The enhancement of the revolutionary ideology promoted by Hezbollah during the Arab Uprisings was challenged when in 2011 the protests began in the city of Deraa in Syria. Hezbollah’s support of...Show moreThe enhancement of the revolutionary ideology promoted by Hezbollah during the Arab Uprisings was challenged when in 2011 the protests began in the city of Deraa in Syria. Hezbollah’s support of the revolutionary nature and ideology of the opposition movements became an issue when the anti-government demonstrations began in Syria and the organization suddenly contradicted its previous posture by backing the regime.The Janus-faced behavior of the organization had an immediate negative impact on the image that Hezbollah had been building through a pragmatic and selective legitimation process. In this scenario, how does Hezbollah react to the challenges to the legitimacy of its organization?. In light of the aforementioned, this thesis will aim to analyze and identify the way in which Hezbollah justify the intervention in Syria to their support groups at the local, national and international level. This research focuses on Hezbollah’s creation of 4 meaning in the ideological discourse in order to justify their actions and preserve their legitimacy at three different levels of target audiences (communal, national, international) by developing diverse context models (van Dijk, 2006, 21) according to each audience’s particular interests.Show less
Gaining access remainsone ofthe main impediments to the United Nations humanitarian response in Syria. Since 2011, the Syrian government has systematically blocked the United Nations from accessing...Show moreGaining access remainsone ofthe main impediments to the United Nations humanitarian response in Syria. Since 2011, the Syrian government has systematically blocked the United Nations from accessing populations in opposition-held areas. In theory, the Humanitarian Principles Neutrality and Independence provide the framework for gaining impartial access to conflict settings. Ironically, however, in practice the need to gain access has pushed the United Nations to compromise the Humanitarian Principles and comply to President Assad’s demands. While the United Nations’ compromises enable it to access at least government approved areas, these compromises have also facilitated Assad’s siege warfare tactic, population displacements and thereby re-shaped Syria’s socio-political landscape. Analysis of the Syrian conflict often focuses on President Assad’s role in perpetuating violence. Yet, the United Nations’ aid operation plays a similarly crucial role in shaping the dynamic and political outcome of the Syrian conflict. This paper therefore asks; To what extent has the United Nations adhered to the Humanitarian Principles Neutrality and Independence in its operations in the Syrian conflict between 2011 and 2017 and what are the implications?Show less
The study delves into the convoluted relationship between women and war and analysis the reasons that led Israel and Palestine to admit women in their combat units in the early 2000s.
This thesis examines the role of art and creativity in Palestinian refugees camps in Lebanon. Despite living under difficult conditions of displacement, statelessness and confinement, Palestinians...Show moreThis thesis examines the role of art and creativity in Palestinian refugees camps in Lebanon. Despite living under difficult conditions of displacement, statelessness and confinement, Palestinians use the resources available in refugee camps to create defiant works of art. By appropriating symbols of oppression like walls and barbed wire and transforming them into art, Palestinian refugees articulate forms of resistance. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s theories of urban space and Michel de Certeau’s concept of “bricolage”, this study sheds light on the actors and dynamics that enable discourses and practices of cultural resistance in the context of confinement and marginalisation. It explores the meanings of street art in Palestinian refugee camps and the ways people living under difficult conditions overcome restrictions through their creativity and resourcefulness.Show less
This thesis asks why the ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, has become a prominent issue within the British Labour Party. Further, it seeks to examine whether or not positions on...Show moreThis thesis asks why the ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, has become a prominent issue within the British Labour Party. Further, it seeks to examine whether or not positions on the conflict and expressions of solidarity with the Palestinians by members of the Party follow a general trend, and which external and internal factors have brought about the relative prominence of the conflict within the Party. It uses textual and discourse analysis to examine these questions and focuses on the formation of discourses around Palestine in the elite of the Labour party in the post-war period, with a particular focus on the period following the 1973 October war.Show less
This thesis discusses nationalism in modern Kyrgyzstan by analyzing the film Kurmanjan Datja (2014). Since Kyrgyzstan’s independence in the early 1990s the government has attempted to create a...Show moreThis thesis discusses nationalism in modern Kyrgyzstan by analyzing the film Kurmanjan Datja (2014). Since Kyrgyzstan’s independence in the early 1990s the government has attempted to create a general sense of belonging and unity among the ethnically varied people of Kyrgzstan. The film Kurmanjan Datka was one of the projects aimed to do so. The state sponsored film tells the romanticized story of heroine Kurmanjan who unites the 40 Kyrgyz tribes in resistance to the Russian expansion into Central Asia. In this thesis, the film is connected to nationalism, nation building and the ways in which the Kyrgyz government attempts to shape its history, culture and traditions.Show less
This thesis asks how Kurdish nationalist political parties in Iraqi-Kurdistan have attempted to construct and develop national identifications since 1991. It aims to show that the KDP and PUK have...Show moreThis thesis asks how Kurdish nationalist political parties in Iraqi-Kurdistan have attempted to construct and develop national identifications since 1991. It aims to show that the KDP and PUK have relegated the importance of primordial attachments in their attempts at building a “nation” and, instead, endeavoured to construct “Kurdistani” national identifications primarily founded on a sense of common history and civic rights. This thesis argues that such a construction is primarily grounded in political pragmatism. The ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq requires non-primordial identity markers to be formulated and promoted by the KDP and PUK to define their national identification and distinguish the Kurds of the KRG from “others”, thereby supporting claims for political autonomy. It is political calculations – both at the domestic and international levels – that have influenced top-down constructions of a “Kurdish nation” as distinct from two specific political “others”: i) Iraq under Baghdad’s government; and ii) Kurdish groups in Turkey, Iran and Syria. This was particularly crucial in the period following the 2003 US-led invasion, when Iraq began its transition from dictatorship to federal democracy, reinforcing KDP and PUK hegemony over the Kurdistan Region. Throughout this thesis, I highlight how KDP and PUK narratives of victimhood have underpinned the construction of Baghdad as the “unjust” and “threatening” other, whereas emphasis on civic values as allegedly embedded in the “Kurdistani identity” have distinguished them from other Kurds, in order to enhance relations with neighbouring states such as Turkey and Iran, and influential state actors such as the USA and EU members.Show less
De Iraanse socioloog Ali Shari'ati (1933-1977) ontwikkelde in de decennia in aanloop naar de Islamitische Revolutie van 1979 een hervormde versie van de islam. Hierbinnen had hij een sterke visie...Show moreDe Iraanse socioloog Ali Shari'ati (1933-1977) ontwikkelde in de decennia in aanloop naar de Islamitische Revolutie van 1979 een hervormde versie van de islam. Hierbinnen had hij een sterke visie op het martelaarschap. In dit onderzoek wordt deze visie door middel van het ontleden van twee speeches van Shari'ati geanalyseerd. Wat hield zijn visie in? Hoe past deze binnen zijn hervormde islam? En waarom speelt het martelaarschap een rol in aanloop naar de Islamitische Revolutie?Show less
Alliance politics and securitisation theory have been studied and theorised. However, research on a possible link between these fields remains absent. Yet, when we look at prevalent alliance theory...Show moreAlliance politics and securitisation theory have been studied and theorised. However, research on a possible link between these fields remains absent. Yet, when we look at prevalent alliance theory by Walt, we see that security and threat perceptions play a great role in the formation and persistence of state alliances. We would then expect that the discursive construction of these threats would too. This research takes the “special relationship” between the United States and Israel and their most recent rift over a nuclear Iran as its case study. Other than most analyses of the construction of threat within foreign policy discourse, this research aims to trace interaction between two converging or diverging formal state discourses. A Post Structuralist discourse analysis of formal speeches given by Netanyahu and Obama on policy towards Iran will show that over the eight years of their simultaneous leadership, interaction between their respective discourses increased and took an a more direct form. Results thereby illustrate that securitisation discourse should perhaps more often be studied as not simply emanating from and interacting with the domestic realm. It is not simply a dialogue between leadership and a respective domestic audience. Obama and Netanyahu are also required to legitimate their foreign policy options towards one another and both of their domestic audiences.Show less
Abstract: This study is a case study of the dairy sector in the West Bank. It is based on qualitative field research and an extensive literature review. By asking how dairy farmers and dairy...Show moreAbstract: This study is a case study of the dairy sector in the West Bank. It is based on qualitative field research and an extensive literature review. By asking how dairy farmers and dairy factory owners in the Hebron governorate perceive opportunities for and constraints to the expansion of their holdings, it analyses them in light of occupation policies and their implications for economic autonomy in the occupied Palestinian territories. On an empirical level, it concludes that intensive dairy cattle farms are better suited to land and water constraints than other forms of agriculture. On a theoretical level, it finds that Israeli neglect of bilateral agreements and ‘casual constraints’ preclude Palestinian economic autonomy, indicating the latter’s interdependence with the achievement of national sovereignty.Show less
The role of women in the current scholarly debate in Iran is analyzed within the framework of sexuality giving more acknowledgment to the topics of womanhood,female sexuality, and homoerotics. A...Show moreThe role of women in the current scholarly debate in Iran is analyzed within the framework of sexuality giving more acknowledgment to the topics of womanhood,female sexuality, and homoerotics. A comparison within medieval writings such as Al-Ghazali's Revivification of Religious Sciences and current translated books will determine women's role within society at the turn of the twentieth century in Iran. Furthermore, the introduction of the hetero-normalization within society will challenge the existing order within society and give a new definition to womanhood.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
This thesis describes the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s ideological ambiguities embedded within the group’s political discourse and its ideological development since Hosni Mubarak’s presidency, on...Show moreThis thesis describes the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s ideological ambiguities embedded within the group’s political discourse and its ideological development since Hosni Mubarak’s presidency, on the topic of the nature of the state. Whilst originally rejecting liberal democratic values and a secular state altogether, the Brothers have since the 1980’s gradually adopted those values within their Islamist framework, and started participating in Egyptian politics. However, this approach led to significant ideological ambiguities on a number of central issues, such as the source of political authority (people or God?) and the role of shari’a (Islamic law) in society. By thorough analysis of the Brotherhood’s post-Mubarak political discourse on these issues, as well as taking into account government-Brotherhood relations, the Brotherhood’s internal dealings, and nationwide events, the writer contends that the Brotherhood’s ideological ambiguities remained firmly in place into the post-Mubarak era, hampering its ability to be a successful political actor in a post-Mubarak Egypt.Show less
