Weak States, Strong Societies: Power and Authority in the new world order,
Author/editor: Saikal, A. (ed).
Year published: 2016
Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the previously well-established organisation of world politics has been thrown into disarray. While during the Cold War, the bipolarity of the world gave other powers a defined structure within which to vie for power,…
1000 lashes - because I say what I think by Raif Badawi
Author/editor: Meyer, F. (Translator)
Year published: 2015
Public Opinion and Political Response in Palestine: Leadership, Campaigns and Elections since Arafat
Author/editor: Schwarze, Erika
Year published: 2015
The 2006 elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council, the first in which both Fatah and Hamas fielded candidates, resulted in a resounding victory for Hamas. Winning 74 out of the 132 seats (compared to Fatah s 45), Hamas election strategy had proved effective against Fatah s ineffectual…
Global Security Watch—Saudi Arabia (Praeger Security International)
Author/editor: Gray, M.
Year published: 2014
Examines the causes and consequences of Saudi Arabia's current security policy and the domestic, regional, and international challenges the country's defense program presents to the general welfare of the Middle East. • Explains the role of oil in sustaining the state-society political bargain,…
Democracy and Reform in the Middle East and Asia: Social Protest and Authoritarian Rule After the Arab Spring
Author/editor: Saikal, A., Acharya, A.
Year published: 2013
The protests that swept across the Middle East and North Africa in late 2010 and 2011 confounded long-time observers of the region, in both the media and academia. After addressing the conditions in the Middle East and North Africa that produced these attempts at revolution, Amin Saikal and Amitav…
Qatar: Politics and the Challenges of Development
Author/editor: Gray, M.
Year published: 2013
A small isthmus in the central Gulf, with barely 300,000 citizens and a total population of 1.7 million, Qatar has risen rapidly from obscurity to become the world's wealthiest country per capita. Matthew Gray traces this spectacular rise, exploring the development of Qatar's economy, the patterns…
Tajikistan: A Political and Social History
Author/editor: Nourzhanov, K. & Bleuer, C.
Year published: 2013
This book is a historical study of the Tajiks in Central Asia from the ancient times to the post-Soviet period. For millennia, these descendants of the original Aryan settlers were part of many different empires set up by Greek, Arab, Turkic and Russian invaders, as well as their own, most notably…
American Democracy Promotion in the Changing Middle East: From Bush to Obama
Author/editor: Akbarzadeh, S, Piscatori, J, MacQueen, B
Year published: 2012
The recent "Arab spring", with its popular uprisings in many Arab countries, has exposed the ambiguity at the heart of American promotion of democracy in the Middle East. The US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were packaged as democracy promotion, as heralding the beginning of a new phase in the…
Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival
Author/editor: Saikal, A.
Year published: 2012
Afghanistan's recent history is a sad one: Soviet invasion in 1979; Pakistan-backed internal conflict in the 1980s; the Taliban regime; and then the US invasion and the multi-national occupation after the events of 11 September 2001. Why does Afghanistan remain so vulnerable to domestic instability…