Orientalism and intelligence analysis: deconstructing Anglo-American notions of the ‘Arab’

Despite revived notions of a ‘cultural divide’ between East and West, Edward's Said's ‘Orientalism’ has received little attention from scholars of intelligence and diplomacy. This article brings to light for the first time a number of recently declassified documents of a different nature to usual assessments produced by Anglo-American analytic bodies: those focussed primarily on the issue of ‘national character’. Using and critiquing Said's thesis of Western ‘Orientalism’ it reveals some critical and enduring conceptualizations articulated by the diplomatic and intelligence community about Arab culture such as the role of Islam, rhetoric, political motivation and notions of ‘honour’. Such a critical approach demonstrates how diplomatic and intelligence history can also be a history of culture, ideas and institutional mentalité

Re-evaluating the Yom Kippur ‘intelligence failure’: the cultural lens in crisis

Henry Kissinger famously explained the ‘intelligence failure’ of Yom Kippur in cultural terms, asserting that Western analysts were unable to understand Arab rationality in ‘starting an unwinnable war to restore self-respect.’ This article fundamentally challenges this conventional understanding of the 1973 surprise attack. Drawing on recently declassified material and interviews with veteran diplomats and intelligence professionals it will show that both the British and American intelligence communities had an excellent sense of Egyptian President Sadat’s intentions in waging war against Israel. Rather the evidence suggests that misconceptions about Egyptian military capability were more important. These misconceptions derived from particular ideas about Arab culture and Soviet-Egyptian relations following the expulsion of Soviet advisors in 1972. The article thereby illuminates wider questions about how we define ‘failure’ in intelligence and the role of cultural ideas in international history

The revolution in military affairs and the changing nature of warfare in the Middle East

As a range of new and fantastic allied weapons systems descended upon Iraq’s desert terrain in 1991 with unprecedented precision, speed and technological prowess, militarists all over the Western world hailed the advent of a ‘revolution in military affairs’ (RMA). The combination of technology and information dominance would ensure that modern war would be quick and easy, with minimal casualties on both sides. As the end of the Cold War brought the Middle East and Third World to the centre stage of international conflict, the Western world was consoled by a futuristic vision of efficient and sanitised battles; computer-game style warfare

Securitizing the Muslim Brotherhood: state violence and authoritarianism in Egypt after the Arab Spring

Unprecedented levels of state violence against the Muslim Brotherhood, and the widespread acceptance of this violence by Egyptians following the July 2013 military coup, have been under-examined by scholars of both critical security studies and Middle East politics, reflecting implicit assumptions that state violence is unexceptional beyond Europe. This article explores how the deployment of such levels of violence was enabled by a securitization process in which the Egyptian military successfully appropriated popular opposition to Muslim Brotherhood rule, constructing the group as an existential threat to Egypt and justifying special measures against it. The article builds on existing critiques of the Eurocentrism of securitization theory, alongside the writings of Antonio Gramsci, to further refine its application to non-democratic contexts. In addition to revealing the exceptionalism of state violence against the Muslim Brotherhood and highlighting the important role of nominally non-state actors in constructing the Muslim Brotherhood as a threat to Egypt, the article also signals the role of securitization in re-establishing authoritarian rule in the wake of the 2011 uprising. Thus, we argue that securitization not only constitutes a break from ‘normal politics’ but may also be integral to the reconstitution of ‘normal politics’ following a period of transition

New directions in the study of popular culture and politics in the Middle East and North Africa

What is the relationship between popular culture and politics in the Middle East and North Africa? 1 Historically, the region’s popular culture has attracted surprisingly little scholarly attention. However, the flourishing of popular creative expression as part of the mass protests and uprisings from the end of 2010 onwards has increased interest in popular culture and, particularly, in its role in mobilizing and articulating resistance to hegemonic power. 2 Whilst building on this body of work, this special issue investigates the relationship between popular culture and politics in the Middle East and North Africa more broadly. Whilst some articles focus on episodes of mass mobilization and anti-regime confrontations, others explore the multiple ways in which popular culture and politics intersect in the lives of the region’s residents, which cannot be reduced to ‘the people’ versus ‘the regime’. In particular, there is a concern to go beyond understanding popular culture as positioned either in resistance to or as complicit with hegemonic power. The articles here demonstrate that such binary frameworks are unable to capture the complex ways in which popular culture is entangled with power relations shaped by gender, sexuality and class, as well as hegemonic meanings of national modernity and cultural authenticity. Significantly, the special issue examines the question of the aesthetics of popular culture and its relationship to politics and power, a question that is often overlooked in much of the existing literature on popular culture in the MENA region, which has tended to focus more on the political messages communicated through popular culture rather than the significance of its creative innovations

Novel Stability-Indicating TLC-Densitometric Method for Quantification of Antazoline and Tetryzoline; Application to Pharmaceutical Formulation

Ophthalmic pharmaceutical preparation containing antazoline hydrochloride (ANT) and tetryzoline hydrochloride (TET) is prescribed widely as an over the counter (OTC) medication to treatment allergic conjunctivitis and their determination in presence of their degradation products is a major challenge. A novel sensitive, selective, and precise thin-layer chromatographic method established to determination both ANT and TET in both bulk drugs, formulation, and in presence of their degradation products with the elucidation of degradate's structures. Upon using silica gel plates and means of a developing system using ethyl acetate: ethanol: ammonia (8: 2: 0.1, by volume) the studied drugs separation was achieved, and scanning was carried out at 220.0 nm for the separated bands with a 0.2–18.0 µg/band concentration range for each of ANT and TET. Optimum separation was achieved with values Rf of 0.42 and 0.69, for TET and ANT, respectively. Additionally, the studied drugs' stock solutions were imperiled to different stress conditions. Both drugs were found to be vulnerable to alkaline hydrolysis as well as oxidative degradation showing well resolved degradation products' peaks. While they held out against acidic, thermal and photo degradation. Mass spectrometry was employed to elucidate the degradates' structures. Validity was applied for the proposed method with respect to all validation parameters. Effectively the method was applied to estimate the cited drugs' in marketed ophthalmic formulation

Immune aging in multiple sclerosis is characterized by abnormal CD4 T cell activation and increased frequencies of cytotoxic CD4 T cells with advancing age

Summary: Background: Immunosenescence (ISC) describes age-related changes in immune-system composition and function. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a lifelong inflammatory condition involving effector and regulatory T-cell imbalance, yet little is known about T-cell ISC in MS. We examined age-associated changes in circulating T cells in MS compared to normal controls (NC). Methods: Forty untreated MS (Mean Age 43·3, Range 18–72) and 49 NC (Mean Age 48·6, Range 20–84) without inflammatory conditions were included in cross-sectional design. T-cell subsets were phenotypically and functionally characterized using validated multiparametric flow cytometry. Their aging trajectories, and differences between MS and NC, were determined using linear mixed-effects models. Findings: MS patients demonstrated early and persistent redistribution of naïve and memory CD4 T-cell compartments. While most CD4 and CD8 T-cell aging trajectories were similar between groups, MS patients exhibited abnormal age-associated increases of activated (HLA-DR+CD38+; (P = 0·013) and cytotoxic CD4 T cells, particularly in patients >60 (EOMES: P < 0·001). Aging MS patients also failed to upregulate CTLA-4 expression on both CD4 (P = 0·014) and CD8 (P = 0·009) T cells, coupled with abnormal age-associated increases in frequencies of B cells expressing costimulatory molecules. Interpretation: While many aspects of T-cell aging in MS are conserved, the older MS patients harbour abnormally increased frequencies of CD4 T cells with activated and cytotoxic effector profiles. Age-related decreased expression of T-cell co-inhibitory receptor CTLA-4, and increased B-cell costimulatory molecule expression, may provide a mechanism that drives aberrant activation of effector CD4 T cells that have been implicated in progressive disease. Funding: Stated in Acknowledgements section of manuscript