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| 1 |
ID:
199093
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| Summary/Abstract |
In 2021, Italian populist radical right (PRR) parties, Lega and Fratelli d’Italia (FdI), opposed the Zan bill, which sought to criminalise homo-bi-transphobia, misogyny and discrimination against disabilities. Unlike some European PRR parties that have declaredly adopted some pro-LGBTIQ stances, the Italian PRR's opposition to the Zan bill reveals a different approach. Its case suggests that, in addition and complementary to targeting external ‘Others’ like immigrants or Muslims, the Italian PRR also promotes cis- and heteronormative models, constructing the LGBTIQ community as an internal threat to ‘the people’. This analysis sheds light on the centrality of gender in the PRR discourses and underscores the unique national context of anti-LGBTIQ and anti-gender rhetoric in Italy.
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| 2 |
ID:
199092
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In Europe, the populist radical right (PRR) has actively embarked on a discursive struggle over the notion of freedom – one of the underlying concepts of Western сulture. An investigation of the 2019 European election campaign of the Polish Law and Justice party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość [PiS]) highlights how PRR parties in power discursively construct freedom in the context(s) of the European Union (EU). In PiS’s discourse, freedom serves as an antagonistic national-populist and nativist tool that juxtaposes Polish national identity against the imagined enemies of PiS-led Poland at home and abroad.
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| 3 |
ID:
199091
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Italy’s migration agreements with Libya in 2017 and Albania in 2023 serve as crucial cases for investigating how political parties in Europe position themselves on immigration policy. By comparing parties across the Italian political spectrum, this research assesses whether they have articulated distinct stances on the externalisation of migration in the two selected cases. A qualitative analysis of parliamentary debates reveals two dominant logics in party discourse: a security logic and a rights-oriented logic. These two logics can cut across party lines, particularly in times of crisis, with frequent references to the European Union (EU) as both an arena for Italy’s influence and a source of legitimacy.
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| 4 |
ID:
199090
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Four European populist radical right (PRR) prime minister parties (PiS, Fidesz, SDS and FdI) have displayed differing approaches to foreign policy. In part, these differences can be explained by their specific visions of history. Central and Eastern European (CEE) parties such as PiS, Fidesz and to a certain extent SDS, became more radical and Eurosceptic when in power. FdI, on the other hand, became less Eurosceptic and more mainstream after coming to power. CEE parties have constructed their identities around anti-communism and the notion of Western betrayal, making the liberal West and the EU their significant Other. On the contrary, for FdI it is more difficult to have the EU as a significant Other in the same sense, because Italy was a founding member of the EU and its historical grievances are not directed at the West. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has also been approached and used differently by the leaders of these parties. Giorgia Meloni, Janez Janša and, at least initially, Jarosław Kaczyński used the war to strengthen their European credentials, while Viktor Orbán used it to intensify his fight against the liberal West.
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| 5 |
ID:
199089
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| Summary/Abstract |
Populism has been used by its critics to support European integration. The case of the Italian Partito Democratico (PD) highlights that, as a relatively empty signifier, ‘populism’ affords parties scope to adapt to different circumstances, as evidenced by the evolving use of the term in relation to shifts in policymaking paradigms at the European level. In the period between the Eurozone crisis and the Covid pandemic, the PD changed the connotation of populism in relation to key debates at the European level. While initially the term was used mainly to contrast unproductive uses of spending by the Berlusconi government and then by the M5S-League coalition, the definition of populism narrowed as European support for austerity measures faded. More recently, the PD has started using the term almost exclusively as a synonym for right-wing extremism. The Italian case suggests that critics of populism continuously shift their understanding of the term in order to protect European integration.
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| 6 |
ID:
199088
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| Summary/Abstract |
The nexus between technocracy and populism in Italy can be better understood from a long-term perspective. Adopting a critical-realist approach to the explanation of political change, it is possible to identify the main contextual factors that favoured, from the early 1990s, the rise of these two alternative yet compatible logics of politics, which can be conceived as both causes and symptoms of the fatigue of representative democracy. This also allows (i) a better understanding of the entanglement of populism and technocracy after the global crisis of 2008, and (ii) the conceptualisation of the position of the European Union (EU) as a catalyst of these processes within a multi-level spatial nexus.
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| 7 |
ID:
199087
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The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group has emerged as an important player in European Parliament (EP) decision-making. Drawing on about 1,300 EP plenary votes from July 2019 to June 2022, we demonstrate that the ECR group has played an active and often cooperative role in the politics of the EP, albeit not in the policy areas where its national conservative and soft Eurosceptic ideology comes to prominence, such as women’s rights or institutional affairs. We complement the quantitative analysis with an in-depth investigation of the group’s position on the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. Our investigation shows that the ECR group’s unified stance against migration has often failed to translate into cohesive legislative actions by its national party delegations, aligning instead with national interests as defined by these parties.
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| 8 |
ID:
199086
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| Summary/Abstract |
While before winning power populist radical right (PRR) parties are often overtly against the European Union (EU) and its policies, once in government their position can change significantly. Their threats to leave the EU are frequently replaced by requests for greater EU involvement, particularly in economic and migration issues. This Special Issue unpacks PRR parties’ discourse and policies in relation to Europe, before and after gaining power. Specifically, this Introduction outlines key theoretical debates on populism, the policy positioning of PRR parties on migration, foreign policy and other issues before and after entering government, and their relationship with the EU. It then addresses the performance of PRR parties in the 2024 European Parliament elections, and provides an overview of the Special Issue.
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| 9 |
ID:
199085
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The rise of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools poses a number of urgent questions to all those involved in knowledge production processes. In order to discuss its potential benefits as well as the associated risks, this forum brings together the perspectives of four editors and researchers, building on two events organised by The International Spectator in collaboration with the International Studies Association (ISA) in 2024. Leo Goretti looks at the impact of generative AI on scholarly journals, discussing the policies of major publishers and interrogating the productivity-enhancing potential of AI tools for research and editorial work. Anselm Küsters focuses on how generative AI could be used in a responsible way by researchers, and what skills students and scholars will have to acquire to this end. Stella Morgana unpacks the hidden biases and power relations that underlie generative AI and how this may affect the selection of sources reproducing hierarchies and disparities. Ananya Sharma reflects on undergoing projects aimed at constructing context- and culture-specific generative AI software, and the conditions under which these can either contribute to decolonise generative AI or fuel forms of techno-nationalism.
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| 10 |
ID:
199084
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| Summary/Abstract |
How do temporary migrants cope with social inequality in the ‘illiberal’ host states of the Global South? While mainstream scholarly work on labor migration in the Gulf has historically traced the existence of structural violence, racialized hierarchy, and social inequality imposed on temporary migrants, it also frames migrants as ‘powerless’ and ‘rule-taker’ victims. In doing so, scholars overlook the diverse coping or mobility route strategies of temporary migrants. Temporary Filipino migrants, one of the largest Gulf-based ethnic minority groups in the United Arab Emirates, have employed diverse coping mobility strategies via inter-regional transit, intra-regional transit, and irregular routes to diminish social inequality. These strategies act as tools to capitalize on their Gulf labor market experience and manipulate complex migration systems to achieve their long-term goals (i.e. acquiring Western citizenship). To examine temporary migrants’ coping mobility strategies, the article draws on twenty semi-structured interviews with Filipino migrants, and content analysis of government, policy, and local UAE and Filipino newspaper publications. The article adds to the theoretical and empirical discussions on social inequality, racial capitalism, mobility pathways, and Gulf exceptionalism by nuancing migrant victimization narratives in South-South migration and shifting the perspective of migrants as powerless recipients to active, transnational mobile agents.
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| 11 |
ID:
199083
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| Summary/Abstract |
The relationship between Turkey and Qatar has become a crucial factor shaping West Asia and North Africa (WANA) political and economic dynamics. Since 2011, the two countries have pursued complimentary policies in WANA, supporting military factions in Egypt, Libya, and Syria. This alliance has challenged Qatar’s neighbors’ own ambitions in these theatres. Turkey’s choice to support Qatar during a 2017–2021 blockade demonstrated the strength of the two states’ relations, despite such relationship cemented only during the 2010s. While the leaders’ shared world views is certainly one important element, the alignment is driven by economic and technical capacities that did not exist before. Moving away from the usual focus on economic and military agreements, this article situates those developments in an historical context whereby changing economic circumstances, technological capabilities, and security concerns led these two countries into a defiant embrace.
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| 12 |
ID:
199082
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article examines the role of Gulf aid in shaping understandings of humanitarian governance in Jordan. Through ethnographic engagement, it attends to how humanitarian workers reimagine their practices through the activities of the Emirates Red Crescent (ERC), especially in the Mrajeeb Al Fhood Camp—commonly known as the Emirati Camp. By situating the notion of ‘basic human needs’ at the centre of the analysis, the article addresses how local humanitarian workers understand the temporal and spatial conditions generated by the humanitarian structure and neoliberal economy in Jordan. In doing so, the article suggests that the UAE not only creates its own geopolitical ‘grand compromise’ in comparison to the Global North and the UNHCR but also influences practitioners’ understanding of humanitarianism in the region. This offers an analytical perspective on the role of Gulf countries in the humanitarian field beyond the common focus on their foreign aid as a quiet tool of political and economic influence in the larger Mashriq.
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| 13 |
ID:
199081
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| Summary/Abstract |
More than 50 years ago, Senegal was one of the first African states to establish diplomatic relations with Kuwait. While Senegal receives the largest amount of Kuwaiti development assistance of any sub-Saharan African country, this relationship cannot be reduced to simply one of recipient-donor. All Senegalese and Kuwaiti heads of state have worked to further these ties, explained in terms of shared political ideals, including peace, non-alignment, experimentation with parliamentary democracy, freedom of press, Islamic solidarity, and small state alliance building. Using diplomacy and military deployment as ‘soft power’, and Islam as religious statecraft, Senegal’s strategic friendship with Kuwait contributed to its regional and global position. The West African country took a strong stance on certain Middle Eastern conflicts and sent soldiers to fight for Kuwait’s liberation from Iraq. Bilateral relations between the two states ranged from large loans to nominations for positions in international organizations, press collaboration, museum development, firefighter and teacher exchanges, educational scholarships, and charity work. Relations between the ‘Gateway to Africa’ and the small Gulf emirate have been touted as a ‘South-South partnership’ and model for ‘Arab-African’ cooperation, albeit within a particular power dynamic elucidated in this article.
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| 14 |
ID:
199080
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| Summary/Abstract |
Often treated as simply anti-modernism, a focus on three reformist figures with transnational intellectual ties—Shariat Sangelaji, Asadollah Kharaqani, and Muhammad Khalesizadeh—reveals how Iranian natives of the Gulf littoral contributed to reconstitute modern life by criticizing the global structures of power arising with European imperialism. Blurring the dichotomy of modern/traditional, Iran and the West, these intellectuals with trans-regional scholarly connections combined different aspects of modernity with a reading of Islamic practice to offer a global model of resistance for Muslims. A version of this Shi’i empowerment in the face of growing changes in the larger world and at home mobilized discussions about women in Iran as the source of the necessary social cohesion during the anti-imperialist struggle. A challenge to normative portrayals of Islam (and religion more generally) as an impediment to progress, studying these three Gulf scholars’ alternative modernity allows for identifying a campaign to free women from the consequences of their economic exploitation.
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| 15 |
ID:
199079
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| Summary/Abstract |
While historians have never written about it, in May 1846 the Sultan of Muscat arrived in Weathersfield, Vermont for his first voyage to the United States. This article uses the Sultan’s arrival in Vermont as a platform for augmenting a growing chorus of historians challenging the geographic and disciplinary boundaries that continue to define Middle East Studies. Using archival sources from the US, UK, Zanzibar, and a range of secondary sources, this article addresses a complex centuries-long process of Omani expansion and expropriation that culminated in Zanzibar in the nineteenth century and the height of the Omani Empire as an active participant in shaping the modern world economy. The writing of world history and of Middle East history generally continues to commence from the presupposition of an inevitably ascendant Western-created and led modern world. This article challenges the latter assumption.
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| 16 |
ID:
199078
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| Summary/Abstract |
The multi-vector development discourse about ‘the Gulf’ as booming in an emerging multi-polar world sets a very high bar for the scholars who sustain the function of this anomaly in the Global South. Recognizing that a variegated propaganda-for-sale is at play in the production of an ideological Gulf narrative, we have invested in this Special Issue, titled ‘The Gulf and the World.’ We have sought to identify the prevailing hegemonic discourse devised to render palpable the geopolitical relationship between a Western capitalist project and their allies in the Gulf. The resulting findings situate the myth of a selective group of Western-leaning states circulating within often disparate, even rival, scholarly approaches. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have not only monopolized scholarly notions of the Gulf, but also engendered in developmental terms a disjointed, if not crumbling, MENA region. At this juncture, its character as a contemporary ‘anomaly’ carries concrete function in creating a new analytical prism that reinserts the Gulf’s strategic value as a particular operational node for the imperialist fracturing of the wider region in terms of socio-cultural, economic and political cohesion. As hinted throughout, scholarship on the Gulf contraption requires new frames of analysis.
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| 17 |
ID:
199077
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| 18 |
ID:
199076
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| 19 |
ID:
199075
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| Summary/Abstract |
Jacob Lassner’s is a well-written essay ranging over the entirety of Arabic-speaking Muslim history, all the way to the immediate past, describing the tangled relations between Jews and Muslims. From the Quranic polemics to the dhimmi status of the premodern Jews in the Muslim world to the Damascus blood libel of 1840, a great deal of history, theology, and even social relations is covered.
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| 20 |
ID:
199074
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| Summary/Abstract |
Jacob Lassner belongs to a generation of Orientalists (yes, yes, an Orientalist of the Goldziher persuasion), a race of disappearing dinosaurs who knew how to read a classical text, and indeed read and brought clarity to such texts.
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