Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), defined by international law as constituting the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (the latter includes East Jerusalem), are among the highest recipients of international humanitarian aid per capita in the world. In Prolonged Humanitarianism: The Social Life of Aid in the Palestinian Territories, I examine the impact of primarily Western aid on Palestinian society in the present phase of de-development in the OPT (2010-2013). I examine four domains in particular: medical relief, psychosocial humanitarianism, gender-based interventions, and security-sector support. My research reveals the interlinked nature of these domains as well as the blurring of development and humanitarian assistance in the OPT. A central purpose of this research is to provide an ethnographic account of contemporary Palestinian subjectivity under prolonged humanitarian governance, thereby contributing to scholarship on conflict and violence, modern Middle Eastern studies, the anthropology of policy and humanitarianism, and critical development studies. / Anthropology

Cette thèse, qui consiste en une étude analytique et descriptive, porte sur une série d’auteurs français, principalement des voyageurs, ayant écrit sur l’Orient méditerranéen - Turquie, Syrie, Terre sainte et Égypte - durant les XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Afin de disposer d’une vision englobant tous les aspects de la vie humaine dans cette région durant ces deux siècles, nous avons sélectionné un échantillon de 24 auteurs, représentant divers domaines de connaissances: diplomates, marchands, religieux, aventuriers. Les ouvrages de ces auteurs contiennent des informations relatives à un large éventail de thèmes de l’Orient méditerranéen: l’organisation des différentes nations, les religions, la vie sociale, les villes, les aspects économique, administratif, politique et scientifique. L’étude de ces ouvrages nous permet de mettre en lumière deux éléments majeurs. D’une part nous découvrons comment les lecteurs français des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles ont acquis des connaissances sur cette zone géographique. D’autre part nous disposons d’une vision de cet espace à travers le regard des auteurs français modernes. Trois points sont traités dans le cadre de cette thèse à partir de l’analyse de ces ouvrages: les méthodes suivies par les auteurs dans la rédaction de leurs écrits, les conditions dans lesquelles ont été produits ces ouvrages et enfin le contenu même de ces derniers avec l’étude de chacun des thèmes évoqués. Pour chacun de ces points, l’accent est mis sur les différences existant entre les auteurs du XVIIe et ceux du XVIIIe siècle, ce qui permet de dégager les évolutions qu’ont connues leurs écrits d’un siècle à l’autre dans la façon de traiter l’Orient méditerranéen. / This thesis, which is a descriptive study, covers several French writers, mainly travelers, who write on different themes about the Eastern Mediterranean - Turkey, Syria, Egypt and the Holy Land - during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In order to have a vision encompassing all aspects of human life in this region during these two centuries, we have selected a sample of 24 authors, representing various areas of knowledge: diplomats, merchants, religious adventurers. The works of these authors provide information on various topics of the eastern Mediterranean: the organization of different nations, religions, social life, and cities, economic, administrative, political and scientific fields. The study of these works allows us to highlight two major elements. On the one hand we discover how French readers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have learned about this geographical area. On the other hand we have a vision of this space through the eyes of contemporary French authors. Three points are discussed in this thesis starting from the analysis of these works: the methods used by the authors in writing their accounts, the conditions in which these works were produced, and finally the content of these last with the study of the various topics covered by these authors. For each of these three points, the focus is on the differences between the authors of the seventeenth and eighteenth century ones, allowing the detection of changes experienced by their writings a century the other in how to deal with the themes of the Eastern Mediterranean.

This study examined the representation of national and religious dimensions of Iranian history and identity in Iranian middle school history textbooks. Furthermore, through a qualitative case study in a school in the capital city of Tehran, teachers’ use of textbooks in classrooms, students’ response, their perceptions of the country’s past, and their definitions of national identity is studied. The study follows a critical discourse analysis framework by focusing on the subjectivity of the text and examining how specific concepts, in this case collective identities, are constructed through historical narratives and how social actors, in this case students, interact with , and make sense of, the process. My definition of national identity is based on the ethnosymbolism paradigm (Smith, 2003) that accommodates both pre-modern cultural roots of a nation and the development and trajectory of modern political institutions. Two qualitative approaches of discourse analysis and case study were employed. The textbooks selected were those published by the Ministry of Education; universally used in all middle schools across the country in 2009. The case study was conducted in a girls’ school in Tehran. The students who participated in the study were ninth grade students who were in their first year of high school and had just finished a complete course of Iranian history in middle school. Observations were done in history classes in all three grades of the middle school. The study findings show that textbooks present a generally negative discourse of Iran’s long history as being dominated by foreign invasions and incompetent kings. At the same time, the role of Islam and Muslim clergy gradually elevates in salvaging the country from its despair throughout history, becomes prominent in modern times, and finally culminates in the Islamic Revolution as the ultimate point of victory for the Iranian people. Throughout this representation, Islam becomes increasingly dominant in the textbooks’ narrative of Iranian identity and by the time of the Islamic Revolution morphs into its single most prominent element. On the other hand, the students have created their own image of Iran’s history and Iranian identity that diverges from that of the textbooks especially in their recollection of modern times. They have internalized the generally negative narrative of textbooks, but have not accepted the positive role of Islam and Muslim clergy. Their notion of Iranian identity is dominated by feelings of defeat and failure, anecdotal elements of pride in the very ancient history, and a sense of passivity and helplessness.

Security and political instability may affect development of country's tourism negatively. Moreover, tourism is one of the basic development conditions of tourism. Country affected by a bad security situation, e.g. because of terrorist attacks or war, is considered as an unsafe destination by potentional visitors which may result in decline in tourist arrivals to the country. Israel has image of dangerous destination in respect of a long Arab-Israeli, or Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The aim of this study is to evaluate impact of security on inbound tourist flows to Israel based on characterization of security situation in Israel from the end of the 60's to the present and reaction of inbound tourism to this development.

The thesis focuses on the progress of the oil economies in MENA since 90's. Due to the outbreak of unrest in the Arab world, the thesis deals with the political area and causes leading to the Arab Spring. The importance of oil in the world economy and it's discovery in the Middle East and North Africa increased strategic importance of this region. Arab countries have for the past three decades undergone significant social, economic and political transformation and their oil wealth played a major role in this transformation. The first chapter focuses on economic theory dealing with raw materials and their impact on economic growth of countries. The next chapter focuses on presentation of the MENA region. The third chapter deals with the development of four selected countries - Algeria, Egypt, Syria and Libya since 90's, the impact of the global financial crisis on Arab countries and the Arab Spring.

Main aim of this master's thesis is to answer the following research question: How to deal with nuclear Iran? Author explores this vast topic through lens of a neorealist paradigm in order to analyze the impact of Russia's and US influence over Israeli-Iranian rivalry in the Middle East. Discourse analysis has been chosen as a methodological blueprint to examine strategic dimension of Israeli-Iranian relations with a special emphasis on its nuclear dimension. In addition, a comparison of both possible military and peaceful solutions of Iranian nuclear program is stressed. Main empirical data used are infamous Israeli air-strikes on nuclear reactors of its neighbors; Osirak and Al-Kibar. Deterrence theory, especially its conventional realm, provides a basis for an assessment of strategic balance between State of Israel an Islamic Republic of Iran, in case Iran emerges as a nuclear power.

This thesis deals with the energy security of Israel in contemporary context of regional tension. The paper further examines the factors, which influence the energy security, possible threats and perspectives, which could lead to increased energy independence of the country. The thesis also elaborates on the new trends in the field of natural gas exploitation in Israel.

This thesis deals with the business environment in Iran and opportunities for trade cooperation. The first chapter describes the status of Iran in the Middle East, the second one describes the cultural environment. The third chapter deals with business environment using the PESTL analysis. This thesis also examines the foreign trade of the country and Czech-Iranian cooperation, stating a few specific examples.

This thesis is engaged in characteristics of new antisemitism as a new phenomenon in international relations and examining presence of its attributes in past two UN conferences against rasism. The aim of the thesis is to prove presence of new antisemitism in field of institutionalised international relations.

Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this specific study is to discover how mothers in the Middle East perceive their entrepreneurial identity based on the results and our interpretation of the mothers' narratives, to fill the gap that was discovered in mompreneurship identity research area in the Middle East. Design/methodology/approach – A Qualitative Research Design using the ‘Abductive reasoning’ method was implemented. And the philosophical approach of this study is the ‘Interpretive Epistemology’ based on the interpretation of narratives and life experience of seven interviewed samples of mothers who own businesses ‘mompreneurs’ from the Middle East. Semi-structured interviews in the form of internet-based interviewing were used. And in order to analyze the result a narrative analysis approaches, William Labov Approach and the Dialogic performance analysis approach were utilized. Findings – the findings in this study showed that the results of the majority of samples identified themselves as being totally Momprenures and they appreciate their role as a mother and a business owner. And that they have several motivations such as (Forced, Intrinsic, classic and work-family) which classified them under certain typologies of the entrepreneurial identity (Solution -seeker, Self-actualized, Informed, Bonafide and Missionary identity). However, no certain motivation was considered to be the dominant. And the results indicate that, three samples that were motivated by (Forced Factors) falls under the same typology of solution seeker Identity. And the other three samples that were motivated by (Intrinsic and Classic motivations) falls under the typology of Informed Entrepreneur, restricted to the understanding of the samples taken from the Middle East. In Addition, the results also indicated that the momprenure identity was not directly affected by gender, as reflected by theories where masculinity is related to entrepreneurship. Research limitations/contribution – This study was limited by several factors unexpected situation of the spreading of (CORONAVIRUS) which limited samples size, and canceled the in-person meetings for interviews. Therefore, the results were only Restricted to our samples and might not be taken as general outcomes. The contribution of our findings will be opening the door for further studies on a broader scale to cover a wider range of motivations, and a wider range of identity theories that would reflect the identities of mothers in the context of the Middle East.