Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
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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)
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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
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
