Partnerships In Morocco’S Sustainable Development, Yossef Ben-Meir

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This essay explores the vast potential for participatory and sustainable human development in Morocco. Though Morocco is a country with many diverse resources, it remains burdened by severe levels of poverty and illiteracy, and now growing social discord. There have recently been increased public calls for participatory development programs designed and implemented by and for local people. The essay identifies six existing Moroccan Frameworks intended to initiate decentralized human development programs, and critically examines their efficacy. Ultimately, the purpose of the article is to suggest a new model to implement these Frameworks with maximum impact. The six Frameworks deal with …

Non-Traditional Transitional Justice Mechanisms And Perceptions And Symptoms Of Victimization Among Diasporic Individuals: Members Of The Coptic Christian Diaspora In The United States As A Case Study, Samy S. A. Gerges

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

Transitional justice measures are state-centered measures articulating atrocities committed by officials and occurring within the borders of a specific state. Questioning members of a Diaspora about the impact of transitional justice on their self-classification as victims and their experienced symptoms of victimization may therefore support attempts to expand the field of transitional justice. This study contributes to a body of work promoting understanding of the possibilities and constraints of transitional justice mechanisms, in the context of hate crime against Copts by Muslims in Egypt. To analyze the impact of restored relationships on self-classified victimhood and experienced symptoms of victimization, the …

About The Contributors

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

No abstract provided.

Nabhan, Gary Paul. Cumin, Camels And Caravans. (2014). Berkeley, Ca: University Of California Press. 332 Pages. Isbn 978-0-520-26720-6 (Hardcover), M. Todd Harper

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

A review of Gary Paul Nabhan's Cumin, Camels and Caravans (2014).

Developing Global Perspectives In Short-Term Study Abroad: High-Impact Learning Through Curriculum, Co-Curriculum And Community, Christina M. Ferrari, Janis B. Fine

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

As short-term study abroad gains popularity, it is essential to examine the immediate and ongoing effects of these programs. This paper explores a two-week study abroad course for students in P-12 educational administration and higher education graduate programs. It makes valuable contributions to the limited research that exists for graduate students studying abroad and short-term study away experiences. It examines a course design utilizing the Global Perspective Inventory and high-impact learning pedagogy as derived through curriculum, co-curriculum, and community frameworks. Such a strategy aims to influence students’ decision-making processes and connect global knowledge to education’s urgent social, ethical, and civic …

Study Abroad: Essentials In Recruitment And Interdisciplinary Practice, Vanessa Robinson-Dooley, Alan Kirk, Jennifer Riapos

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Study abroad programs offer unique opportunities for students to gain valuable educational and life experience. These experiences support a well-rounded education and prepare the students to work in a more global society. Many study abroad programs are designed with undergraduates as the target audience and may not meet the academic needs or life situations of the graduate student. This paper describes the authors’ observations based on their experiences with developing and implementing study abroad programs. This writing discusses lessons learned and offers recommendations for expanding existing programs to attract graduate students.

"Facebook To Mobilize, Twitter To Coordinate Protests, And Youtube To Tell The World": New Media, Cyberactivism, And The Arab Spring, Mohamed Arafa, Crystal Armstrong

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Research on media and contentious politics in the Arab world point to the vital role that social media played in the Arab Spring. For the purposes of this article, the Arab Spring is defined as a series of demonstrations and democratic uprisings—and in the cases of Libya, Syria, and Yemen armed rebel movements—that arose independently and spread across the Arab world from Tunisia and Egypt to Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, and Syria in 2010-2011 and beyond. This article advances the theoretical assumption that while not causing the Arab uprisings, New Media (defined here as all forms of digital communication technology including …

Public Finance And Tax Equity In The Arabian Gulf Monarchies, Timothy Mathews

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This study examines notions of public finance equity in the six Arabian Gulf monarchies of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Because of unique characteristics of government expenditures and revenues in these monarchies, many of the standard concepts of public finance (such as the Benefits Principle, Ability-to-Pay Principle, Vertical Equity, and Horizontal Equity) do not provide relevant insights. Consequently, four innovative notions of equity are reviewed and discussed: Within Group Horizontal Equity; Within Group Vertical Equity; Favored Group Horizontal Equity; and Favored Group Vertical Equity. Finally, these four conceptions of equity are applied to a …

Intercultural Connectivity: Intertwined Through Islamic Design, Sandra Bird

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This paper is a critical inquiry examining the works of an art exhibit, Geometric Aljamia: A Cultural Transliteration, hosted during Kennesaw State University’s Year of the Arabian Peninsula. It includes a brief interdisciplinary discussion of the importance of geometry to the development of Islamic art and design. The contemporary artists who produced these works under study integrate drawing and paper-cutting techniques that display characteristics of art found throughout the Muslim world.

Ottoman Arabia And The Holy Hijaz, 1516-1918, Willaim Ochsenwald

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Governments in Arabia today usually ignore the Ottoman Empire’s history in the region, but the Ottomans from 1516 to 1918 played a key role in coastal regions, especially in the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina. While Ottoman administrations intermittently ruled in Yemen and eastern Arabia, their influence was greatest in the holy Hijaz, the site of the worldwide pilgrimage. However, Ottoman rule was limited by Istanbul’s distance from Arabia. Religion played a significant role in determining the nature of Ottoman control, helping to legitimize the state among its subjects. A detailed analysis of one province, the Hijaz, with …

Introduction To The Special Edition, Daniel J. Paracka

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Introduction to the special edition on the Year of Arabian Peninsula programming at Kennesaw State University, 2014-2015.

Front Matter

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Cover, editorial board, submission guidelines, subscription information, and table of contents for Vol. 10, No. 1.

Cfp - Pan-African/Palestinian Solidarities

South

This collection seeks to assemble and make visible the historical and contemporary voices of bi-directional solidarity between Palestine and the Pan-African world. Shared struggles against colonialism, racism, apartheid, settler violence, historical erasure, patriarchy, class exploitation, and other forms of oppression link Pan-African and Palestinian communities throughout all periods of their often intertwined and overlapping histories. This is particularly true in the period of anti-colonial independence struggles, especially following the 1967 war, and in the global BDS movement today. But it is also continuous throughout the twentieth century, and especially since the Nakba in 1948. Because much of this history is …