Neoliberal Urbanism as an Obstacle to Positive Peace
- Author Ismael Benkrama
The History of Beirut Central District Facing the glass facades of the office buildings next to the perfectly cut grass squares, where one isn’t allowed to sit it is hardly imaginable, that this was once the vivid center of merchants in Beirut. After being destroyed in the early years of…
International donor support brings mixed blessings for Syrian civil society
- Author Frances Topham Smallwood*
In 2011, Syrians took to the streets. They first demanded democratic reforms and greater freedoms and subsequently called for the downfall of President Assad’s dictatorial government. As the protest movement gave way to violent conflict and lacking viable opportunities to pursue their goals via the political system in power, many…
Forced Migration Review 62 on 'Return' and 'Root causes' now online
- Date Monday, 01 April 2019
Forced Migration Review issue 62 with a major feature on ‘Return: voluntary, safe, dignified and durable?’, and a mini-feature on ‘Towards understanding and addressing the root causes of displacement’, is now online: www.fmreview.org/return. Voluntary return in safety and with dignity has long been a core tenet of the international refugee…
The Uprising of the Unemployed
- Author Miriam Younes, Sarah Wansa
- Date Friday, 04 October 2019
An assessment of current developments in Iraq from a left-wing activist after the beginning of the ongoing protests on 1 October 2019. The conversation took place via phone call on 3 October after the Iraqi government shut down all Internet access. There are many different causes for the current protests,…
Tehran’s Open Horizon
- Author Simon Wolfgang Fuchs
- Date 09/2019
In its fortieth year, the Iranian Revolution has become a victim of teleology. In order to explain the sectarian malaise of the present-day Middle East, observers point to the global shock caused by the Shah’s entirely unexpected downfall.[1] “Radical” Shiʿism, it seems, was set loose in the spring of 1979.…
A Saudi Spring?
- Author Christopher Resch
- Date 05/07/2019
Saudi Arabia’s public image began to change in a positive sense in early 2018: the first cinema opened in 35 years, beginning in June women were finally permitted to drive cars, and the entire country was set to gradually open as part of what the government calls “Vision 2030”. The…
Idlib: "There Will Be a Very Long and Brutal Fight"
- Author Akram al-Ahmad, Harald Etzbach
- Date 06/2019
Etzbach: You founded the Syrian Press Center (SPC) together with others in 2013. What does the SPC do, what did you hope to achieve with it? Al-Ahmad: I studied journalism and worked as a journalist from 2011 onwards. Before the revolution I briefly worked with the regime’s media, but ended…
Not Monolithic
- Author Sana Tannoury-Karam
At the headquarters of the Comintern in Moscow in the summer of 1936, an argument unfolded between Najati Sidqi, a Palestinian Arab and member of the Palestine Communist Party, and Khalid Bakdash, the secretary general of the Communist Party of Syria and Lebanon.[1] Georgi Dimitrov, Dmitry Manuilsky, and Mao Zedong…
Gender Justice Initiatives within Palestinian Camps in Lebanon
- Author Menaal Munshey
This article will provide an overview on female-led social justice movements tackling gender inequality and gender-based violence (GBV) within Palestinian camps in Lebanon. Using qualitative data from six camps[1], this article will analyse emerging initiatives to achieve gender justice by women within the camp’s social and governance context. Lebanon has…
Anticipating Austerity: Lebanon’s poor on the chopping block
- Author Kareem Chehayeb
Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash Lebanon’s parliamentary budget committee has been scrambling to review and ratify the 2019 draft budget. The 2019 budget is expected to include serious austerity measures to the public sector to unlock a pledged US$11 billion in loans and grants from the international community, the…
«Assad or Nobody!»
- Author Yassin Al Haj Saleh
- Date April 2019
From the seizure of power to the appropriation of society: the Syrian conflict in the context of the history of Ba’ath Party rule For most people in the West well into the 2000s, Syria was either an unknown, a rogue state, or one of many Arab dictatorships. This changed in…
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