This study aims to close the gap in the literature on religious minority groups in the Arab Middle East by examining how religion has shaped belief systems and social identities in religious minorities in Jordan. Additionally, the study also examines the role of familial structures and their sphere of influence in society. Previous research has predominantly focused on the religious majority and has usually been examined through quantitative data. By means of semi-structured interviews, the findings indicate how foundational religion is perceived to be in shaping belief systems and social identities in individuals and shows strong dependencies on the family system which governs individual behavior. These findings contribute to the research field on religious minority groups in the Arab Middle East, which has not received sufficient attention, providing insight into how religious minorities attribute meaning to the world around them.

The effects of climate change and global warming and the conversations surrounding it are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. The future predictions of the impact of climate change on the planet present daunting challenges for people around the globe, especially for the Mediterranean littoral, which has been labeled as a climate "hot spot". The paper focuses on the effects of climate change on migration patterns in the Mediterranean region to understand what a warmer future in the Mediterranean may look like to develop policies and strategies that may mitigate some of the more negative outcomes. The paper's main objective is to answer the following question; what are the links between migration patterns and climate change in the Mediterranean region? To the question, it is important to first define and place the theoretical framework firmly in the context that the paper is covering, such as the political, economic, social, environmental and demographic factors. Once these factors are defined, they are applied to real-world case studies in the form of North Africa and Syria through Black, Adger, et al.'s framework of drivers of migration through qualitative and quantitative data that comes from secondary resources. After analysing and comparing the two case studies the results showed that...

The Arab Middle East began indigenous nation building relatively late in the twentieth century. Issues of legitimacy, identity, and conflicts with the West have plagued Arab nations. Arab states have espoused universal ideologies as solutions to the problems of Arab nation building. The two ideologies of Pan-Arabism and Islamic modernism provided universal solutions to the Arab states. Both Pan-Arabism and Islamic modernism gained validity in political polemics aimed against colonialism, imperialism, Zionism, and the West. Both ideologies promised simple solutions to complex questions of building modern Arab society. Irrespective of ideology, Arab states have always acted in self-interest to perceived external threats. The West has perpetuated universal solutions to Arab nation building through continued intervention in the Middle East. The Arabs perpetuated universal solutions to Arab- nation building as panacea to the problems of becoming modern nations.

Considering that the greatest fear of deploying military personnel is separation from family, an obvious and overlooked psychological phenomenon that merits further investigation is loneliness. In this study, 131 US troops completed the UCLA Loneliness Scale, Anxiety Control Questionnaire, and a leisurely activity participation scale to predict loneliness with participation in non-work activities in the presence of another moderator (locus of control) and various demographic factors. As hypothesized, the results indicated that 1) the best non-work activity predictors of loneliness were emailing friends and listening to music, 2) external locus of control was positively correlated with loneliness and internal locus of control was negatively correlated with loneliness, and 3) loneliness was positively correlated with length of time deployed.

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This study analyzed the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya (North Africa) beginning in late 2010. The first part of the study focused on variables that the North African revolutions shared. These variables were "personalistic-style of dictatorship", "sizable percentage of youth in population", and "economic context". These factors were then discussed as major descriptive variables that caused the revolutionary events in North Africa. The second part of the study assessed why each North African revolution resulted in varying levels of violence. Concluding thoughts were made regarding the similarities and differences between the 2009 Iranian Green Revolution, events in other North African Arab-majority states such as Algeria and Morocco, and the on-going Syrian Revolution to the North African Revolutions

In recent years, China has become an increasingly influential actor in Muslim-majority countries the world over. This is despite growing international condemnation of Beijing’s imprisonment of Muslims living in northwestern Xinjiang province, in so-called "vocational training schools" where their religious identities are forcibly assimilated under the guise of counter-extremism. Nevertheless, Muslim-majority countries have remained silent or even supportive of China's treatment of its Muslim minorities. This seemingly contradictory policy position is frequently explained by citing these countries’ dependence on Chinese trade and investment in their economic and infrastructural development, however this argument inadequately assesses other important factors behind these countries’ support for China’s treatment of its Muslim minorities. Beyond the theory of economic necessity and the equally realist consideration of security ties, this research further posits that Muslim-majority states support or defend China’s treatment of Muslims in order to secure Chinese ideological support to defend themselves from reproach against their own domestic policies towards separatist movements and religious extremists. To evaluate these hypotheses, this thesis examines the engagement of some key Muslim-majority states with China by analyzing realpolitik factors like (1) economic relations; and (2) security and military cooperation; as well as more ideological factors, namely whether or not they share a common vulnerability to (3) domestic secessionist movements challenging their authority; or to (4) religious extremism that threatens state security. This research examines the economic and security relations between China and six of the most geopolitically significant Muslim- majority countries (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey), as well the influence of secessionism and religious extremism in each country. It then assesses the analytical validity of these four hypotheses, and concludes that the ideological considerations consisting of common vulnerability to secessionism and/or religious extremism, exhibited the greatest explanatory power for predicting Muslim-majority countries’ level of support for China's treatment of Muslims. Although realpolitik considerations like economic and security cooperation with China can also clearly be seen to influence the position of Muslim-majority countries on this issue, ideological factors like obtaining Chinese support for their suppression of secessionist movements or religious extremism are clearly paramount. In addition to these four variables, this research also briefly acknowledges the explanatory potential of other ideological factors in influencing the support of Muslim-majority countries for China's policies towards its Muslim minorities. These include factors like regime type, the prevalence of anti- American sentiment, as well as the desire to form an alliance with China against Western democracies and the norms and standards they espouse in multilateral organizations. Ultimately, this dissertation demonstrates that China has already achieved widespread political and ideological support among the developing countries of the Global South, including many Muslim-majority countries. If Western democracies wish to exert pressure on China to change its behaviour, they will first need to win back the support of the Global South by offering a suitable alternative source of political, economic and security support, while foregoing neocolonial demands to enact changes to their domestic political systems.

This thesis assesses the current rights of women in Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Within each case study, four main factors are measured based on their individual influence in each state. The first factor, historical context, examines various historical influences and their effect on the empowerment of women in their country. The second factor, the socio-cultural context, describes social and ethnical effects on society such as the influence of tribal lineage. The third factor researched is the political structure of the state and the impact that each different political system has upon gender equality in that region. The fourth and final factor is the economic system and the various economic determinants that influence the presence of women in the economy. Subsequently, the conclusion cross analyzes these factors and their distinctive and comparative impact across each region. This thesis attempts to offer an introductory glimpse into the various factors that may hinder empowerment of women in these regions. This information is imperative in order to understand how these states can develop policies that will empower women economically, politically, and socially.

In the last decade, the rapid economic development in the Middle East has encouraged organisations to implement modem quality management and strategic initiatives such as Six Sigma to ensure continuous improvement and achieved excellence. Six Sigma is a comprehensive business strategic quality programme and a systematic process improvement methodology for achieving, sustaining and maximising business success. The proper implementation of Six Sigma leads to breakthrough in profitability through ensuring quantum gains in product/service quality, customer satisfaction and productivity. This research presents an empirical exploratory and comparative study that aims and attempts to bridge the gap in the existing literature of Six Sigma by investigating the current implementation status of Six Sigma in organisations of three Middle East countries (namely, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and United Arab Emirates (UAE)). The reasons/benefits that encourage Middle East organisations to implement Six Sigma projects, the challenges commonly faced during implementation, the critical success factors (CSFs) for effective implementation and the organisations’ satisfaction with the implementation are investigated. The key issues of Six Sigma implementation and their criticality relating to the experience of the implementing process of Six Sigma projects are explored through an extensive review of the relevant literature. The data were collected from a combination of quantitative (232 questionnaires) and qualitative (74 semi-structured interviews) methodologies. The research covered 44 organisations from manufacturing and services sectors and large, small, and medium enterprises (SME) sizes, which have implemented or were implementing Six Sigma projects in the selected countries at the time of study. The study findings identified 15 significant reasons/benefits which encourages Middle East organisations to implement Six Sigma projects, 13 major challenges commonly faced during implementation, 19 CSFs for effective implementation and level of the organisations’ satisfaction with the implementation. Based on the research findings, a generic model for successful and effective implementation of Six Sigma in Middle East organisations is developed and proposed. The research concludes that Six Sigma implementation in Middle East organisations still in early stage, most organisations have outstanding opportunities to implement the Six Sigma project successfully and effectively with tangible and intangible benefits. In addition, all the responding organisations, which are actively implementing Six Sigma programme, regardless of their countries, sectors and sizes are highly satisfied with the implementation results. However, the research output highlights that an improvement culture must be developed and promoted throughout the organisation to ensure long-term benefit and sustainable success. Furthermore, the research makes recommendations on development of an implementation strategy in Middle East organisations. Finally, a number of suggestions are made for future research.

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