Editor's Summary: This article investigates the potential and limits of Turkey as a regional power in the post-Soviet Caucasus and Central Asian areas. The article suggests that cooperation efforts produced significant conflicts and also related the ability to play a constructive regional role to Turkey's internal capacity. Ironically, weak domestic capacity may be translated into an overactivist foreign policy and overambitious regional power roles with potentially destabilizing … [Read more...]
Regional Implications of the Israeli-Turkish Strategic Partnership
By June 6, 2020
Editor's Summary: This article evaluates the strategic character of the Israel-Turkey entente and its regional implications. It assesses the potential consequences of Israeli-Turkish military cooperation and reviews the reactions in the region to the alignment. The article ends with an analysis of how the Israel-Turkish partnership affects U.S. interests in the region. In the 1990s, relations between Israel and Turkey greatly expanded and reached an unprecedented degree of … [Read more...]
The Earthquake, Europe, and Prospects for Political Change in Turkey
By June 5, 2020
Editor's Summary: Two events in 1999--the Marmara earthquake and the European Union's (EU) conditional acceptance of Turkey?s candidacy for membership--offered hope for liberalization and democratization in Turkey. In the first case, the earthquake was viewed as a factor mobilizing civil society as a force "from below" that could engender political reform. In the second, the EU became a factor providing outside pressure for change. This article suggests that the energy generated … [Read more...]
The Jordanian Army: Between Domestic and External Challenges
By June 4, 2020
Editor's Summary: Jordan's armed forces have been an effective means for preserving the regime, though they have never been strong enough to spread Jordan's influence in the region, or even independently defend Jordan from external threats. This inadequacy has forced Jordan to rely on various coalitions to ensure its defense. In addition to examining the army's response to previous threats, the author examines the Jordanian regime's attempts to deal with its current and future security … [Read more...]
Guns and Butter in the Egyptian Army
By June 3, 2020
The Egyptian army seems to possess the characteristics of a modern army (in the 1950s' sense, when nationalism and patriotism unquestionably prevailed in military establishments) in a post-modern age. While the post-modern army is often seen as being professionally small, the Egyptian army remains rather large. While the post-modern army is typified by increasing civilian-military integration, the Egyptian army has constructed at least 17 military cities to isolate the military from … [Read more...]
An Essay on Arab Lessons From the 1991 Kuwait Crisis and War
By June 2, 2020
Editor's Summary: For a long time after the 1991 war over Kuwait, that event seemed to mark a turning point in the region, along with such contemporary developments as the Soviet Union's collapse, the Cold War's end, and the Madrid conference's commencement of direct Arab-Israeli peace negotiations. A decade after the fighting, however, the changes seem to have been more limited or perhaps relatively temporary ones. This article tries to assess what has and has not changed in the … [Read more...]
Contesting the State Media Monopoly: Syria on Al-Jazeera Television
By June 1, 2020
Editor's Summary: The influx of independent satellite TV stations in the Arab world has undermined the ability of governments to control what people watch and consequently to control what they think. This article takes the al-Jazira satellite TV station and its coverage of Syrian politics as a case study. It analyzes the content of sample news and programs that have tackled issues considered sensitive to the Syrian regime, and illustrates how these programs may be forcing the … [Read more...]
