This study analyses the strengths and limitations of Turkey on its way to becoming a regional power in the Middle East. Using the major theories of International Relations (Realism and Liberalism), the study presents the definition and main criteria of the term of regional power. The key purpose of this study is to examine if today's Turkey meets the requirements of being a recognized regional leader. The paper examines the period under the governance of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) which has started in 2002 and continues since then. During these 17 years, Turkey has gone through 3 distinct stages; Recovery from the internal political and economic crisis, ascendancy to a regional power level in the Middle East region and the decline phase which came as a result of failures in internal and external affairs. In order to understand the position of Turkey in the region and its regional influence during this period Turkish economic and military power capabilities are thoroughly analyzed and compared to the same statistical indicators of other Middle East countries. Moreover, the paper also analyses the foreign policy of Turkey towards the regional actors and the level of its recognition as a major power by international players. The study confirms that Turkey has lost its status as a regional...

Qu’apportent la collecte et l’exposition des objets préislamiques et islamiques dans la définition d’un rapport spécifique entre l’Arabie saoudite et ses objets archéologiques ? Il s’agit de rendre compte de l’activité de conservation saoudienne « consciente et systématique » pour comprendre la manière dont des objets archéologiques sont parvenus à incarner un pan du « patrimoine » du berceau de l’Islam. L’étude de la collecte et de l’exposition d’objets archéologiques dans une approche centrée sur l’objet doit permettre de décrire les évolutions de sens donnés aux objets préislamiques et islamiques en Arabie saoudite. Le propos est organisé en deux parties. La première a pour objectif de présenter, et le processus de collecte de l’objet archéologique en Arabie ottomane puis saoudite (1761-1981), et ses conséquences sur la reconnaissance des objets archéologiques transformées en antiquités nationales. Un suivi chronologique a été privilégié, depuis les missions ethnographiques, épigraphiques et archéologiques menées entre 1761 et 1953 par des étrangers jusqu’à la nationalisation saoudienne de l’archéologie avec la création d’un Département des Antiquités et Musées en 1963 et d’un Département d’Archéologie à la King Saud University en 1966, et le lancement d’un premier plan quinquennal de fouilles archéologiques entre 1976 et 1981. La seconde partie présente le processus d’exposition publique de ces nouvelles antiquités nationales. Le déroulé chronologique est poursuivi pour rendre compte de trois contextes d’exposition de ces antiquités entre 1978 et 2015 : en musées régionaux, en musée national, et dans le cadre d’expositions temporaires à l’étranger. Le récit de ces expositions amène à percevoir les transformations sémiotiques des objets archéologiques et à véritablement présenter la reconnaissance du passé préislamique de l’Arabie saoudite. / What do the processes of collection and exhibition of pre-Islamic and Islamic objects bring to the definition of a specific relationship between Saudi Arabia and its archaeological objects? The objective is to describe the “conscious and systematic” Saudi conservation activities to understand how archaeological objects have come to embody pieces of the cradle of Islam’s “heritage”. To study the collection and exhibition of archaeological objects from a centred-object approach should allow the understanding of the recognition given to pre-Islamic and Islamic objects in Saudi Arabia. The thesis is organized in two parts. The first aims to introduce the collection process of archaeological objects in Ottoman and Saudi Arabia (1761-1981) as well as its impact on the recognition of archaeological objects transformed into national antiquities. A chronological track is privileged, from ethnographic scientific missions to epigraphic and archaeological ones conducted between 1761 and 1953 by foreigners, to the Saudi nationalization of archaeology along with the creation of a Department of Antiquities and Museums in 1963 and of a Department of Archaeology at the King Saud University in 1967, and the launch of a first five-year plan of archaeological excavations between 1976 and 1981. The second part presents the public exhibition process of these national antiquities. The chronological path followed in the first part is pursued to account for three exhibition contexts of these antiquities between 1978 and 2015: in regional museums, in the National Museum, and within temporary exhibitions abroad. The presentation of these exhibitions leads to the understanding of both the semiotic transformation of collected archaeological objects and the inner recognition of the pre-Islamic past of Saudi Arabia.

Background The Middle East is a region that consists of 17 countries: Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Cyprus, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia (Pariona, 2020). Due to the persistent presence of old social and cultural structures, inequality remains a problem within the region. Every day, females in the region are faced with discrimination in various forms - something which becomes evident in the existing statistics, which show that only 28 percent of all females in the MENA region are economically active (Hattab, 2012).    However, it has been possible to identify improvements within the development of society as well as in the work to counteract inequality. Hence, it becomes increasingly important to gain a greater understanding of the region as a whole as well as gain knowledge regarding the existing challenges that female entrepreneurs experience.    Purpose The purpose of this research is to gain an understanding of the different challenges that female entrepreneurs face when launching, managing, and developing a business in the Middle East region.    Method This research is a qualitative study in which an abductive approach has been used. Therefore, the conclusions will be drawn from the empirical findings in combination with the results in the existing literature. Furthermore, in order to obtain high-quality and truthful data, a case-study with a semi-structured interview technique was used. All six interviews were later analysed by all researchers individually as well as jointly in order to ensure that no important information was lost.    Conclusion Based on the empirical findings in combination with the existing literature, three contextual factors were identified as the main challenges of female entrepreneurs when operating in the Middle East region. The following contextual challenges were identified: 1) Lack of Finance, 2) Lack of Support, and 3) Discrimination.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / The 1991 Gulf War caused massive environmental damage in Kuwait. Deposition of oil and soot droplets from hundreds of burning oil-wells created a layer of tarcrete on the desert surface covering over 900 km'. This research investigates the spatial change in the tarcrete extent from 1991 to 1998 using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery and statistical modeling techniques. The pixel structure ofTM data allows the spatial analysis of the change in tarcrete extent to be conducted at the pixel (cell) level within a geographical information system (GIS). There are two components to this research. The first is a comparison of three remote sensing classification techniques used to map the tarcrete layer. The second is a spatial-temporal analysis and simulation of tarcrete changes through time. The analysis focuses on an area of 389 km' located south of the Al-Burgan oil field. Five TM images acquired in 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1998 were geometrically and atmospherically corrected. These images were classified into six classes: oil lakes; heavy, intermediate, light, and traces of tarcrete; and sand. The classification methods tested were unsupervised, supervised, and neural network supervised (fuzzy ARTMAP). Field data of tarcrete characteristics were collected to support the classification process and to evaluate the classification accuracies. Overall, the neural network method is more accurate (60 percent) than the other two methods; both the unsupervised and the supervised classification accuracy assessments resulted in 46 percent accuracy. The five classifications were used in a lagged autologistic model to analyze the spatial changes of the tarcrete through time. The autologistic model correctly identified overall tarcrete contraction between 1991-1993 and 1995-1998. However, tarcrete contraction between 1993-1994 and 1994-1995 was less well marked, in part because of classification errors in the maps from these time periods. Initial simulations of tarcrete contraction with a cellular automaton model were not very successful. However, more accurate classifications could improve the simulations. This study illustrates how an empirical investigation using satellite images, field data, GIS, and spatial statistics can simulate dynamic land-cover change through the use of a discrete statistical and cellular automaton model.

Syrian Civil War has been occupying the international agenda since the year 2011. Despite the fact that most of the attention is paid to the conflict itself, peace processes are part of the international competition on Syrian arena, as well. For this reason, the thesis attempts to examine two major peace tracks: Astana and Geneva processes. The former is established among Russia-Turkey-Iran trio in late 2016 and functions as a regional mediation ground while the latter is led by the top world organization, the UN, as a ground for international actors with substantial interest in the Near East. Astana's relatively better performance in reaching certain outcomes is analyzed with hypotheses derived from three core International Relations theories: Realism, Liberalism and Constructivism. In this regard, those assumptions analyze actors that are involved in the conflict within the framework of their relevant peace track. According to the conducted analyses, findings indicate that realist hypothesis is better at explaining Astana's "fruitfulness" than the other assumptions- especially field-level agreements but not the broader cooperation among the Astana trio. Hence, Geneva track with higher level of international participation carries greater importance for an ultimate resolution to the conflict.

Throughout the past eighty years, the United States and Israel have had a close relationship. This study aims to understand and define patterns of behavior from presidents of the United States in their relation with Israel. The understanding of national interest and underlying pat- terns of the United States policies is what inspired the approach of the study, leading to the subject of defining a pattern in behavior. This study examines the relationship between Israel and the United States, focusing on one of the two actors, the United States, by looking at The United States presidencies following the end of the Cold War. By applying rational choice theory to secondary literature on the United State presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Don- ald J. Trump, the results presented that pattern has been present for many years. All presi- dents have taken their own approach on maintaining the social, military, economical, and po- litical relationship, however one president has deprived from the given pattern of putting the countries best interest at the core. Meaning that a deprivation of national interest has taken place. Leading to going against national interest in the region.

Diploma thesis: Second Lebanon war versus the Gaza war-comparison of Israeli approach is focused on the last two wars Israel waged. In 2006, Israel waged a war against Hezbollah and in 2008/2009 against Hamas. This thesis is primarily focused on the Israeli side and is supposed to find out the main reason to its failure in Lebanon and its success in the Gaza strip. Out of three examined reasons: Israeli political and military decision-making, readiness of the Israeli army and preparations of both Hamas and Hezbollah for potential conflict. Effect based theory is used as a theoretical background in this thesis and helps to understand reasons to the Israeli failure in Lebanon

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and describe the effects of the Middle East policies of Turkey and the European Union on mutual relations between the two actors with particular focus on the Arab Spring and its repercussions on regional stability and international relations. The key components of Turkey's foreign policy are analyzed from the perspectives of EU-Turkey relations and political stances of Turkey and the European Union towards the Middle East. Analysis of Turkey's and the EU's responses to the uprisings and their impact on the situation in the region is an important part of the study. The conclusions of this study confirm that the strategic cooperation between the EU and Turkey and the necessity of compensating each other's relative weaknesses in order to achieve similar foreign policy goals in the concerned region after the Arab Spring led to a rapprochement between the two actors. However, a direct influence of this rapprochement on the negotiation process regarding the future Turkish membership in the EU has not yet been observed. Key words Turkey, the European Union, Turkey-EU relations, negotiation process, the Middle East, MENA, foreign politics, the Arab Spring…

With the end of Cold War Turkey found itself in power vacuum created by the fall of Soviet Union. American-Turkish relations at that time lowered its priority-status and 90s in general are perceived as a "lost decade" for the relations. During that time, traditional secular parties in Turkey experienced a loss on electorate. Therefore space emerged for a new party which will respect (at least partly) democratic rules and at the same time will be based on Muslim traditions. The party was AKP lead by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Almost simultaneously George W. Bush became the President of the United States and both countries started to cooperate closely especially after 9/11 attacks. Although the AKP supports fighting terrorism (Turkey has problems with Kurdish terrorism) and Turkey supported Afghan mission, relations of both countries started deteriorating soon. Turkish stances towards Iraq War, together with bad communication by political elites of both countries lead to colder bilateral relations. Turkish approach towards foreign policy in the region is one of the leading factors for the quality of relations. During the past decade, Turkey tried "zero-problem" policy with its neighbors, which was not always feasible and led to little success. With Barack Obama taking the office the relations started...

To what extent do participatory civil society dynamics, rooted in self-assertive social capital, help explain the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011? How do pro-democratic Arab attitudes matter in promoting elite-challenging collective actions? Does Islam support or hinder elite-challenging, self-assertive social capital? To answer these questions, this study systematically examines the variation in self-assertive (emancipative) social capital in Egypt and Jordan from a comparative perspective. By using emancipative social capital theory, this article embarks on an individual-level quantitative analysis derived from the World Values Survey database to explore the empirical nexus between pro-democratic attitudes, elite-challenging actions, and Islamic values in order to partly explain comparatively high-intensive and persistent uprisings in Egypt and relatively low-intensive and less persistent demonstrations in Jordan. The findings offer critical insights in understanding the social capital dimension of the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 and contribute new clues about empirical interactions between Islamic resurgence and civil society dynamics in the Muslim world.