Is it always good to be King? Saudi regime resilience after the 2011 Arab popular uprisings

Although all Arab monarchies (Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Jordan and Morocco) witnessed varying degrees of mass protest during the Arab uprisings of 2011, none of the kings and princes has thus far been deposed. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia saw pockets of sporadic protest in many cities in the early months of 2011, but those failed to evolve into a mass protest movement across the country. This paper analyses the conditions that helped maintain Saudi stability, attributing it to a combination of domestic and regional factors. This paper highlights how the conditions that led to monarchical resilience over the last five years may result in unexpected upheavals in the future

Divine politics reconsidered: Saudi Islamists on peaceful revolution

Focusing on mutations of Saudi Islamism during the Arab uprisings, this paper examines the responses of Salman al-Awdah, one of the most influential Saudi Islamist scholars. As he reflects on peaceful revolution in the Arab world, al-Awdah combines his Salafi heritage with insights from western thought, thus producing a hybrid discourse that engages with the inevitability of political change. I argue that al-Awdah goes beyond the two now well-known Islamist strategies, namely jihadi militant struggle and Salafi acquiescent positions, that dominated debate in Saudi Arabia for several decades. His treatise on peaceful revolution offers a ‘third way’ between these two binary opposites. I assess whether a new Islamism that values peaceful action and mobilisation in the pursuit of political change has already reached maturity in Saudi Arabia

King Salman and his son: Winning the US losing the rest

This article assesses the prospects for new directions in Saudi foreign policy following the appointment of Muhammad ibn Salman as crown prince in June 2017, highlighting its continuities and discontinuities under the new leadership of King Salman and his son. It draws tentative conclusions that amidst a series of foreign policy failures, winning the favour of the US under Trump has been the major achievement of the new Saudi leadership. However, Saudi foreign policy in Europe has taken a back seat, where there are serious doubts as to the merit of the assertive interventionist Saudi regional policy. With an erratic and failing bid to control the region and emerge as a regional power on a par with Iran, Turkey and Israel, King Salman and his son have proved to be unwilling to extinguish the many fires that are currently raging across the Arab world

From research to the mainstream - Judging the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding

As nominations for this year’s prize open, Madawi Al-Rasheed reflects on the experience of judging the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding and considers how research based non-fiction writing can reach beyond local and disciplinary concerns to engage global audiences

Identification of important features and data mining classification techniques in predicting employee absenteeism at work

Employees absenteeism at the work costs organizations billions a year. Prediction of employees’ absenteeism and the reasons behind their absence help organizations in reducing expenses and increasing productivity. Data mining turns the vast volume of human resources data into information that can help in decision-making and prediction. Although the selection of features is a critical step in data mining to enhance the efficiency of the final prediction, it is not yet known which method of feature selection is better. Therefore, this paper aims to compare the performance of three well-known feature selection methods in absenteeism prediction, which are relief-based feature selection, correlation-based feature selection and information-gain feature selection. In addition, this paper aims to find the best combination of feature selection method and data mining technique in enhancing the absenteeism prediction accuracy. Seven classification techniques were used as the prediction model. Additionally, cross-validation approach was utilized to assess the applied prediction models to have more realistic and reliable results. The used dataset was built at a courier company in Brazil with records of absenteeism at work. Regarding experimental results, correlationbased feature selection surpasses the other methods through the performance measurements. Furthermore, bagging classifier was the best-performing data mining technique when features were selected using correlation-based feature selection with an accuracy rate of (92%)

A new diaspora of Saudi exiles: challenging repression from abroad

Although Saudi Arabia has generated waves of exiles throughout its modern history, the recent diaspora is different in its diversity, demographic profile and aspirations. The repression that accompanied the rise of current Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman has pushed feminists, young students, secularists, Islamists and others to flee the country in search of safe havens in the US, Europe, Canada and Australia. Based on ethnographic research across several diaspora locations, this paper traces the diversity of the young cohort of exiles who are currently seeking to counter domestic repression from abroad. It focuses on digital activism, for example Twitter, that is also used by the regime to amplify its popularity and propaganda. From abroad, exiles try to counter regime narratives about promised prosperity, freedoms and opportunities. As social media has become more controlled and even dangerous for critics at home, exiles insert their voices to assert their rights as citizens, hoping that this activism will put pressure on the regime to allow political participation. Exiles also began to institutionalise opposition to the regime through the creation of several institutions in the diaspora. The paper surveys a sample of such institutions that serve the immediate needs of the diaspora and create solidarity across generations and locations. The paper assesses the challenges and prospects for the success of political activism from abroad

The Impact of Governance in Sports Institutions On Olympic Achievements from Decision-Makers\u27 Perspective in the United Arab Emirates

The success of sports institutions depends on the extent of achieving outstanding Sports results not only at the local level but on all regional and international Levels. Hence, the number of measures et1iciency of sports institutions Achievements, especially at the Olympics level as it is the highest rank in the Hierarchy of sports achievements. The present study begins from a basic Assumption that the weakness of the UAE\u27s Olympic achievements is due to the Governance pattern and management and leadership styles in various sports Institutions and especially in the sports federations and sports clubs. In this respect, this study aimed to examine the impact of strengthening Governance in sports institutions on the achievements of the Olympic sports in the UAE from the standpoint of decision-makers, as well as to identify the extent of the contribution of the governance system in improving the outcomes of sports Institutions. For this purpose, a quantitative methodology along with a field survey was used given the nature of the study. The study population consists of Decision-makers of the senior leadership in sports institutions, totaling 596 People. The response rate to the study questionnaire was (69.8%), representing (358) of the total number of sports leadership. The study found several important Results, namely: (1) 30% of the sports leadership is not satisfied with the Olympic Results achieved by the UAE, (2) 36% of the sports leaders believed that there Were no clear accountability criteria for officers and employees in sports Institutions, (3) sports Leaders believes that the UAE has the potential to host the Summer Olympic Games, (4) 35% of the sports leaders believed that Announcement of the strategic and operational plans for sports organizations is Made in a transparent manner, (5) 66% of the sports leaders indicated the Existence of clear gaps in the current legislation, in relation to sports, (6) 59% of The sports leaders think that the current sports leaders dispose of a considerable Degree of scientific knowledge and expertise within their field, (7) 34% of the Sports leaders see the non-participation sports institutions in the formulation of The country\u27s strategic decisions in relation to sports, (8) 32% of the sports leaders Highlighted the absence of long-term plans for training and technical to prepare Athletes competitions, and (9) 81% of the sports leaders pinpointed to the lack of Financial support as a cause of not achieving remarkable sports results for the UAE.The study also made a number of recommendations, (1) the importance of Selecting sports institutional leaders based on competence, and the need to Possess clear and specific vision and objectives, and the need for capacity buildup To be able to resolve problems and make decisions, (2) the support and Development of the legal framework through reviewing and updating all laws and Regulations governing the sports work in the UAE with the participation of sports Institutions, and enforcing existing laws and carrying out benchmarking studies and recommendations to issue new laws to ensure greater transparency, (3) the announcement of reports\u27 results and strategic action plans and decisions in relation to sports activities, and the announcement of the strategic and operational plans for sports organizations in a clear and transparent manner, (4) the promotion of the principle of participation through the development of a clear methodology governing the mechanism of the participation of sports institutions in the organization of sports activities in the country and the development of general policies and the formulation of strategic sports decisions, (5) the focus on developing long-term training and technical plans, (6) the importance of the availability of strong financial budgets and marketing strategies to enable sports institutions of self-development of their financial resources, (7) the focus on increasing research studies in relation to governance for sports institutions and increase awareness and interest in the study of governance in general, and the governance of sports institutions in particular. (8) the conduct of innovative studies to determine the extent of change that may occur in relation to the application of governance in UAE\u27s sports institutions, given the government\u27s general tendency towards strengthening the principles of corporate governance in all sectors of the state, including sports, and (9) the conduct of specialized studies on sports federations and sports associations and sports committees and sports clubs in relation to governance, separately

Moderating effect of role ambiguity on the relationship of job satisfaction, training and leadership with employees' performance

Employee performance is always considered as one of the important factors of employee management that determines the success of an organization. The higher education sector of any country is considered as an important sector which needs to concentrate on achieving its goals successfully. Thus, this research aimed to investigate effect of job satisfaction, leadership and training on employees’ performance by taking role ambiguity as a moderating variable in the higher education sector of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The model of the study was developed based on relevant theoretical background. To examine the hypothesized model, the quantitative research design was employed. The population of this study consisting of 39154 employees was divided into five groups based on the geographic regions (East, West, Middle, North, and South). This study used the systematic sampling. 600 questionnaires were distributed among the employees working in the higher education system of KSA. 366 questionnaires were returned and were usable for analysis. To test the proposed hypotheses, the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed. The results found that job satisfaction, leadership and training have significant positive impacts on employee performance. More importantly, the results revealed that training is the most important variable which is a significant predictor of employees’ performance. The study also showed that role ambiguity significantly moderates the relationship of job satisfaction and leadership style with employees’ performance in the higher education sector of KSA. Unpredictably, this study found that role ambiguity does not significantly moderate the relationship between training and employees’ performance. Role ambiguity negatively influences the relationship of job satisfaction and leadership with employees’ performance. Therefore, policy-makers and leaders of higher education institutions of KSA should focus on reducing role ambiguity