his thesis is a discussion on the affective politics of images, with attention given to the communities and forms of citizenship they create, both digital and real, and their role in contemporary revolutions in the Middle East/North African Region. Employing Ariella Azoulay's (2008) theoretical framework of a civil contract of photography, this thesis locates and examines how a “citizenship of photography” is mobilized through current trends of citizen photojournalism and communication technology. By exploring the citizenship and community building potential of images, digital and real, an account of the revolutionary possibilities of images is formed. Drawing on recent scholarship and theoretical frameworks in the field of visual studies, media studies, and citizenship, this thesis develops a complex narrative of how images become iconic, connect individuals, and become an integral component in contemporary revolutionary change.

This thesis examines the spillover effects of armed conflicts on trade in neighboring countries. The empirical results, obtained by using a rich dataset on trade and conflict for 168 countries during the 1950-2011 period, and thus including the onset of the Arab Spring, show that conflict disrupts the trade of neighboring countries, even though they are not directly involved in any conflict. These spillovers are strongest one year after the onset of the conflict, thus suggesting that the negative effects of regional war on trade are lagged rather than contemporaneous, while they also increase the more violent the conflict is. When conflict in secondary neighbors, defined as countries that are not directly contiguous yet closer than 250km to any country in the trading-pair, is introduced the results are unclear as a majority of the estimates are insignificant and not robust to different model specifications.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the outcomes of the 2011 Arab Spring from the perspective of regime types within the Middle East and North Africa. The intense year of protest that spread throughout the Arab world had disparate effects between countries which this paper investigates. Utilizing an institutional approach, I separate the Arab world into monarchic and republican systems relying on data provided by the Arab Barometer II and III. Theoretically, I suggest, and find evidence to support, that monarchies were more resistant to the Arab protests because desires for change were not as strong within these countries because of the historical arrangements within these countries.

This diploma thesis address the problem of Islam in Egypt's constitutional arrangements after the change of government caused by the Arab Spring. The main research question is whether Islam was used by political forces affect the new constitutional arrangement of Egypt and if so in what way. The task is to confront the idea that the influence of religion in Islamic society is disappearing . In addressing the research question was the method of analysis of the available literature and information. By performing analysis of the literature , we found that Islam has clearly still a significant impact on Egyptian society, it is used as a tool of political mobilization and mainly Islamic- oriented political parties push Islam into the state structures. The main finding of this work is that secularism as seen in the European sense, is applicable in Egypt only on condition separating Islam from politics and performing only the basic thought form within the state is built

This thesis is dedicated to developing a concept that allows for predicting the magnitude of political instability periods. To that end existing literature is consulted to explore the most appropriate definitions and explanatory models for creating a elaborated approach to political instability. On the basis of this refined concept, that defines political instability as a latent condition rather than an occurrence, hypotheses are devised. These hypotheses are tested by employing a exploratory correlation analysis on a limited sample, which yields results that encourage confidence in the predictive potential of the developed concept. As suggested in the explanatory framework the analysis finds that the magnitude of conflict, resulting from political instability, is positively correlated with social fragmentation and individual deprivation, while being negatively correlated to military professionalism. A fourth explanatory component - viable alternatives to conflict - was not found to have any effect.

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Yes / It is believed that financial markets are integrated and sensitive to news – including political conflicts in some regions of the world. Furthermore, financial markets seem to react differently to information flows from one region to another. The purpose of this research is to discern the effects of the recent Middle East and North Africa (MENA) conflicts – commonly referred to as the Arab Spring – on the volatility of risks and returns of global and regional stock markets as well as Gold and Oil markets. To be more specific, we consider the main uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen and their impact on financial markets – as measured by the volatility of their risks and returns. In sum, we cluster 53 stock markets into 6 regions; namely, developed, developing, MENA, Asia, Europe, and Latin America countries, and use T-GARCH to assess the reaction of these regions to each uprising event independently. In addition, we use GARCH-M to assess the reaction of these regions stock markets as well as Gold and Oil markets to the uprisings of MENA as a whole. Our empirical findings suggest that the uprising events of MENA have more impact on the volatility of risks and returns of developed, developing, and Europe regions than MENA itself. In addition, although the results show that the volatility of both risks and returns of both developed and MENA regions are significantly affected by general conflicts in MENA, the volatility of MENA is affected during all intervals and with higher significance level. Furthermore, while MENA uprisings as a whole impact on the volatility of risk of oil (after 5 days) and gold (immediately after entering news) significantly, the returns of these markets are not affected by conflicts.

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Saudi Arabia is being challenged by increasing demands for democratic reform. Although many Saudi citizens desire such change, in order to maintain stability, dramatic and rapid reform is not considered prudent. Nor is the adoption of a Western model of democracy seen as a way forward. Indeed, such a shift would be counterproductive for most Islamic nations. A more measured approach, introducing reforms that build on traditional Islamic democratic ideals, would help to maintain stability and legitimacy for the various stakeholders involved. Consequently, attention has been turned to the ‘Majlis Al Shura’ or the Al-Shura Council, an Islamic Advisory Council that ensures policies and laws follow the principles of Islam. Shura, developed from the Holy Quran, is an ancient practice that has profound significance in Arab culture and history. It provides a framework which ensures scholars and experts from a variety of backgrounds are consulted on issues related to governance. Currently, the role the members play in governance of the Saudi State is decided by the King, who appoints individuals to the Council according to their perceived suitability. However, the Saudi Arabian Al-Shura Council is a highly respected institution. Allowing citizens to elect members, rather than having the King holding the authority to appoint them, would not only be well received, but would create a more effective check on governmental power, help satisfy the demand for more citizen input into public affairs, and pave the way for future, more substantial reform, if desired by Saudi society.