Election time in Egypt: a rehearsal for the big show

The recent election campaign for the Egyptian People’s Assembly turns the limelight once again to this key regional actor. The elections themselves saw a predictable landslide victory for President Husni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party (NDP) – including in some areas considered to be strongholds of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and other Islamist opposition groups. The elections did not get much coverage by the foreign media, other than sporadic reports on the violent clashes between MB supporters and the security forces, or some incidental reports on the accusation of fraud. Yet, mainly because of their proximity to the presidential elections, due to take place in September 2011, the elections provide us with an opportunity to assess future developments in Egypt

Revolution and counter-revolution in the Middle East: A lecture by Professor Gilles Kepel

On November 16 2011, Professor Gilles Kepel of Sciences Po, a former holder of the Philippe Roman Chair at LSE IDEAS and a renowned scholar of Middle Easter politics, society and history, visited the LSE in order to deliver his analysis of the unfolding events in the aftermath (?) of the colossal events in Egypt and Tunisia. This blog entry provides a brief review of the content of Professor Kepel’s lecture

Iraq: What happens when America pulls out?

Predicting the future is not an easy task. Nevertheless, Iraq’s political history provides some insights which might allow us to assess its post-American occupation future and provide at least one possible scenario

A decade for the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon: How much has changed?

Ten years ago, in May 2000, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) withdrew from Lebanon after almost two decades of military control over South Lebanon and ended direct political interference in Lebanese political affairs

The Kingdom’s quandary: Saudi Arabia’s “Iran Complex”

Last month, Iran was accused of planning to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Adel Al-Jubeir, who is also one of King Abdullah’s closest advisors. As the startling details of the plot have grabbed the world’s attention, this is an opportune time to take a step back and reflect on the dynamics of the bilateral relationship and the reasons as to why Riyadh has long harboured a deep distrust towards Iran

From rebellion to de facto statehood: international and transnational sources of the transformation of the Kurdish national liberation movement in Iraq into the Kurdistan regional government

In 1991, following its defeat in the first Gulf War and out of fear of a humanitarian catastrophe, the Iraqi army and state-apparatus were forced to withdraw from the three Kurdish-population governorates in Northern Iraq. This left an administrative vacuum that was filled by the leadership of the Kurdish fragmented guerrilla movement – now a de facto Kurdish state in Northern Iraq, known as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Instead of achieving their goal of an autonomous (and in the long-term even independent) Kurdistan through insurgency or guerrilla warfare, the Kurdish leadership came to see state- and institution-building as the most efficient path. De facto statehood has had a significant impact on the development of the KRG, its state-building, its interaction with the international community, and its policies. As demonstrated in the growing literature on de facto states, the pursuit of international legitimacy often plays a key role in shaping their conduct and identity, paving the way toward substantial, though fragile, achievements in state-building. The purpose of this research is to contribute to the study of de facto states by exploring the case of the KRG. It argues that the pursuit of legitimacy is essential for the understanding of de facto states, mainly due to its potential to generate interaction between the de facto state and different segments of the international community. Transnational advocacy is found to be particularly significant, including diaspora activism for conveying ideas and encouraging interaction. By examining the evolution of the Kurdish national liberation movement from 1958 to 2010, this research aims to better explain the dynamics that shape de facto states in general, and to contribute to the study of the KRG as a de facto state in particular, including its development, and its domestic and foreign policies

Die Modalpartikeln auf Deutsch und Dänisch - eine kontrastive Analyse

This article is about the German and Danish modal particles in a contrastive analysis. There are several features, which are characteristic for this particular word class. After a few comments on those the article is concerned about how to make a proper analysis of those words based on the German modal particles. As shall be shown these words are important to a communication situation, because they show the interlocutors how they are supposed to understand each other. This analysis will be an approach finding out, which functions these words have and the point is, that it is possible to find appropriate equivalents in Danish for the German modal particles, which can be listed, maybe in a dictionary

Two different fractional Stefan problems which are convergent to the same classical Stefan problem

Two fractional Stefan problems are considered by using Riemann-Liouville and Caputo derivatives of order $\alpha \in (0,1)$ such that in the limit case ($\alpha =1$) both problems coincide with the same classical Stefan problem. For the one and the other problem, explicit solutions in terms of the Wright functions are presented. We prove that these solutions are different even though they converge, when $\alpha \nearrow 1$, to the same classical solution. This result also shows that some limits are not commutative when fractional derivatives are used.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur

Analysis of heat dissipation from railway and automotive friction brakes

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The thesis presents research into the understanding and improvement of heat dissipation from friction brakes. The investigations involved two brake types, considered to be the most thermally loaded and therefore most challenging; axle mounted high speed railway and commercial vehicle disc brakes. All three modes of heat transfer (conduction, convection and radiation) and airflow characteristics have been analysed experimentally and theoretically in order to increase the understanding of heat dissipation. Despite the very practical aspects of this research, a 'generic heat transfer approach' was applied, enabling wider engineering applications of the results. Experimental analyses conducted on a specially developed Spin Rig allowed measurements of cooling and airflow characteristics for different designs. Methodologies have been developed to determine thermal contact resistance, heat transfer coefficients, emissivity and aerodynamic (pumping) losses. Established values and relationships compared very favourably with theoretical work. Analytical, FE and CFD analyses were employed to further investigate design variations and perform sensitivity studies. Inertia dynamometer route simulations provided disc temperatures for validation of the overall work. Recommendations have been made for optimising heat dissipation, by proposing practically acceptable and economically viable design solutions. A proposed ventilated disc design efficiency ratio allows large, high speed ventilated disc designs, to be efficiently and accurately evaluated and compared, providing a valuable disc design optimisation tool. The determination of the methodologies, parameters and functions defining cooling characteristics, enable heat dissipation to be predicted confidently and accurately for brakes and other engineering assemblies at early design stages