The Middle East is a very complex region with many factors causing states to enter into violent and intractable conflicts. The region has been adversely affected by climate change. This has led to the entire Middle East becoming dryer, thus meaning that water volumes, be it in aquifers or river basins, are declining. Therefore, water scarcity is steadily affecting food supply.
As an emerging power, China’s role within domains of international trade, economy and politics has increased dramatically in recent years. Accompanied with the country’s increase in international weight, the Chinese currency Renminbi (RMB) has become more and more significant in international financial market. Simultaneously, the dispute over RMB’s revaluation has recently become a recurrent theme
In a land as diverse as India, the British championed the technique of divide and conquer for nearly a century. Three thousand years before British explorers even set foot on India’s coast, a warrior by the name of Chandragupta Maurya unified Indian heterogeneity and established unified India’s first monarchical dynasty of the Mauryas. This Bismarckian mission owed its success to Chandragupta Maurya’s astute political adviser, Kautilya.
British strategy in the Middle East consolidated around a sustained effort to prevent any adversarial penetration into the Persian Gulf, defending its position athwart the principal lines of communication and supply between Northern Europe and British India, and to protect the newly discovered Persian oil that was used to power the Royal Navy
Academics need to make their arguments accessible and governments need to acknowledge their relevance in determining how to proceed when conceptualizing policy. Until administrations become concerned with changing the level of discourse rather than simply out maneuvering their foes on the political chessboard, any changes in the practices of academic research will fall short of re-enfranchising academics into meaningful advisory roles
On 12th September 2009, hundreds of thousands of people gathered for a “taxpayer march” in Washington, DC. The Tea party has focused public anger at Obama’s reforms and forced the political establishment to take note in the run-up to the midterm elections. But is it any more than a knee-jerk response to a Democrat president? Perhaps those who will find life most difficult will be Republican moderates. In the age of the Tea party, the bad news is likely to keep coming, and a comeback for moderate Republicanism looks some way off
The historical experience of Imperial Britain as a dishonest and detrimental interference in Iran’s domestic politics and economy has fostered a lingering sense of suspicion in the collective memory of Iranians. Whether this image is gradually fading away and giving way to equally negative images of other foreign powers remains to be seen
After 9/11, the word ‘hijacking’ has been used for two events. Of course, for the terrorist attacks of that day, but some also talked about a more metaphorical action: the hijacking of American foreign policy through the influence of a “neoconservative” or “democratic imperialist” movement
Critical theory needs to reevaluate its relationship to positivistic social sciences. A critical approach to religion will help us better understand not only the roots of religious conflict, but also how it unfolds. It may help us make better sense of the religious right, of fundamentalisms and orthodoxies of all kinds, which stand in the way of progressive social change.
The Amazons of ancient Greek myth were a warrior people, but more than this, they were female warriors whose world was dominated by and for women. This article entertains the iconicity of the Amazon, Rhetor and priest, speaks to how such representation shapes interaction between each of them, and finally demonstrates how representations of and tensions between these narratives play out in our social body
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