The Syrian conflict: Regional dimensions and implications

The Syrian conflict which started in March 2011 is well into its third year and its dimensions and implications are steadily moving beyond Syrian borders and the broader Middle East.Syria’s uprising has developed into a civil war between government forces and the opposition, motivated primarily by internal and external actors’ strategic and at times existential interests. This article examines the implications and dimensions of the Syrian crisis for the major actors in the region, including Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, the Gulf States, Israel and the Kurds.It argues that pitting a Shiite Iran-Iraq-Syria-Hezbollah axis against a Sunni Turkey-Gulf states axis is the most significant geo-political regional effect of the Syrian crisis. What is more devastating is not the division of the region along sectarian lines but the proxy war between the Shiite and Sunni factions

Kurdistan region: A country profile

At the end of the Second Gulf War in early 1991, the Kurdish people in Iraq rose against Saddam Hussein’s regime by liberating most of the areas inhabited by them.However, within a few weeks, the uprising was crushed.The Iraqi army’s attack on Kurdish cities and villages and its retaliation against the Kurdish forces and civilians led to a mass exodus of the Kurds to Iran and Turkey.The international community’s intervention resulted in the creation of the northern no-fly-zone by the UN Security Council.This facilitated the return of most of Kurdish refugees back to their habitat.But the continued pressure by the Kurds on the regime forced the government to withdraw its forces, as well as the administrative units from parts of Kurdistan in October 1991.The Kurds then filled the vacuum created by holding elections in 1992, and thus began self-governance in the region.The areas under the control of Kurdish authorities since then came to be known as the Kurdistan Region (RG) which was a self-declared federal region in Iraq until 2005 when the Iraqi constitution officially recognized the region of Kurdistan, along with its existing authorities, as a federal region in Iraq. The KR is located in north and north eastern parts of Iraq, Syria is to the west, Iran to the east, and Turkey to the north. Its area is 40,643 square kilometers with population of 5,351,276 (estimated).The city of Erbil is the capital of the Region.Kurdish and Arabic are the official languages in the Region. However, Turkmeni, Assyrian and Armenian are also used by the respective communities in some areas. In addition to Kurds a diverse collection of ethnic and religious groups live side-by-side in the Region — including Arabs, Turkmen, Chaldeans, Syriacs, Assyrians, Yazidis, Kakayi and Shabaks.The region is geographically diverse, from hot plains to cooler mountainous areas where snow falls in the winter

The relationship between traditional and contemporary Islamist political thought

This article discusses links between the political theories and ideas of medieval and modern Islamists, showing how the latter is a continuation of the former’s writings.It also shows how episodes of Islamist thought have coincided with both external conflicts with non-Muslim powers and internal ones with local regimes

Impact of external debt-induced structural adjustment policies on salient aspects of the Nigerian economy

Nigeria as also most African countries have as yet nothing to show from receiving foreign aid and loans running into billions of dollars well over the past 40 years.The contention for an end to aids and loans to developing countries and Nigeria in particular especially holds from the immense harsh realities that have been endured by the masses of the people all through the decades external aids have subsisted.The paper carried out a documentary survey of the impact of International Monetary Fund’s structural adjustment policies (SAP) on salient aspects of the Nigerian political ecology and found that IMF conditionalities are dubiously aimed at maintaining continued resource transfer from debtor countries to creditor nations with adverse impact on the environment and cost of living of the civic population of debtor countries. The adversities brought about by the policies ultimately violate international conventions on rights to life and well-being.The study therefore requests civil society groups, nongovernmental organisations and concerned international organisations to intervene and redefine the terms of engagement between debtor nations and their creditors with a view to redressing the disproportionate incidence of external debt and its conditionalities on the civic population of debtor nations especially those of Nigeria

Impact of External Debt-Induced Structural Adjustment Policies on Salient Aspects of the Nigerian Economy

Nigeria as also most African countries have as yet nothing to show from receiving foreign aid and loans running into billions of dollars well over the past 40 years. The contention for an end to aids and loans to developing countries and Nigeria in particular especially holds from the immense harsh realities that have been endured by the masses of the people all through the decades external aids have subsisted. The paper carried out a documentary survey of the impact of International Monetary Fund’s structural adjustment policies (SAP) on salient aspects of the Nigerian political ecology and found that IMF conditionalities are dubiously aimed at maintaining continued resource transfer from debtor countries to creditor nations with adverse impact on the environment and cost of living of the civic population of debtor countries. The adversities brought about by the policies ultimately violate international conventions on rights to life and well-being. The study therefore requests civil society groups, nongovernmental organisations and concerned international organisations to intervene and redefine the terms of engagement between debtor nations and their creditors with a view to redressing the disproportionate incidence of external debt and its conditionalities on the civic population of debtor nations especially those of Nigeria

Kurdish history textbooks: Building a nation-state within a nation-state

This article reviews the history and social studies textbooks used in Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) schools in terms of their contribution to the construction of the Kurdish/Kurdistani national identity.The article also examines how the KRG's views of the Other are expressed in these textbooks in order to reveal the discourses, categories of differences, assumptions, and views about these concepts, as well as the attempts made through the textbooks to answer the question of what it means to be a Kurd or a Kurdistani.As with nation-building projects elsewhere, KRG school textbooks are part of a strategy to create an “imagined community,” and are intended to strengthen the process of creating a Kurdish/Kurdistani nation-state within an Iraqi nation-state

Islam, Politics and Government

The relationship between Islam and politics has attracted considerable attention in recent years, and especially since the 11 September attacks.This paper examines this relationship and comprises an extensive review of the main sources of Islam. The principal aim is to assess arguments regarding the political nature of Islam, and it seeks to investigate whether or not Islam is inherently political.Islamists have used Islam as an ideological tool and also as a weapon to obtain power when they are in opposition. Additionally, they have given their authority a religious gloss when they are in government.Therefore, the second objective of the paper is to investigate the authenticity of their claims of the political nature of Islam.The paper asserts that the Koran and the Sunna are concerned mainly with ethical and moral issues and have little to say about politics and governance

Engineering confederalism for Iraq

This article examines Iraqi political developments in the last few years. It argues that unless a constitutional mechanism for proper dispersal of political powers across Iraq\u27s regions and branches of its government is developed quickly, it may become too late for defeating Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, stemming the sectarian and ethnic conflicts, overcoming its perpetual crises of governance or for keeping Iraq united. We suggest that a confederal structure is a better and lasting political solution for Iraq than federal or other structural configurations. We also argue that power-sharing and consensus must be intertwined directly into the constitutional fabric of the political structure