The survival of eight monarchies during the "Arab Uprisings" of 2011 has put center stage the fundamental question about the durability of this subtype of authoritarian regime. Seen from a broader historical perspective, however, the idea that monarchies have an inherent advantage in retaining...

This article deals with the Arab Spring as a process of deep political change in the Arab world, previously the only major world area where authoritarianism persisted unchallenged for decades. While in various countries of the Arab world mass protests in 2011 forced rulers to resign, other...

In 2006/2007 Turkey became a regional power in the Middle East, a status it has continued to maintain in the context of the Arab Spring. To understand why Turkey only became a regional power under the Muslim AKP government and why this happened at the specific point in time that it did, the...

This Working Paper examines the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on state and non-state violent actors in the Global South. We provide an ACLED-based interregional mapping of trends in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and subSaharan Africa. Cross-regional case...

Der Vordere Orient ist eine hochgradig konfliktbeladene Weltregion. Dabei erscheint die Abwesenheit einer Regionalmacht sowohl als Ursache wie auch als Folge dieses Merkmals. Gleichzeitig lassen sich starke Machtasymmetrien zwischen den Staaten des Vorderen Orients beobachten, wobei Israel zu...

Ten years ago, President Barack Obama's unprecedented address to the Muslim world from Cairo was hailed as a landmark in US-Middle Eastern relations and described by contemporary observers as a historical break in US foreign policy in the region. Yet it soon became clear that the president's...

Between normative aspirations and national interests, forced migrants often become pawns in host states' negotiations with internal and external actors. Focusing on North Africa, the Middle East, and the Horn of Africa, this paper offers an analytical framework to better understand forced...

Der in den 1980er Jahren entwickelte Rentierstaats-Ansatz hat die Diskussion über die sozioökonomische und politische Entwicklung des Vorderen Orients geprägt. Freilich haben sich die Anhänger des Ansatzes bisher zu stark auf die Analyse positiver Fälle konzentriert und sind der Kritik...

Sustainable Development Goal 16 on "peace, justice, and strong institutions" is widely considered a central pillar of sustainable development. Based on a comprehensive concept of peace that goes beyond the mere absence of war, it might also be the most difficult to realise. Debates in Peace and...