Journal•ISSN: 1755-0920
Contemporary Arab Affairs
Taylor & Francis
About: Contemporary Arab Affairs is an academic journal published by Taylor & Francis. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Politics & Democracy. It has an ISSN identifier of 1755-0920. Over the lifetime, 428 publications have been published receiving 2048 citations.
Topics: Politics, Democracy, Islam, State (polity), Democratization
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe a certain category of books that occupy the front shelves of major bookshops for some p... and discuss the role of books in the evolution of the Internet.
Abstract: by Fareed Zakaria, New York, NY, W. W. Norton, 2008, 290 pp., US$13.95 (pbk), ISBN 978‐0‐393‐06235‐9 There is a certain category of books that occupy the front shelves of major bookshops for some p...
212 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the Israeli colonial project is "spacio-cidal" (as opposed to genocidal), in that it targets land for the purpose of rendering inevitable the "voluntary" transfer of the Palestinian population, primarily by targeting the space upon which the Palestinian people live.
Abstract: In the last two decades, the Arab–Israeli conflict has been considered a ‘low intensity’ conflict, based on a typology which simply takes into account the number of casualties. This typology is misleading, since despite relatively low numbers of casualties, on other counts the conflict may be seen to be in the process of intensification. In particular, a key area that has been gaining relevance is related to space and land: dispossession, occupation and destruction of Palestinian living space and what the author calls spacio‐cide. In this paper, it is argued that the Israeli colonial project is ‘spacio‐cidal’ (as opposed to genocidal), in that it targets land for the purpose of rendering inevitable the ‘voluntary’ transfer of the Palestinian population, primarily by targeting the space upon which the Palestinian people live. This systematic destruction of the Palestinian living space becomes possible by exercising the state of exception and deploying bio‐politics to categorize Palestinians into different ...
101 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the import of term "the people" and to whom it applies in the popular slogan "The people want the overthrow of the regime" (al-shaʿb yurīd isqāṭ al-niẓa) is discussed.
Abstract: Since late 2010, the Arab World has witnessed regime changes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya; and revolts by Arab citizens are still underway in Syria, Bahrain and Yemen, along with reform initiatives at different levels. These processes cannot be accurately be described by Orientalist terms such as ‘Arab Spring’, ‘Arab unrest’ or the ‘Facebook Revolution’, where such categorizations fail to account for the radical transformation in politics and values that the Arab World is undergoing and the significance that resides in the confluence of social and democratic demands. The ultimate fate of these popular uprisings remains in the balance, but it is all too clear that they have produced the most dramatic changes in the region since the mid-twentieth century which marked the end of the colonial era. This article aims to elucidate the import of term ‘the people’ and to whom it applies in the popular slogan: ‘The people want the overthrow of the regime’ (al-shaʿb yurīd isqāṭ al-niẓām). It aims to identify the acto...
50 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined the interaction of these dynamics and how they are echoed in post-Qadhafi Libya and made an assessment of the manifestations related to these dynamics by providing a sketch of existing social and political features.
Abstract: Libya's contemporary history has been dominated by the interplay of the perpetual dynamics of religion, tribalism, oil and ideology. After 42 years in power Qadhafi was killed at the hands of revolutionaries and the final chapter of his dictatorial reign was terminated. With direct and powerful support from NATO and some Arab governments the revolution, led by the National Transitional Council and military councils in many Libyan cities, was another reflection of the supremacy of the perpetual dynamics. The purpose of this article is to examine the interaction of these dynamics and how they are echoed in post-Qadhafi Libya. An assessment is made of the manifestations related to these dynamics by providing a sketch of existing social and political features. This will help determine the fundamentals that shape the foreseeable future of the country and predict the role of the various political forces interacting in the field. The article is a product of direct research, analysis, eye-witness accounts and int...
43 citations
TL;DR: For the last decade, a debate has raged over the place of social media within popular uprisings, and the 2011 Egyptian revolution shed new light on this debate as mentioned in this paper, but social media was neither the cause nor the catalyst of the revolution; rather it was a tool of coordination and communication.
Abstract: For the last decade, a debate has raged over the place of social media within popular uprisings. The 2011 Egyptian revolution shed new light on this debate. However, while the use of social media by Egyptians received much focus, and activists themselves pointed towards it as the key to their success, social media did not constitute the revolution itself, nor did it instigate it. Focusing solely on social media diminishes the personal risks that Egyptians took when heading into the streets to face rubber bullets and tear gas, as well as more lethal weapons. Social media was neither the cause nor the catalyst of the revolution; rather it was a tool of coordination and communication.
30 citations