Ruth Hanau Santini | Istituto Universitario Orientale, Napoli, Italy (original) (raw)

Papers by Ruth Hanau Santini

Since the 2003 Iraq war, the Middle East and North Africa has entered into a New Regional Cold Wa... more Since the 2003 Iraq war, the Middle East and North Africa has entered into a New Regional Cold War, characterised by two competing logics: on the one hand, the politicisation of sectarianism opposing a Saudi-led Sunni bloc against an Iran-led Shia bloc and, on the other, an intra-Sunni cleavage around the mobilisation of political Islam, embodied by the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters vs its opponents. Blending Buzan and Weaver’s regional security complex theory with Donnelly’s notion of ‘heterarchy’ and applying it to the cold wars the region has experienced, the similarities and differences between the Arab Cold War of the 1950s/60s and the New Regional Cold War reveal the increasing number of heterarchic features within the regional security complex: multiple and heterogeneous power centres, different power rankings, a more visible and relevant role of non-state and transnational actors, and the fragmentation of regional norms.

Every actor who commands coercive resources plays a relevant role in the complex processes of sta... more Every actor who commands coercive resources plays a relevant role in the complex processes of state restructuring following regime change. The role of armies in the 2010-2011 Arab uprisings has been widely explored, but limited attention has been devoted to how different agents with coercive power have been involved in the restructuring of political order. This contribution presents the theoretical framework within which the remaining empirical contributions are situated. The central insight is that better understanding of the emerging political orders requires moving away from binary notions of hierarchy and anarchy as ordering principles and look at how, within heterarchical political orders, coercive agents behave within fluid state-society relations.

This chapter investigates the way in which conceptual models of state-society relations are formu... more This chapter investigates the way in which conceptual models of
state-society relations are formulated and translated into practice by
the European Union (EU) in its bilateral relations with the southern
Mediterranean countries. It does so by looking at the evolution of
European foreign policy since the 2011 Arab Uprisings, analysing first
the revised European Neighbourhood Policy, but also the new strategies
adopted by other EU bodies and frameworks, such as the European
Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights and the European
Endowment for Democracy. The chapter will empirically attest the
degree to which EU policies have been inspired by the new strategies,
as well as how far formulations of democratic ideals can be extrapolated
from these policies. Lastly, it will elaborate on the relationship
between these conceptual models of democracy and different models of
citizenship, thereby cross-fertilising two strands of literature often kept
separated, i.e. studies on democracy promotion or democracy assistance,
and citizenship studies.

United Nations University Series on Regionalism, 2013

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

". The first paperentitled Profiling Normative Foreign Policy: The European Union and its Global ... more ". The first paperentitled Profiling Normative Foreign Policy: The European Union and its Global Partners, by Nathalie Tocci, CEPS Working Document No. 279, December 2007 -set out the conceptual framework for exploring this question. The present paper constitutes one of several case studies applying this framework to the behaviour of the European Union, whereas the others to follow concern China, India, Russia and the United States. A normative foreign policy is rigorously defined as one that is normative according to the goals set, the means employed and the results obtained. Each of these studies explores eight actual case examples of foreign policy behaviour, selected in order to illustrate four alternative paradigms of foreign policy behaviour -the normative, the realpolitik, the imperialistic and the status quo. For each of these four paradigms, there are two examples of EU foreign policy, one demonstrating intended consequences and the other, unintended effects. The fact that examples can be found that fit all of these different types shows the importance of 'conditioning factors', which relate to the internal interests and capabilities of the EU as a foreign policy actor as well as the external context in which other major actors may be at work. CEPS Working Documents are intended to give an indication of work being conducted within CEPS research programmes and to stimulate reactions from other experts in the field. Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed are attributable only to the authors in a personal capacity and not to any institution with which they are associated. ISBN-13: 978-92-9079-751-7 Available for free downloading from the CEPS website (http://www.ceps.eu)

The International Spectator, Jan 1, 2012

The Arab Awakening can be seen as a symptom of failure of US and EU democracy promotion policies ... more The Arab Awakening can be seen as a symptom of failure of US and EU democracy promotion policies in the region. By identifying democracy with 'liberal democracy'–a discursively powerful political move–the contingent character of democracy has been lost. ...

Swiss Political Science Review

Europe has never had a comprehensive approach towards the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and... more Europe has never had a comprehensive approach towards the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and the Arab Awakening has not significantly altered the calculations behind the existing policy fragmentation.

... East Kenneth M. Pollack Akram Al-Turk Pavel K. Baev Michael S. Doran Khaled Elgindy Stephen R... more ... East Kenneth M. Pollack Akram Al-Turk Pavel K. Baev Michael S. Doran Khaled Elgindy Stephen R. Grand Shadi Hamid Bruce Jones Suzanne Maloney Daniel L. Byman Jonathan D. Pollack Bruce O. Riedel Ruth Hanau Santini Salman Shaikh Ibrahim Sharqieh Ömer Ta¸spinar ...

European Security, Jan 1, 2010

Abstract This article aims at analysing different, partly overlapping and partly competing Europe... more Abstract This article aims at analysing different, partly overlapping and partly competing European security discourses that have emerged on the Iranian nuclear issue since 2003. Three main discursive themes have been singled out exemplifying the main identity ...

... 1 EU Foreign Policy in a Globalized World Normative power and social preferences Edited by Za... more ... 1 EU Foreign Policy in a Globalized World Normative power and social preferences Edited by Zaki Laïdi 2 The Search for a European Identity Values, policies and legitimacy of the European ... 13 JAMES C. SPERLING 3 Eastern giants: the EU in the eyes of Russia and China ...

CEPS Paperback Series, Jan 1, 2008

… of the European Union as a …, Jan 1, 2009

... With the UK, relations have not been any smoother, particularly since Khomeini pronounced his... more ... With the UK, relations have not been any smoother, particularly since Khomeini pronounced his fatwa against the Indian-born British writer ... In Iran, traditional conservatives, liberal reform-ists and radical neo-conservatives share very little in terms of global orientations and world ...

efsps.eu

The European Union is actively involved in Middle Eastern politics, suffice it to look at its rol... more The European Union is actively involved in Middle Eastern politics, suffice it to look at its role within the Quartet, the EU3 vis-à-vis Iran, two ESDP missions in Palestine, one police mission in Iraq and a European military support to the southern Lebanon Unifil mission. This goes without considering humanitarian aid, cooperation and trade agreements. Only for humanitarian aid, in 2006 ECHO's humanitarian assistance to the Middle East represented 1/5 of the total EU world assistance, summing up to EUR 134 million. While in geo-strategic terms, Europe depends for 45% of its oil supplies from the Middle East, 40% of which from Opec countries. These brief remarks show the multilayered nature of European interest in the region. The European involvement and engagement in the region responds to different sets of criteria, from reputation to political and geo-economic interests. Focusing on this region, this analysis will examine how security concerns are framed by the EU. The foreign and security policy discourses will by extrapolated by looking at General Affairs Council Conclusions (Gaerc) and at the European Council Presidency Conclusions. While since 9/11 the tone of the discourse towards the challenges posed by this region has shifted, paying greater attention to proliferation and terrorism, pragmatically the Union has failed to devise coherent strategies in these policy areas, due to the difficulty of reaching a sufficient degree of understanding with member states over the long-term strategies to deploy in the area.

annual meeting of the International Studies Association …, Jan 1, 2006

Call for papers by Ruth Hanau Santini

Call for papers: Deconstructing unitary statehood: hybrid security in Africa and the Middle East ... more Call for papers: Deconstructing unitary statehood: hybrid security in Africa and the Middle East
Special issue of Small Wars and Insurgencies
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/fswi20/current

Guest editors: Abel Polese (Dublin City University and Tallinn University of Technology),
Ruth Hanau Santini (University of Naples, L’Orientale)
Rob Kevlihan (Kimmage Development Studies Centre)

Deadline for abstracts: 30 June 2017
Deadline for first draft of papers: 30 September 2017

We are editing a guest issue of Small Wars and Insurgencies that will come out in 2018 and is intended to investigate the synergies generated by the co-existence, competition and conflict between competing actors of security governance.

Our main focus is on the multi-actor and multi-level nature of security governance across the Middle East and Africa, sidestepping the application of fictitious notions of state unitary actorness and absolute monopoly of violence. In particular, we expect to investigate, through a number of empirical case studies with strong conceptual components, the interplay between the mixed nature of security actors and the creation of specific security orders.

Theoretically, by building on critical literature on statehood and sovereignty we intend to challenge two main paradigms: the Westphalian and the Weberian. The former emphasizes borders’ sanctity as prerogative of modern states, while commonly used understandings of the latter emphasize a static conceptions of states as sole possessors of monopolies of violence. . The idealized “Westphalian state”, which has distinct boundaries and emphasizes the right of nonintervention and borders’ inviolability, has arguably been under attack since the end of the Cold War (Kaldor, 1999; Thakur, 2016). We intend to push the boundary further to enrich debates on the importance of historicizing and contextualizing the different forms and shapes statehood and governance can take (Bierstecker 2013).

We would also like to test the notion of ‘areas of limited statehood’, to be understood as more than geographical spaces, but rather spaces where non-state actors can either compete or cooperate with the state depending on the circumstances (Risse 2013). The result can include different forms of hybrid governance, including, but not limited to the coexistence of modern and traditional practices of the exercise of power (Bacik 2008). While the clash between different sources of authority and claims of legitimacy can generate tensions and conflicts, the presence of competing actors can lead to a variety of outcomes. We will explore cases from stratified and yet peaceful systems of authority to cases where the competition is less peaceful, leading to violent struggles between a central authority and insurgent groups. Within heterarchical orders, characterized by multiple rankings of power and multiple actors possessing coercive power, we will distinguish different degrees of intensity of these non-anarchic and non-hierarchical orders.

We are interested in papers analysing relations among actors possessing power (including but not limited to coercive power) over given territories, be they state, non-state, public, private, national and trans-national actors. We seek to explore these forms of power, including the manner in which relations between centralized authorities and social actors create, reflect and reproduce power relations. We seek to understand the implications these dynamics have for populations in terms of human security, conflict management and experiences of violence. Regional and international actors are included in the plethora of security or insecurity generating actors and will be analysed according to the principal-agent relations they enjoy with local state actors, as well as with local populations and the other coercive wielding actors in a given area. Sources of legitimacy for each category of security actor will be particularly scrutinized: a traditionally neglected but increasingly relevant aspect includes local populations’ dynamics of interaction, negotiation and/or resistance vis-à-vis both state and non state actors exercising coercive power over their territories.

Abstracts of 300 words must be sent by June 30th, 2017 to both addresses

Ruth Hanau Santini rhanausantini@johnshopkins.it
and Abel Polese ap@tlu.ee

The selection outcomes will be communicated by July 30th, 2017. Paper givers will be invited to a workshop in Naples in early December and expected to submit their final version by the 15th of January 2018.

United Nations University Series on Regionalism, 2013

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

The International Spectator, Jan 1, 2012

Swiss Political Science Review

European Security, Jan 1, 2010

CEPS Paperback Series, Jan 1, 2008

… of the European Union as a …, Jan 1, 2009

efsps.eu

annual meeting of the International Studies Association …, Jan 1, 2006

Guest editors: Abel Polese (Dublin City University and Tallinn University of Technology),
Ruth Hanau Santini (University of Naples, L’Orientale)
Rob Kevlihan (Kimmage Development Studies Centre)

Deadline for abstracts: 30 June 2017
Deadline for first draft of papers: 30 September 2017

Abstracts of 300 words must be sent by June 30th, 2017 to both addresses

Ruth Hanau Santini rhanausantini@johnshopkins.it
and Abel Polese ap@tlu.ee

Deconstructing unitary statehood: hybrid governance in comparative perspective 5-6 May 2017, N... more Deconstructing unitary statehood: hybrid governance in comparative perspective

5-6 May 2017, Naples, Italy

Joint Workshop

Università L’Orientale di Napoli,

Universite’ Libre de Bruxelles and

Tallinn University of Technology

Deadline to submit abstracts: 17 March 2017

The main aim of this workshop is to investigate the synergies generated by the co-existence, competition and conflict between competing actors of governance.

While governance is traditionally a function performed by the state, and formal institutions, recent empirical evidence has shed light on the capacity of informal structures and institutions in a variety of world regions to fulfill similar functions (often referred to as: informal, rebel, real or insurgent governance). For this workshop, our main focus is on the Middle East and North Africa but we are keen to see comparative approaches engaging with other regions (i.e. the post-Soviet spaces or Sub-Sahelian Africa).

We are keen to attract contributions exploring empirical evidence that allows us to test the notion of ‘areas of limited statehood’, to be understood as more than geographical spaces, but rather spaces where non-state actors can either compete or cooperate with the state depending on the circumstances (Risse 2013). This can produce different forms of hybrid governance, and can possibly go to the extent of foreseeing the coexistence of modern and traditional practices of the exercise of power (Bacik 2008). While the clash between different sources of authority and claims of legitimacy can generate tensions and conflicts, the presence of competing actors can lead to a variety of outcomes. We are keen to explore cases from stratified and yet peaceful systems of authority to cases where the competition is less peaceful, leading to violent struggles between the central authority and insurgent groups.

Theoretically, by building on critical literature on statehood and sovereignty we intend to challenge two main paradigms: the Westphalian and the Weberian. The former emphasizes borders’ sanctity as prerogative of modern states, while the latter stands for a static conception of states as the only form of political organization. The idealized “Westphalian state”, which has distinct boundaries and emphasizes the right of nonintervention and borders’ inviolability, has been under attack in recent years (Kaldor, 1999). We intend to push the boundary further to enrich debates on the importance of historicizing and contextualizing the different forms and shapes statehood and governance can take, even with regard to the territory and the fluidity of borders (Bierstecker 2013).

We are also keen to redefine informal practices as “varieties of governance” (Polese et al. 2017) to explore a wide range of options covering informal, invisible and unrecorded forms of action, be they deliberate manifestations of resistance to state power, or alternative, bottom-up informal practices compensating for public authorities’ inaction or absence. Even if they are rarely regarded as acts of resistance against the state but as compensation for what the state fails to deliver, we see that in the case of power vacuums, local actors will emerge and create new political economy of survival, a web of informal structures able to create opportunities and generate economic activities for the local populations, creating new patron-client relations, located in the grey area between the legal, illegal and extra legal.

We would be keen to receive contributions that engage with the (non exhaustive) list of topics:

The relationship between civil society and formal institutions in an empirical and/or comparative perspective
Societal demands and bottom-up visions of statehood
Hybrid governance, hybrid sovereignty, hybrid statehood, examined in their different theoretical underpinnings but with reference to empirical cases
Frozen conflicts, sub-levels of state governance
Forms of insurgent and rebel governance
Formal governance vs real governance
Theoretical exploration and/or empirical illustration of examples of political economy of resistance versus political economy of survival
How invisible or unperceived forms of resistance transform into visible ones (for instance the genesis of social movements)

If interested please send an abstract (300 words) and short biographical statement to
by the 17 of March 2017 to gc.giuliacimini@gmail.com

back-up addresses: ap@tlu.ee and rhanausantini@johnshopkins.it

There is no participation fee. If selected, we might be able to cover your board and lodging in Naples for 2 days (2/3 nights)

The evolution of European Union (EU)–Gulf relations has been the object of study of a number of w... more The evolution of European Union (EU)–Gulf relations has been the object of study of a number of works, which have tended to focus on its political, geopolitical, and energy dimensions. Few studies have dealt with EU bilateral trade relations with Iran and Iraq. Amir Kamel's The Political Economy of EU Ties with Iraq and Iran is a valuable contribution to this literature. Kamel aims at assessing and analyzing the extent to which the development of European foreign policy under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), which from the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, and until the Lisbon Treaty, substituted the previous European Political Cooperation and set forth a pathway for further coordination among European member states over their foreign and security policy decisions, has changed the practice of European trade relations with these countries and the political impact of these economic relations. Kamel begins his examination by outlining what he calls " the trade-through-peace approach " as it was formulated by European thinkers, mostly from the 18th century onwards. Starting with Immanuel Kant's 1795 Perpetual Peace, in which he identified the preconditions for world peace as economic interdependence, international law, and sharing values, the book challenges the positive-sum literature on trade and peace. This literature was further expanded on the one hand by liberal international relations scholars who correlated the creation of absolute gains produced by interdependence and the maintenance of peace, and on the other by realist thinkers who underlined the dangers of relative gains by states that acted according to selfish interests, similarly to what the mercantilist tradition has held. The book then sharpens the lens to focus on how this principle has been embedded in EU foreign policy. Interestingly, rather than analyzing the role of the European Commission Directorate General for Trade, considered to be the main EU actor for trade policy since the early 1990s and epitomizing the depoliticization of European commercial policy, or the European Parliament, which since the Lisbon Treaty that entered into force in December 2009 has increased its powers even in trade-related matters, the author has concentrated on what is regarded as the realm of the EU supranational foreign policy locus, the CFSP, the heart of its political, rather than economic, global diplomacy. The thesis of the book refers to one of the CFSP overarching normative foreign policy goals: promoting peace abroad. In order to illustrate this argument, the author scrutinizes EU–Iran and EU–Iraq relations between 1979 and 2009 and uses the conflicts involving these two countries as examples illustrating the failure of European foreign economic policy to diffuse peaceful norms. The author aims to disprove the " peace-through-trade " theory applied to the CFSP by showing the extent to which the EU's trade policy never promoted peace in the two countries (with " peace " suffering from an excessively broad understanding, encompassing a broad range of meanings, from human rights and national security to poverty reduction). The illustration of the EU's trade policies with these two countries, which share some similarities (geographical position, oil reserves) but many more differences (i.e., a revolutionary Islamic Republic on the one hand, a secular dictatorship on the other hand) aims at corroborating the argument that domestic features of third countries do not strongly correlate with the EU's success in complying with its normative orientation aimed at promoting peace and human rights abroad. In order to make the case for the EU realpolitik attitude in foreign policy, the book not only compares the two cases but does so before and after the emergence of the CFSP in 1992,

This book explores the complexity of the only widely-acclaimed successful democratic transition f... more This book explores the complexity of the only widely-acclaimed successful democratic transition following the Arab uprisings of 2010-2011 – the Tunisian one. The country’s transformation, in terms of state-society relations across several analytical dimensions (citizenship, security, political economy, external relations), is looked at through the prism of statehood and of limited statehood in particular. The author illustrates how the balance of power and the relationship between the state and societal forces have been shaped and reshaped a number of times at key critical junctures by drawing on examples from very different policy arenas. The critical reading of statehood speaks beyond the Tunisian case study as notions of limited statehood can be applied, with different degrees of intensity and in some dimensions more than others, to most political systems in the Middle East and North Africa. Accessible for students, academics and professionals alike, the book illuminates the complexities and challenges of a successful, albeit still fragile, transition.