Items related to "Human Security Gateway: Bahrain". Sat, 17 May 2008 0:30:25 +0000 Sat, 17 May 2008 0:30:25 +0000 robert_hartfiel@sfu.ca (Robert Hartfiel) Tue, 06 May 2008 09:44:43 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=24147 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=24147 The Kingdom of Bahrain is the first Arab country to have all its detainees released from Guantanamo. They were released as the result of a diplomatic and security agreement between the Bahraini and American authorities, but in reality this would have not taken place without the activity and continued pressure exerted by institutions of civil society, human rights organizations, the US law firm representing Bahraini detainees, a popular movement, and the parliament. The Bahraini detainees were released on a batch basis; three were returned in November 2005, and the other three were returned individually in October 2006 and July and August 2007. SOURCE: Bahrain Center for Human Rights Bahrain Center for Human Rights Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:05:58 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=23138 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=23138 Le Moyen-Orient est, depuis longtemps, une priorité stratégique et économique pour les puissances internationales qui s’y impliquent de différentes manières: négociations politiques, accords commerciaux ou encore investissements divers. Les transferts d’armes représentent une autre facette de cette implication. Depuis la fin de la Guerre froide, le Moyen-Orient est une des régions du monde qui a importé le plus d’armements. En effet, l’approvisionnement militaire de la région semble être une réponse automatique des puissances étrangères aux défis auxquels leurs alliés locaux doivent faire face. Sur les cinq dernières années, la région a concentré plus d’un cinquième des importations mondiales, principalement en raison des achats effectués par 5 États : les Émirats arabes unis, Israël, l’Égypte, l’Iran et l’Arabie saoudite. Du côté des exportateurs, les contrats sont également conclus par un petit nombre de pays. Les États-Unis, qui comptent pour la moitié des exportations, fournissent les pays du CCG et Israël. Ils sont suivis par les États membres de l’Union européenne dont les armes ont généralement les mêmes destinations. Enfin, les transferts de la Russie et la Chine se dirigent vers les pays délaissés par Washington et Bruxelles. SOURCE: Groupe de recherche et d'information sur la paix et la sécurité Groupe de recherche et d'information sur la paix et la sécurité Thu, 17 Jan 2008 09:21:25 -0800 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=21843 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=21843 Human rights defenders in Bahrain have been subject to a fresh wave of arrests, abuse and possibly torture following protests last month in which an activist was killed, report the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRInfo) and other rights groups. SOURCE: Bahrain Center for Human Rights Bahrain Center for Human Rights Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:56:52 -0800 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=21830 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=21830 “Bahrain is a monarchy with a population of approximately 725,000, approximately 430,000 of whom are citizens. Members of the Al Khalifa royal family hold about half of the cabinet positions, including all strategic ministries. The constitution provides that the king is the head of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the government. Citizens are not able to change the government and experienced restrictions on civil liberties such as the freedoms of press, speech, assembly, association, and some religious practices. Though citizens were not able to form political parties, the law authorized registered political societies to run candidates and participate in other political activities. Reported judicial abuses included lack of judicial independence and allegations of corruption. Occurrences of domestic violence against women and children were common, as well as discrimination on the basis of gender, religion, sect, and ethnicity. Trafficking in persons and restrictions on the rights of expatriate workers remained problems. The Shi'a majority population was routinely discriminated against in leadership positions. SOURCE: Bahrain Center for Human Rights Bahrain Center for Human Rights Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:52:45 -0800 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=21604 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=21604 Despite passing considerable economic and social reforms Arab regimes continue to avoid substantive political reforms that would jeopardize their own power. Reformers in ruling establishments recognize the need for change to increase economic competitiveness, but the preferred process of “managed reform” is leading to further political stagnation, says a new paper from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In Incumbent Regimes and the “King’s Dilemma” in the Arab World: Promise and Threat of Managed Reform, Carnegie Senior Associates Marina Ottaway and Michele Dunne argue that emerging, reform-minded leaders in Arab nations face a dilemma—globalization and better public access to information are prompting calls for modernization, yet history shows that even limited reforms introduced from the top often increase, rather than decrease, bottom-up demand for more radical change, as in the case of the Iranian revolution. To contend with this threat, Arab regimes are attempting to control the process of change through “managed reforms”: the introduction of formal, institutional reform without the transfer of real power (Bahrain and Egypt); substantive improvements in citizens’ rights without institutional reform (Morocco); or the limited participation of legitimate opposition groups (Yemen and Algeria). SOURCE: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:07:59 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=16776 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=16776 Despite increased European foreign policy coordination and presence in most areas of the world the Gulf region and more specifically the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) continue to represent an area of neglect. One need only compare policies towards the Gulf with policies towards the North African and Middle Eastern states included within the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) to witness this deficit. Despite the shortcomings of the EMP this initiative represents a coordinated and embedded European strategy towards the southern Mediterranean that has not been extended to the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). This is all the more surprising given the fact that the Arabian Peninsula concentrates several pivotal issues of international concern, including energy security, Middle Eastern regional security, counterterrorism and debates over Arab democratic reform. European weight in this region remains negligible, and the EU as a collective entity has failed to develop a comprehensive and coherent policy towards this crucial part of the Middle East. This neglect is explained by two European judgements: first, that the Gulf does not present the kind of acute geopolitical urgency that would merit paying the costs associated with a greater engagement in the region; second, that the EU has negligible capacity to affect social, economic or political change in the Gulf and that its interests are thus best served by stability-oriented caution. Such judgements might contain a healthy dose of realism; but the EU may also pay a price for its passivity in the Gulf. SOURCE: Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:07:39 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=10865 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=10865 The Gulf monarchies - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - stand to become increasingly important for European foreign policy concerns. These states are a primary focus of the European Union's new energy security policy, European counter-terrorist efforts and a new programme of NATO security cooperation. In the wake of several leadership successions and with elections either having recently been held or imminent in several Gulf states, it is essential for European foreign policy interests that the extent and form of political change in the region be fully understood. While the obstacles to far-reaching reform remain formidable, Gulf polities increasingly have revealed themselves to be less static and more complex than regularly assumed. This Backgrounder looks at some of the detailed aspects of - and limits to - the Gulf's reform processes in order to help shed light on debates over the future evolution of its monarchies. SOURCE: Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:48:29 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=20889 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=20889 On June 26-28, 2005, the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and the RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy held their sixth annual conference in Gstaad, Switzerland. The conference was devoted to a dialogue on "The Middle East: Changing Strategic Environment." Participants discussed democracy and stability in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Palestine, and Israel; the situation in Iraq; Iran's nuclear program; the roles of #the United States, the EU, and the UN Security Council in promoting stability and change in the region; strategies for countering Islamic terrorism; and developments in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. SOURCE: RAND Corporation RAND Corporation Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:48:18 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=20607 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=20607 We are witnessing unusual scenes in the Middle East. Mass demonstrations in Lebanon, joint protest rallies of Egyptian Islamists and liberals against the Mubarak regime in Egypt, and municipal elections in Saudi Arabia are just as much features of the current situation as are cease-fire declarations by Palestinian resistance movements and multiparty negotiations for forming a coalition government in Iraq. SOURCE: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:47:35 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=19672 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=19672 Al-Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula leader Abdulaziz Al-Muqrin issued calls for the Saudi royal family to be overthrown. Conquering Saudi Arabia would be the first step towards establishing a Caliphate that would liberate the third holy place [Jerusalem] and unite all the Muslims of the world. The nightmare scenario for the West in one in which Saudi oil production (10% of world output) is taken out by terrorist attacks or by regime change. The Saudi ruling family is stuck between two contradictory policies: appeasement of puritanical Islam and alliance with America. SOURCE: GlobalSecurity.org GlobalSecurity.org Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:47:19 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=19267 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=19267 The Shi'i Muslims of Bahrain are a disadvantaged majority, widely dispersed within the thirty-five islands in the Persian Gulf that make up the state. They share other Bahrainis' ethnic Arab background and Arabic language, but they have distinct religious beliefs from the minority Sunni Muslims, and the Sunni royalty tha#t rules the country. The major division between Bahrain's Sunni and Shi'i faiths derives from a dispute dating back to the 7th century over who were the true successors to Muhammad, Islam's original and primary prophet, with the Shiite following Ali, Mohammed's son-in-law. The Shi'i of Bahrain remain a minority at risk, but there are grounds for cautious optimism. Although Bahrain is by no means ready to adopt full-scale democracy, the Amir has pushed for economic and political reforms, and has worked to improve relations with the Shi'a community. For the time being, most Shi'a still belong to the middle or lower classes of Bahraini society, and do not possess the ability to change their form of government. And a troubling aspect continuing in Bahrain is the government's reliance on arbitrary arrests, prolonged detention without trial, and forced exile. Yet, given the reforms since year 2000, there does seem to be room for compromise on both sides. The opposition is mostly moderate and the violence on both sides over the past few years has been restrained. SOURCE: Minorities at Risk Project // Center for International Development and Conflict Management // University of Maryland Minorities at Risk Project // Center for International Development and Conflict Management // University of Maryland Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:47:03 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=18799 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=18799 Abdel Monem Said Aly, director of the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, and Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, spoke on the topic of democracy in the Middle East. SOURCE: Council on Foreign Relations Council on Foreign Relations Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:46:49 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=18392 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=18392 Has Arab satellite television had a positive impact on the prospects for democracy in the Arab world? Yes, and in more ways than one might imagine. SOURCE: Foreign Policy Research Institute Foreign Policy Research Institute Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:46:03 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=16950 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=16950 If steps are not urgently taken to address the grievances of Bahrain's Shiites, the country could face escalating violence. Despite a reform package in its fourth year, the government has done virtually nothing to tackle sectarian discrimination and tensions; indeed, it has exacerbated them by increasingly resorting to authoritarian measures to maintain order. The Shiite leadership's control over more confrontational elements within its community is showing signs of wear. Government and opposition moderates need to act quickly. The government must end discriminatory practices and follow through on promised reforms. The opposition should exercise restraint and work with sectors of the state that are willing to accomplish change on the ground. The international community, the U.S. in particular, should praise Bahrain's reformist rhetoric a little less, and urge the government to uphold its pledges a little more. SOURCE: International Crisis Group International Crisis Group Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:45:46 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=16338 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=16338 This report is part of a project to analyse and research discrimination and violence against women in the GCC countries. In July and August 2004, Amnesty International (AI) delegates carried out research in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the UAE. They spoke to women in these countries, including foreign nationals, mainly female domestic workers living and working there. They met non-governmental organizations (NGOs), lawyers, judges, government officials, and human rights activists, including those focusing specifically on women's rights. In most of the countries, they were able to visit prisons and interview women prisoners. Despite repeated requests, AI was not given access to visit Saudi Arabia. Nevertheless, women activists, human rights defenders, and victims from Saudi Arabia have provided information about discrimination and violence against women in the country. On the basis of these interviews, AI has been able to build on earlier research findings about the ill-treatment of women in Saudi Arabia. SOURCE: Amnesty International Amnesty International Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:44:56 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=14752 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=14752 In the post-Saddam era, differences among Iraqi ethnic and religious groups will either emerge as a barrier to political cooperation and national unity, or they will instead be mitigated as part of the struggle to define a new and more inclusive system of government. Should Iraqi ethnic and sectarian differences become unmanageable, a violent struggle for political power may ensue. This study does not predict an ethnic or sectarian civil war in Iraq except as a worst case, which must be analyzed and considered. If Iraqi violence erupts along religious/sectarian and ethnic lines, this conflict will have thunderous echoes throughout the area. Group identity, which is critical throughout much of the Middle East, will provide a compelling context for regional bystanders watching ethnic and sectarian bloodshed. Moreover, various nations would involve themselves in the fighting in ways up to and including the possibility of military intervention. Additionally, inter-communal harmony and tolerance in other regional states may suffer as the result of Iraqi fighting and the responses of neighboring governments to that fighting. The danger of an Iraqi civil war requires serious U.S. cooperation with those regional states that also have a stake in preventing this outcome. SOURCE: Strategic Studies Institute // U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute // U.S. Army War College Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:44:51 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=14537 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=14537 The bandwagon is starting to fill--and thank goodness for that. Those of us who spent much of 2003 and 2004 urging Americans not to give up on Iraq can attest that those two years were stained with many harsh attacks, much niggling criticism, and abundant disdain for America's aggressive efforts to reshape the dysfunctional governments of the Middle East into more humane and peaceful forms. From the very beginning, of course, the Bush administration's left-wing enemies in the U.S. and Europe were hysterically opposed to the push for Middle Eastern democracy. A significant number of right-wing pundits also proved themselves to be sunshine patriots of the worst sort--bailing out of the hard, dirty work of war and cultural transformation as soon as the predictable resistance arose. SOURCE: American Enterprise Institute American Enterprise Institute Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:44:11 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=13327 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=13327 Conference Report of the second Gulf Cooperation Council-U.S. Environmental Security Conference(Environmental Planning, Prevention And Disaster Response In The Arabian Gulf), conducted September 15-18, 2002 in Doha, Qatar. Attended by delegations from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan, this event supported the pillars of the new national security strategy: strengthening alliances to defeat global terrorism, deterring WMD threats, and developing agendas for cooperative action. SOURCE: Center for Strategic Leadership // United States Army War College Center for Strategic Leadership // United States Army War College Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:44:00 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=12908 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=12908 The impact of the so called "war on terror" (henceforth "war on terror") on human rights in the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula has been profound and far reaching. Governments in the region and the US government have treated nationals and residents of the area with a disturbing disregard for the rule of law and fundamental human rights standards. The results have been mass arrests, prolonged detention without charge or trial, incommunicado detention, torture and ill-treatment, strict secrecy surrounding the fate and whereabouts of some detainees, and apparent extra-judicial killings. These human rights violations have had profound effects not only on individual victims but also on their relatives and the general human rights situation in the region. SOURCE: Amnesty International Amnesty International Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:43:39 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=11819 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=11819 The Arab League has maintained an official boycott of Israeli companies and Israeli-made goods since the founding of Israel in 1948. The United States actively opposes the boycott and works on both bilateral and multilateral fronts to end it. The U.S. government also enforces laws that prohibit U.S. firms from participating in the boycott. This report will be updated as events warrant. SOURCE: Congressional Research Service Congressional Research Service Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:43:38 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=11672 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=11672 President George Bush has hailed Bahrain's progress towards democracy. Yet Bahrain's emir proclaimed himself king three years ago, promulgated a constitution giving him full powers and has attacked the few remaining civil liberties. Arbitrary imprisonment is commonplace and one of the main human rights organisations has been closed. SOURCE: Le Monde diplomatique Le Monde diplomatique Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:43:06 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=10129 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=10129 WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean consists of four technical divisions headed by directors reporting to Deputy Regional Director/Regional Director. They are: Health Protection and Promotion (DHP), Health Systems and Services Development (DHS), Communicable Disease Control (DCD), General Management (DAF). There are two departments in the office of the Assistant Regional Director and they report directly to the Assistant Regional Director. The two departments are Knowledge Management & Sharing and Policy & Strategy Support. Five priority programmes are supervised by the Regional Directory/Deputy Regional Director while reporting through their respective divisional directors. The priority programmes are the Tobacco Free Initiative, Roll Back Malaria, Stop TB, Community-based Initiatives, Women in Health and Development. Further, the regional office runs a special programmes on Polio Eradication, which reports directly to the Regional Director. Another is the UNAIDS Inter-Country Programme. It gives support to the development of an expanded response to HIV/AIDS through the coordinated action of the UN theme groups on HIV/AIDS as well as the process of national strategic planning; collaborates with EMRO in the joint response to HIV/AIDS at the regional and country level; strengthens partnerships with UNAIDS cosponsers through joint regional initiatives in HIV/AIDS priority areas. SOURCE: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:42:31 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=8700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=8700 Uninterrupted access to and use of critical infrastructure in the Arabian Gulf region are key to the successful prosecution of the Global War on Terror (GWOT). To maintain access and use the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) and its Gulf Region partners must deny outside organizations the ability to influence these requirements through terrorism. Essential to this will be information sharing and shared capabilities. Regional cooperation is important because terrorist threats vary, both regionally and nationally. To facilitate this endstate, theater security cooperation initiatives that promote regional collaboration are underway to improve national disaster preparedness capabilities and effective disaster preparedness training with partner nations. SOURCE: Center for Strategic Leadership // United States Army War College Center for Strategic Leadership // United States Army War College Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:42:21 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=8229 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=8229 Le contenu du programme de l'UNHCR au Moyen-Orient est déterminé par quatre grandes crises: le flot incessant des demandeurs d'asile et des migrants qui quittent la Corne de l'Afrique pour rallier le Yémen, la crise au Soudan et ses répercussions en xc3x89gypte, en République arabe syrienne (Syrie) et en Jordanie, la situation en Iraq et son impact sur les pays limitrophes qui accueillent des Iraquiens, et enfin les effets produits, dans les pays hxc3xb4tes, par la présence de réfugiés palestiniens qui subissent un exil d'une longueur exceptionnelle. Pendant des décennies, les pays du Moyen-Orient ont généreusement prodigué leur hospitalité aux réfugiés. Aujourd'hui, néanmoins, les problxc3xa8mes de sécurité nationale qui se posent dans la région mettent à rude épreuve la tolérance que les xc3x89tats témoignai#ent traditionnellement aux réfugiés et aux demandeurs d'asile. Dans le mxc3xaame temps, les pays oxc3xb9 les réfugiés sont habituellement réinstallés ont quelques réticences à accepter les candidats en provenance du Moyen-Orient depuis les événements du 11 septembre 2001. SOURCE: L'Agence des Nations Unies Pour Les Refugies L'Agence des Nations Unies Pour Les Refugies Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:42:21 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=8291 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=8291 Strategic analysis of Bahrain's military capabilities as they relate to assymetric warfare. SOURCE: Center for Strategic and International Studies Center for Strategic and International Studies Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:42:05 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=7481 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=7481 The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission) issued its final report on July 19, 2004. A major recommendation in the report was that the U.S. government should identify and prioritize actual or potential terrorist sanctuaries and, for each, to employ a realistic strategy to keep possible terrorists insecure and on the run, using all elements of national power. The rationale given for devoting special attention to denial of sanctuaries was the belief that "a complex international terrorist operation to carry out a catastrophic attack would be difficult to mount without a secure place from which to plan, recruit, train, rehearse, and launch the operation. To find sanctuary, terrorist organizations have fled to some of the least governed, most lawless places in the world, according to the Commission. The Commission stressed the value to Al Qaeda of the Afghan sanctuary and its logistical networks, running through Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates in preparing the 9/11 attack and other operations, as well as the advantages the terrorists derived from the lax internal security environments in Western countries, including the United States. SOURCE: Congressional Research Service Congressional Research Service Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:41:43 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=5855 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=5855 SOURCE: HIV InSite Database of Country and Regional Indicators // Center for HIV Information // University of California San Francisco HIV InSite Database of Country and Regional Indicators // Center for HIV Information // University of California San Francisco Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:41:39 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=5505 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=5505 In the aftermath of 9/11, international and regional interest has focused intensely on the Middle East's urgent need for reform. The region's stagnation dates back decades, yet, until the 2001 attacks, these long-standing ills received scant attention from governments in the region and their global counterparts. The 9/11 attacks and subsequent terrorist operations (Casablanca, Riyadh, Istanbul, Madrid) shattered the conventional wisdom that the region's stabilityxe2x80x94anchored by its authoritarian governmentsxe2x80x94could endure indefinitely and would come at little cost to U.S. interests. Precisely the opposite conclusion has become apparent: Middle East reform is critical for long-term stability and regional security. Absent change, the status quo will only breed greater popular disaffection and provide fertile ground for the continued growth of extremism. SOURCE: United States Institute of Peace United States Institute of Peace Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:41:37 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=5300 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=5300 The West's failure to understand the very diverse nature of Islamic activism, and adopt a discriminating strategy in response, risks sidelining non-violent and modernist tendencies, and strengthening militant jihadis. Though Shiite Islamism remains unified, its behaviour usually communally focused and defensive, Sunni Islamism -- about which most Western fears are held -- now has three distinctively different main types: political, missionary, and jihadi. Which of these three main trends will prevail is of great importance to the Muslim world and -- although none of them can be cons#idered tamely "pro-Western" by any means -- to the U.S. and Europe. By adopting a sledge-hammer approach that does not differentiate jihadi Islamism from its political and missionary brands, or between fundamentalist and modernist streams of activism, Western policy-makers risk provoking one of two undesirable outcomes: either inducing the different strands to band together in reaction, or causing the non-violent, modernist trends to be eclipsed by the jihadis. SOURCE: International Crisis Group International Crisis Group Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:41:22 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=3848 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=3848 Debates over democracy continue to occupy not only U.S. and European policymakers but Arabs as well. Arguments rage about the merits of top-down versus bottom-up democratization. In coffeehouses and in taxis, Arabs discuss the issue. Can democracy take root in Arab countries? How can democracy's supporters move democratization forward? Is civil society a precursor for democracy, or can civil society thrive only once democracy is achieved? How do each country's internal and external dynamics affect the process? In order to gauge progress, it is necessary to measure democracy. Comparisons of such measurements taken in seventeen Arab states between 1999 and 2005 suggest not only is progress lacking in most countries, but across the Middle East, reform has backslid. SOURCE: Middle East Forum Middle East Forum Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:41:15 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=3157 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=3157 This article considers the prospects for Islamist groups gaining power in Middle Eastern countries. It begins with a brief glance at the past quarter century since the Islamic Revolution in Iran, examining why--despite predictions to the contrary--Islamists throughout the region have had only very limited success in taking power so far. It then goes on to identify the various strategies Islamists have employed so far in their quest for power, considering the likelihood that these strategies will succeed in the future in accomplishing their goals. The article also appraises the chance that success in one country will ignite an avalanche of Islamist takeovers. SOURCE: Middle East Review of International Affairs Middle East Review of International Affairs Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:41:12 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=2856 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=2856 With the world's attention focused as never before on political reform and democratization in Arab countries, giving rise to often highly politicized debates, it is important to provide accurate, factual information about Arab political systems and reforms being introduced in the region. This webpage represents a joint undertaking of the Democracy and Rule of Law Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington and the Fundacixc3xb3n para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Dixc3xa1logo Exterior (FRIDE) in Madrid. It provides easily accessible baseline information about the political systems of Arab countries, with links to official documents and websites, and will be frequently updated to provide information about reforms being introduced. SOURCE: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:41:11 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=2747 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=2747 Are Islam and Democracy compatible? And are Islamists willing to accept a democratic order and work within it? This essay argues that whereas democracy and political Islam are potentially quite compatible in principle, the short-term prognosis is less optimistic. SOURCE: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:41:09 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=2577 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=2577 Ten years ago, the idea of writing a substantial paper about NATO's role in the Greater Middle Eastxe2x88x97 would have been implausible. Indeed, at that time NATO was only tentatively involved in southeast Europe - let alone southwest Asia - and the organization's own future remained highly uncertain. In August 1995, after four years of hesitation and debate over the issue of extending the zone of operation of what had once been a strictly defensive alliance, NATO intervened militarily for the first time in Bosnia. However, this only occurred after organizations like the United Nations (UN) and the Western European Union (WEU) were seen to have failed, and the mission was not regarded as a precedent for Alliance action in the Middle East or Asia. At the time, few could have envisaged that a decade later NATO would be deploying over 10,000 troops to Afghanistan, training Iraqi military forces in Baghdad and increasing its political and military cooperation with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). That, however, is precisely the situation today. SOURCE: Emirates Centre For Strategic Studies And Research Emirates Centre For Strategic Studies And Research Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:41:08 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=2514 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=2514 For more than four decades, Arab summit conferences have served as benchmarks for measuring the state of the Arab world. Some of them have also set important baselines shaping regional diplomacy for years to come (e.g., the 1967 Khartoum "3 No's" Summit; the 1974 Rabat Summit's recognition of the PLO; the rejection of Sadat's initiative at the 1978 Baghdad Summit; the formulation of Arab conditions for peace with Israel at Fez in 1982, updated in Beirut in 2002; and the establishment of a Western-Arab coalition against Iraq in 1990 at the Cairo Summit). So no matter how many resolutions went unimplemented and however cynical Arab publics had grown towards these diplomatic spectacles, Arab summits still seemed to matter. SOURCE: Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:40:54 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=1069 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=1069 Since September 11, 2001, a new reform ferment is apparent in the Middle East. Debate about political reform in the region's media, calls for democracy issued by civil society activists, and promises of change by Arab governments have convinced some that democratization is finally underway in the region. In fact, the paper argues, political reform has so far generated far more debate than actual democratizing change in the Arab world. The paper includes a review of the internal and external pressures, including the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, that have spurred the current reform debate, and an analysis of the three main perspectives on reform --the liberal democratic agenda, the perspective held by moderate Islamists, and the modernization approach favored by Arab regimes. While a consensus is forming among the region's political elite that reform is necessary, there is no shared understanding of what reform means. Reformers, howev#er, are unanimous in their rejection of, or at best a very grudging attitude toward, the role of outsiders, especially the United States, in promoting reform. Most important, the lively, often quite far-reaching debates about reform are only palely reflected in the actual changes that have been introduced to date by Arab states. Arab regimes still control the agenda: they are willing to take measures that benefit their image abroad and buy them time domestically as long as such steps do not infringe on their own power. The future of political reform will be determined by the ability of liberal reformers to attract popular support, by the role of moderates in Islamist movements, and by the willingness of the United States and other Western countries to press for democratic reform. SOURCE: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:40:51 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=819 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=819 In the five years since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration has solidified a trend of supplying high technology weapons and millions of dollars in military assistance to allies in the "war on terror." Support for the United States - either in its quest to stamp out international terrorist networks, or for its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan - seems to take precedence over other criteria usually taken into account when the United States considers an arms transfer. According to standing tenets of U.S. arms export policy, arms transfers should not undermine long-term security and stability, weaken democratic movements, support military coups, escalate arms races, exacerbate ongoing conflicts, cause arms build-ups in unstable regions, or be used to commit human rights abuses. However, in the last five years, the Bush administration has demonstrated a willingness to provide weapons and military training to weak and failing states and countries that have been repeatedly criticized by the U.S. State Department for human rights violations, lack of democracy, and even support of terrorism. To thoroughly evaluate and analyze this trend of increased military assistance, the Challenging Conventional Threats project at CDI has, since 2001, profiled countries that have a unique role in the "war on terror," through the strategic services they have provided to the United States as it conducts anti-terror operations across the globe. The series features analysis of the current political situations in the profiled countries, taking into account other indicators of the relative stability and openness of the country, such as military expenditures, total number of armed forces, and the human rights situation as assessed by the U.S. State Department, alongside an evaluation of U.S. military assistance to these countries over the past 17 years - the post-Cold War years. SOURCE: Center for Defense Information Center for Defense Information Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:40:50 -0700 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=810 http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=810 Recent changes in the Persian Gulf military capabilities threaten to disrupt the historic balance that has long been a "four-cornered" balancing act between Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the Southern Gulf states and the power projection forces of the United Kingdom and the United States. "The primary factors have been proliferation, asymmetric warfare, and terrorism - driven by Islamic extremism," Cordesman writes in The Military Balance in the Gulf: The Dynamics of Force Development (http://www.csis.org/burke/mb/050413_MEMilBalGulf.pdf). "Iraq's defeat and Iran's military weakness have sharply reduced the conventional threat from the northern Gulf. Iraq is no longer able to proliferate,# though a new insurgency since Saddam's fall has shown the ability of asymmetric warfare to challenge even the most effective conventional forces." In the report, Cordesman examines the history of the Gulf military balance, trends in Gulf conventional military forces, and characteristics of the national forces of the Gulf States. SOURCE: Center for Strategic and International Studies Center for Strategic and International Studies