Orient

About: Orient is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2792 publications have been published within this topic receiving 35135 citations.

“Orientalism - Western Conceptions of the Orient”

Abstract: Seite 41 From 1815 to 1914 European direct colonial dominion expanded from about 35 percent of the earth’s surface to about 85 percent of it. For much of the nineteenth Century, as Lord Salisbury put it in 1881, the common view of France and England of the Orient was was : “if you are bent on meddling in a country in which you are deeply interested —you have three courses open to you. You may renounce—or monopolize—or share. Renouncing would have been to place the French across our road to India. Monopolizing would have been near the risk of war. So we resolved to share.“ What they shared, however, was not only land or profit or rule; it was the kind of intellectual power I have been calling Orientalism. 42 If the essence of Orientalism is the ineradicable distinction between Western superiority and Oriental inferiority, then we must be prepared to note how in its development and subsequent history, Orientalism deepened and even hardened the distinction. 108 No better instance exists today of what Anwar Abdel Malek calls „the hegemonism of possessing minorities“ and anthropocentrism allied with Europocentrism: a white middle-class Westerner believes it his human prerogative not only to manage the nonwhite world but also to own it, just because by definition „it“ is not quite as human as „we“ are. There is no purer example than this of dehumanized thought.

Patron-Client Politics and Political Change in Southeast Asia

Abstract: The analysis presented here is an effort to elaborate the patron-client model of association, developed largely by anthropologists, and to demonstrate its applicability to political action in Southeast Asia. Inasmuch as patron-client structures are not unique to Southeast Asia but are much in evidence, particularly in Latin America, in Africa, and in less developed portions of Europe, the analysis may possibly have more general value for understanding politics in preindustrial societies. After defining the nature of patron-client ties and distinguishing them from other social ties, the paper discriminates among patron-client ties to establish the most important dimensions of variation, examines both the survival and transformations in patron-client links in Southeast Asia since colonialism and the impact of major social changes such as the growth of markets, the expanded role of the state, and the creation of local regimes. Finally, the paper shows how patron-client bonds interact with electoral politics to create distributive pressures which, in turn, often lead to inflationary fiscal policies and vulnerability of regimes to losses of revenue.

Colonial Fantasies: Towards a Feminist Reading of Orientalism

Abstract: In this 1998 book, Meyda Yegenoglu investigates the intersection between post-colonial and feminist criticism, focusing on the Western fascination with the veiled women of the Orient. She examines the veil as a site of fantasy and of nationalist ideologies and discourses of gender identity, analyzing travel literature, anthropological and literary texts to reveal the hegemonic, colonial identity of the desire to penetrate the veiled surface of 'otherness'. Representations of cultural difference and sexual difference are shown to be inextricably linked, and the figure of the Oriental woman to have functioned as the veiled interior of Western identity.

China Rising: Peace, Power, and Order in East Asia

Abstract: List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsPart I: The Puzzle and the Argument1. The Puzzle and China's Amazing Rise2. Power, Interests, and Identity in East Asian International Relations, 1300 to 19003. Describing East Asia: Alignment Strategies Toward ChinaPart II: East Asia Responds to China4. China: Identity, Sovereignty, and Taiwan5. South Korea: Embracing Interdependence in Search of Security6. Southeast Asia: Accommodating China's Rise7. Japan: A Normal IdentityPart III: East Asia and the United States8. The Role of the United States in East Asia9. Conclusions and ImplicationsNotesSelected BibliographyIndex

Coup-proofing: Its Practice and Consequences in the Middle East

Abstract: In the aftermath of the U.S.-led coalition’s defeat of Iraq in the Gulf War, many observers believed that Saddam Hussein would eventually be toppled in a military coup. After years of dashed hopes, however, few expect that the Iraqi military is likely to undertake such action. Many analysts claim that the Iraqi regime is, in fact, coup-proof. Saddam Hussein’s staying power should cause any similarly led U.S. coalition to rethink not just the possibilities of both coups and coupprooang but how it would aght and defeat a coup-proof regime. In this article, I analyze how states become coup-proof, focusing speciacally on the policies that Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Syria have adopted to achieve this goal. These policies include reliance on groups with special loyalties to the regime and the creation of parallel military organizations and multiple internal security agencies. The United States has a particular interest in how these countries have made their regimes coup-proof. Saudi Arabia is an important U.S. ally, Iraq is a hostile state, and Syria is somewhere in between. Conoict between the United States and either Iraq or Syria, however, pits a superpower with a short attention span against regimes that have accepted serious constraints on their ability to exercise their full military potential. Both states have developed heavily politicized militaries that are incapable of realizing this potential as long as their leaderships continue to divert resources to protect their regimes. At the same time, they have created a militarized politics that is surprisingly resilient in the face of defeat. If a U.S-led coalition decides that it wants to overthrow a coup-proofed regime through military action, it will have to devote serious attention to the regime’s true underpinnings. Field commanders will need more extensive means of understanding their opponent’s political-military situation and greater insight into the coalition’s political intentions. Moreover, the coordination of political-military operations will require greater political involvement