Global Identities: Embedding the Middle East and North Africa Region in the Wider World (original) (raw)
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WHO AM I?: THE IDENTITY CRISIS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
More than democratic deficit, most countries of the Middle East suffer from the fundamental problem over their national identity. More than three-quarters of a century after the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire from which most of them emerged, these states have been unable to define, project, and maintain a national identity that is both inclusive and representative. None of the countries of the Middle East is homogeneous; they consist of numerous ethnic, religious, cultural, and linguistic minorities. Yet they have not succeeded in evolving a national identity that reflects their heterogeneity. Countries of the Middle East are internally diverse and , hence, a narrow exclusive national identity could not be imposed from above.
Challenging the State in the Middle East and North Africa: The Role of Identities
Since independence, states in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have been dominant players in shaping the regional order. The purpose of this paper is to explore and define challenges to the state and their role in shaping identities in the MENA region, and to evaluate their regional roots. The paper emphasizes two key aspects of nationalism in the region. The first concerns the existence of multiple identities and layers of identity that co-exist in the MENA region and which do not necessarily clash with each other. The second is that nationalism and national identities are not a recent phenomenon in the region. This paper shows that there are similarities as well as differences among the three major sub-regions of MENA in terms of the impact of identities at three levels of analysis.
THE MIDDLE EAST: POLITICS AND IDENTITY
THE MIDDLE EAST: POLITICS AND IDENTITY, 2022
The book by a team of Middle East scholars representing the Russian expert community is a wide-ranging study exploring the identity factor in the domestic and foreign policy of the Middle East countries. With a focus on such countries as Turkey, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt, the authors contemplate the activities pursued by non-state actors. The impact of external forces on the political identities across the regional landscape is analyzed through the example of the United States policy of democracy promotion and the EU political approaches. The book may draw the attention of not only dedicated professionals, but also a much broader audience, who are interested in the major trends of political development and international affairs in the Middle East. It can serve as an indispensable tool for the educational purposes, considering a theoretical and practical value of the research efforts. The Russian version of the book was awarded the Yevgeny V. Tarle Prize by the Russian Academy of Sciences
2019
State–society relations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have been deeply impacted by the dynamics around collective identities in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings and of other domestic and regional far-reaching developments, such as the failed coup attempt in Turkey or the ramifications of the Syrian conflict. It is therefore of utmost importance to discuss the changes (or lack thereof) in the articulation of collective identities, what pressures shape them, and what impact this has on the societal actors and ultimately on their relations with the state institutions and policies. In this regard two trends can be identified whereby pluralization and hybridization in certain countries, for example Morocco and Tunisia, stand in opposition to entrenchment and polarization, as illustrated by the Israeli and the Turkish cases. The result is heightened conflictuality in state–society relations and within societies at large in the MENA with the risk of spillovers at the regional level.
2011
Ethnicities and nations are nowadays engaged in identity-related issues and their subsequent challenges more than ever. In the present paper, the major identity-related challenges of the Middle Eastern ethnicities are discussed from the point of view of globalisation. There are various and contradictory insights on globalisation, nation, and ethnicity. This paper seeks to discuss these subjects while holding a cultural view and go on to suggest solutions like tolerance, opportunity-making, paying attention to the elites, and maintaining plurality.
GLOBAL STRUCTURAL CHANGES AND GLOBAL ISLAMIC IDENTITY
Globalization is slowly changing life and traditions of many people over the World, dramatically seeking changes in the traditional relationship between the community and people, creating a new sensibility and creativity in relationships between social groups. These changes necessarily require a new social and political model of organization for community, reorganizing and changing the nature of relationship between states. Effort to protect identity of people usually convey in the form of the fear of the subservient economic, cultural and political position in the process of globalization. This fear frequently produces powerful vibrations indicating the need of integration of social groups with the same or similar cultural identity, what opens up a new dimension of the internal political crisis between government and society. This crisis will produce particularly dramatic changes in Islamic world generating a powerful conflict between state and society in Islamic world, with unpredictable development of relations between Islam and West.