An Overview of the Arab Security Sector Amidst Political Transition

An Overview of the Arab Security Sector Amidst Political Transition
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 52
Release: 2013
Genre: Arab countries
ISBN:

"The objective of this paper is to highlight the crucial importance of security sector reform during the challenging time of democratic transition. Many security services in Arab countries do not utilize modern management practices or computer-based administrative systems, and lack human resources and career development departments, let alone an inspector general's office to ensure discipline or an internal affairs section to address public complaints. This paper argues that any sustainable governance reform of the social contract in Arab countries in transition is inextricably linked to a new concept of the security sector, based on good governance principles that could permeate a new political consensus, profound institutional reforms and a new legal framework. Security services in these countries must change to serve the public rather than the political interest. For the purpose of accountability, efficiency and professionalism, and in order to create a culture of institutionalization, civilian oversight of the security sector is essential. For their part, new civilian leaders must ensure that the security sector receives proper equipment and an adequate budget, particularly for salaries and training. Security sector reform in the Arab region must be a cultural and ideological discussion, rather than a merely technical one."--Publisher's description.

Institutionalised (In)security

Institutionalised (In)security
Author: Andrea Cellino
Publisher: Ledizioni
Total Pages: 68
Release: 2022-01-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 8855265997

After a decade of popular uprisings and civil wars, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region experiences a deep governance crisis. The transformation, weakening or even the collapse of state institutions has changed the security framework, with direct implications for the safety and security of civilian populations across the region. Security Sector Governance and Reform (SSG/R) has to cope with hybridity and institutional fatigue. This report explores the MENA region's governance crises, providing case studies on Libya, Iraq, Tunisia, and Yemen. How can we effectively bring about meaningful SSG/R in hybrid security orders? In which way is "institutionalised insecurity" challenging traditional patterns of governance in vulnerable settings?

Socio-Political Order and Security in the Arab World

Socio-Political Order and Security in the Arab World
Author: Andreas Krieg
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2017-03-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3319522434

This book examines the connection between socio-politics and security in the Arab World. In an effort to understand the social and political developments that have been on-going in the Arab World since the 1990s, culminating in the Arab Spring, Krieg moves beyond liberal deterministic assumptions - most notably that the promotion of liberal values and democracy are the panacea for the structural problems of the region. Instead, this text advances the case that grievances related to individual security needs are at the heart of regional insecurity and instability. Looking towards the future, the author asserts that regimes can only be resilient if they are able to provide for individual security inclusively. When regimes fail to cater for public security, they might be replaced by alternative non-state security providers.

Kings and Presidents

Kings and Presidents
Author: Bruce Riedel
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2019-03-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0815737165

An insider's account of the often-fraught U.S.-Saudi relationship Saudi Arabia and the United States have been partners since 1943, when President Roosevelt met with two future Saudi monarchs. Subsequent U.S. presidents have had direct relationships with those kings and their successors—setting the tone for a special partnership between an absolute monarchy with a unique Islamic identity and the world's most powerful democracy. Although based in large part on economic interests, the U.S.-Saudi relationship has rarely been smooth. Differences over Israel have caused friction since the early days, and ambiguities about Saudi involvement—or lack of it—in the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States continue to haunt the relationship. Now, both countries have new, still-to be-tested leaders in President Trump and King Salman. Bruce Riedel for decades has followed these kings and presidents during his career at the CIA, the White House, and Brookings. This book offers an insider's account of the U.S.-Saudi relationship, with unique insights. Using declassified documents, memoirs by both Saudis and Americans, and eyewitness accounts, this book takes the reader inside the royal palaces, the holy cities, and the White House to gain an understanding of this complex partnership.

Blind Spot

Blind Spot
Author: Khaled Elgindy
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2019-04-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0815731566

A critical examination of the history of US-Palestinian relations The United States has invested billions of dollars and countless diplomatic hours in the pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace and a two-state solution. Yet American attempts to broker an end to the conflict have repeatedly come up short. At the center of these failures lay two critical factors: Israeli power and Palestinian politics. While both Israelis and Palestinians undoubtedly share much of the blame, one also cannot escape the role of the United States, as the sole mediator in the process, in these repeated failures. American peacemaking efforts ultimately ran aground as a result of Washington’s unwillingness to confront Israel’s ever-deepening occupation or to come to grips with the realities of internal Palestinian politics. In particular, the book looks at the interplay between the U.S.-led peace process and internal Palestinian politics—namely, how a badly flawed peace process helped to weaken Palestinian leaders and institutions and how an increasingly dysfunctional Palestinian leadership, in turn, hindered prospects for a diplomatic resolution. Thus, while the peace process was not necessarily doomed to fail, Washington’s management of the process, with its built-in blind spot to Israeli power and Palestinian politics, made failure far more likely than a negotiated breakthrough. Shaped by the pressures of American domestic politics and the special relationship with Israel, Washington’s distinctive “blind spot” to Israeli power and Palestinian politics has deep historical roots, dating back to the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate. The size of the blind spot has varied over the years and from one administration to another, but it is always present.

Transitional Justice and the Arab Spring

Transitional Justice and the Arab Spring
Author: Kirsten Fisher
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2015-03-24
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1135984956

This book presents a varied and critical picture of how the Arab Spring demands a re-examination and re-conceptualization of issues of transitional justice. It demonstrates how unique features of this wave of revolutions and popular protests that have swept the Arab world since December 2010 give rise to distinctive concerns and problems relative to transitional justice. The contributors explore how these issues in turn add fresh perspective and nuance to the field more generally. In so doing, it explores fundamental questions of social justice, reconstruction and healing in the context of the Arab Spring. Including the perspectives of academics and practitioners, Transitional Justice and the Arab Spring will be of considerable interest to those working on the politics of the Middle East, normative political theory, transitional justice, international law, international relations and human rights.

The Origins of the Syrian Conflict

The Origins of the Syrian Conflict
Author: Marwa Daoudy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2020-03-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108476082

Presents a new conceptual framework drawing on human security to evaluate the claim that climate change caused the conflict in Syria.

Tunisia's International Relations since the 'Arab Spring'

Tunisia's International Relations since the 'Arab Spring'
Author: Tasnim Abderrahim
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2017-09-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351732560

When popular protests started in Tunisia in late 2010, few anticipated the implications these events would have for the entire Arab region. In the following years, this region witnessed deep changes, increased divisions, and even failing states. Meanwhile, Tunisia managed to assert itself as a new democracy. How did this small country manage its democratic transition within such a short period? And what implications has this had for its foreign policy and its role in international politics? This book assesses Tunisia’s transition ‘inside and out’ from four angles: Tunisian polity and politics which provide the framework for its foreign policy since the ‘Arab Spring’; bilateral relations before and after the ‘Arab Spring’; Tunisia’s activism in international organisations as well as their presence in Tunisia; and transnational issues in Tunisia. Drawing on a broad range of primary sources, including authors’ own interview material conducted with politicians and representatives of civil society and international NGOs involved in the transition process, the book shows that since 2011 Tunisia has not only developed fundamentally at the domestic level, but also at the level of external relations. New and old alliances, a broadening of relations, and new activism of civil society and of Tunisia in international organisations certify that Tunisia has the potential to play an increasingly important role regionally as well as internationally. Providing an encompassing picture of Tunisia’s changed role and successful transition from an autocracy to a democracy, the book allows students and scholars in the field to understand the ‘last country standing’ better, a country that both the scientific community and the political scene should not underestimate for the promises it holds.