Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
open access
The present thesis investigates the relationship between Italian and Lebanese left during the years between 1967 and 1975, uncovering the development of a special relationship between the Italian...Show moreThe present thesis investigates the relationship between Italian and Lebanese left during the years between 1967 and 1975, uncovering the development of a special relationship between the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP). This was a transformative period for both countries' leftist groups, following the 1967 June War and the 1968 global protests. This was reflected in the Italian approach towards the Middle East and the Palestinian cause, as public opinion and the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) moved from a pro-Israel position to support the Palestinian struggle. I argue that this shift was influenced by the close relationship between the PCI and the LCP, which evolved from preferential contact to a special relationship. The LCP was the PCI’s preferred interlocutor in the region, and as the 1975 Civil War approached the PCI began supporting the Lebanese comrades with first humanitarian and then financial aid. This close relationship in turn provided the PCI with information on regional politics and direct access to the Palestinian groups. By the early 1980s, the Italian position completed the shift in favour of Palestine, and both the PCI and PSI abandoned their traditional pacifism to support an Italian military intervention in Lebanon to stop the Israeli invasion in 1982. I investigate this shift mainly through PCI and PSI archives, which show the increasing contact with Lebanese groups and the growing involvement in the country. Looking at the evolving relationship between the Italian and Lebanese Left, this thesis highlights the transnational nature of the leftist movement and connects Italian and Lebanese local politics to the global context of the Cold War and the Long-Sixties.Show less
Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
closed access
The colonial partition of the Middle East is one of the most recurrent topics of the scholarship on the region. In the last decade, many scholars have shifted their attention from the diplomatic...Show moreThe colonial partition of the Middle East is one of the most recurrent topics of the scholarship on the region. In the last decade, many scholars have shifted their attention from the diplomatic and military history of these borders to their economic and social significance. This thesis aims at completing this shift in regard to the boundary between the British Mandate on Palestine and the French Mandate on Syria and Lebanon. Assuming a borderland perspective, this research looks into the different ways in which local, regional and colonial actors engaged with the border and its administration. It reconstructs the evolution of state border practices on both sides in the years from the British redeployment along the OET line in 1919 until the demise of the Palestine Mandate in 1948. Looking into the agency of a wide range of actors, including peasants, travelers, smugglers and illegal migrants, this thesis argues that the relation the indigenous population had with the border cannot be understood solely through an oppositional frame. Rather, it suggests that this relation was extremely dynamic, and that the subversion of the new territorial order went along with forms of compliance with state regulations and exploitation of the limits of state jurisdictions.Show less
Because contemporary network science is predicated on the assumption that similarity breeds connection, it transforms what seems to be an open web into poorly gated communities that propagate...Show moreBecause contemporary network science is predicated on the assumption that similarity breeds connection, it transforms what seems to be an open web into poorly gated communities that propagate already-existing forms of prejudice and discrimination. If the algorithmic fabric of social media platforms pushes people with the same views and interests towards each other, what does this mean for queer individuals in Beirut inhabiting a city whose very urban fabric segregates and limits their interaction in public space? What possibilities can the digital realm provide queer lives in a cyberspace unhinged by the geography of residence and the materiality of the body? I attempt to answer those research questions by relying on Sara Ahmed’s Queer phenomenology (2006) and on Wendy Hui Kyong Chun’s (2016) concept of “homophily”. Those theoretical lenses will guide my use of auto-ethnography and close visual analysis to explore the outputs and social media strategies of two case studies of visual activism in Lebanon: Beirut By Dyke and Kikafilmadina. My personal experience as a member of civil society groups in Beirut and my positionality as the creator of Beirut By Dyke orient me, to borrow Sara Ahmed’s term, towards these pages as cultural objects. The concept of the social media accounts, which revolves around the narrativization of queer inhabitance in space, propels me toward Sara Ahmed’s theory around sexuality as residence. Conversely, the social impact generated by both social media accounts on collective imaginations and social participation in cyber and physical space leads to me to question how “homophily” (Chun 2016) can be used to challenge the neoliberal assumptions it was built on. My aim is to counter existing literature around gender and digital culture whose understandable focus on the capitalistic and behaviorally predictive valence of social platforms is grim and dystopic (Goldberg 2016). Instead, I suggest that the study of platforms like Instagram offers a resource for queer studies insofar as it “emphasizes the importance of lived experience, the intentionality of consciousness, the significance of newness, or the role of repeated habitual action in shaping bodies and the world” (Ahmed 57). It is specifically the power of repeated habitual actions that I want to focus on in exploring digital possibilities. In a context where systemic oppression is difficult to dismantle and social change impossible to imagine, the creation of new paths is, after all, a labor of repetition.Show less
This thesis aims to address the following research question: How does the local context relate to the impact of humanitarian aid in terms of legitimacy and effectiveness? The main conclusion is...Show moreThis thesis aims to address the following research question: How does the local context relate to the impact of humanitarian aid in terms of legitimacy and effectiveness? The main conclusion is that local contexts can greatly influence how humanitarian aid is perceived by local populations.Show less
Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
open access
The thesis is based within the theories of constructivism and looks for the connection between the identity construction and the foreign policy decision-making process. The research question posed...Show moreThe thesis is based within the theories of constructivism and looks for the connection between the identity construction and the foreign policy decision-making process. The research question posed is: why is Hezbollah stepping in the Syrian civil war? What is the relation between this decision and the group’s identity that has been continuously constructed and re-constructed in the past 30 years? Moreover, is the relationship between the decision to go to war and Hezbollah identity construction linear? Can the conflict in Syria affect, or even re-shape the construction of Hezbollah’s identity? How does this comply (or disconnect) with Hezbollah’s own ideas about self and role in the serves in the region? The paper analyses the relation between the identity construction and the decision to go to the Syrian war, and based on this example draws a conclusion that the relationship between the two is rather reciprocal than linear.Show less
This thesis explores Saudi Arabia’s power behavior towards Lebanon in order to explore the pattern of Saudi Arabia’s waning influence. After all, it is among the most powerful regional actors and...Show moreThis thesis explores Saudi Arabia’s power behavior towards Lebanon in order to explore the pattern of Saudi Arabia’s waning influence. After all, it is among the most powerful regional actors and wields immense financial as well as religious resources compared to lightweight Lebanon. Nevertheless, Saudi action in Lebanon backfires seemingly frequently, either strengthening its opponents or weakening its allies. It is argued that Saudi Arabia is very capable of using their economic might in Lebanon; however, the more they strangle Lebanon the more likely Lebanon is to fall into Iran’s open arms. This, in turn, hurts Saudi Arabia’s overarching goal of regional influence and limiting Iran’s expansionism. On top of that, Saudi’s credibility, trust and legitimacy were thwarted after the 2009 elections and especially after the 2017 Hariri debacle in Lebanon. While prioritizing immediate national interest is natural for any country, Saudi Arabia’s policies disregarded the Lebanese target population’s perception and failed to achieve its regional interest with regards to pushing back Iranian influence. Hence, its prematurely hard power-driven policy pushed its allies away into the open arms of Iran. Saudi Arabia indeed has immense soft power resources, which, however, it has been largely ineffective in utilizing thus far. After all, it has become evident that despite its small size, Lebanon is the stage for regional power play. If Saudi Arabia continues to employ such a miscalculated policy, it will threaten its regional standing despite its immense, yet waning, economic might. Consequently, an unbalanced use of soft and hard power behavior of Saudi Arabia results in a cost inefficient foreign policy. Instead of self-defeating its efforts, it should be in Saudi’s self-serving interest to winning the hearts and minds of the people for effective power conversion and a strong standing to challenge Iran.Show less
Starting out from the background of contemporary art practices in post-civil war Lebanon, this thesis investigates the complex negotations and deconstructions of the archive that Walid Raad´s...Show moreStarting out from the background of contemporary art practices in post-civil war Lebanon, this thesis investigates the complex negotations and deconstructions of the archive that Walid Raad´s project The Atlas Group is undertaking. The first chapter looks into the specific agency of montage that is being used in the work Let ́s be honest the weather helped. A transformative relationship between hiding and affirming is established here, which produces 'potentiality'. In a second step, I will analyse how the subjective nature of history writing is revealed by works in The Atlas Group. The theories of Hayden White will serve as a basis for this chapter. Jalal Toufic ́s concept of the withdrawal of tradition will provide a fundament the second section of this chapter as White and Toufic are going to be put in dialogue. Toufic argues that objects and documents happen to be 'withdrawn' after traumatic events - a unconventional notion that also is reverberating in some pieces by Walid Raad. Thirdly, authority and authorship will serve as two anchor points for further observations as these two are interdependent and integral to the questions, which The Atlas Group is raising. Fourthly, I will analyse how not only the incapability of the document to record 'the decisive' moment is revealed, but also how allusions to this imperceptible instance are being made - an interview Jean Francois Lyotard and Alain Pomarède will enable deeper understanding of these observations.Show less
“In a region beset with chronic and widespread problems, ranging from poor governance, war, violent extremism, and resource scarcity, one threat stands above the rest in terms of potential for...Show more“In a region beset with chronic and widespread problems, ranging from poor governance, war, violent extremism, and resource scarcity, one threat stands above the rest in terms of potential for destruction and cost in opportunity: the use of sectarianism as a geopolitical weapon. Sectarianism encourages extremist rhetoric and violence and serves to distract a populations from economic and social concerns by providing a convenient enemy on which to focus.” This quote by the Soufan group, a strategic security consulting group, displays an opinion that is shared by mainstream media across the globe. The Middle East has apparently fallen into a state of religious extremism where violent sectarianism is every day’s business. Current day Syria seems to be the focal point of all this sectarian violence. This paper tries to analyse what exactly that sectarian violence entails in the SYrian Civil War, and whether we should indeed look at it as a sectarian conflict, or rather a conflict with sectarian aspects.Show less
