You are here
Journal Articles & Papers
China's Marginal Involvement in the 2023 Iran-Saudi Arabia Reconciliation
Author/editor: Baghernia, N.
Year published: 2024
The restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia in March 2023 has been described as a landmark in China’s advancing engagement in Middle Eastern affairs. This article argues, however, that China’s role in the deal was minimal and that the main drivers of the agreement were...
The Past, Present, and Future of Gulf Sovereign Wealth Fund Investments in China
Author/editor: Alfarhan, M & Alsudairi, M 2024.
Year published: 2024
This article explores sovereign wealth fund investments by Gulf Cooperation Council member states in China's equity market. Using data from Chinese stock exchanges, we analyze patterns of shareholding over two decades, across different sectors and among distinct funds, and compare them to their non...
Forging an Anti-Bandung: Saudi Arabia and East Asia's Cold War
Author/editor: Alsudairi, M
Year published: 2023
During the course of the Cold War, Saudi Arabia cultivated close relations with the anti-communist states of East Asia. This development, this article argues, was driven by the shared positional marginality experienced by these actors vis-à-vis the Third World bloc. Unable to participate in the...
Perceptions of China in Central Asia: Findings from an elite university in Bishkek
Author/editor: Rice, D
Year published: 2022
China's growing involvement in Central Asia economically, culturally, politically and even militarily has been a contentious topic for people from the region. While some view China's involvement as offering Central Asian countries an opportunity for advancement, others view it in more negative ways...
Russia’s Non-Traditional Statecraft in the Middle East and its Application to Ukraine
Author/editor: Parmeter, I
Year published: 2022
In the past decade, the Middle East has again become a Russian foreign policy priority – reversing Moscow’s reduced focus on the region from the 1970s, when the United States took on the dominant external role. This renewed interest was a result of growing tensions between Russia and the West from...
Camera is My Weapon: The Discursive Development of Iranian Women and Cyber-Feminism
Author/editor: Malekpour, M.
Year published: 2021
The purpose of this study is to look at the major socio-political shifts and stages that Iranian women have experienced from the establishment of the 1907 Constitution until the recent 2018/2019 White Wednesday Campaigns, which saw women take to the streets and remove their hijab as a means of...
Colour Psychology and the Mise-en-scene of War and Motherhood in Rakhshan Bani-Etemad and Mohsen Abdolvahab’s Gilaneh
Author/editor: Malekpour, M
Year published: 2021
The mother figure has been represented in Iranian cinema through a patriarchal lens, especially after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Although women had freedom in pre-revolutionary Iran, roles for women in film were still limited to stereo-typical characters. After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the...
Political Liberalization and Emerging Civil Society in Uzbekistan: The Cases of Public Reaction to Demolition Program and the Use of Forced Labor
Author/editor: Ubaydullaeva, D.
Year published: 2021
Conventional wisdom highlights civil society as an integral component of a democratic society. Due to the dominance of the state in all aspects of life, civil society was largely absent in Uzbekistan until the change of government in 2016. The new President Mirziyoyev’s liberalization policy...
Securitization of Higher Education Expansion in Authoritarian States: Uzbekistan’s Seemingly “Elite” Tertiary System
Author/editor: Ubaydullaeva, D.
Year published: 2021
While many states move from elite to mass higher education (HE) systems, little is known as to why some authoritarian developing states resist this transition. In post-Soviet Uzbekistan the tertiary system was consciously restricted to cover roughly 10% of the population; a situation that continued...
Student online protests in Uzbekistan: democratization of higher education as concomitant to the COVID-19 crisis?
Author/editor: Ubaydullaeva, D.
Year published: 2021
The democratization of higher education (HE) has been interpreted from various perspectives in many country-specific case studies. Yet, it has been overlooked that in authoritarian regimes the democratization of HE may involve the development of freedom of expression, an element taken for granted...
