During the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the AKP, the Turkish government shifted from a 'reactive' to an 'activist' foreign policy. As a result, many in the West increasingly began to see Tur
Films both reflect and construct social reality, especially in the way they employ, affirm and critique the discourses through which we grasp political life. This book examines five contemporary featu
In response to the civil war in Darfur, the African Mission in Sudan (AMIS) force was established in May 2004, and by June its first contingents were on the ground. For the first time since the foundi
The US-led coalition which launched an invasion of Iraq on 20 March 2003 led to a decade-long military presence in the country. In the run-up to that invasion, many comparisons were made with the 1991
Sexual violence has been a regular feature of communal conflict in India since independence in 1947. The Partition riots, which saw the brutal victimization of thousands of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh wome
In 1923 the Turkish government, under its new leader Kemal Ataturk, signed a renegotiated Balkan Wars treaty with the major powers of the day and Greece. This treaty provided for the forced exchange o
The uprisings that were seen throughout the Middle East during 2010 and 2011, make it difficult to over-state the role of educated youth in the region’s politics. Daniele Cantini combines an analysis
Discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity is forbidden in contemporary international human rights law, yet in many interpretations of Islamic law, this is seen to contradi
The 2006 elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council, the first in which both Fatah and Hamas fielded candidates, resulted in a resounding victory for Hamas. Winning 74 out of the 132 seats (com
With the growing importance of emerging markets the focus of analysts has begun to concentrate on the contribution of Latin America and the Middle East to the global economy, and the relations between
In the aftermath of World War I, the British Empire was hit by two different crises on opposite sides of the world—the Jallianwala Bagh, or Amritsar, Massacre in the Punjab and the Croke Park Massacre
Saudi Arabia, with its US alliance and abundance of oil dollars, has a very different economic story to that of Iran, which despite enormous natural gas reserves, has been hit hard by economic, trade,
What do new technologies taste like? A growing number of contemporary artists are working with food, live materials and scientific processes, in order to explore and challenge the ways in which manipu
The Kosovo question posed a great challenge to the international order in the western Balkans for a number of decades prior to the outbreak of war in the 1990s. Yugoslavia, Albania, the USSR, the USA,
By the nineteenth century the British had ruled India for over a hundred years, and had consolidated their power over the sub-continent. Until 1858, when Queen Victoria assumed sovereignty following t
Kiryat Shmona, located on the Israeli-Lebanese border, often makes the news whenever there is an outbreak of violence between the two countries. Israel's northernmost city, its residents are mostly Mi
Gay pornography, online and onscreen, is a controversial and significantly under-researched area of cultural production. In the first book of its kind, Gay Pornography: Representations of Sexuality an
Rethinking Heritage brings together leading writers and thinkers to examine the ways in which ingrained assumptions about heritage are being challenged today. It explores the key questions that surrou
Humanitarian intervention has increasingly become the prevalent means of providing protection and aid at a global level. Yet alongside its success concerns have been raised that humanitarianism has in
Migration has been a phenomenon throughout human history but today, as a result of economic hardship, conflict and globalization, a higher percentage of people than ever before live outside their coun
At a time when the European Union is further expanding and countries such as Turkey are being accepted for eventual membership, the question of what is meant by a unified Europe and how that might be
Nuclear power has for the most part dominated Western media and academic analyses concerning Iranian foreign policy in recent years. This focus, however, can be misleading, especially as regards the e
Film noir has been understood as a genre exclusive to Hollywood. But classical US noir's downbeat sensibility also finds expression in later films from Japan, South Korea and greater China (including
'Play art' or interactive art is becoming a central concept in the contemporary art world, disrupting the traditional role of passive observance usually assumed by audiences, allowing them active part
In a 'Europe without borders' that prides itself on multiculturalism while struggling desperately with racism, populated by ghettoized communities, refugee camps and zones of exclusion, two opposing p
The current Syrian crisis has its roots in the sectarian nature of the country’s multi-religious society. Since Ottoman times, the different religious communities have enjoyed the right to regulate an
Cities are responsible for three-quarters of the world’s energy consumption. If we are to reduce our demands on the planet’s resources how can we make our urban areas more energy efficient? One way is
The Ottoman East—what is also called ‘Western Armenia’, ‘Northern Kurdistan’ or ‘Eastern Anatolia’—compared to other peripheries of the Ottoman Empire, has received very little attention in Ottoman hi
Since the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948, more than 40,000 Iranian Jews have moved to Israel, with the last big wave arriving after the Iranian Revolution of 1978/79. As the governme
Love stories have always been at the heart of French cinema, but romantic comedies have, until recently, been absent from it. In 2001, the global success of Amelie catalysed a major development in the
In recent years, the ways in which digital technologies have come to shape our experience of the world has been an immensely popular subject in the horror film genre. Contemporary horror cinema reflec
Few deny that in the Muslim world religion and law are intimately linked. However, local legal realities mean that Islamic law is often pushed out of the picture by customary law, which is usually tri
The Mesopotamian campaign during World War I was a critical moment in Britain’s position in the Middle East. With British and British Indian troops fighting in places which have become well-known in t
Wealth in the Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Balkans demonstrates the economic and social transformations wrought by the Ottoman Empires withdrawal from the Balkans. As a new middle class emerged, and the p
Today Russia and human rights are both high on the international agenda. Since Putin returned to the presidency in 2012, domestic developments—from the prosecution of Pussy Riot to the release of Khod
The Palestine Exploration Fund, established in 1865, is the oldest organization created specifically for the study of the Levant. It helped to spur evangelical tourism to the region in the late 19th a
Ours is an age of great upheaval where change sometimes appears to be the only constant. Three of the most important forces driving such change are globalization, regionalization and democratization.
This is a penetrating critique of international relations theory within the historical framework of US-Iranian relations from the early reign of the Shah to the revolution under the Ayatollah Khomeini
