VI: National and Area Studies Études Nationales Et Régionales
| DOI | 10.1177/002083451806800106 |
| Date | 01 February 2018 |
| Published date | 01 February 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Abstracts |
125
VI
NATIONAL AND AREA STUDIES
ÉTUDES NATIONALES ET RÉGIONALES
68.1235 ADRAOUI, Mohamed-Ali — Borders and sovereignty in
Islamist and jihadist thought: past and present. Interna-
tional Affairs 93(4), July 2017 : 917-935.
This article explores how Islamists and jihadists have framed issues
pertaining to sovereignty, borders, as well as political and religious
identity, over the last century. The Islamists, on the one hand — whose
aim is creating a caliphate — have had to deal with unexpected realities,
turning inevitably to some extent of reform of their original revolutionary
ambition. The jihadists, on the other hand, while remaining committed to
an armed struggle to unify Muslims worldwide, do not advocate for any
action other than global insurrection. By focusing on the writings and
discourses of major Islamist and jihadist leaders, it thus appears that the
study of borders and sovereignty is indispensable to understanding the
similarities and differences between the two ideologies. [R, abr.] [See
Abstr. 68.1361]
68.1236 AHMED, Asim ; SYED, Mahroona Hussain — Strategic
expediency or sway: analysing Pakistan’s case for join-
ing the Islamic military alliance. IPRI Journal 17(2), Sum-
mer 2017 : 69-95.
The Islamic Military Alliance (IMA) of 34 countries, as proposed by Saudi
Arabia, is a force with the purpose to defeat the soaring menace of
terrorism in Muslim states. Saudi Arabia considers Pakistan a frontline
ally and included it as a member of this Alliance, albeit without consulta-
tion. Pakistan declined to join. The decision was made from a foreign
policy lens instead of from a strategic military perspective. Given the
importance of this development, the article raises key questions while
analysing the benefits, or otherwise, of military alliances from the frame-
work of military expansionism, linking them with the mix of geostrategic
complexities faced by Pakistan. It debates the plausibility and practicabil-
ity of Pakistan joining the Middle Eastern venture. [R, abr.]
68.1237 AHMED, Raja Qaiser ; ARIF, Misbah — Space militarization
in South Asia: India’s quest for space weapons and im-
plications for Pakistan. Asian Survey 57(5), Sept.-Oct.
2017 : 813-832.
India’s quest for space weaponization will have consequences for re-
gional stability. South Asia remains a precarious region given the histori-
cal rivalry between India and Pakistan and their posture of mutual deter-
rence. India’s pursuit of space weaponization and subsequent militariz a-
tion will trigger an expensive and unnecessary arms race between India
and Pakistan, exacerbating the fragility of the South Asian security
matrix. [R]
68.1238 ALLIN, Lyndon ; GARBU, Natalia — Making Moldova great
again? SAIS Review of International Affairs 37(1), Winter-
Spring 2017 : 59-74.
The Republic of Moldova is a small country in Eastern Europe, which has
become one of the front lines in the clash between Russia and the West.
One of the ways in which geopolitics manifests itself in this small country is
in populist dome stic politics. Political movements in support of joining a
Russia-led Customs Union and calling for eventual unification with Ro ma-
nia have both been popular as Moldova and its residents have struggled to
find their own political and national identity. Politicians seek to focu s voters'
attention on abstract issues such as the name of the language spoken in
the country or its geopolitical orientation, which only serves to divide society
more deeply, rather than address basic governance issues and the coun-
try's endemic corruption. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 68.724]
68.1239 ALMEIDA, André Corrêa D’ ; MOURAO, Paulo Reis — The
irrelevance of political party differences for public fi-
nances — evidence from public deficit and debt in Por-
tugal (1974-2012). European Review 25(4), Oct. 2017 : 560-
587.
This paper empirically tests whether inter-party political differences
impact public finances in Portugal differently. Focused on public debt and
on government budget deficit, and using data since 1974 for several
variables, this paper applies econometric modeling to show that inter-
party differences have had, until now, no significant impacts on the public
finances’ performance in Portugal. In this context, this paper dispels
some myths regarding the “value” of a policy process based on political
intrigue, enmity and a discourse of confrontation around differentiated
political parties’ merits in modern democracies. [R]
68.1240 ANING, Kwesi ; EDU-AFFUL, Fiifi — Peacekeeping in a
francophone space: experiences of Ghanaian peace-
keepers in Côte d’Ivoire. Round Table 106(4), Aug. 2017 :
375-391.
This article adds historical and empirical insights to the ongoing global
debate on peace operations in francophone contexts, by providing a
historical analysis of Ghana’s participation in francophone peacekeeping
operations, with a special focus on Côte d’Ivoire. It investigates the
interrelationship between Anglo-francophone African peace operations
and its implications for negotiating colonial discourses and barriers and
as a means to promoting deeper regional integration. The paper argues
that the fundamental reasons behind the difficulties experienced by
Ghanaian peacekeepers in francophone peacekeeping theatres, espe-
cially in the case of Côte d’Ivoire, resulted from the differences in culture,
language, ethnic proximity and regional politics. [R, abr.] [First article of a
thematic issue on “Commonwealth countries' approach to peacekeep-
ing”, edited by Geraint HUGHES and Terry BARRINGER, and introduced
by Geraint HUGHES, “Blessed are the peacekeepers?”, pp. 365-373.
See also Abstr. 68.1030, 1043, 1044, 1083, 1149, 1181]
68.1241 ARNOLD, Dennis — Civil society, political society and
politics of disorder in Cam bodia. Political Geography 60,
Sept. 2017 : 23-33.
This paper questions under what conditions the social foundation neces-
sary for the construction and sustenance of civil society are present in
post-colonial social formations, and the extent to which there has been a
need to develop concessionary politics to maintain a project of rule. It
utilizes P. Chatterjee's usage of Gramsci's political society to understand
how Cambodia's ILO-led garment factory monitoring regime secures
legitimacy not by the participation of worker citizens in the matters of the
state, but by claiming to provide for their well being. I argue that the
hegemonic project is fraught by virtue of the fact that consent-seeking
forms of regulation, which aim to prevent strikes through tra de union
membership and tripartitism, have reached their limit and spilled over
and into a disaggregated, messier terrain of struggles akin to political
society. [R, abr.]
68.1242 AROUSSI, Sahla — Women, peace, and security and the
DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo]: time to rethink
wartime sexual violence as gender-based violence? Poli-
tics and Gender 13(3), Sept. 2017 : 488-515.
Recently, we have witnessed unprecedented attention in international
law and policy-making arenas to the specific issue of sexual violence as
a strategy of warfare. This has been particularly obvious in the agenda
on women, peace, and security. Since 2008, the UN agenda has in-
creasingly and repeatedly focused on sexual violence in armed conflicts
in several Security Council resolutions, calling on and pressuring mem-
ber states and international agencies to address this issue using milita-
ristic and legalistic strategies. Looking particularly at the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC), I argue that the prioritization of sexual
harm over other forms of gender harm has had a detrimental impact on
women living in aid-dependent societies, and the international obsession
with sexual harm has delivered neither justice nor security for victims in
the DRC. [R, abr.]
68.1243 ASLAN, Ayşenur Kiliç — The democratization process in
Turkey: theory, legacy, and prospects. Insight Turkey
19(3), Summer 2017 : 233-240.
Review essay of Carmen Rodríguez, Antonio Ávalos, Hakan Yılmaz and
Ana I. Planet, Turkey’s Democratization Process (2014); Mehmet DÖ
EMECI, Debating Turkish Modernity: Civilization, Nationalism, and the
EEC (2013); Evren Çelik WILTS, Democratic Reform and Consolidation:
The Cases of Mexico and Turkey (2015).
68.1244 AUCHTER, Jessica — Forced male circumcision: gender-
based violence in Kenya. International Affairs 93(6), Nov.
2017 : 1339-1356.
Forced male circumcision has not yet been recognized as a specific
gendered human rights abuse in international humanitarian law. This
article takes the first step towards assessing these acts by considering
them in the context of post-election violence in Kenya in 2007. This case
allows for the exploration of how forced male circumcision was used in a
context of political violence and militia-led — and often state-sanctioned
National and area studies
126
— terror. The article thus considers multiple legal issues and concerns
that arise from this sort of violence in different contexts. I situate the case
within a larger framework of conventional understandings on gender and
violence as a means to question them and render them problematic.
Specifically, I argue that understanding sexual violence as exclusively
targeting women prevents appropriate prosecution of sexual violence
against men. [R, abr.]
68.1245 AYMALIEV, Ivan M. — Corporate motivations for donating
to the police in Bulgaria. East European Politics and Socie-
ties and Cultures 31(4), Nov. 2017 : 762-798.
From 2005 to 2011, the Bulgarian police force collected donations
exceeding $90 million from a host of individuals, corporations, foreign
governments, persons undergoing criminal investigations, and convicts.
After condemnation both domestically and internationally, the practice
became completely illegal in 2013. Nevertheless, in 2015, the govern-
ment lifted the donation prohibition, allowing foreign governments and
international and state organizations to donate to the Interior Ministry.
Given Bulgaria’s excessive spending on public order and the ambiguous
nature of donations to public servants, we seek to understand the corpo-
rate motivations for donating to the police. To address this question, we
draw upon theories of corporate philanthropy, social exchange, and
entrepreneurial orientation and use unique face-to-face interview data
from 2011 to 2013 with police officers and businesspeople. [R, abr.]
68.1246 BERTOLDI, Moreno ; MELANDER, Annika Eriksgård ;
WEISS, Peter — Steering the economic transition:
China's economic policy and structural reforms in the af-
termath of the Great Recession. Stato e Mercato 110,
2017 : 283-310.
Introduction — China's response to the global financial crisis — Setting
the priorities for the economic transition: the Third Party Plenum — Can
economic transitions be planned? China and the 13th Five-Year Plan —
Stuck in transition? The implementation of the announced reforms —
Looking forward: gradualism or acceleration? [R]
68.1247 BISHKU, Michael B. — The interactions and experiences
of Armenians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire and Re-
public of Turkey from the Young Turk Revolution of 1908
to the present. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 23(4), 2017 :
431-452.
This article examines the interactions of Armenians and Jews as well as
shared and dissimilar experiences in the Ottoman Empire and the Re-
public of Turkey from the early 20th century to the present to compare
how affinities and differences in political outlook have affected their
relationship. It has been stated that the Armenian and Jewish Diasporas
have had similar historical experiences mostly through hardships. This
article shows that throughout their experiences as non-Muslim minorities
in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey Armenians and Jews
have never developed any coordinated collaboration; instead, they have
pursued perceived respective ethnic interests, largely influenced by
historical memory and geopolitics. [R, abr.]
68.1248 BLOOMFIELD, Lincoln, Jr. ; HARVEY, Tom — Statecraft in
the Trump era. National Interest 151, Sept.-Oct. 2017 : 70-
80.
To succeed, Trump needs to retool the national-security apparatus,
shaking up its turf-obsessed, risk-averse culture while sharpening its
tradecraft. [R]
68.1249 BROOKE, Steven — Sectarianism and social conformity:
evidence from Egypt. Political Research Quarterly 70(4),
Dec. 2017 : 848-860.
Why might citizens adopt exaggerated public antagonism toward out-
groups? When this is so, how much do public and private attitudes
diverge? I argue that expanding exclusionary rhetoric against out-groups
can create social pressures that incentivize ordinary citizens to adopt
bigoted attitudes to avoid ostracism from their own majority community.
Based on an investigation of Egypt during the Arab Spring, I identify the
emergence and diffusion of a norm of discrimination against the coun-
try’s tiny Shi’a population. Under these conditions, a substantial portion
of Sunni citizens adopted and countenanced anti-Shi’a bigotry not be-
cause they truly believed it, but rather because they feared the conse-
quences of expressing public support for coexistence. [R, abr.]
68.1250 BROWN, Kerry — Xi Jinping and China's role in the Asian
and global order. Seton Hall Journal of Diplomacy and In-
ternational Relations 18(1), Spring 2017 : 7-14.
At the Bo'ao Forum in 2015, China's key foreign policy gathering for
government and officials across the region, the theme was one of a
"common Asian destiny". And yet it is unclear precisely what this destiny
is, despite the more vocal expression of China's foreign policy goals that
has been given under Xi, nor, for that matter, whether this destiny is
shared much by neighboring countries. With the Trump presidency, the
uncertainty has only increased, simply because some of his remarks
during the campaign implied that the US would scale back its security
role in the region and walk away from the Obama approach of "rebalanc-
ing", something which had been extremely unpopular in Beijing. [R]
68.1251 BROWNING, Christopher S. ; FERRAZ DE OLIVEIRA,
Antonio — Reading Brand Africa geopolitically: nation
branding, subaltern geopolitics and the persistence of
politics. Geopolitics 22(3), 2017 : 640-664.
In 2010, the "Brand Africa" initiative was launched with the mission to
transform perceptions of Africa from a continent of calamities into one of
promising economic prospects and entrepreneurial populations. This
transformation, "Brand Africa" claims, is one where Africans take their
representation from the hands of foreigners and make, through a new
image, their own (hi)story. In this respect Brand Africa can be interpreted
as a form of subaltern geopolitics seeking to subvert dominant geopoliti-
cal knowledge and to fight established structures of domination. How-
ever, the article argues its subversive elements are limited, especially
when compared to the historical discourses of decolonial pan-Africanism
upon which it draws for legitimacy. Indeed, while appropriating this
legacy Brand Africa offers up a very different geopolitical vision of possi-
ble/desirable African futures. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 68.44]
68.1252 BROWNLEE, Billie Jeanne — Media development in Syria:
the Janus-faced nature of foreign aid assistance. Third
World Quarterly 38(10), 2017 : 2276-2294.
This article provides responses to some of the many unanswered ques-
tions about the making and the transformation of the uprising in Syria by
exploring a new avenue of research: media development aid. Most
academic interest has been oriented towards the role that the new media
played at the time of the uprising; insufficient interest, by contrast, has
been directed to the development of the sector in the years predating it.
What emerges from this article is that the Syrian media landscape was
strongly supported by international development aid during the years
prior to the outbreak of the uprising of 2011. [R, abr.]
68.1253 BUBBICO, Antonio ; ELKINK, Johan A. ; OKOLIKJ, Martin —
Quality of government and regional competition: a spa-
tial analysis of subnational regions in the European Un-
ion. European Journal of Political Research 56(4), Nov.
2017 : 887-911.
Building on previous work on competition networks and governmental
performance among British local governments, this article investigates
the diffusion of government quality across subnational regions of Europe
through strategic interaction with neighbouring regions or competitor
regions more generally. The article demonstrates the presence of spatial
interdependence using standard spatial regression models and control-
ling for common explanations of quality of government. In particular for
regions with high levels of autonomy from the national government, there
is clear adjustment in government quality to be seen in response to
disparities with competitor regions. The article further investigates the
intensity of this geographical effect separately in the north and south of
Europe in order to estimate the potential for virtuous or vicious cycles of
good governance in the two regions, respectively. [R, abr.]
68.1254 BUZOGÁNY, Aron — Illiberal democracy in Hungary:
authoritarian diffusion or domestic causation? Democra-
tization 24(7), Dec. 2017 : 1307-1325.
This article analyses the democratic involution in Hungary, which was
followed by the country embracing a pro-Russian policy in 2010. These
processes came to be viewed as a rare case of authoritarian diffusion
taking place towards an EU member state. Based on the discussion of
interest versus ideational appeal as factors of authoritarian diffusion, the
article develops a relational and dynamic framework to analyze the
question of authoritarian diffusion. The framework underlines the impor-
tance not only of “sender state” attributes, but also those of receiver
states. The analysis finds no empirical evidence for authoritarian diffu-
sion; Hungary’s slide into illiberalism was not inspired or supported by V.
Putin. Instead, mutual interests are sufficient to understand Russo-
Hungarian cooperation. [R] [See Abstr. 68.1226]
68.1255 CARLSON, Matthew — Policy failure scandals as political
scandals in Japan. Asian Survey 57(5), Sept.-Oct. 2017 :
933-955.
Major political corruption scandals were a common occurrence in post-
war Japan. After the 1990s, policy failure scandals generated by bureau-
cratic rather than political corruption became more common. Among the
crucial ingredients in generating policy failure scandals was the role of
interparty competition and the functioning of a two-party system. [R]
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