Middle East Policy

Would the post-Cold War international system survive? After 9/11, the international system underwent a serious failure as regards the international security and stability. The international dangers and threats took a different nature blowing up the so-thought international security after the end of the cold war. The new nature of the international dangers represented by the international terror and its nourishing structure and environments around the world imposed a necessary redefining of the "international border." This redefining is not an option, it is a must. Therefore, the traditional notion and norm of sovereignty would be directly affected as natural integrated complements of the traditional international border perception in the systemic practice pattern within the international relations. Thereby, the Westphalian international system is undergoing a serious challenge; given my thinking that it lost the test through 9/11. The state of the international border drove i...

In honor of this occasion, when the winds of change and liberation began blowing in the Middle East; when the freedom bell began ringing; when the long aspiration for freedom and dignity began its path into reality, I will repost my article Iraq Victory: Middle East Salvation , which had been quoted by the Philadelphia Inquirer . IRAQ VICTORY: MIDDLE EAST SALVATION The U.S. will not abandon Iraq. To me, it means that the U.S. will not abandon the Middle East. Some recent stances and statements in the U.S urging to quit Iraq have shocked me. I find it, and I am sorry for this expression, extremely irresponsible, and definitely harming U.S. interests and the Middle East democratization movement. I definitely look positively at any deliberate prospective troops reduction, but setting a timetable of withdrawal, such as U.S. giving up, would blow up the reform movement and the liberal renaissance in the Middle East after Iraq and Lebanon. Furthermore, that would also blow up the American in...

Here is a recent policy watch of the U.S. efforts and attitudes concerning democracy promotion worldwide: (Source: International Information Programs , U.S. Department of State.) State Department Releases 2005 Human Rights Country Reports Democratic countries now better able to address problems, report says Countries in which power is concentrated in the hands of rulers that cannot be held accountable for their actions were among those cited as having the poorest records on human rights in the U.S. Department of State’s annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released March 8. Such regimes, which include the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea), Burma, Iran, Zimbabwe, Cuba, China and Belarus, seriously restrict fundamental human rights enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, religion and movement, the State Department said in the introduction to the report. “The gro...

This is the news section of the current issue of the Arab Reform Bulletin Published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace : Iraq: Government Formation Delayed Formation of a new Iraqi government has been stalled due to a political deadlock following an upsurge in sectarian violence after an attack on a Shiite shrine in Samarra on February 22. Iraq's parliament delayed its first session until March 16 because of disagreements over the choice of a prime minister. According to the constitution, the prime minister is selected from the parliamentary bloc with the most seats, in this case the United Iraqi Alliance, which won 130 parliamentary seats in the December 2005 elections. The Shiite bloc has resisted demands from Kurdish and Sunni politicians that it withdraw Ibrahim Al Jaafari as candidate for prime minister in Iraq's new government on the grounds that he failed to improve the situation in the year he served as interim prime minister. For their part, the main K...

These are some thoughts of mine gathered from several academic exchanges: The scientific quality of political science I want to point out that the political phenomenon needs, after identifying it, to make sense a conceptual frame or approach applied by the watcher (the political scientist) which will consequently formulate the sense of the phenomenon. This applies to the all natural phenomena, especially in physics where this question is more clearer. Therefore, in the pursuit to find out about the rules and laws of these phenomena and the generalizations in the social sciences the abstraction is essential. For doing so, the mathematical representation is the primary means but it is significantly restricted with respect to the complex social systems including the political sphere. To handle this situation, means was invented and the methodology became indispensable. That is to say that making conclusions from empirical studies of wide range in time and place, as the raw material to be ...