You may have to register before you can download all our books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Lebanon is a country whose domestic politics have, even more than others in the region, been at the mercy of changes on the international stage. Having been under Ottoman and French rule in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the post-World War II era has seen Lebanon subjected to Israeli, Syrian and American interventions which have all threatened the county s stability as a state. Joseph Bayeh argues that it is this international dimension which holds the key to an in-depth understanding of the country. In support of this argument, Bayeh examines Lebanese history from its early days under the Ottomans to the present day in order to show how international shifts and conflicts have had their impact on Lebanon. With changes such as the fall of the Ottoman empire, the rise of US power after World War II, the end of the Cold War and the new focus on the region in the aftermath of 9/11, Lebanon has at various junctures been bolstered or undermined. Bayeh tracks all of this, offering insights into the workings of Lebanon s domestic politics which will appeal to researchers of the international relations of the Middle East and Lebanon s political history."
This book studies the origins and evolution of power sharing in Lebanon. The author has established a relationship between mobilization, ethnurgy (ethnic identification), memory and trauma, and how they impact power sharing provisions. The book starts with the events in the 1820s, when communities began to politicize their identities, and which led to the first major outbreak of civil violence between the Druze and the Maronites. Consequently, these troubled four decades in Lebanon led to the introduction of various forms of power-sharing arrangements to establish peace. The political systems introduced in Lebanon are: the Kaim-Makamiya (dual sub-governorship), a quasi-federal arrangement; t...
Lebanon experienced serious instability and ethno-national conflict following the Syrian withdrawal in 2005, compounded by the Arab Spring, which led to regional instability and civil war in Iraq and Syria. Why did consociational democracy fail? Was failure inevitable? What impact could external powers play in creating an environment where consociationalism might be successfully implemented? This book addresses these key questions and provides a comprehensive analysis of how internal and external elite relations influence the chances of a successful regulation of ethno-national conflict through power-sharing. Exploring the roles played by Syria, Qatar, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United States a...
The Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and elsewhere has highlighted the growing importance of the politics of civil society in the contemporary Middle East. In Reproducing Sectarianism, Paul W. T. Kingston examines rights-oriented advocacy networks within Lebanon's postwar civil society, focusing on movements and political campaigns based on gender relations, the environment, and disability. Set within Lebanon's postwar sectarian democracy, whose factionalizing dynamics have long penetrated the country's civil society, Kingston's fascinating study provides an in-depth analysis of the successes and challenges that ensued in promoting rights-oriented social policies. Drawing on extensive field research, including interviews and a wealth of primary documents, Kingston has produced a groundbreaking work that will be of interest to Middle East experts and nonexperts alike.
Edward Said, the famous Palestinian American scholar and activist, was one of the twentieth century's most iconic public intellectuals, whose pioneering and – to some – controversial work on Orientalism shaped Middle Eastern and postcolonial studies and beyond. But how exactly did he arrive at his famous maxim to 'speak truth to power'? This dual biographical study examines the lives of Edward Said and the eminent Lebanese philosopher and diplomat Charles Malik, a distant relative 30 years his senior whom Said knew from childhood as “Uncle Charles.” To Said, Malik was no ordinary relative; in his memoir, he called Malik “the great negative intellectual lesson of my life”, and was...
The revolutionary year of 1958 epitomizes the height of the social uprisings, military coups, and civil wars that erupted across the Middle East and North Africa in the mid-twentieth century. Amidst waning Anglo-French influence, growing US-USSR rivalry, and competition and alignments between Arab and non-Arab regimes and domestic struggles, this year was a turning point in the modern history of the Middle East. This multi and interdisciplinary book explores this pivotal year in its global, regional and local contexts and from a wide range of linguistic, geographic, academic specialties. The contributors draw on declassified and multilingual archives, reports, memoirs, and newspapers in thir...
This is the story of Philip Kerr and a group of Oxford graduates that founded The Round Table (Journal of International Affairs) in 1910 and influenced British foreign policy over the following thirty years. As the principal thinker of the group, Kerr saw the need for a supra-national grouping and wanted to organize the British Empire into a federal superstate. The group also sought an Anglo-American alliance, and in 1939, joined a world federation movement that would help to inspire NATO after the war. Important questions raised by this group remain relevant today. Can a supra-national community impose laws and regulations on its members without its governing institutions being more fully accountable to a community-wide electorate? Can hostile nationalism be tamed with such a union. Can it reasonably exclude the United States?
In The Clash of Civilizations, Samuel Huntington argued that the borders between Western and Islamic civilizations would one day become the loci of cultural conflict. The statements of Osama Bin-Laden would seem to support this view. "This battle is not between al-Qaeda and the U.S.," he famously said in October of 2001. "This is a battle of Muslims against the Global Crusaders." These specially commissioned essays critically examine the virtual and actual borders of Islamic civilization. Contributors concentrate on local dynamics and whether they support or contradict an emerging global confrontation between Islam and its Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and secular neighbors. They consider bord...
The 1950s in Lebanon were marked by bitter in-fighting, slander, rivalry and rumour. Caroline Attie's book seeks to explain the truth behind the intrigues that dominated by country for a decade. It aims to correct, for example, the misperceptions surrounding the role of foreign interventionism and looks for fact behind the rumours. Did the Egyptians and Syrians provide support for the rebels? Did Camille Chamoun try to amend a constitution to allow him a second presidential term?
Thoroughly revised to include 25 conflicts not covered in the previous edition, as well as expanded and updated information on previous coverage, this illustrated reference presents descriptions and analyses of more than 170 significant post-World War II conflicts around the globe. Organized by region for ease of access, "Encyclopedia of Conflicts Since World War II, Second Edition" provides clear, in-depth explanations of events not covered in such detail in any other reference source. Including more than 180 detailed maps and 150 photos, the set highlights the conflicts that dominate today's headlines and the events that changed the course of late twentieth-century history.