Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons^™

Beyond Oil: Saudi Vision 2030 And Saudi-South Korean Relations, Inwook Kim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Saudi Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia’s bid for economic and social transformation, has been quietly gathering renewed interest in South Korea amid the unfolding drama with the nuclear program of its northern brethren. The latest sign of this engagement occurred when minister Khalid al-Falih of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy, Industry, and Mineral Resources (MOEIMR) met with president Moon Jae-In on May 4 of this year. Their 35-minute private reception was rare for a minister’s meeting, according to a Blue House official, signifying that interest in Saudi Vision 2030 is at the highest possible level. During his visit, al-Falih also met …

International Energy Geopolitics, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Overview of international energy geopolitical trends. Emphasizes the importance of the Persian Gulf, South China Sea, East China Sea, Russia, and the Arctic to U.S. and international economic and strategic developments. Stresses the continuing importance of fossil fuels in domestic and international energy consumption, the variety of energy sources being used by various global regions, the potential for military conflict over access to natural resources, and how emerging energy leaders will determine global energy, environmental, and international security developments.

Enhancing Your Intelligence Agency Information Resource Iq: Pt. 2: The Central Intelligence Agency, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Provides an overview of information resources produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) including popular reference works like World Factbook and Chiefs of State and Cabinet Leaders of Foreign Governments. Additional content describes the CIA's origins and development, descriptions of current organizational components, information about it's directors, and the text of historical National Intelligence Estimates (NIE) and the President's Daily Brief covering topics as varied as North Korea, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and NIE's on Soviet ballistic missile forces and numerous other topics. Features artifacts from the CIA Museum.

Forgive, Forget Or Feign: Everyday Diplomacy In Local Communities Of Polish Subcarpathia, Iuliia Buyskykh

Journal of Global Catholicism

The paper is based on my ethnographic fieldwork in Przemyśl, Poland and several surrounding villages in 2015-2017. While conducting my research on a set of religious practices and pilgrimages in confessionally and ethnically mixed localities, I faced many challenges that changed the main course of my initial research plan. During my interaction with people here themes came to light that seemed little related to religiousness. My status as a researcher from Ukraine and even more so, my being a young single woman from Ukraine, gave rise to a number of other topics that my interlocutors, both of Polish and Ukrainian …

Beyond Fragility: Syria And The Challenges Of Reconstruction In Fierce States, Steven Heydemann

Middle East Studies: Faculty Publications

Beginning as early as 2012, the Bashar Assad regime in Syria has worked to put in place the legal and regulatory authorities to implement an ambitious vision of reconstruction as a process of authoritarian stabilization. With its military victory close at hand, the regime’s intent is to use reconstruction to reimpose its authority, tighten its control over Syria’s society and economy, and fundamentally alter Syria’s demography to achieve what Assad himself has characterized as a “healthier and more homogenous society.”

The odds that it will achieve these aims are high. Contrary to views of the Assad regimeas too severely weakened …

Political Revolutions And Women's Progress: Why The Egyptian Arab Spring Failed To Deliver On The Promises Of Women's Rights, Anne Song

Master's Theses

The mass participation of women in the 2011 Egyptian Arab Spring began what many thought would be a new feminist movement. As news cycles started showing the central role of women in the Arab Spring, many people including the women who demonstrated believed women’s rights were on the horizon. This study shows why the 2011 Arab Spring did not deliver on the promises of women’s rights in Egypt. Explaining the historical, religious, and societal influences on women’s rights in Egypt, and using data from the Arab Barometer and reports from the World Bank and UN, this study shows that the …

Security In Conflict And Peace: Gendered Approaches To Human Security By Women’S Ngos, Madison C. Guyton

Student Scholarship

The first chapter gives a brief overview of human security and gender informed security as well as their critiques and the rationale behind combining the two frameworks. It also describes why women’s empowerment NGOs have the greatest capacity to actualize gender informed human security approached. To determine the success of women’s empowerment organizations implementing gender informed human security approaches in different political contexts, the second chapter reviews the operational history of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, an Iraqi women’s empowerment organization. And, the third chapter analyses the operational history of TATU, a Tanzanian women’s empowerment organization. The conclusion …

Power And Authority Of Royal Queen Mothers: Juxtaposing The French Queen Regent And The Ottoman Validé Sultan During The Early Modern Period, Reneé N. Langlois

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Women and their relationship to sovereignty, during the early modern era has become a rapidly growing topic, given that during this period an unprecedented number of women rose to high positions of power. This paper aims to compare the lives of the queen regents in France with their counterparts, the validé sultans in the Ottoman Empire, over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when both groups of royal women acquired substantial power. Although these women were prohibited from ruling in their own right, the paper explores the ways in which queen regents and validé sultans used both official …

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 …

The Arabic Animator's Perceptions Of Arabic Animation Film Industry, Ghanem Elhersh

Student Theses and Dissertations

Animated films from the Arab world hardly ever make it into cinemas in Japan, Europe or the United States, or onto the festival circuit (Van de Peer, 2017). The purpose of this research is to study the Arabic animation film industry from the point of view of its producers. Also, this study examines the reasons of the weakness of the Arabic animation films and the possible causes of the absence of the Arabic animation films from the world stage. This qualitative study has sought to understand the Arabic animator's perceptions of the Arabic animation film industry, and where is it …

The Whole World In His Hands: What A Qibla Indicator Illuminates About Islamic Community In Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Turkey, Meghan Doyle

Global Tides

In the sixteenth century, at a time of Ottoman rule and production in modern-day Turkey, qibla indicators were ubiquitous objects, used to assist faithful Muslims in finding the direction to Mecca. A particularly well-preserved qibla indicator in the British Museum allows for an inquiry into how these objects were used, bridging the gap between folk astronomy and scientific geography. Applying contemporary theories of belongingness to the composition and function of the qibla indicator reveals the psychological effect this object may have had on members of the Islamic community. Ultimately, what the qibla indicator may lack in geographical accuracy it more …

Arab Citizens’ Perceptions Of The Investigative Journalism, Ahmed Makharesh

Student Theses and Dissertations

Investigative journalism has a significant history in the United States (Bebawi, 2016). Operating under a free press protected by the first amendment, investigative journalism flourished in the early years of the U.S. As the marketplace began to dictate practices among journalists, investigative journalism has at times been very active and at other times the marketplace has restricted investigative journalists because of cost. Investigative journalism has been a hallmark of major television networks in the U.S. and Europe. However, investigative journalism in other parts of the world is often restricted, not by the marketplace but by government policies. This study seeks …

Kissingerism And Iranian-American Relations: Prospects For Reconciliation And The Establishment Of A New Order, Kaleb D. Mazurek

International Studies Honors Projects

This thesis is an attempt to resurrect the strategic and philosophical thinking of Henry Kissinger in order to unlock the Iranian-American impasse. Encounters between the two countries have been in a state of deadlock since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, though its genesis dates back, at least, to the American-sponsored coup d’état of 1953. Within the American foreign policy establishment, no one looms larger than Dr. Kissinger: his contributions intersect the two worlds of academic diplomatic history and statecraft at the highest levels of international relations. He was the chief diplomat at a momentous period. Kissinger―through his writings and public policy―emphasizes …

Queer Arab Writing Across Borders: Sexual Citizenship And Acts Of Belonging, Nicole Fares

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study provides a comparative analysis of various representations of sexuality in seven transnational Arab cultural productions: Salim Haddad's Guapa (2016), Rabih Alameddine's The Angel of History (2016), Ahmed Dany Ramadan's The Clothesline Swing (2017), Hasan Namir's God in Pink (2015), Fadia Abboud's I Luv U But (2016), Alissar Gazal's Lesbanese (2008), and Ayse Toprak's Mr. Gay Syria (2017). These productions demonstrate a range of experiences of discrimination and trauma experienced by queer Arab immigrants and refugees in Europe, the U.S. and Canada, as their national identities continue to be regarded as obstacles preventing them from fully integrating into the …

Social Organization And Environmental Patterning At Tel Abu Shusha: An Integrated Spatial Approach To Survey Archaeology, Seth Price

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tel Abu Shusha, located in the Jezreel Valley of Palestine, is a large-scale archaeological site possibly identified as the cities of Biblical Gaba or Roman Gaba Hippaeon/Gaba Philippi. Surface archaeological survey of the surrounding area, conducted by the Jezreel Valley Regional Project during 2017, revealed extensive assemblages of visible settlement features dating primarily to middle and late Islamic periods. This research seeks to answer questions of settlement decision-making and societal organization, by integrating archaeological, textual, environmental, and geospatial data sources. In addition to visual interpretation, Kolmogorov-Smirnov nonparametric tests are used to gain insight on environmental settlement preferences; Ripley’s K analysis …

Islamophobia In The United Kingdom: A Critical Global Perspective, Jeffrey Driggs

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

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The Case For Management In The Turkish-Kurdish Conflict., Devin P. Brown

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

The Turkish-Kurdish conflict has ravaged Turkey for nearly 34 years. It is one of the world’s longest enduring rivalries, garnering significant international attention. Since 1984, experts estimate that at least 30,000 people have died in this conflict. In just the past two years, the fighting has killed 3,362 peopleand displaced another half million people. Although the parties have attempted to resolve this dispute multiple times, a comprehensive peace deal has remained elusive. So what should be done about this conflict? Is there a way to compel these parties to forge a lasting peace deal? Or, should the international community focus …

Zionism, Imperialism, And Indigeneity In Israel/Palestine: A Critical Analysis, Ran Ukashi

Peace and Conflict Studies

This article explores the similarities and differences between Zionism and archetypical European modes of settler colonialism to demonstrate the incongruence between the two phenomena. This analysis is contextualized around the recent discourse surrounding the competing claims of indigeneity to historic Israel/Palestine. The claims of both the Jewish and Palestinian Arab communities are explored to demonstrate that both communities can rightfully claim degrees of Indigenous connection to the territory, but that Palestinian Arab claims of being the sole Indigenous inheritors of the land are dubious. The analysis utilizes Burton's unmet human needs theory, and Kriesberg's theories on identity and conflict intractability …

Colonial Legacies In Morocco’S Urban Spaces: Policies Of Modernization And Preservation, Christina Gnedash

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Globalization has touched Morocco through the historical process of colonization. Though the colonizer has left, a relationship remains and Morocco like many other countries is far too entangled in the global system of economics and politics to withdrawal. The restructuring of urban spaces and the preservation of cultural and historical sites have contributed to the country’s economic dependence on and the expansion of the tourist industry at the expense of local communities and certain industries. Culture has become a commodity that is profitable and thus countries besides Morocco continue to present an inauthentic and static experience for visitors that perpetuates …

The Path To Terrorism: The Islamic State And Its Recruitment Strategies, Laura Turner

Honors Scholar Theses

The Islamic State, commonly known as ISIS, a terrorist organization that commits acts of such brutality that even Al Qaeda has denounced it, has recruited approximately 21,000 foreign fighters from countries all over the world. Why is this group so appealing? What has made it so effective at recruitment? What methods does it employ to recruit so many individuals? This paper seeks to answer these questions by examining the recruitment strategies of ISIS. Case studies of individual foreign fighters are analyzed to assess the strength of three explanations of ISIS’ recruitment methods that dominate the current literature: strategic targeting, online …