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BACKGROUND IMAGE: http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/contemporary-art-from-the-middle-east/ | EDITED BY: Michelle Patricia Busy

 Table of Contents
Part 1 - The History of the Middle Eastern Countries
The Establishment of the Jews and the State of Israel ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 4
From Holocaust to the Birth of Israel: Connecting All the Dots ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 5
British Duality Promise to Israel and Palestine ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 6
The Dilemma of Israel’s Law of Return .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Sykes – Picot Agreement: Carving Modern Middle East Border and the Unintended Chaos.................................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Part 2 - Government and Politics of the Middle East

The Balance of Religion and Politics in Lebanon .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10

1979 Iranian Revolution ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 11
To What Extent did Algerian Demands Contribute in Ending Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s 20 Years Reign? .................................................................................................................................................................. 12
The Dhofar Rebellion ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 13
The Coup and The Blockade ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14
Yemen Crisis: A Challenge Over Oman’s Neutrality ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 15
Assessing The Power of al-Saud Dynasty in Domestic Politics ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 16
The Hezbollah’s Political Influence towards the Instability of Lebanese Post-Conflict Society .............................................................................................................................................................................. 17
Part 3 - The Arab Spring

The Failure of Pearl Uprising .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 19

The “Revisiting Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution: Arab’s Spring most successful revolution, 8 years on”................................................................................................................................................................... 20
The Consequence of Bahrain Uprising Aftermath .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 21
The Political and Economic Changes in Egypt Due to the Egyptian Revolution in 2011 ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 22
Part 4 - Regional Dynamics: Conflict and Cooperation

Lebanon’s Confessionalism Sustains Conflict in the Middle East ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 24

The Endless Dispute of the Western Sahara ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 25
The Cause of Lebanon Civil War ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 26
1990 – 1991 Iraq-Kuwait Gulf War......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 27
Saudi Arabia and Iran Regional Politics ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 28
Analyzing the Diverse Causes of Israel-Palestine Sustainable Conflict ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 29
Cementing Further Conflict: One War at A Time .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 30
Yom Kippur War as The Seed For Camp David Accords.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 31
Analyzing the Rise of Hamas and Likud and the Future of Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks .................................................................................................................................................................................... 32

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Part 5 - Middle East and Beyond: Foreign Intervention

The Role of Foreign Intervention in the Sustenance of the Yemen Conflict and Humanitarian Crisis .................................................................................................................................................................... 34
Assessing NATO’s Political Backlash upon Libya Intervention ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 35
European Union’s Failure in Bringing Peace to Syria ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 36
Foreign Involvement Impact Within the Syrian Civil War ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 37
The Legitimacy of the U.S.-Led Military Intervention in the Iraq War.................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 38
Part 6 - Impacts of the Middle Eastern Conflict

The Effect of Turkish and Kurdish Conflict Towards Turkey ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 40

The Persian Gulf War and the Economic Impact Afterwards ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 41
The Domestic and International Impacts of Yemen Crisis ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 42
The Harrowing Humanitarian Situation in the Yemeni Civil War (2015-present) .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 43
Part 7 - The Political Economy of the Middle East

Egypt’s Economic Under El-Sisi’s Goverment ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 45

To what extent the Iraq’s UN sanctions affect its economy? ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 46
Assessing the Role of Natural Resources in Algeria’s Political Economy Development.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 52
Part 8 - Contemporary Issue in the Middle East

The Failure on Qatar Blockade and how it Impacts the Country ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 49
The Effects of US Embassy Relocation to Jerusalem Towards The Israel-Palestinian Conflict ................................................................................................................................................................................ 50
Marriage for Egyptian Women: Status or Contract?.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 51
The Solutions to Lebanon Waste Management Crisis ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 52
Assessing the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 53
REFERENCE ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 54

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PART 1 – THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES

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 The Establishment of the Jews and the State of Israel
Dyanie Winata Kosasih
18/429309/SP/28534
Eretz Yisrael, the Israel, is known as the birthplace of the Jewish people. Israel was under the Ottoman
Empire from the 1517 to 1917 along with other Middle East countries. However when the World War I
happened, it changed the geopolitical landscape in the Middle East along side with the defeat of the Ottoman
Empire. In November 1917, through the Balfour Declaration, the British government announcing their intentions
to make and facilitate the establishment of the Jewish people in the Palestine as the national home. After the
declaration, the League of Nations granting the permission for British to take over the Palestine, which including
the provisions on the establishment for Jewish nation land, encouraging and facilitating the Jewish people to
settle their land.
This nation also become the place where the Zionism, the organized religious and political movement rises,
as the first trace of modern Zionism occurred among the British protestant who support the Judaism in the first
half of the 19th century. The Zionism also have the same intention which is to establish a homeland for Jewish in
Palestine. Because of that, massive number of Jewish people migrated to the ancient holy land and built
settlements. They migrated between 1882 and 1903, then also between 1904 until 1914, and about 75.000
Jewish people migrated on those two periods. The migration of many Jews who lives in Europe was also
triggered by the persecution during the Nazi reign. Nevertheless, the Arabs in Palestine rejected the Zionism
movement which resulted in the growing tensions between the two groups.
The tensions between the two groups continue to growth with the release of the Balfour Declaration, it
helped in the solidified and integration of Arab nationalism on the rejection toward the Zionism as from the
Arabs perspective, the world powers does not have the right to take their land and give it to the other. Also in
the principles, there are no validations for the promise for the Jews. Nevertheless, the Jews maintained their
rights toward the land from the historical perspective as the land was their ancestors’ to begin with. With the
increasing of the Arabs’ hostilities, Hans Cohn and Arthur Ruppin, Jewish authors, argued that the Jews or
Zionism will have to face oppositions from Arabs.
From the 1920 until 1921, there were many riots and attacks from the Arabs toward the Jews. The Arabs
attacks and assaults the Jews settlements, cities, and towns. This incident led to the growth of the increasing
separation of the economic development among the Jewish and the Arabs people. Because of the increasing on
the attacks from the Arabs toward the Jews, the British governments appointed a royal commission in 1936 to
investigate the current situation in Palestine. The royal commission later recommended the separation for the
Jews and the Arabs with a partition of the country between the two groups. The Jews accepted the idea,
nevertheless the Arabs immediately opposed the recommendation.
During the Second World War, the Arabs using the opportunity to try to ingratiate the British officials under
the direction from al-Husseini even though he was banished from the conferences which were discussing about
the Palestine Question. However, some Arabs leaders also worked for the Nazis because they promised the
independence for Arabs after Germans defeated Britain. While at this period, the Zionist focusing on smuggle
the Jews people to Palestine, both legally and illegally because of the limited immigration quotas. Until the early
1941, the West received the news of the Jews annihilation in Europe by the Nazis.
About 700.000 people of Polish Jews became the victim of large-scale killings by the Nazis under Adolf Hitler
as the Polish government declared on the 1942. In 1943, the United States representative and the Great Britain
representative resumed a meeting in Bermuda, discussing about the mass murder of the Jewish people as one of
the disastrous issues in Europe. The condition of the Jewish people in Europe was debated however none of the
countries want to open their gates for the refugees.
The Jewish had no place, even in the 1941, about 200 people of Jews was killed by the anti-Semitic in
Baghdad, which made Jews not only vulnerable in Europe but also in another country. Later, Ben Gurion, head of
the Jews Agency, using the partition plan between the Arabs and the Jews as the template. He used the years
between the war to seek support from the American Jews people and the Zionists to build and establish a Jewish
state in Palestine.
After the defeat of Germany, the Irgun began to attacking the British targets which was opposed by the
Haganah and Palmach. Nevertheless, later the Haganah started to join the Irgun and attacked the British targets
and launched the Hebrew Rebellion Movement. At the same time, the Haganah began to stepped up the illegal
smuggle of Jews immigration activities and they successfully assisted 71.000 of Jews people between August
1945 until May 1948 to settle in Palestine because mostly the Jews survivors from the war and the Holocaust
were trapped in the internment camps that were settled in Germany and Eastern Europe and continued to be
killed by the local populations.
The British responded to the illegal immigration activities by the Haganah by destroying the Haganah ships at
the Europe harbors and the immigrations were returned to the British-controlled area in Germany and moved to
the displaced person camps and became the source of their persecution. Even though the United States’s
President, Harry Truman supports the increased of Jewish immigration became public knowledge by the 1945,
none country wants to open their borderlines to the Jewish people, the international borderline remain closed
toward the Jews people and the Arabs still rejected the idea of the partition, the single binational state, which
governed by the Arabs and the Jews.
After the bunch attempts from Britain to find a settlement between the Arabs and the Jews, it proposed the
Morrison-Grady Plan on a binational state in 1946, however the report was rejected by the both groups and the
United States supports the partition of Palestine into two nations. Yet, the British realized it could not manage
the problem any further and turned the case to the United Nations. As a response, the United Nations General
Assembly initiated the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) to learn and study the problem between
the two groups, the Arabs and the Jews, and make recommendations.
After much debate and discussions, on November 29, 1947, the United Nations recommended the
separation for the two groups, which immediately rejected by the Arabs. However, since the British Mandate,
the Jewish community in Palestine had been establishing and forming political organization, social and economic
institutions which governed the Jews daily life in Palestine which also served as the pre-state infrastructure with
David Ben-Gurion, the Zionists leader, as the head of this pre-state.
On May 14, 1948, over the midnight the British mandate officially terminated its government in Palestine
and later at 4:00 p.m. David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the independence and creation of State of Israel and
became its first prime minister.
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 From Holocaust to the Birth of Israel: Connecting All the Dots
Miranda Titania
18/423183/SP/28157
Approximately sixth million lives of Jews during the Second World
War were brutally taken in the catastrophe of mass murder and
persecution ever recorded by history—the Holocaust (Bergen, 2009).
It was conducted by the German Nazi, under the command of the
famous Adolf Hitler. The “superior” Germany Nazi saw the Jewish as a
serious threat—who they referred as the “inferior” to the Germany
community back then. However, the tragedy was somehow related
and strongly impact on the birth of the State of Israel itself in 1948. It
is believed that the event has profoundly shaped the Jewish-Israeli
identity (Ofer, 2009). The bitter memory has stained but also at the
same time has constructed the geopolitical features of the state—as well as the social behavior of Jewish-Israeli
people. At one point, the Holocaust tragedy became a pivotal event which now decisively represent the lives of
Jewish-Israeli people through the reminiscence of the brutal conduct of human rights violation. This essay will
explain further based on the writer’s research question to what extent the role of Holocaust contributed in the
birth of the State of Israel. The Holocaust tragedy did not necessarily became the necessities of the Israel state’s
establishment. However, the event definitely gave a significant contribution for Israel to fulfill several state’s
components in terms of population, economic supplies, and finally—acknowledgement, in order for them to be
able to stand properly as a nation.
More than sixty five years have passed since the Holocaust occurred. The horrifying event remain vividly to
live inside the head of many Israelis. There were a large number of immigrants appeared in the post Second
World War—especially in the aftermath of the Holocaust era. Most of them were the Holocaust survivors. Due
to the urgent protection of Jewish people as a response of repetitive and never ending persecution—a national
movement named Zionism was conducted, followed by the establishment of the World Zionist Organization.
Both were intentionally established to support the re-establishment of a Jewish homeland in the territory
defined as the historic Land of Israel (Kleinman, 2002). Led by Theodore Herzl as one of the founders of Zionism
movement, the establishment of the State of Israel was finally proposed (Kleinman, 2002). A transfer agreement
also had been created between the other representative of Zionist’s founder and Adolf Hitler—where the Jews
were allowed to leave Germany and transfer to Palestine in exchange for all of their possession (Kleinman,
2002). It turns out that the agreement reached an accomplishment. Due to the strong determination that came
from the Zionist movement and also the World Zionist Organization, the State of Israel was eventually
established. The transferring of immigrants and Holocaust survivors from Europe have made it possible for the
newborn state to have enough population to live in the area. By that, it means that the Holocaust has mobilized
a large number of people to occupy of what they referred as the “Homeland of the Jews.” Three years after the
Holocaust, The United Nations voted and gave the acknowledgment to the State of Israel.
Apparently the journey after they gained recognition and becoming an independent nation was not as
smooth as it was expected by Israel. There were definitely lots of rocky roads they had to go through while
putting all the efforts at the same time in developing the country. At first, they experienced a severe economic
crisis. Deficit, unemployment, the lack of foreign currency kept on haunting the daily life of most Israelis
(Kleinman, 2002). The condition has gotten worst when mass migration occurred in Israel—since the
establishment of the Israel state itself has brought an open door to Jews from all over the world. Many of them
came to Israel with either a serious welfare crisis or even empty handed, such as most of the Holocaust survivors
(Kleinman, 2002). The population continued to rise due to immigrants and refugees who kept on coming. As the
time goes by, Israel was overwhelmed by the number of people that kept multiplying out of control—yet they
still welcomed every Jews with open arms. An even more massive casualties struck Israel when they had to face
the Independence War in 1948 against their neighboring countries—The Arab nations. As soon as they heard
that Israel already gained independence, Arab attacked Israel (Kleinman, 2002). Victory was on Israel’s side, but
they suffered an enormous loss in the aftermath—especially on the transportation infrastructures. This situation
forced Israel to seek help from outside. Eventually, the reparation from West Germany redeemed all the loss—
either from the war or the Holocaust (Kleinman, 2002). Israel started to receive economic supplies; money and
resources that allow them to survived and thrived for the next fifty years.
On the matter of identity, indeed the history of Holocaust affected most of Israelis people—especially for
the Holocaust survivors back then. The tragedy left a deep black hole—printed on their hearts. It became a part
of Jewish history (Ofer, 2009). When talking about history, it means that something should be commemorated
and presented to the world as a part of reminiscence and living memory. But then, it turns out that the
Holocaust was more likely to be considered as an acquired rather than a living memory (Klar et al., 2013). No
exact measurement has been set upon “how much” Holocaust memory should be preserved (Ofer, 2009). The
presence of it has not faded after all these years—but rather is on the rise (Klar et al., 2013). The event also gave
an outcome towards the State of Israel. In fact, the Holocaust becoming some sort of guidance for Israelis people
to live their daily life in the current era. The notion of “all Jewish must see themselves as Holocaust victims”
emerged (Klar et al., 2013). The Holocaust gave a deep yet a meaningful impact towards the society that the
horrifying event could create a sense of solidarity among the people in the future. It became an important
principle for Israelis that made them be able to feel as a part of the Jewish people—as a part of Israeli society.
This sense of belonging that based on the historical background continue to rise as they live permanently in
Israel, including when they create a family there.
To conclude, the establishment of the State of Israel experienced
a major accomplishment and performed a tremendous outcomes for
the Jews. Apparently, being exiled for approximately 2000 years gave
Israel a lot of struggles yet enough time to build their state and once
again becoming the place for Jews all over the world to come home.
The Zionist movement also gave a major contribution on the creation
of Israel. However, Israel still need to seek out for help from the other
countries. The Holocaust provided resources for Israel, which helped
Israel to survive for more than a half century. The other countries also gained their independence, but Israel was
one of the country that experienced a major success in terms of economic development compared to others
(Kleinman, 2002). The reparation which was given by West Germany brought a profound impact for Israelis
people and helped a lot in the establishment of Israel state itself. The Holocaust effect will still permanently
influence the life of many Israelis. It was indeed a tragic event—millions of innocent lives were taken ruthlessly.
However, this event also become the standpoint where the State of Israel could stand and thrive—becoming of
what they are now. It emphasizes on how the Jews can survived, conquer all the fear, creating solidarity, shaping
their identity, and most importantly how the Jews have come back stronger than ever—creating the State of
Israel into what it is now. Despite of being not the only reason for the establishment of the State of Israel, The
Holocaust still gave a massive contribution in the establishment of the State of Israel.
5
 British Duality Promise to Israel and Palestine
Alfredo Putrawidjoyo
18/425557/SP/28305
The Israel-Palestine conflict is one of the most complex and polarizing conflict in modern history,
influenced in deep roots of historical and ethnicity home and ancestry combined by strong nationalist
movements and religious beliefs. During the time of the growing nationalist movements for both the Arabs in
the Middle East and the Jews living in Europe developed side by side until they came to a head in one place,
which is the territory of Israel-Palestine. The Ottoman Empire ruled the territory of Israel-Palestine for around
400 years until World War I, a majority of the population that lived there were Muslims and Christians, the
Jewish population were present but only account for 3% of the population. The Ottoman Empire joined the war
on the side of the central powers with Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria and the allied powers saw the
opportunity to protect their economic interest in the Middle East while at the same time trying to destabilize the
Ottomans as they ally themselves with the Arabs in the region taking advantage of the growing nationalist
movements.
The Jewish population that was living in Europe began to see themselves as part of the society with a
growing interests and possibility to assimilate but alas the discrimination was present once more. The Jews
fearing further persecution began to think that they have lost their hopes for assimilation and become more
open to the idea of Zionism. Zionism in an ideology or a nationalist movement that emerged in the 19th century
sought to reestablish Jewish dominion in the territory of Israel-Palestine after 2000 long years of exile. Zionism
came from the Hebrew word of Zion which means Jerusalem and the Jewish people sought to return to their
biblical Promised Land. The first Zionist World Congress in 1897 in Switzerland and the political movement was
officially born with the goal of creating a legal home in Palestine for the Jewish people as anti-Semitism was
rising once again in Europe.
During the same time as the growing Zionist movements, Arab nationalist movements also rose and
their goal was one of the same which is to create a national pan Arabic home under the leadership of Hussein
Bin Ali the Sharif of Mecca. The Arab movement also sought help from the European powers especially Great
Britain.
In the attempt to gain support from the Arabs, Great Britain promised them territory within the
McMahon–Hussein Correspondence which is a series of letter interchanged during World War I between
Hussein Bin Ali the Sharif of Mecca and Lieutenant Colonel Sir Henry McMahon the British High Commissioner to
Egypt. Even though these set of letter were not a treaty with any legal authority but the intentions and
misinterpretations has become one of the preliminary cause of one of the hardest to control conflict. The
correspondence discussed several points manly about territory and that the British would have the benefit of
economic preference in Arab countries. The territory being discussed is similar but more technical then the one
promised before in the Damascus Protocol which broadly say that the area would be bounded in the east by the
Mediterranean sea, the west by the Persian gulf, south by the Arabian sea, and north within the 37 parallel line
and the Taurus mountains (John & Hadawi, 1970). The correspondence acknowledged several key points
regarding the territories that is promised in the Damascus Protocol to be to enlarged and thus began to
communicate further exclusion from the agreement, the agreed upon exclusion is the Vilayet of Mersina and
Adana, whilst the Vilayet of Aleppo and Beirut is subject to further discussion due to interest from the French,
and the Vilayet of Baghdad is also subject to further negotiation after the war. And last is the confusing exclusion
of “portions of Syria” is not explicitly mentioned (Ali & McMahon, 1915-1916).
The McMahon-Hussein Correspondence is used by the British to win the war for their imperialist intent
to control the Middle East and gain power and economic benefits. And indeed they succeeded in creating an
Arab revolt and destabilize heavily the Ottoman Empire. The result of these letters does not only correlate to the
Israel-Palestine conflict but it also one of the reasons that the Arab world has distrust towards western powers.
The Sykes-Picot Agreement is a set of agreement between the United Kingdom and France to define
their respective spheres of influence in the Middle East if it so happens that they win the war against the central
powers.
The division of territories amongst them approximately is that the British would control the coastal strip
of the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, Jordan, Southern Iraq, and other strategic locations whilst the
French would control the southeastern part of Turkey, northern Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon (Sykes & Picot, 1916).
Russia also agreed on the affairs and they gain Istanbul, Armenia, and the Turkish Straits (Sykes & Picot, 1916).
The agreement was supposed to be a secret until the Russian Bolshevik Government presented the agreement
to the public. The agreement created distrust from the Arab nationalist movement towards the United Kingdom
and the powers of Europe, as they felt betrayed after helping them in the revolt against the Ottoman Empire.
The agreement also made Palestine an internationalized zone, which was although ambiguously thought of by
the Arabs as promised to them. The effects of the agreement which carried over to the Paris Peace Confrence
created the borders of the current Middle Eastern countries which is subject to many criticism as the effects of
European powers dividing territory which they do not understand lumping together groups of people they do
not know, creating problems of disintegration.
The Balfour declaration is a public statement issued by the British government to support the Zionist
movement and their goal of returning to their promised land to create a national home (Balfour, Rothschild,
Amery, & Milner, 1917). The declaration indented to create a national home for the Jewish people and that
national home was planned to be in Palestine, however the term “national home” does not have any legal
meaning in international law thus creating ambiguity in the form of this “home” for the Jewish people. The
declaration itself also does not contain any sort geographical boundaries and the wording of the document itself
states that the creation of a national home in Palestine not of Palestine which technically could mean only some
part or all of Palestine were meant for Israel. Although the document itself contains that the creation of the
national home may not discriminate of the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish communities they
seemingly rejected the idea of living under Jewish authority, which is what the British indented and that they
prefer living side by side.
The duality of promises that The United Kingdom and to some extend other European powers such as
the French and Russia caused the conflict in Israel and Palestine, due to the fact that the disputes generated
from the letter and agreements that are created in World War I which contradicts one another and are
generated only from imperialist ideas. The letters the correspondences, and the agreements, and the
declaration may not have any legal basis but the understanding and the intent of these words must mean
something to be honest because if they do not then what is the point of communication, negotiation, and
approval that the British had done with the Arabs. As soon as there are more economically beneficial scenario or
something that is more convenient they immediately do it in spite of former understandings. The
miscommunication and the misuse of information is unacceptable especially when it induced a conflict with
casualties and ideological disparities.
6
 The Dilemma of Israel’s Law of Return
Reynard Simorangkir
18/423187/SP/28161
Israel’s independence in 1948 was indeed a giant step for the achievement of the dream of Zionism,
however, everybody knew that the task descended from the First Zionist Congress in 1897 and the Balfour
Declaration in 1917 was still far from done. The home was already administered by then, but the people who
they proclaimed as the “rightful owners” of the land—the Jews—were still dispersed all over the world. It was
the job of the newly-established Jewish government, beside to defend its territory from the surrounding hostile
area, to carry out Aliyah (exodus) on the remaining Diaspora Jews. Israeli Parliament, Knesset, unanimously
passed the Law of Return
(LOR) in 1950 that would later be serving as the legal basis for the migration of Diaspora Jews back to the land of
Zion. According to the initial version of the Law of Return, every Jews shall have the right to come back as an
oleh before formally acquiring Israeli citizenship under the 1952 Nationality Law. This law recognized 4 method
of getting the citizenship including; by residence, by birth within country (ius soli), by return and by
naturalization. A problem arose when the Israeli bureaucracy found it hard to determine who could really be
considered as Jews thus making them the subject of Law of Return since neither the Law of Return nor the
Nationality Law provided specific terms or conditions for recognizing Jews. The problem was predictably
becoming more complex facing the historical reality that some high majority of Jews did not maintain their
identity, making themselves as “the lost tribes” because not even themselves are sure whether they got a Jewish
Lineage. The debacles still continues until now on what kind of form of LOR that could best serve Israel’s Nation-
State building.
There were 2 famous cases regarding the application of Law of Return before its modification in 1970;
Rufeisen vs Minister of Interior (1962) and Shalit vs Minister of Interior (1969). Rufeisen, a Catholic-converted
Polish Jews immigrant, demanded to be granted citizenship since he was a Jew according to Halakha (Jewish
Religious Laws). Halakha stated that anybody born from a Jewish mother—like Rufeisen himself—fulfilled the
precondition to be a Jews. The Supreme Court in a 4-1 decision ruled against Rufeisen, arguing that Law of
Return shall not be Halakhally interpreted because it was a secular law so that Supreme Court, with its own
interpretation, equated religious faithfulness to national allegiance (Edelman, 1998). Shalit was a bit luckier. He
demanded his children from his non-Jewish wife to be declared Jewish. The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision
approved that subjective declaration was eligible to gain a Jewish identity whenever the Ministry of Interior
could not prove otherwise. Unfortunately, in 1970 Knesset altered the interpretation on the Law of Return. After
the installation of some new and specific terms, the rights of an oleh would also be vested in child of Jew,
grandchild of Jew, spouse of Jew, spouse of child of Jew, and spouse of grandchild of Jew. Meanwhile according
to the same law, the Jew itself is someone born from a Jewish mother and a Judaism-convert (Perez, 2011).
From here, the parliament clarified that indeed a Jew by blood but a non-Judaism believer could not get the
citizenship under the Law of Return.
Not only that the Law of Return 1970 modification affected the exodus of Jewish-aware people who lived
abroad, it also affected the effort to seek the remaining ten lost tribes who are still adventuring all across the
globe. The ten lost tribes was actually a consequence from the division of Israelite Kingdom happened after the
death of King Solomon (Deffinbaugh, 2007). Around 930 BC, Solomon’s son, Rehoboam carried with him two of
the twelve tribes (Benjamin and Judah also with tribe of Levi that did not possess a land portion) in the Southern
Kingdom while the other ten tribes were carried by another king namely Jeroboam. The two kingdom would
later meet the same pity fate, just differing on timing. The Northern Kingdom perished first in 721 BC when the
Kingdom of Assyria conquered the North thus bringing all residents out to the captivity. Since then, the people of
Northern lost to history, not even themselves are fully sure and aware of their Jewishness. They are the ones
that made up the Ten Lost Tribes, some are struggling hard to get their Jewish status recognized by their long-
lost Jewish brothers.
I personally see two problems on the current Israel’s LOR from the cases above; a halachical dilemma and a
question of Israel’s historical essence. Halachical dilemma is clearly seen in Israel’s disqualification of non-Judaist
believers. Supreme Court’s ruling which stated that Law of Return is a secular law is absolute non-sense if at the
same time they equated faithfulness to Judaism with an allegiance to the nation—which is mandatorily required
for every citizens. The highest essence of a Judaism-believer is to adhere fully to the Halakha, the Jewish
religious Law. And Halakha itself didn’t mention any obligation of Judaism adherence to declare someone a Jew.
There might be some people who argued that being Judaist doesn’t mean a full-adherence to the Halakha thus
exempting them from following some commandments that they considered not important—in this case, on how
to determine whether someone is a Jew. Well yes, they are not wrong since there are various Jewish sects inside
Israel such as The Orthodox, The Reformist and The Conservative. The Orthodox Jews is the strictest among
them and they have the centrality of Law, including Halakha (Klapper, 2019). Even though Israel’s Orthodox
Jews is less populous than other Jews combined, they have strong influence in the government. Just take
example on marriage; Jewish marriage could not be officially done outside of Jewish Orthodoxy. In case a couple
who belongs to other sect wants to get married, they have to do it abroad. The question remains is that with the
Orthodox Jews’ strong influence on the government, are they really willing to push for a full obedient toward
Halakha—that includes on how to declare somebody a Jew?
The second problem deals with the essence of Israel itself. When the state carries the name of Israel, then
they must be representing all 12 tribes of Israel that includes the ten lost tribes who initially dwelled in the
Northern Kingdom prior to captivity. The establishment of Israel State in 1948 was by essence an establishment
of Judea because the dwellers in the beginning of its independence were them who still maintained the Jewish
identity, the descendants of Benjamin, Judah and some Levi. So their moral obligation of having “Israel” as the
name of the state is to get the lost tribes back home. The scriptures said that nearing the time of Assyrian
captivity, the Northern Kingdom lived far away from God thus we could speculate that they worshipped other
gods or in the modern words, adhering to different religion. Is the current State of Israel ready to accept the fact
and reality that the Northern Lost Tribes belong to different religious sects just like right before its perishing? If
yes, then current version Law of Return must once more be altered by erasing the obligation to be a Judaist-
convert for the LOR’s immigrants. If no, then the State of Israel does not deserve to carry its current name but
instead it must be renamed to “State of Judea”.
To conclude, we could see moral unrighteousness in imposing the Judaism conversion obligation for the
LOR’s immigrant in acquiring Israel’s citizenship. Moreover, such a regulation is against utilitarian principles. If
Israel is seeking the best Jewish resources from the whole world, then they must judge the LOR’s applicant not
according to religion. Jews might be inherently great and genius but we must also be aware that many Jews by
ethnic who successfully show their qualities spent most of their lives abroad such as Zuckerberg, Soros, and
Rothschild etc. And many of them has assimilated whether by culture or by religion. Therefore, it would be
unwise to reject them. It is the time for the State of Israel, if they are serious on having a successful nation-state
building, to abolish the ‘conversion’ part of LOR.
7
 Sykes – Picot Agreement: Carving Modern Middle East Border and the Unintended Chaos
Faris Abdul Aziz
18/429310/SP/28535

The Middle East the subregion of Asia which holds the largest oil reserves in the world, the birth place of
the three Abrahamic religion. The subregion consist of multiple states and consist multiple of ethnicity. Most of
the state share the same nationality, Arab nationality, and form a pact named “The Arab League.” The Middle
East subregion has undergone constant conflicts in the past two decades most of the conflicts started because of
internal and external causes in which are mainly caused by religious or ethnic tension inside or outside of each
state. The Syrian civil war which has become the world’s most complicated conflict in the modern era were
cause by both ethnic and religious tension within the state of Syria where the Kurdish minority rose up to free
itself from the Arab majority country by taking the opportunity from the mayhem caused by sunni and shia
conflict, to add more complicity the world’s most dangerous terrorist organization, ISIS, occupy the eastern side
of the country to established its caliphate. How did this complicated conflict occured?
cold war era during the European powers decolonization period, the country that was liberated was not at all
stable not excluding the Middle East as tension between ethnics and religion, between the majorities and
minorities heighten especially in the last two decades. The tension between the ethnic and religious sects ignites
during the syrian civil war, the Arab Shi’ite governmentis fighting the Sunni’s within the country of Syria whilst
the Kurds reolted for Independence and ISIS occupied both parts of Syria and Iraq, furthermore ethnic and
religious tensio between the Muslim Arabs and Jewish Israelites has worsened the situation withing the region
(Katzenstein, 2016). The case in the Middle East has similarities to those in Africa, where different ethnic group
does not cooperate with each other and initiate an arms conflict within the country and what it concludes from
this case is that the pride of ethnic groups and the nationalism it has had torn a single state apart and This has
made happen because of the ignorance of the Syke – Picot agreement by neglecting the sensitive relationship
this various ethnic has with other ethnics and also the far more sensitive relationship each differing religion and
its sects has with one another.

In the past most of the middle east was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and was relinquish from
Ottoman control after World War I. The Middle East was fought over between the Ottomans and the Entente
with the aid of the revolting Arab. The Arab aided the Entente because of the promised and the guarantee of an
independence of a United Arabian State which was based on the Mc Mahon – Hussein Correspondance by which
United Kingdom will recognize and support the independence of the Arabs in all the regions within the limits
demanded by the Sherif of Mecca (McMahon and Hussein, 1916), but at the end of the war the United Kingdom
and France made a secret deal, Sykes – Picot Agreement, and planned to partition the Ottoman held Middle East
between the two country where france will occupy modern day Syria, Lebanon, and nother Iraq whereas the
United Kingdom will occupy Transjordan, southern Iraq, and Kuwait (Loevy, 2018). The issue with the Sykes –
Picot agreement is that it serves the national and imperial interest of each state and neglect the different
residing ethnicity and different religion sects in the area each country occupied (Economist, 2016). Thus, at the
A newborn or newly independent state regards and appraise of Nationalism as it sees the idea to what
lead them to the goal of its people, which is independence and liberty as it also what kept them united. The
Sykes – Picot agreement has undermind and ignored of the difference of the various diverse ethnic groups and
also religious groups which had lead to the most complicated, costly, and bloodiest conflict to ever occur in the
modern era. The Sykes – Picot is not the only contributing factor to the chaos that has happened, but also the
possibilities for the French and British government to reform the borders of the Middle East in its decolonization
agenda in the Cold War era. In addition, the root cause of this secretive agreement between the French and the
British government were motivated by the idea of Imperialism and colonialism which made them disregard and
neglect those they see lesser to the interest of their empire. If the International community would fully
commited to upheld and secure the Middle East regional stability, then it should be known that by eliminating
the warring faction and ending the Civil war in Syria and Iraq a new border should be drawn with keeping in
mind and prioritizing each ethnic and religious groups need.

8
PART 2 – GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS OF THE MIDDLE EAST

9
 The Balance of Religion and Politics in Lebanon
Helene Farrell Bee
18/423179/SP/28153
"We believe in one unified church and in a religiously diverse community," these words, spoked in 2011 by
Bishop Bechara Rahi, state that Lebanon believes that the unity of the church and various religions can coexist
(Daily Star, 2011). But how can Lebanon accomodate religion into their political structure? Lebanon has a very
interesting tactic to integrate their many religious factions. The world is full of diverse religions and beliefs, there
is no end to the possibilities of variance among the global population. But there are few political states that are
able to balance the religious beliefs of the people with the democratic process. In fact, one might posit that this
is an impossible feat. However, Lebanon is one country in the Middle East that attempts this precarious balance.
Lebanon has created a democracy that sits inside of a wider religious structure. Surprisingly, there are eighteen
officially recognized religions that are nestled into the parliamentary system. There is a particular history and
culture in Lebanon that can help explain how one nation can be governed by over a dozen religious sects.
Students of Lebanon’s governmental system can learn from the history of the country. The accommodating
government finds its roots in the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire is the group that invaded Lebanon in
around 1516. Lebanon remained under the rule of the Ottomans until 1918. During this time, around the 1830s,
the Ottomans introduced what is called “Tanzimat,” this is a declaration that states that all citizens, regardless of
their religious beliefs, are equal under law. For the region of Lebanon, this became a major issue. The various
religious groups inhabiting the land, which included Islam, Christianity, and Judaism each had a certain set of
rules and principles that made them inherently unable to be combined. In fact, each group acted like a small
nation state and was called a “millet.” Each millet was part of the Ottoman Empire and had individual legal
establishments. However, the Ottoman empire pushed religious pluralism during Tanzimat and before long, the
previously nation-like groups came together under one system. This continues today as Lebanon has instituted a
governmental system known as "confessionalism. Confessionalism is an unique system and is defined as a
governmental system where the most high political offices are held by certain, predefined religious groups
(Seeker, 2017).
The CIA World Factbook contains the
approximate statistics of Lebanon’s religious
diversity. 54% of Lebanon is Muslim and
they are split evenly between Sunni and
Shi’ite denominations. And 40.5% is
Christian with denominations that include
Maronite Catholic, Eastern Orthodox,
Melkite Catholic, Armenian Orthodox,
Armenian Catholic and Protestant. There is
also a smaller population of Jewish people. 5.6% of the Lebanese population is Druze but, many Muslim people
think that the Druze faith is not fully Islamic and thus reject its followers as part of the Muslim population
(Cultural Atlas, 2019).
Religion gives Lebanese people social identity. Their identity cards contain their specific religion, one out of
eighteen factors recognized in the Muslim and Christian traditions. Each separate faction is considered
significant in Lebanon and the parliament represents these communities. In fact, the representation in
parliament is organized according to each religion and is meant to reflect society. It achieves this by giving seats
in parliament according to the religions. The ratio of Christians to Muslims in Parliament used to be 6:5. However
today it is 1:1. Eight seats are reserved for the Druze community to be represented. What is the purpose of this
confessional structure? It is supposed to stop one community from being privileged in terms of local and
national politics. Because of this division, the legal system is not uniform. In fact, family law is covered by
separate religious courts and different populations have different standards and proceedings. Any individual
citizen that does not practise or observe a recognized religion, or any religion at all must still identify with one
because of its role in the judicial systems. One interesting fact about Lebanon’s political culture is that soccer
fans are not allowed to attend national soccer matches. The teams play with empty stands! This is because the
teams are owned by political parties or political leaders, and thus are associated with the various religious
groups. For this reason, matches used to be the place for violent political and religious rioting (Fiedler, 2014).
Although Lebanon includes eighteen religious groups into its political system, there are still religious clashes.
This has led to the thought that there can be no perfect balance of religion and politics. One example is the
recent influx of Kurds from northeast Syria and southeast Turkey. They are estimated to be around 75,000 to
100,000 individuals and are recognized as Sunni Islamic people. When this group was granted citizenship it
raised the population of Sunni significantly. In addition, there have been civil wars between the military and
Islamic extremists. This extremism, along with some thousands of Arab Bedouins that were granted citizenship,
has caused a significant number of Christian people to leave Lebanon and the current demographic to lean to
the Sunni Muslims (Arabic Pages, 2017).
Overall, we can see from the history of Lebanon that religious groups have existed side-by-side for hundreds
of years. Under the Ottoman Empire these groups were separated. In the modern day, they have merged into a
confessional style of government known as confessionalism. This government tries to accommodate the beliefs
of the people but this is difficult to maintain. Recently there have been some political upsets as well as Islamic
extremism that has affected the overall balance of religions.
10
 1979 Iranian Revolution
Trisigit Baskoro Pamungkas
18/425573/SP/28321

Islamic Republic of Iran is a great country in territory and equipped with great history behind it. It is
located in the strategic position of Central Asia and Middle East crossroads. Not only large in territory, Iran is
also equipped with abundant resources. The country is surrounded by three strategic sea, namely Caspian Sea,
Persian Gulf, and Gulf of Oman. Although standing next to the Arab countries, Iran is totally distinct in ethnics
and religions. While most of the Middle Eastern people are Arabs, Iran is inhabited by Persians, which make up
more than half of the population (CIA, n.d.). Also, in terms of religion, Iran is different with most of the Arab
countries, the majority of Iran is Shia Muslim while in Arabs are Sunni Muslim. However, abundant resources
and great territory of Iran did not guarantee that the country will forever be in stable condition. It is proven that
throughout history, Iran has experienced many turmoils in their government and politics. In the modern day
(20th century) Iran has undergone two revolutions, the first one in 1953 and the second one was in 1979, which
famously known as Islamic Revolution or Iranian Revolution (BBC News, 2018). Yet, this essay will specifically
only discuss about the 1979 Iranian Revolution, however a brief explanation on 1953 coup d’état is also needed
to further comprehend the 1979 revolution, and also try to answer the question on “how did the 1979 Iranian
Revolution start?”.
Generally speaking, the 1979 Iranian Revolution was a series of protest intended to throw the Shah from
power. However, it cannot be explained as that simple, because the revolution itself did not happen only in a
day (Tsolou, 2013). To understand the root causes of this revolution, a brief history of pre-1979 Iranian regime is
needed. The Pahlavi dynasty was the imperial state of Iran ruling from 1925 to 1979, with Reza Shah Pahlavi as
the Shah (King) from 1925 to 1941 (BBC News, 2018). However in 1941, Reza Shah was exiled from Iran due to
the Britain and Soviet occupation in the land to secure the Anglo-Iranian Company that the British had there and
also to survive from Nazi onslaught during the WW II, after Reza Shah was exiled, his son Mohammad Reza Shah
was taken the vow to become the Shah (Ozalp, 2018). Moreover, during the Cold War, the Soviet Union
intensified its expansion in Iran, and United States was responding by providing Iran with political and economic
support in return to their membership to the Western democratic bloc (Ozalp, 2018). Since Iran accepted this
support from the U.S., Iran soon became democratic in 1951 and held its first-ever democratic election, which
makes Mohammad Mossadeq elected as a prime minister in the government (Ozalp, 2018). He then took a bold
step by nationalizing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which is owned and exploited by Britain. This move by
Mossadeq attracted anger from Britain and U.S., which leads to a coup engineered by CIA in 1953 to topple
Mossadeq from power (Tsolou, 2013). The implication of this coup was the return of Shah, which at that time
was Mohammad Reza Shah, to the authority of Iran’s government. Moreover, this tragedy explicitly send
message to the world that any democratic-elected government would be overturned if it did not meet the
Western interest (Ozalp, 2018). So, Iran learnt from its past by collaborating more with the West, particularly
U.S., in terms of domestic developments. These developments were called White Revolution, initiated by the
Shah to restore its relations with Britain and U.S. (Fanack.com, 2017).
In addition, White Revolution was a series of reforms intended to convert Iran into more advanced
industrial and economic country. It includes land reforms, building of roads, rail, air networks, dams, and
irrigation projects (Fanack.com, 2017). The Shah also considers social development, such as education program,
health program and extended voting rights for women (Fanack.com, 2017). It was also intended to make Iran has
military supremacy over its neighbors, and the Shah cooperate heavily with the U.S. to manifest his vision
(McGlinchey, 2013). However, in its practice, the Shah was regarded as heavily compliant to U.S., which angered
the people. There are also other evidences on how Iran was heavily dependent on U.S., such as the amount of
military spending poured out to by Iran to the U.S. (by 3 billion USD per annum). Moreover, the U.S. policy was
clear in this sense, to make Iran its proxy-power in the region, despite differences in ethnics and religion of Iran
over the other Middle Eastern countries (McGlinchey, 2013). Each U.S. president ever since the Shah ruled Iran
had always have the same policy towards Iran. This triggers an opinion in the Iranian people that Shah’s regime
was an American creation or “puppet regime” (Cottam, 1979). As the military and arms of Iran were getting
stronger, the Shah started to build an apparatus that is coercive intended to “control” its people called SAVAK.
The above matters had enough to make the Iranian people aware of what their political spectrum looks like.
Not only that, social factors
had also triggered the rise of
revolution in Iran. Those
developments designed by Shah
were felt to be unfair for the
middle-class and proletariats
(Tsolou, 2013). Moreover, Shah’s
policies, at that time, were only
benefitting the elites as scholars
have analyzed (Tsolou, 2013). The
economy of Iran were also slowing
down prior to the 1979 revolution
which also one of the triggering
factors, as can be seen in the
diagram (Chamlou, 2019). The real
per capita GDP and nominal GDP
prior to the 1979 were slowly going down to certain amount, which then leads to income inequality. Moreover,
the protest on this inequality and oppressing regime by Shah did not happen merely in 1979, several actions
such as protest in 1963 is one of the example. One actor who is continuously throwing critics towards Shah’s
regime is Ayatollah Khomeini. Realizing the danger that could be made by Khomeini towards the Shah authority,
the Shah then exiles Khomeini from Iran to Turkey, then in Iraq (Fanack.com, 2017). The protests demanding the
Shah to implement Islamic rule persist from Khomeini’s internment in 1963 until 1979. As the protest getting
intensified in 1979 to major cities in Iran, Khomeini returned to Iran to join the mass protests. Additionally, the
protest successfully ended the monarchs as well as ending the US-Iran diplomatic relations and also successfully
established a new Islamic state with Ayatollah Khomeini serving as the Supreme Leader. Khomeini then
promised to end the gap between the poor and rich (Ozalp, 2018).
In conclusion, the two driving factors that are believed to be the cause of the 1979 Iranian Revolution
were the heavy alliances of Iran and US, which triggers anger from Iranian people because they think that Iran
was the puppet government of the U.S., and the inequality between the poor and rich, which is believed to be
the implication of the Shah’s development programme. This revolution had caused the U.S. to lose its heavy
trading partner and strategic ally, and further implication goes into US-Iran relations that did not get along
following the revolution and even up until now.

11
 To What Extent did Algerian Demands Contribute in Ending Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s 20 Years Reign?
M Farrel Arsenno
18/425565/SP/28313
Algeria, a nation located in the African continent and one of the largest country in the continent with area
expanding more than 2 million square kilometers, and consist of 48 provinces and over than one thousands
counties. Like most state in the African and Middle Eastern region, Algeria depends on its natural gas and oil to
help develop and sustain its economy, Algeria is one of the top 20 largest oil reserves state in the world
according to OPEC. Algeria, a state that is occupied by France since 1830 finally gained its independence in 1962
under the evian agreement. Since its independence in 1962, Algeria has seen many changes in their leadership,
by only having 7 elected presidents which one of them serves for almost 20 years which will be discuss later in
this paper and 4 interim head of states, this happened due to the many conflicts surrounding the head of state
such as no confidence from the people and a coup from inside the cabinet. Algeria’s governmental system
consist of two leaders, one is the head of state which in this case the president and the head of government or
the prime minister, where the president is elected to a 5 year terms and maximum two periods (this of course
before the new amandements, which is going to be discuss later in the paper), and the prime minister is
elected/chosen by the president.
One of the most talked about topic regarding Algeria for the moment is the nation wide protest against the
current president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, where he wanted to run for presidency for the fifth time, this of course
created dissatisfaction among Algerian people, not only citizens but also government officials in this matter.
Abdelaziz Bouteflika who has been in power from 1999 marked his 20 years in power in 2019, how could this
happen? During his second run, in 2008 to be exact, he issued a new amandement regarding presidential terms,
where before the amandement change the president only allowed to govern for two periods, and in 2008 it was
removed by Bouteflika, this event sparked many controversies, for example there were a referendum against
the decision, but it was cancelled for some unknown reason. The 82 years old Moroccon born president suffers
many critics during his time in the office, but also shows many improvement as the head of state. During his first
run, Bouteflika successfully brought Algeria to the international society after years of isolation, conducting
relations with its neighboring states, African states and even with some Western states in this matter. During the
second term of his presidency, Bouteflika has became more brave in its policies, not only continuing his previous
foreign policies, but also establishing economic policies, however in 2005 Bouteflika who is 68 at that time
started to develop many diseases because of his age, this however doesn’t change Bouteflika’s position in the
Algerian government, in fact Bouteflika continued to rule for another 14 years. After the change of amandement
regarding the presidential limit, in 2009 Bouteflika has been elected for president the third time after winning
the vote with 90% of all voters, regardless Bouteflika medical conditions.
Bouteflika’s medical conditions may sounds irrelevant regarding this matter, however his condition could
serves as one of the reason on why Algerian people wanted him to resign which will be discuss later on, having
an 82 years old as the president of a state could bring many critics to the government, and as if adding insult to
injury the president is also known for its medical conditions that resulted in him being hospitalized many times,
and some even stated that Bouteflika suffered stroke that puts him on a wheelchair and have a tough time
communicating and it is stated that the last time Bouteflika has addressed the public was in 2014, regardless
these conditions that could justify the people’s concern, Bouteflika in 2014 was elected again for the fourth time
with 81% of the vote. Since his second run as president, many of Bouteflika’s opposition claimed that the
election was rigged, and even though there hasn’t been any proof of this claim, it is certainly debatable on the
legitimacy of the election, knowing that some other candidates resign thus giving Bouteflika more advantages in
his run for office.
Algeria’s development under Bouteflika’s regime could be categorized as a somewhat stable development,
according to tradingeconomics.com since 1999 or when Bouteflika first in power, Algeria’s economy experienced
a significant rise until 2005-2006 when it drops and finally recover in 2007, the economy Algeria is highly funded
by their natural gas and oil, it stated that 95% of exports is their hydrocarbons distribution. This high economic
growth doesn’t guarantee the people’s satisfaction, yet they wanted Bouteflika to resign in 2019 when his fourth
5 year term as president ended.
The last presidential election in Algeria was in 2014, so in 2019 there will be another election to determine
Algeria’s new head of state, the current president Bouteflika who has been in power for 20 years, stated earlier
this year that he will be running for his fifth time in the office, this created many backlash for Bouteflika and his
team, because the people of Algeria wanted a new and younger individual as their head of state(Paris,2019), as
mentioned earlier Bouteflika has suffered with many deseases through the year, and is stated to not be able to
speak properly, imagine a president that declare everything through a note to his prime minister. Why is it such
a big deal that Bouteflika runs for another term? If the people wanted him to lose just voted for the other
candidates right? If only that this is as simple as that, the situation however could says otherwise, reflecting from
previous experience in Algeria’s presidential election, Bouteflika has won the vote with an outstanding number
of voters, and there has been many case of the other candidate withdraw their position in the race for office.
After it is announced that Bouteflika will run for presidency, the Algerian people is already fed up considering
Bouteflika hasn’t been seen addressing the public for more than 5 years, the Algerian people took matters in
their own hand when they protested hoping that Bouteflika would withdraw his position in the election, not
only that the civilians are against Bouteflika, many judges also wanted someone new in the position there
reportedly 10.000 judges who swore to not oversees the election if Bouteflika is one of the candidates, and it
seems that the Algerian people’s demand will begranted knowing that the military will also in favor of the
protester. The 2019 presidential election were supposed to be conducted in 18 april 2019, however it is
postponed by Bouteflika after he announced that he is dropping out of the presidency race, which is a good
news for the people who demanded this. But by postponing the election, it also extended Bouteflika’s term as
president and this sparked more demands from the people, the people see it as a ploy from the Bouteflika’s
team to keep him in power longer.
The Algerian people could rejoice a little knowing that Bouteflika’s time as president of their beloved nation
will come to an end, even though there hasn’t been any official date when the election would take place, it
already shows the power that the people possesses if they work together. This event in Algeria could also be a
lesson for other country to look at, and this event could also be used as a proof of people’s power over
government.
12
 The Dhofar Rebellion
Rievaya Snyezana Putri
18/423188/SP/28162
The Dhofar Rebellion, also known as the Oman Civil War, is a violent conflict that happened between 1962
and 1976 in the province of Dhofar against the Sultanate of Oman. The rebellion began when tribes of the
country started to engage in a separatist movement to gain independence from the repressive rule of Sultan
Said bin Taimur, who was believed to be a puppet of the British. The rebellions adopted communist ideology due
to the rise of a Marxist government in South Yemen, and in turn created a regional war that involved prime
actors of the Cold War (Paul et al., 2013).
Historically, the Sultanate of Oman and the tribes of the country had a long line of conflict, which peaked
during the regime of Sultan Said bin Taimur. During the 1950s, Oman was isolated politically and the Sultan was
known to rule with irrational suspicion and harsh brutality (Schade, 2017). The Sultan was also heavily controlled
by the British, as others before him were as well. His defence secretary and chief of intelligence were British
army officers, his chief adviser was a former British diplomat, and all but one of his government ministers were
British (Cobain, 2016). In addition to this, there was no other relationship with any other government than that
of the United Kingdom. At the time, the economic conditions in Oman were heavily held back. There was only
one hospital and three primary schools, causing the infant mortality rate to be as high as 75% and life
expectancy at 55 years, and the literacy rate of the people to be just around 5% (Cobain, 2016). Those who did
not obey the laws created by the Sultan faced severe punishment, including public executions. Prison conditions
were said to be horrifying, with inmates shackled together in darkened cells with no proper food or medication
(Cobain, 2016). The Sultan’s extremely harsh rule led to the common assumption that he was not fit to rule the
nation as he was unable to bring his people to prosperity nor address development and security needs
appropriately, seen in how he refused to allow development within the tribal regions yet kept seeing
development in the Gulf.
Although he is known for his horrific means, explanation for his actions offers a balanced view. His habits
were rooted due to years of national bankruptcy which made him unable to spend money at an appropriate rate
for both development and security needs (McKeown, 1981). He attempted to keep the modern world out of
Oman as he was understandably sensitive about security (McKeown, 1981). Though he eventually started the
modernization of Northern Oman, he regarded Dhofar as a personal area as he kept it completely
underdeveloped yet made their people work in the oil-rich Gulf states that constantly faced development
(McKeown, 1981). Eventually, this rooted the ideas of insurgency and led to the rise of rebels conducting a
separatist movement to reach independence from the Sultan.
Prior to the Dhofar Rebellion, a revolution against the Sultanate occurred in the Jebel al Akhdar region in
1955 that was led by Sheikh Ghalib bin Ali and backed by the Saudi. This moevement was led to its demise as the
rebels were no match for the Sultan’s Army Force (SAF), which was controlled by the British. The movement in
Dhofar rooted from the Jebel al Akhdar war, and started when tribal leader, Musallam bin Nufl, formed the
Dhofar Liberation Front (DLF). The DLF sought to remove the sultan and his “British imperialist mercenaries”
from the region and eventually from the nation itself (Paul et al., 2013). In 1965, the DLF started to conduct rebel
attacks that were limited to small scale ambushes on the sultan’s forces, which kept intensifying up to the
group’s nearly successful assassination the Sultan in April 1966. The SAF were quick to respond to the threat of
the sultan’s regime by conducting a brutal counter-insurgency (COIN) campaign that included mass detentions of
people suspected of supporting or participating in the rebellion (Paul et al., 2013). As the SAF had more
developed weaponry, they easily overpowered the insurgency who only received limited military assistance and
training from Egypt and Iraq (Paul et al., 2013). However, while the SAF were able to weaken the guerilla’s
military, it did not stop the rebellion.
Things changed drastically when the British were forced to withdraw from Aden, which is situated to the
west of Dhofar, in 1967 due to the increase of violent rebellion in that area (Cobain, 2016). British rule in Yemen
was then replaced by a Marxist form of government, which was supported by and received aid from China and
Russia (Cobain, 2016). Eventually, the new Yemeni government influenced the rebel leadership to adopt
communist ideologies in return for significantly higher levels of military support (Paul et al., 2013). This caused
the entire event to have a greater, more prominent role in the context of the Cold War. In 1968, the resistance
announced that their movement was a peasant uprising, and changed their name to the Popular Front for the
Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf (PFLOAG). The rebellion then developed into becoming a Chinese-
backed revolutionary movement with pan-Arab ambitions (Cobain, 2016).
By 1970, the PFLOAG was able to control Dhofar’s interior while the government forces controlled Salalah, a
more densely populated region and administrative centre. The conditions caused the British to start worrying
about the vulnerability of the oil fields between Dhofar and Muscat, fearing that it would fall under communist
control (Cobain, 2016). As a result, they pressured the sultan to implement economic development programs to
allow some form of political accommodation for the population in the Dhofar region (Paul et al., 2013). When
the sultan refused to the British’s proposals and advices, the British sought out to facilitate a change of
leadership in Oman (Paul et al., 2013).
On 26 July 1970, Sultan Said bin Taimur was deposed by his 29-year-old son, Qaboos bin Said. In the new
sultan’s regime, Qaboos immediately launched a five-point program of social and military reform that addressed
many of the inadequacies of his father’s regime and adopted a more effective strategy for combating the
rebellion (Paul et al., 2013). Qaboos’s strategy reflected the British approach of combining military operations
with political reform, civil development, and efforts to win the hearts and minds of the population (Paul et al.,
2013). The immediate impact of this strategy was clearly seen as the offer of amnesty and cash grants to rebels
who were willing to surrender influenced more than 200 insurgents to defect from the PFLOAG within the first
month after his coming into power. Qaboos continued various reforms that included the abolition of slavery, the
improvement of the country’s irrigation infrastructure, and the usage of oil revenues on his armed forces
(Cobain, 2016). Eventually, the insurgency died down and by the summer of 1967, the war was won.
In conclusion, the Dhofar Rebellion is a violent uprising initiated by the tribal groups of Oman who were
unsatisfied with the inadequate rule of Sultan Said bin Taimur as his regime, was cruel, harsh, and repressive.
The rebellion started in 1965 by the Dhofar Liberation Front and conducted guerrilla missions against the
government. The Sultan, who is controlled and supported by the British, fought back against this insurgency by
attempting to adopt a counter-insurgency strategy. However, the attempt did not bring fruitful results as the
violence was heightened due to communist influence of the rebels by the new Marxist Yemen government,
which in turn gained them support from China. With the insurgents increasing in military power, the Oman
government scrambled to find ways to counter this threat. Eventually, the British managed to “aid” in a palace
coup, deposing Sultan Said bin Taimur to his son, Qaboos bin Said. Under Qaboos’s regime, he made a lot of
reforms that gave leniency on the rebels and offered them amnesty and cash grants if they agreed to cease their
weaponry, and conducted various development throughout the rest of the country in the field of infrastructure
and economy. Eventually, the rebellion died down and the war was won in the summer of 1967.
13
 The Coup and The Blockade
Ihsan Tenaya Brakatha Wira
18/423180/SP/28154
In 1996, Qatar was potentially facing an event that could’ve changed its course in history forever, a coup
d’état meant to depose the newly crowned Emir. The orchestrators of the coup were none other than the
traditional regional powers of the Middle East at the time: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the U.A.E. Though
the attempted coup failed, ties amongst involved states and Qatar never found itself developing over the years
and instances of breakdowns can be seen throughout the following decades, all of which culminated in the
severance of diplomatic ties with Qatar in what is most commonly, if informally, known as the ‘Qatari Blockade’.
The question I wish to further understand and potentially answer is one that asks: “Does the attempted coup of
1996 and the 2017 blockade stem from the same root causes?” Hypothetically speaking, I do believe that these
events are connected in its primary causes and desires of overthrowing the Qatari government and, in turn,
creating a Qatar far more weaker and dependent on its neighboring nations. However, to truly acknowledge and
understand the current geopolitical and regional ongoing in and around Qatar, let us first explore the History
behind the peninsular nation.
Qatar, A relatively young Arab state formed as a result of centuries of foreign colonization and control. In a
matter of decades the nation has risen to great prominence amongst the other influential regional state-actors
of the Middle East. This does not go without saying that their road to a respectable influential status was that of
a smooth trekking; ultimately, the defining event that truly sets Qatar into the regional power it is today would
be the bloodless 1995 coup whereby the Crown Prince, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani took the reins of the
country from his father (Cockburn, 1995). This event would be the foundations of the emergence of Qatar as a
far more independent and self-sufficient nation. Advocated for by the newly crowned Sheikh, Qatar would begin
to take its own stances and forge its own path, choosing to differ with their traditional allies Saudi Arabia in
future events. The sudden change in regional politics was one that understandably worried Qatar’s neighbors
which had greatly benefitted from a docile Qatar.
It was the 14th of February, 1996, the 24th of Ramadan. On that fateful night, a coup d’état was supposed to
take place. A year’s worth of preparation and funding had been invested upon the operation; plotters from
across the region, mainly Bahrainis, Egyptians, Emiratis and Saudis, gathered arms and munitions – enough to
depose the recently crowned head of the Qatari state: Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani. The ill-fated coup
attempt would never take place; discovered and foiled mere hours before the pre-planned time of execution,
many plotters would choose instead to flee to neighboring countries than carry out the operation. It was
reported that French mercenaries were under the employment of the plotters to help smuggle in the weapons
and munitions required for the coup. Within several branches of the Qatari military and royal family, there were
found to be the main plotters and conspirators (Al Jazeera, 2018). The involvement of several high ranking
politicians and members of the royal family came as no surprise as many in the region viewed then ruling Emir,
Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani as an individual that would upset the balance of regional power and stability.
Opting to instead re-instate the previously dethroned Sheikh Khalifa al-Thani in a last ditch attempt to restore
what was the status quo of the time.
With the foiling of the coup d’état and the further consolidation of Sheikh Hamad al-Thani’s rule, Qatar then
undertook a decade of rapid modernization and development, seeing it’s secondary and tertiary sectors of the
economy rapidly boom in the early to late 2000s, continuing on into the 2010s and only suffering a major
setback – credit to the 2008 financial crisis. (Trading Economics, 2019). Over these decades, Qatar has
repeatedly ramped up its involvement in regional politics and broadening its influence in the region and
worldwide with the creation of Al Jazeera and the expansionist trade policies it conducted with Iran and other
neighboring states. The victory over the bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup could be highlighted as being the
epitome of Qatar’s growing worldwide appeal and influence. We can see this economic growth in the charts
below.
In a rather sudden turn of events, beginning on the 5th of June – and still very much ongoing – the nations
that had taken part in plotting the 1996 coup had coincidentally found themselves severing diplomatic ties and
conducting an all out travel and trade ban with Qatar. Though there were other nations aside from Bahrain,
Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the U.A.E. that had taken part in the blockade, for simplicity’s – and for the obvious
reason of the actual impact it had on Qatar – sake, I will only be focusing on the 4 main states previously
mentioned. The nations had cut-off ties under the pretext of 13 demands; it is however the last demand that
poses the most clarity as to explain the reasoning behind the blockade:
“(To) align itself with the other Gulf and Arab countries militarily, politically, socially and economically, as
well as n economic matters…” (Middle East Eye, 2017)
Among the many other false and baseless accusations thrown towards Qatar, this singular demand above
encapsulates the core essence of the tumultuous relationship between Qatar and the other 4 states. Seeing
nothing but a continuous push for modernizing and development under the rule of Sheikh Hamad and Sheikh
Tamim al-Thani and a further emboldening on Qatar’s stance as an independent regional actor poses incredible
strains on the other four nations’ foreign policies in the region. Furthermore, interestingly enough, Mohammed
bin Zayed al-Nahyan, current Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and then (1996) commander-in-chief of the UAE forces
was heavily involved in both series of events, further connecting both events in causation.
To summarize, after the 1995 deposition of Sheikh Khalifa al-Thani and the crowning of Sheikh Hamad al-
Thani, Qatar has only seen itself grow in the fields of world economics and regional influence, blossoming itself
from a de facto Saudi puppet state to a regional power; the process has met challenges from the offset with the
1996 coup d’état attempt and the very recent Qatari Blockade in motion, all of which directly involves
neighboring and fellow regional powers of the Middle East. For the sole and simple reason of curbing Qatari
influence and regional power, it is my assumption that both the events mentioned are linked in nature of the
cause and intended effect.
14
 Yemen Crisis: A Challenge Over Oman’s Neutrality
Christophorus Ariobumi Praditya
18/423172/SP/28146
Neutrality. A word that describes Oman’s foreign policy. Neutrality over Oman’s foreign policy has been
going on for years, originated from the Sultan Qaboos in 1970 (Lons, 2018). Ever since he ascended the throne in
1970, Sultan Qaboos has sought to pacify relations between the countries of the region, a policy which results
from the history of the sultanate and its singular geographic location. Despite the fast-flowing conflict that often
happened in the Middle East region, Oman could maintain their neutrality over the decades. Geographically,
Oman is located in the Gulf area of the Middle East, bordered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia,
and Yemen. Shared a 187-mile border with Yemen, it is impossible that the crisis that happening in Yemen would
not affect Oman. In the following paragraph, one will analyze how the ongoing Yemen crisis would affect Oman’s
neutrality and mediating diplomacy that has been long-standing for four decades.
Ongoing tensions and conflicts in the Middle East have strained Oman’s efforts to straddle sides which
interminably drifting apart, which challenges Oman’s neutrality in today’s world. There are some factors behind
the success of Oman’s regional strategy from the 1970s. First, it has a sufficient income from oil exports that
ensured Oman’s financial independence and a healthy state budget. Second, Oman could maintain a stable and
decisive leadership that has been consistent in foreign and domestic affairs (Goldsmith, 2018). Traced back from
the history, careful leadership of Sultan Qaboos has unified the geographically and socially diverse country –
which built up strong resistance from any external interference. However, Oman is surrounded by a dangerous
neighborhood that had become the centre of the conflict in the region, such as Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The
crisis in Yemen, which has resulted in over 10.000 civilian deaths and the world’s worst humanitarian disaster
with at least 8.4 million Yemenis living in the edge of famine, rages on without a sign of an end (Cafiero and
Ulrichsen, 2018). On the other hand, Saudi Arabia launched a military intervention in Yemen with their coalition
of nine countries in the Middle East and Africa, which was supported by the Western states such as The United
States of America and the United Kingdom that add to the complexity to the crisis. The Saudi-led military
coalition launched its campaign in 2015 under the pretext of reversing Houthi gains, restoring President Abd
Rabbu Mansur Hadi to power, and bringing security and stability in Yemen. From the outset, Oman disagreed
with Saudi Arabia and decided to not join the military coalition as a senior member of Oman’s Shura Council
elaborated that Oman would not send troops or artillery anywhere unless requested by the United Nations –
making it the only Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) state that sit out of the entirety of the campaign. Oman saw
plans for achieving a military victory over the Houthi rebels as entirely unrealistic yet takes a lot of casualties,
and believes the one that could solve the crisis is only through dialogue between all conflicting parties that
committed to making concessions to their adversaries and ongoing in trust building initiatives (Cafiero and
Ulrichsen, 2018).
Yemen Crisis will not likely be ended anytime soon and it continues to give difficult conditions to Oman.
Refugees from Yemen is fleeing everywhere, and Oman became one of the main destinations with 51.000
externally-displaced Yemenis has entered Oman according to the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) Data Report on 2017 (UNHCR, 2017). Nonetheless, Oman continues to Invests in resources
for these vulnerable Yemeni such as humanitarian and medical aid that received praises from the international
community for their actions. This action also proves that Saudi-UAE intention to make Oman abandon its
neutrality was failed and solidifies Oman’s position as the only GCC capital adequately trusted and respected by
Yemen’s parties to drive diplomatic efforts in their country. Taking Yemeni refugees is not made everything
better for Oman, as it faces new kinds of challenges. While Oman forbids refugees from working in the country,
many people disobeyed this regulation to send their money back home for those who actually need it, with
Omani authorities often turning a blind eye (Revord, 2017). All of these efforts being given, Oman also facing
with an economic challenge due to the financial costs that will add up if there is a long-term continuation of its
neighbor’s humanitarian catastrophe and more Yemenis seeking for asylum in Oman. Not only economic
challenges but Oman also concerning about security challenges where violent extremists from Yemen enter the
country that pretends to be refugees of war (Goldsmith, 2018). Although there have been no cases of violence
in Oman, there remains a residual risk of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) or Al-Qaeda seeking to
penetrate into the country. With these extremists force trying to find a way into the country, Oman is justifiably
concerned about the vulnerability of its government and the future of the country.
Despite all efforts being taken by the Omani government, it still reaps some critics from external – mainly
from Saudi Arabia and its coalition, and the United States itself. Saudi-Emirati bloc, as well as the United States,
accused Oman of Iranian arms flowing through Omani land and sea space to Al Houthi rebels. While some
questioning the accountability of this accusation, it does raises some question such as whether or not Oman can
fully guarantee the non-porosity of its land and sea borders with Yemen and how it would affect Oman’s relation
with the Al-Mahri tribe of the border that has collaborated with the government since a long time ago. But, one
can see that Saudi-Emirati bloc clearly have some tension with Oman since Oman chose to not follow Saudi’s
decision to blockade Qatar. Regardless of Oman’s stance on the Yemen Crisis, from Saudi point of view, Oman is
a link in the chain of Iran’s Shiite/Zaidi allies in the Kingdom’s borders at the time when Iran is more decisively
asserting their regional influence. The Trump accusation has also taken seriously accusation that Oman is closely
working with Iran to arm the Houthis. On June 11, 2017, C.I.A Director Mike Pompeo and deputy national
security advisor General Ricky Wardell paid Sultan Qaboos a secret visit and urged Oman to close Iran’s alleged
arms smuggling routes to Yemen through Oman (Cafiero and Karasik, 2017). With Saudi Arabia, UAE and the
United States pushing for a tougher stance against Iran, Oman will face with increased pressure to abandon their
long-held neutrality, as they tend to push Oman further using their influence in the region. It is also concerned
that the future successor of Sultan Qaboos will be put in that much pressure like the pattern that Saudi and UAE
did to Qatar’s new leader Emir Tamim in 2013.
Geopolitical tensions are the reason why Oman is severely put in the challenge over their neutrality in the
foreign policy. Oman tries to be Switzerland in the Middle East but without the banking arguments against Saudi
that Swiss had in 1939 against Germany. Oman’s foreign policy that strictly differs from the other Middle Eastern
countries put them under the pressure of Saudi and UAE – which is the leading countries in the region against
Iran. Even though Oman already played the “middle man” for more than decades, it now enters the era of
uncertain no-man’s land as the Saudi and Emirati could simply wait for Oman’s economic and political succession
uncertainties to manifest their opportunities to bring the sultanate under their suzerainty in a similar fashion to
Qatar or Bahrain. On the other side, Iran already stands to embrace Oman into its regional expansion plans as
the sultanate backs away from Saudi-Emirati pressure to cede to their demands. Either way, skilful tactics and
strategy are needed for Oman to balance their neutrality – if they intended to do so. Sultan Qaboos might be a
skilful leader and the face of revolution in Oman, but they cannot purely depend on him as he already ruled
Oman for more than 40 years and succession is inevitable. These challenges still will press Oman to abandon its
neutrality and causing a dilemma over the country with their “no enemies” policy while the Yemen Crisis is still
an ongoing process that eventually will cause more and more casualties as well as refugees that Oman will also
take a leading part of taking care of them.
15
 Assessing The Power of al-Saud Dynasty in Domestic Politics
Fadhil Haidar Sulaeman
18/425561/SP/28309
The Arab Spring Revolution is one of the most destructive yet progressive events in the modern era. The
structural change that comes with new ideas such as democracy, free-press and liberal values poured into the
middle eastern countries (Ghosh, 2019). More than anything, its perpetrators seek an economic reform that
benefits all social class; typical rhetoric that would enable them to gain endorsement from the society (World
Bank, 2015). Powerful countries such as Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain experience a strong
upheaval that weakens their control over the entire society and at some point, these governments even have to
choose a path of no return: whether to relent and face trial from the people’s justice; or to prevail and engulfed
the nation in a bloody civil war (Spyer, 2011). However, the revolution that shocked the whole world failed to
dethrone the ruling House of Saud that rule The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Instead of facing public executions or
exiled, the dynasties act as the leader of a counter-revolutionary bloc power that sought to restore the stability
and order that was shambled in the aftermath of the revolution; its involvements in the 2013 Egyptian Coup
d’état and the failed Bahraini uprising of 2011 cannot be undermined (Quamar, 2014). It is interesting that the
Saudi Kingdom was not affected by the waves of revolution, despite its chronic totalitarian system. Therefore,
this essay would explain the factors that prevent Saudi society to revolt against the ruling monarchs.
The Saudi government tight control over its citizens dates back to the era when an alliance was formed;
the alliance of the Emir of the Diriyah, Muhammad ibn Saud, and a prominent Salafist Islamic scholar,
Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahab. This alliance is meant to give al-Saud descendant the religious legitimacy to rule
over its people, and in return, the monarchs would give ibn Wahab descendant and their clerics a full authority
over religious affairs (Barmin, 2018). This pact was formalized on 31 January 1992, where the Basic Law of Saudi
Arabia codified the Holy Qur’an and the Sunna (tradition) of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad as the constitution
of Saudi Arabia. In the Salafism manhaj (path), insubordination; in which a revolt is included; to a ruler is
considered as a treasonous act and condemns it as a sin (Syarif, 2003). Its clerics also used the historical
narratives where the glorious days of the Rashidun Caliphate are obliterated by the small demonstration of a
small fraction in the Muslim society against the third Caliph Uthman ibn Affan, which eventually leads to the
ruler assassination and the start of the First Fitna (Syarif, 2003). Thus, to prevent a similar tragedy from
repeating in the Saudi society, the clerics established two institutions that would tighten its control over the
society; the Council of Senior Scholar and the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice
(CVPVP). The council was tasked to advise the king on religious matters and was empowered by sole-institution
in declaring a fatwa or a religious decree in the Saudi Kingdom (Boucek, 2010), while the CVPVP is mandated to
ensure that the Sharia or Islamic law is respected and abided by the society; even by coercive measures (Lief,
2013). Henceforth, the religious power that the government wields secured its control over the ordinary citizens
of Saudi society.
While the ordinary citizens are bounded to the king by religious legitimacy, the political elites; which is
the family members from the House of Saud; had some significant differences in their relations to the ruling
monarch. As an absolute monarchy political system, the political culture of the country was mostly filled with
family relations and the distribution of power between siblings and cousin (Bowen, 2008). As a means to secure
political stability from a coup d’etat and fratricide, these people were granted a lavish and luxurious lifestyle,
which in returns, ensures their loyalty to the King. The current King and Crown Prince, Salman bin Abdulaziz al-
Saud and Muhammad bin Salman al-Saud, had a total wealth of each $17 Billion and $10 Billion; with the crown
prince also owns a $300 million-worth mansion called Chateau Louis XIV in Paris (Rossi, 2018). Furthermore,
Saudi Arabia also had a special treatment towards its princes in terms of law enforcement. Instead of going to
public detention, members of the royal family that were accused of corruption and money laundering are being
kept as captives in the country’s special prison; which is, the luxurious five-star Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh
(Chulov, 2017). After the king guarantees their economic well-being, the royal family is given a strategic political
position as an assurance for their safety and personal power (Owen, 2000). For instance, after the coronation of
King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud political position are reshuffled to secure the balance of power of the elites,
such as Prince Saud bin Abdulaziz as the Minister of Interior, Prince Abdullah bin Bandar as Minister of National
Guard, and Prince Faisal bin Bandar as the Governor of Riyadh. As these princes gain power, the election of the
Crown Prince is also determined by them with the goal of consensus-building among the royal family members;
which introduced the Allegiance Council (Henderson, 2006). This council is formed to make sure that all member
of the royal families had the rights to be involved in the decision-making and act as a safeguard to balance a
rising-dominant faction within the families, such as the Sudairi Seven in 2009 (The Economist, 2010). With the
political elites are satisfied and balanced, the possibility of turmoil in the elites are suppressed; as long as their
needs are fulfilled and maintained.
On international relations, Saudi Arabia had a long history of friendly relations with the current global
hegemon, the United States of America. From the oil exploration in 1938, the United States and Saudi Arabia
enjoyed a reciprocal relation; in which the United States would be granted oil explorations and the Saudi would
receive protection and supplied with arms sale; which total arms sale from the United States amount $110
Billion in 2018 (Ivanova, 2018). These good relations are great importance to the U.S. national security, as a
disagreement between these two countries once resulted in the 1973 Oil Crisis, in which the Saudis backed
Egypt and the United States backed Israel in the Yom Kippur War (Dietrich, 2015). The embargo, which was
initiated by King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, was a collective action taken by the members of the Organization of Arab
Petroleum Exporting Countries towards the countries that support Israel in the war (Yergin, 1993). This action
caused the hikes of oil price in the United States, thus pressuring the Nixon administration to limits their support
towards Israel (Dietrich, 2015).
Nonetheless, the relation between the two countries is further reinforced by their similar enmities
towards the Islamic Republic of Iran. The U.S. hates Iran over their disagreements over the status of Israel
(David, 2012), while Saudi Arabia’s Sunni ideologies are neglecting the existence of Iran’s Shiite Islam (Joyner,
2016). Thus, the two fought the destructive Middle Eastern Cold War with proxy wars on Syria, Yemen, and
Libya; with the United States supplying arms to Saudi Arabia (Ivanova, 2018). If the Saudi lost the war to Iran,
then automatically the United States would be in a hard position to counter Iran influence on the other middle
eastern states. Therefore, safeguarding Saudi political stability is paramount importance to the United States in
the Middle East, as it gives them revenues through arms exports and allies in fighting Iran influence in the
region.
Therefore, the existence of the Saudi monarchs could be explained from three different levels of
analysis. From the perspective of the ordinary citizens, the House of Saud is the protector of the Salafism
ideologies that prohibit them from revolting towards the ruler control. From the perspective of the political
elites, the current status quo gave them the economic and political power that would be hard to be achieved,
not even maintained, if the country changed into a democratic government. From the perspective of
international structure, the United States would still support the current monarchs as a means to gain income
from arms sale and counter-ideologies from Iranians influence.
16
 The Hezbollah’s Political Influence towards the Instability of Lebanese Post-Conflict Society
Muhammad Zufar Farhan Zuhdi
18/429314/SP/28539

Hezbollah has transformed drastically from its original form as a guerilla militant force in the 1980s into removal of all non-Islamic influences. Although it
a major political and military entity. Despite various attempts by the United Nations and many of Western has the noble goal to protect the vulnerable
countries to disarm and demilitarize Hezbollah through sanction and divestment mechanism, it has managed to Palestinian and Syrian communities that
continuously used its militaristic capacity, political power, and public support to assimilate itself into Lebanese currently being oppressed in their own country,
society. Hezbollah has also established its own educational and social institutions that are perceived as academic the way Hezbollah manifests this goal is
and economic backbones of this country as Hezbollah-run schools dogmatize the students with Shiite believe perceived as problematic by many of the
while its branches of social welfare services facilitate Shiite citizens with health care, utilities, groceries, and international society because Hezbollah has
construction services. Consequently, Hezbollah today acquires significant amounts of political constituents, proven to be violent in the way they gain their
shown by the fact that a Hezbollah ally, Michel Aoun was elected as the President of Lebanon and occupied 17 of political influence and advance its cause. For
30 cabinet positions, further entrenching Hezbollah’s presence in the country. However, the extreme political instance, Hezbollah has been implicated in the
ideology that it holds and numerous violent acts that it conducted has invited international sanctions by Western charge of assassination of Prime Minister Beirut
countries namely targeted into Hezbollah-linked hospitals, charities, and other businesses risk, hence putting bombing that killed anti-Syrian former Lebanese
Lebanon into devastating economic sanctions as Hezbollah has massively participated in Lebanese economic Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005 and being
sector. Moreover, the sectarian tension within the Lebanese domestic politic under the unique system of accused of murdering the key intelligence that
‘confessionalism’ that has led into political stalemate aggravated by Hezbollah’s arbitrary political demand has supposed to become the witness in the
created a dysfunctional government that failed to tailor crucial policies thus negatively impacted the grassroot assassination’s trial hearing in 2014. In May
society (Maher, 2016). 2008, Hezbollah initiated a violent street
demonstration against Lebanese forces after a
The History and Characteristics of Lebanese Politics
government decision to tamper into the group’s
Lebanon is a semi-presidential parliamentary democratic republic within the overall structure of telecommunication line, which Hezbollah later
confessionalism, a form of government in which the highest political positions are proportionately distributed The map of Hezbollah-controlled area in Lebanon called declaration of war. (Joseph, 2015)
for representatives from diverse religious communities. The President seats is reserved for a Maronite Christian, as
Hezbollah also has been proven to obstruct the formation of a national unity government as this group
while the Speaker of the Parliament is constitutionally mandated to be a Shi'a Muslim and a Sunni Muslim holds
asked for important state ministerial position, which is a health minister to the Prime Minister Saad Hariri that
the Prime Minister seat. However, from the mid-1970s until the parliamentary elections in 1992, the Lebanese
has opposing ideology with Hezbollah, despite the fact that the Lebanese patronage and democratic system has
Civil War that bring about estimated 120,000 fatalities, caused by the parliamentary structure that was
given them enough ministerial seat (Sewell, 2018). This arbitrary political demand has created a political
perceived as favoring the leading positions for the Christians invoked a large Muslim population, many Pan-Arab
stalemate resulted into the the lengthy delay in a government formation that threatened the country's access to
communities and left-wing groups to oppose the pro-western Christian Maronite government, put this country
international funds and hampered the creation of effective economic policy that could prevent the economy
into chaos. It is only after the 1989 Taif Agreement the beginning of the end of the fighting seemed to be a
from going downward spiral similar to the condition of post-civil war in the late 1990s (Fawaz, 2017).
visible option by the conflicting parties. That deal mandated the dissolution of every single militias in Lebanon as
the requirement of the peace agreement to be manifested, with the exception of Hezbollah, indirectly giving it Conclusion
the control over Lebanese Armed Forces that further accentuate the power of Hezbollah’s military capabilities
With financial, material, and moral support from the Iranian regime, Hezbollah has carried out deadly
(Maalouf, 2003).
terrorist attacks and criminal activities in the Middle East and around the world, shown by the fact that it been
Hezbollah’s Objective and the Reaction of External Parties designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, Australia, the European Union, and several
other countries and intergovernmental organizations, including the Arab League. Conclusively, the political and
Hezbollah’s political objective, in response to Israeli invasion into Lebanon, was to drive the Israeli
military presence of Hezbollah has brought the Lebanese society into economic and political catastrophe as it
military out of southern Lebanon and to install a caliphate Islamic state encompassing Lebanon and Israel. They
has invited international sanctions, enacted political stalemate, prevented the creation of instrumental
view an Islamic republic with Islamic constitution, such as Iran, to be the ideal form of a state, and they seek to
economic policy, fearmongered individuals that have different religion and silenced its political oppositions.
introduce such a government in Lebanon through both peaceful democratic means and aggressive combative
These actions are definitely counter-productive from the aims of post-conflict society that is revolved around the
strategies. Hezbollah aims to do this this by fighting Israel and western imperialism in Lebanon, and through the
ideas of economic prosperity and tolerance within the Lebanese multicultural and multi-ethnic society.

17
PART 3 – THE ARAB SPRING

18
 The Failure of Pearl Uprising
Reihan Ihza Farial
18/423186/SP/28160
The Arab Spring was a series of protests that demanded a change in the governmental system that were
oppressive to be democratic regime. The protests and or uprisings didn’t receive well by the government at that
time, that’s why many protesters got hurt in the process of conveying their demand. The protests initially started
in Tunisia, when a Tunisian street merchant Muhammad Bouazizi did a protest in December 2010 by setting
himself in fire after the police confiscated his goods because he didn’t have the permission to sell his goods on
the street. This incident became the catalyst of the uprising in Tunisia that was then called “Jasmine revolution”.
This Revolution was held in the street of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia that ultimately made the president at that
time, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down from his position as the President of Tunisia and eventually
escape to Saudi Arabia. This particular protest that was deemed as successful one, later on created domino
effect where some countries in the Middle East will experienced similar protests and uprisings (Maleki, 2011).
Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, and Bahrain are the countries that will undergo the uprisings, though because of
some factors, not all of the protests will be as successful as the one occurred in Tunisia. In this essay I will
particularly talked about the failed 2011 Bahrain uprising and try to answer the question “how can the Bahraini
government, withstand the 2011 Pearl Uprising?” I personally believe that the protesters were outgunned by the
Bahrain’s military thus making them hard to held out, as each day passes there will be more casualties, so they
couldn’t persist no matter how hard they tried. But, before explaining further about what causes the failure of
Arab Spring uprising in Bahrain, first we need to understand the country and what caused the uprisings in the
first place.
Bahrain is a small Arab state located in the coast of the Persian Gulf, although it’s located in the Persian
Gulf, Bahrain has the smallest storage of petroleum compared to the other Gulf states, making Bahrain have to
get creative to make its economy strives, thus Bahrain prioritize tourism, commercial services, and
communication as their main sources of government revenue. Bahrain government system is constitutional
monarchy that runs by the Al Khalifa family. In 2018,
Bahrain has the estimate population of 1,583,000 people,
70% of them are Muslims with Shiite Muslims taking the
majority of the population, more precisely 62% while the
Sunni Muslims took up the minority 38% (Pollock, 2017).
Although the Shiite Muslims are the majority of the
population, it needs to be underlined that the Al Khalifa
crown family came from Sunni Muslim which are the
Muslim minority in the country.
While the other Arab Spring uprisings were
pushing more on pro-democracy protests, the uprising that happened in Bahrain was being driven by another
goals. The first goal was to insist the king to fulfil his promises that were made in 2001, which was to make
Bahrain a kingdom in return for establishing a parliament with full legislatives power and the second promise
was to end the martial law. The second goal was to expose the government for the abuse of human right, so the
king had formed a parliament, but the problem was, this parliament didn’t have any legislative power,
consequently the people didn’t stay silent and started a series of protests that first started in February 14th 2011
at the city of Manama later they will march towards the Pearl Roundabout, where most of the Shiite will occupy
that place, because most of the protest occurred in the Pearl Roundabout, later the uprising can be called as the
“Pearl Uprising”. Not long after the protest began, the security forces were forced to use birdshots, rubber
bullets, and tear gas to disperse the protesters, but the retaliation by the security forces made one protester
being killed. Thousands of protesters marched to the Pearl Roundabout set up a tent, stay there and eventually
occupy it (Slackman, 2011). The protesters’ occupation didn’t last long, in 17th of February, the security forces
tried to retake the Pearl Roundabout killing four and injuring three hundred plus people in the process and the
capital city of Manama was under lockdown with tanks and soldiers patrolling all over the city. The protesters
didn’t give up, the next morning hundreds of protesters marched towards Manama, when they came near the
Pear Roundabout, the security forces retaliated with open fire, causing the injury of many protesters. On the 19th
of February, the security forces fall back from the Pearl Roundabout and the protesters reoccupied the Pearl
Roundabout, while the crown prince stated that the protesters are allowed to camp during their demonstration.
On March 9th, three protests were occurred, one near the United States embassy, another one was outside the
building of Ministry of Interior, and the last one was in Bahrain Financial Harbor. The next day, hardline Shiite
groups demanded the abolishment of monarchy and the establishment of democracy system in the government.
The demonstration went on until in the 13th of March, the government started to retaliate strongly with the
security forces launching tear gas and firing at the tents that the protesters had built in the Pearl Roundabout. As
the protesters were persistent, the Bahrain government had no choice but to call back up from other Gulf States,
so the Arab Saudi sent 1,000 armored troops and the United Arab Emirates sent 500 police officers
(Aljazeera.com, 2011). The 1,000 protesters that had been arrested in 17th of March marked the crackdown of
the Bahraini uprising as after that the demonstration had stop completely.
The causes of failure of Bahraini Uprising in 2011, can be categorized into two categories, internal and
external factors. The first one is internal factor, as mentioned above, the Bahraini uprising was heavenly
influenced by the successful uprising that occurred in Tunisia and Egypt. The successful uprisings before, also
formed very high expectations toward the result of demonstration, hoping that what they demanded will
immediately be granted, not considering the power of Al-Khalifa family and unable to correctly read the regional
environment of Bahrain, became one of the reasons why their uprisings can be countered by the government.
The external factor is the deployment of foreign personnel. Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates
reinforcement towards the Bahraini government was the final blow for the already outgunned protestors. With
so many guns and military arsenals pointed at them, they have no other option but to be captured by the
security forces.
In conclusion, the Bahraini Uprising that started in 2011, was heavenly influenced by the uprisings that
happened in Tunisia. But we must underline that the protesters are not the only one who learned from the
uprisings in Tunisia, the Bahraini government also learned from the Tunisia uprisings and how to counter
measure them if that kind of uprising ever should happen in Bahrain, moreover their government is run by the
Sunni Muslim family, the minority in Bahrain. That’s why they know how to react to the uprising by using
sectarian divisions, use of violence and doing all they can so that the protestors will be full of fear, although this
plan eventually hurt Bahrain in the long run, such as losing all of its political gains, nonfunctioning parliament,
and gave up their sovereignty. It was an evil tactic, but when they use that kind of tactic moreover with the help
of foreign forces it was proven that it could thwart the uprising, thus the demands of protestors cannot be
enforced to the government, making their uprising unsuccessful and the government was able to maintain its
regime.
19
 The “Revisiting Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution: Arab’s Spring most successful revolution, 8 years on”
Jasmine Noor Andretha Putri
18/423181/SP/28155
On 17th December 2010, a 26-year-old street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in the
Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid. He set himself on fire as a sign of discontent of Tunisia’s autocratic government, led
by former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who had been in power for 23 years. Bouazizi’s self-immolation
symbolized the injustice and economic hardships that happened under Ben Ali’s authoritarian rule. It started
mass protestations throughout the country that protested over high unemployment and political repression. The
revolution lasted for less than a month in which Ben Ali’s government was toppled down and was replaced by an
interim government led by Mohamed Ghannouchi and subsequently Beji Caid Sebsi. The events in Tunisia
kickstarted the series of democratization protests known as “Arab Spring” in other Middle Eastern countries
such as Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Syria. However, the Tunisian revolution, which is also known as the “Jasmine
Revolution”, was widely considered to be the only successful revolution during the “Arab Spring” (Brown and
Murphy, 2019).
The Jasmine Revolution brought initial fundamental success by ousting Ben Ali from power and being the
only country in the Arab Spring that was consequential in democratizing their government. After a rocky
negotiation process, the Islamist and secular factions of the government approved a new constitution in 2014
that was a product of compromise between both contending factions. This was praised by domestic and
international observers as a successful step to a more democratic nation (Brown and Murphy, 2019). With this
new constitution, Tunisian are able to express themselves freer in the society and are able to held
demonstration and rallies that were oppressed during the previous regime. Tunisia also has a more participative
and expressive civil society as stated by Tunisian activist Lina Ben Mhenni, “We can take part in political life. We
are having a thriving civil society working hard to improve things in Tunisia”, (Alemdar, 2018). There have been
several revolutionary laws that has been enacted and brought up in the new constitution such as equality of
inheritance for women and the law against women violence. This has symbolized Tunisia’s active civil society
that have participated in voicing people’s demands (Alemdar, 2018). This revolutionary gender equality law
made Tunisia the first Arab country to implement it (Benlakehal, 2018).
Despite having its share of successes, post-Revolution Tunisia has been marred by numerous turmoil and
political instability that could jeopardize the country’s peace and stability once more. The primary factor of civil
unrest is economic instability. The Tunisian economy has stagnated since 2014, with its economic growth
oscillated for the past 8 years. The persistent high unemployment rate have riddled Tunisia, particularly in its
youth with youth unemployment reaching 35%. This prompted the decline in foreign direct investment from
5.8% to 1.7% of GDP during the period of 2008 to 2016. Economic instability also resulted in Tunisia seeking a
USD$2.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (Filitz, 2018). However, stagnant economic
progress and failed policies have prompted IMF to warn Tunisia to take “urgent action” and “decisive measures”
to minimize the country’s budget deficit (Sengupta, 2018). Adding another economic blow is the decline of
national income from the once-lucrative sectors of tourism and mining. Tunisia’s tourism sector has suffered
after terrorist attack in tourist destinations Sousse and Bardo. Whilst the decline in Tunisia’s mining sector was
due to the global decline in the particular commodity that resulted in Tunisia’s total natural resource rents
declining from its peak of 11% of GDP in 2008 to a mere 3% in 2015 (Filitz, 2018).
Another problem Tunisia has experienced post-Revolution is struggling democracy and numerous political
tensions. After the Revolution, the apparent polarization between secular and emerging Islamist factions have
led to political tension. This was furthered by the appearance of hard-line Islamist movement that put pressure
on the moderate Ennahda Party to propose Islamic law to the constitution. The factions ended up agreeing to a
compromised new constitution in 2014. Political instability is still apparent through government changes as
Tunisian Prime Minister (PM) was dismissed and changed of a total seven times in five years (Brown and
Murphy, 2019). The Tunisian parliament introduced the controversial Administrative Reconciliation Law, which
was aimed to grant impunity for former regime’s corruptor also highlighted the normalized notion of corruption
in the already-struggling economy of Tunisia. Persistent trade deficit, corruptions and unpopular policies led to
protests all over the country demanding justice and prosperity (Benlakehal, 2018). Despite having an active civil
society, disappointment in governments have dissuaded political voters, resulting in an abnormally low voter
turnout such as the Tunis municipality with a mere 26% of turnout (Abouaun, 2019). In the lead-up to the 2019
Tunisian election, the executive branch of the government is breaking apart as there have been political rifts and
power struggle within the ruling party of Nidaa Tounes with the rift of PM Youssef Chahed and President Beji
Caid Essebsi being the most prominent. Nidaa Tounes party have also announced that they’re ending the four-
year coalition with their biggest opposition, Ennahda party. As Nidaa Tounes MPs are switching sides to support
the ousted Chahed, Ennahda is expected to win in the next election (TRT World, 2018). As the election looms, it
is still unclear whether this election will shape the future of Tunisia or become another fallout of the continuing
power struggle in Tunisia.
Other supporting factors in Tunisia’s current struggle include regional inequality and security issues.
Socio-economic regional inequality in Tunisia remains conspicuous as the interior and southern parts of the
country have significant infrastructure and services discrepancies compared to the rest of the country. These
inequalities brought out higher poverty rates in these unfortunate states. This could be exampled by the
substantial difference in poverty rate in the Kasserine Governorate of 32%, almost doubled the national average
and is bigger by 23 points than the 9% poverty rate in the capital. The failure of having equal rights as states
might be a driving factor for these states to rally more protests (Filitz, 2018). The growing presence of terrorist
groups such as ISIS has been one of the factors of the economic turmoil as ISIS carried out two major terrorism
attacks in Tunisia’s famous tourism spots that proved to be devastating for the country’s once-lucrative
economic source (Benlakehal, 2018). High youth unemployment rates have resulted in the rise of Tunisian
militants that joined terrorist groups abroad as it might proved as the only viable option for these unemployed
youths (Yaffe and Estelle, 2018).
The Jasmine Revolution might have started the chain of events in Arab Spring and successfully implanted the
foundations of a democratic country that was unprecedented in the region itself. However, the immediate
outcome and positive reforms haven’t been fully realized by any subsequent Tunisian government that still
disappoint civilians with their incomplete and ineffective policies. There are still a lot of things to fix and a long
way to go in order to fulfill Tunisians dream of a democratic and prosperous nation. To conclude, the statement
made Mhenni might be the only way to describe the Jasmine Revolution eight years on: “It is true that we have
serious problems… but I think that we are on the right track. I believe that a positive change is not a matter of
eight years. It is a long journey with ups and downs. It’s an ebb and flow. It is success and failure. We cannot fix
the problems of more than 50 years of dictatorship in 8 years. Fulfilling the objective of a revolution requires:
patience, perseverance, willingness and determination,” (Alemdar, 2018). Now, only time and the actions of
Tunisian people and government in subsequent years can decide the future outcome of this revolution and the
country itself.
20
 The Consequence of Bahrain Uprising Aftermath
Haedar Nur Muhammad Rezka
18/425563/SP/28311

The rise of Arab Springs has been occurred throughout many countries in the Middle East. Mainly, Arab Spring
was meant to be an oppressive movement in order to toppling down
the current governmental regime which considered to be
authoritarian and strive to gain the right for the people. The fall down
of Ben Ali in Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and the death of
Muammar Gaddafi in Libya during the revolution movement was
considered a success history in Arab Springs (Harrison, 2018). Many
middle eastern states then strive to bring the revolution towards their
states, in a wish to have a winning in regards to the oppression
movement. However, not all opposition movement was achieved a
success outcome. One of the countries that inspired within the
success story over the previous country is Bahrain. Unlike Tunisia or
Egypt, the Bahrain uprising was considered to be failed, but the failure
was not led into massive events like the Syrian civil war nowadays. It is
lead to a question “what are the outcomes and changes that achieved
by the opposition after the Bahrain Uprising was occurred?”. This
article
strives to explain the Bahrain uprising and analyze what outcomes
that have been proceed after the events.
The Bahrain uprising was occurred in February until March 2011, along with the Libyan civil war. The
uprising was mainly rooted by the Shiite Islam in Bahrain which want to achieved their right on works, living, and
political rights (Riaz, 2017). Since the occupation of Al-Khalifa and British protectorate, British recognized the
Khalifa family which sided at Sunni Islam, as local government and declared Bahrain independence in 1971 (Riaz,
2017). The tension started within 1979, when the Iranian Revolution of 1979 giving a space for Shiite Islam to
protest against the dominance power of Sunni Islam which was considered as the reason of Shiite Islam
oppression in Bahrain.
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, director of advocacy at Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy and one of
the pro-democracy opposition, mentioned that the demonstration was intended to be a peaceful
demonstration, where the Shiite Islam people only want to achieved the right as citizens equally (Aljazeera,
2016). The uprising in Pearl Roundabout was started peacefully, until the government military forces was strived
to dismissed the demonstration and ended with violence. As the result, the Pearl Roundabout monument was
destroyed. Other activist, Maryam al-Khawaja, during an interview in Aljazeera, stated that the Bahrain uprising
was a revolution towards Bahrain society because the protest was not only faced the governments of Bahrain,
but also the Saudia Arabia and the British as the allies of the Khalifa family. She believed that the uprising was a
peace demonstration, which only to demand the government to fulfill their promise for the right as citizens
(Aljazeera, 2018). Moreover, she stated the governments was prohibited to any independence investigation
occurred regarding the Bahrain uprising. She believed that the uprising was in cooperation with the Iran, where
Iran shout out the violence of Bahraini governments towards the citizens in order to suppress their allies and it
will be continued until the opposition achieved their right as citizens.
At the other perspectives, the governments responded to the uprising was considered to be a force to
topple down the royal family, the Khalifa. Adnan Butamea, politician and journalist of Bahrain believed that the
Bahrain uprising was part of the influence on Iranian Revolution 1979, where the demonstration was arranged
by the Shiite Islam along with the Iranian activist movement (Aljazeera, 2016). He also mentioned that many
media’s coverage strives to alter the Bahrain uprising as the current society condition that this action was
derived as a revolution, which was contrary by the fact that the uprising was only meant to topple down the
current government. He mentioned that the consequences of the Bahrain uprising have been affected Bahrain in
economic growth and the government where the opposition refused to join legislative election in 2014, which
considered an obstacle in order to established democracy in Bahrain (Aljazeera, 2016). With the uprising has a
chance to continue, the future of Bahrain might be compromised.
Independent Commission of Inquiry that established by the government stated that the number of
casualties that recorded was 46 people based on the report in 2011, while Bahrain Center of Human Right
(BCHR) listed an updated information regarding the casualties until 2017 that the casualties that has been
confirmed by the BCHR is approximately 101. Number of political prisoners is estimated approximately 2.600
(The economist, 2017).
Killed by Type of Casualties
Civilians Expatriates Security Forces
Security Forces 24 2 1
Torturer 5 - -
Demonstrator - 2 3
Unknown Assailants 8 - -
Unspecified - - 1
Table of Casualties during Bahrain Uprising in 2011. Sourced From: Report of the Bahrain Independent
Commission of Inquiry Page 429-431. Available at: http://files.bici.org.bh/BICIreportEN.pdf
Graph of casualties during Bahrain Uprising updated to
2017. Sourced From: Bahrain Center of Human Right.
Available at: http://bahrainrights.org/en/node/3864
The changes after the Bahrain uprising was not
significance despite the number of civilian casualties by
the opposition. The government under the Khalifa family still holding a great power in Bahrain governments
indicated that the demands on reforming the Bahrain governments was failed. Al-Khawaja statement regarding
the continuation of the uprising is likely to be true – the number of uprisings will be increased prior to achieved
the demands of Shiite Islam in Bahrain towards the ruling power of the Family. Moreover, regarding the uprising
the government tends to be silence, in addition to Al-Khawaja statement that the government strive to prohibit
any independence investigation towards the uprising event. As the reformation of government has a least
chance to be occurred, it is could be concluded that the uprising is still in failure, the increasing numbers of
demonstration will be occurred and additional number of casualties will be increased.

21
 The Political and Economic Changes in Egypt Due to the Egyptian Revolution in 2011

Karina Nurwidodo

18/423182/SP/28156

The Arab Spring is one of the most crucial moments that happened in the Arab world, causing a impression on the tourists, on the stability and security of Egypt, and made many of them stayed away from the
transition in the early twenty-first century (Amin 2012, p. 1). It can be defined as the uprisings against the country (Abdou and Zaazou 2018, p. 61). In the first quarter of 2016/2017, the government of Egypt managed to
government that started in Tunisia in December 2010 and eventually spread across other countries, including cover the budget deficit by borrowing money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, this caused
Yemen, Syria, Lybia, Egypt, and Bahrain. This movement aimed for the change of regime toward democracy and its external debt to mount up to $60 billion. As a result of the loan, there was a devaluation of the currency and
one of the most apparent results seen was the toppling down of the long-ruling autocratic presidents. The caused the costs of living to become more expensive (Abdou and Zaazou 2018, p. 58).
protest was triggered by the terrifying event of Mohamed Bouazizi who set himself on fire as a form of protest
Using the political perspective to analyze the events before the Arab Spring happened, one of the things
because his wares were confiscated by the municipal official in Tunisia (HISTORY 2018). In Egypt, specifically, the
that was most noticeable was the authoritarian rule of President Hosni Mubarak that lasted for almost 30 years,
revolution began on 25 January 2011. The people there wanted the former President Hosni Mubarak to end his
signifying the weakness of real political participation for a long time (Abdou and Zaazou 2018, p. 62). As
rule after almost 30 years of being in power, as they suffered from poverty, unemployment, corruption, and
mentioned earlier in this paper, many Egyptians during that time suffered from high rates of poverty,
autocratic governance. On 11 February 2011, Mubarak finally resigned from his position and the power was then
unemployment, and corruption by the government (Aljazeera.com 2016). Moreover, during the uprisings,
handed over to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Aljazeera.com 2016). This paper will discuss further
Mubarak responded to the situation in an inhumane way, such as by using tear gas, rubber bullets, and water
on the changes in the economy and political environment of Egypt, before and after the Arab Spring. It will look
cannons. Therefore, instead of putting the chaos to ease, his actions heightened the protesters‘ anger
upon whether the uprisings caused economic problems as it heightens the political and social unrest in the
(Puspitasari 2017, p. 169).
country, as well as seeing whether the people’s wish to bring democracy in the country was fulfilled.
Following the uprisings, Egypt faced a phase of a political crisis. After handing the power to the Supreme
Exploring Egypt’s economy to way before the Arab Spring occurred, it can be seen that it was never
Council of the Armed Forces, Egypt held its first democratic election in 2012 and the outcome revealed
really prosperous. Under Gamal Abdel Nasser’s and Anwar Sadat’s rules, Egypt’s economy was very centralized.
Mohamed Morsi as the winner. Morsi was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and this raised controversy as
In 2004-2008, however, economic reformation occurred in hopes to attract foreign direct investments. Yet, a
Egypt has long been ruled by leaders from the military and a leader from the Muslim Brotherhood would have a
global recession happened in 2008-2009, slowing down Egypt’s economy and making its economy stayed
different perspective on ruling the country that might oppose the view of many people, especially the
relatively closed (Economywatch.com 2010). In addition to this, there was also a financial crisis that forced many
secularists. This led to the anti-government protests in 2013, or also known as the second revolution, that aimed
companies to dismiss workers because of the decline in economic activities and the increase in production costs,
to overthrow Morsi. Mohamed Morsi was ousted from his position by a military coup d’etat that was led by
resulting in a higher unemployment rate. The extraordinarily high pricing also cause instability in the social,
Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, the Minister of Defense, making Morsi a president for only roughly a year (Sharp 2013, p. 9-
political, and economic sectors (Abdou and Zaazou 2018, p. 57). Most of the industries in Egypt were dominated
11). Overall, there wasn’t any significant improvement in the political life of Egypt. Although the protest was
by the military and the rest were controlled by the former government, with high cases of corruption following it
meant to bring democratic regime into the country, however, the citizens there still weren’t able to express their
(Economywatch.com 2010). Due to the rise in corruption, low transparency, and the decrease in credibility in
opinions freely. In 2012, the democracy index of Egypt reached the 109th rank, which was an improvement from
many state institutions, this caused the citizens of Egypt to become poorer and a higher discrepancy in income
the 138th in 2010. However, the ranking dropped again in 2017 to the 130th (Abdou and Zaazou 2018, p. 62).
between the rich and the poor was seen (Abdou and Zaazou 2018, p. 57).
In conclusion, the Arab Spring brought many disadvantages toward Egypt’s economy, such as the fall in
After the revolution, there was a decline in the foreign and domestic direct investments in Egypt. A
tourism, the increase in current account deficits, the rise in unemployment, and the decline in foreign and
statistic showed that in 2009/2010, the domestic direct investment covered 19.5 percent of the country’s Gross
domestic direct investments. While on the political side, the uprisings brought an improvement in its democracy
Domestic Products (GDP). But in 2010/2011, the percentage shrank to only 17.1 percent and decreased further
index in 2012 because of the country’s first democratic election. However, Egypt’s rank in the democracy index
to 14 percent in 2013/2014. While for the foreign direct investment, there used to be $6758 million invested in
fell again in 2017. It was noticed that the Egyptians weren’t actually able to freely express their opinions, which
2009/2010, but the number fell to only $3982 million in 2011. This affected the balance of payments that also
opposed the principle of democracy. The country also faced a political crisis after the revolution, where the
suffered from the increase of deficits, which rose from $9.8 billion in 2010/2011 to $11.3 billion in 2011/2012.
elected president in 2012, Mohamed Morsi, was overthrown by his own Minister of Defense. The Arab Spring
The deficit on the current transaction balance also caused a deficit on the trade balance. Specifically, there was
would indeed always be an important event to be remembered by the world for a long time, considering the
an increase of $6.6 billion in the gap between the exports and imports of Egypt as a result of the revolution
impacts it created.
(Abdou and Zaazou 2018, p. 60-61). The unemployment rate in Egypt also increased due to the revolution, from
8.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 11.9 percent in the first three months of 2011 (Asharq AL-awsat
2017). Another sector that was badly impacted by the revolution is tourism. It is shown by the decrease in the
revenue of tourism from $11.6 billion in 2009/2010 to $9.4 billion in 2011/2012. The uprising left an awful

22
PART 4 – REGIONAL DYNAMICS: CONFLICT AND COOPERATION

23
 Lebanon’s Confessionalism Sustains Conflict in the Middle East
Theresia Rida Yus Kurnia
18/425572/SP/28320
Confessionalism
Confessionalism has been considered as one conservative ideology which some countries still apply its
practice as their political system. In political science terminology, confessionalism can be translated as a system
of government that proportionally allocates political power among country’s communities, whether according to
religious beliefs or ethnicity, according to their percentage of the population (Harb, 2006). Confessionalism
basically derived from another theory called consociationalism, which uphold the value of (1) proportional
allocation of political posts among communities according to their numerical representation in the population;
(2) a massive coalition between communities’ leaders to determine policies that serve all; (3) communal
autonomy whereby each community is free to determine its own affairs such as personal status laws; and also
(4) mutual veto power (Harb, 2006). Confessionalist believes that it is the best way to secure peace in the society
by giving them the proportional numbers in the government system as representation of their existence.
However, this statement is contradicting to some facts that cofessionalism can actually deepen conflict between
the groups. Conflict may occur as only one group have got most power in the government and generate jealousy
in the society, to worse extent the most powerful group might also utilize their power to fulfill their own self-
interest.
Then it comes to question, how is Lebanon’s confessionalism sustains conflict in the Middle East?
Lebanon’s Confessionalism
Lebanon has been one of the most popular subject to discuss when it comes to
confessionalism. In contemporary era, it is considered amazing for a country that still
applying this system recognizing there are possibilities of dividing people in the society
with strict lines. Lebanon’s journey of confessional democracy started after the
occupation of France. After gaining independence from France in 1943, according to
the National Pact, a gentlemen's agreement between the country's Maronite Christian
President Bishara al-Khouri and his Sunni Muslim Prime Minister Riyadh al-Solh,
consecrated this confessional formula (Harb, 2006). Along with this agreement,
religious communities are allocated specific political post and was agreed that the
President of the Republic was to be a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister a Sunni
Lebanon’s demographic
Muslim, and the Speaker of Parliament a Shia Muslim (Harb, 2006). In addition to that,
condition (based on ethnicity) the representation in parliament was set to be 6:5 in favor for the Christians.
Source:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/glob However, after long-lasting civil war it was agreed through The Taif Agreement 1989,
alconnections/mideast/maps/de
motext.html
that numbers of representative of both Christians and Muslims are equal. This
condition is applied up until now.
With the current condition of Lebanon’s demographic situation, it is questionable whether confessionalism
might works in the future. Indeed, confessionalism in Lebanon’s governmental system does not stop there and
become the reflection of the breakdown of society in numerous self-conscious religious communities anxious to
maintain their identity and separate status (Suleiman, 1967). According to CIA World Fact Book, up until July
2018 Lebanon’s population reached 6,100,075 people with 95% are Arabs, 4% are Armenian and 1% of other
minor ethnicities (CIA, 2019). However, Lebanese prefer to define themselves according to their religion.
Therefore, it would be more appropriate if defined as Muslim 57.7% (28.7% Sunni, 28.4% Shia, smaller
percentages of Alawites and Ismailis), Christian 36.2% (Maronite Catholics are the largest Christian group), Druze
5.2%, very small numbers of Jews, Baha'is, Buddhists, and Hindus (2017 est.) (CIA, 2019). With the growing
number of Muslim population, emerged new problem of social jealousy regarding position given to certain
religious groups.
How is Confessionalism Sustain Problem in the Region?
Having all kinds of religious communities meant an eventual extension of regional politics into domestic
affairs. While the Muslims in general wanted close relations with their Arab, mostly
Muslim, neighbors, the Christians wanted to maintain close relations with the West
despite their Arab identity (Harb, 2006). As the situation in the Middle East is
considered unstable this might bring a huge problem for Lebanon geopolitics.
Surrounded by mostly Muslim countries, Lebanon has got one of the highest number of
Christian population. This has somehow forced the Lebanese government to
acknowledge the importance of Western world due to the fact that most Christians
would love to have good relations with the Western world. While the rest of the Middle
East, expect Israel, might think the other way round.
In addition to that Lebanon’s demographic condition also seemed to be sustaining
the conflicts happening in the region, especially regarding Sunni and Shia as two most Lebanon’s demographic
condition (based on religion)
prominent sects of Islam happened to have many adherents in this country. Both Shia Source:
and Sunni have got almost same number of adherents https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/
globalconnections/mideast/
and have got high position in the government as well. maps/demotext.html
However, in terms of historical condition worldwide,
these two sects seemed to have no good relations after all. Struggles between
Sunni and Shia forces have fed a Syrian civil war that threatens to transform
the map of the Middle East, spurred violence that is fracturing Iraq, and
widened fissures in a number of tense Gulf countries (Council on Foreign
Relations, 2018). These cases have happened in the region for a long time and
started to affect Lebanon. As an example, Lebanon has been the headquarters
of Hezbollah movement whom is supported by Irani government due to the
Lebanon’s demographic condition (based same ideology they adhere which is Shia. Although it is a political movement,
on distribution of religion nationwide)
Source:
the Western world have given the movement as a terrorist group due to its
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/t aggressiveness. Hezbollah has thousands of men fighting for the Assad regime
he-world-factbook/geos/le.html
in Syria and stands accused of deploying car bombs that killed prominent Sunni
politicians in Lebanon (Council on Foreign Relations, 2018). On the other hand, the presence of extremist Sunni
add to the table full of conflict in the Middle East. Sunni extremists reportedly linked to al-Qaeda have attacked
Shia neighborhoods following Hezbollah’s deployment in Syria (Council on Foreign Relations, 2018).
The Lebanese government cannot blame one or the other as a “dangerous” movement due to the fact that
they have the power in the government that prevent such thing to happen. Because of this justification,
Lebanese government apparently cannot do much but using the media as platform to promote tolerance (Harb,
2006). As the Lebanese government are expected to secure their citizen from any foreign destruction, at the
same trying to balance the existing confessional democracy have led to Lebanon’s confusion in handling the
issue. In addition to that these extremist movements have seen Lebanon as the next strategic place to seek for
protection and headquarters as well. This condition surely is sustaining the conflict in Middle East due to the
justification of confessional democracy Lebanon apply.
24
 The Endless Dispute of the Western Sahara
Yonathan Philip Djari – 18/423191/SP/28165

RESEARCH QUESTION : Why hasn’t there been a settlement regarding the Western Sahara dispute with Morocco asked the United Nations to postpone said referendum. The International Court of Justice released a
Morocco? statement stating that neither Morocco and Mauritania had any sovereignty over the region of Western Sahara
where Morocco responded by initiating the Green March. The Green March was a march comprised of 300.000
The nations in the continent of Africa was once fully colonialized by European nations. Despite the first
Moroccans escorted by 20.000 Moroccan troops as a way to pressure Spain into transferring the sovereignty
effort of colonialization dating back to Portugese Conquest of Ceuta in the 15th century, European nations held
over to them rather than having to host the referendum. The
the Berlin Conference in 1884 to “officially” delegate a piece of land in Africa to be controlled by a European
march was the beginning of the 15 year long Western Sahara War
nation (Worldheritageofportugueseorigin.com, 2019) . Morocco was
(1975-1991) between the Polisario Front and Morocco.
controlled by the Spanish and French as for the Western Sahara was
Diplomacy soon grew to become a better weapon in
under the Spanish rule. As time passes by, not much changed in Africa
trying to resolve the dispute. In 1978, the Madrid Accords was
until the establishment of the United Nations in 1945, an organization
released by the three participating parties, Morocco, Mauritania
with the goal of sustaining world peace in order to avoid any of the deadly
and Spain. The division as written in the Madrid Accords were not
wars that has tainted the world (WonderWhy, 2014). Colonialization
agreed by the United Nations in which the United Nations still
definitely contradicts the main goals of the United Nations hence the
considered Western Sahara as a Non-Self-Governing Territory. A
contents of Article 73 in the UN Charter title Declaration Regarding Non-
Members of the Polisario Front marching as they carry day after the Spanish troops left the Western Sahara region, the
Self-Governing Territories and Resolution 1514 of 14 December 1960 as
the flag of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic was born in 27 February 1976.
means to grant independence towards colonialized nations. As African (MEE/Massinissa Benlakehal)
Not long after, in 1979, Mauritania and the Polisario Front held a
nations fought their way towards becoming a free independent nation,
meeting to sign a peace treaty wherein Mauritania ended their interference in the Western Sahara region. Fast
there is one ongoing four decade overlooked dispute that has yet to been
forward to 1991, a cease-fire agreement was signed by the Polisario Front and Morocco and agreed to a
settled, the Western Sahara dispute.
referendum to happen 6 months later. Until this day, the referendum has yet to happen after a several failed
A map of Africa based on colonialization by The Western Sahara is a region located in North Africa bordering
attempts. An attempt called the Baker Plan was proposed to give the Sahrawi people an autonomous
European nations in 1914, by unknown, Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria. It’s history of colonialization started in
https://www.facinghistory.org government but under the sovereignty of Morocco and 5 years to transition before holding a referendum. The
1884 when Spain entered the region and established their rule for more
first version of the plan was disagreed by the Polisario Front but the second version was then agreed, however
than a century. The rich region full of phosphate and iron reserves along
Morocco took a turn saying they will not hold any referendum if independence is still an option.
with possible untapped oil deposits is home to around 600.000 people with most of its land being a scorching
As of today, the Western Sahara is still disputed. Both parties’ contradictory goals has made compromise
desert. Directly bordering with Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria, these three nations are the vital actors of this
nearly impossible. The international world is starting to lean towards the acknowledgement of Sahrawi Arab
dispute (Newsweek, 2016).
Democratic Republic as a nation. It is highly possible that Morocco wouldn’t want to work towards a middle
Rewinding back to 1956, Morocco gained their independence from Spain and France in which they
ground due to the high potential in resources such as phosphate, iron ore and oil deposits possessed in the
instantly claimed that the Western Sahara was rightfully theirs. One year later, Mauritania followed by saying
Western Sahara region. Other than that, it is extremely apparent that the Polisario Front wouldn’t have gone as
that the Western Sahara is actually theirs but do keep in mind that this was three years prior to Mauritania
far as they have now without the help of Algeria, a longtime enemy of Morocco. Giving away the Western
achieving independence from the grips of colonialist France. Conflict kept escalating then as Spanish rule in the
Sahara to Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic would mean that Morocco is directly surrounded by the enemies
Western Sahara was still as prominent as ever. In 1973, a new actor in the Western Sahara appeared the Popular
on both sides. After extensive research on the history of the dispute, Morocco would be deemed as somewhat
Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisaria Front). This politico-military organization
weak if they let go of the Western Sahara region. Why the dispute has been going on for so long heavily lies on
has a goal to liberate the Western Sahara from the control of any outside interference, whether that be of Spain
Morocco as the majority of the European nations and the international world has expressed their support
or Morocco as well as fighting for the independence of the Sahrawi people. The dispute has now grown and
towards the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
consists of Spain, Morocco, Mauritania and the latest Polisario Front. Although the Polisario Front fights for the
aforementioned goals, they are backed by Algeria due to the strained relationship between Algeria and
Morocco. The United Nations has kept pressuring Spain to leave the Western Sahara and decolonize the region
once and for all so, rather than engaging in the newly waged war by the Polisario Front, Spain decided to hold a
referendum (Britannica, 2019). The referendum proposed by Spain was for the Sahrawi to be either independent
or integrated with Morocco or Mauritania. Due to the overwhelmingly high support towards independence,

25
 The Cause of Lebanon Civil War
Mellisan
18/425566/SP/28314
Lebanon is known as the country that stands as
the victim of other country’s war (History of Lebanon: Civil War,
Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). Many of its civilians faced the
hard truth of their leader who are once the one that triggers the
civil war, are now leading their country without a feel of
remorse of what they did in the past. The writer of this essay
would like to share the chronological order as to how this war
could happen and the after math of the civil war.
In the 19th century, Western Country such as France and
Britain tried to side with a community called Greater Syria with
the sole purpose is to overthrow the Ottoman Empire (History of
Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). Their first
attempt in creating secretarial conflicts failed and thus, the
proceed to another strategy that tried to impose on the trade
embargo of Greater Syria which then led to starvation that
induced death of two hundred thousands of Lebanese people
(History of Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and Corruption, 2019).
Because of this event, the economy that Lebanon had began to
imbalance and as the hunger spread, many parents were forced
to watch their very own children die before their eyes, whilst the soldiers got fed and the civilians left to starve.
With that event, marked the end of the Ottoman Empire (History of Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and
Corruption, 2019). The Western then tried to divided the Middle East for one another. Their main goal is to
never let Muslim Countries to have any power and remain ruptured (History of Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism
and Corruption, 2019). So they fell on the conclusion that Greater Syria was a threat for Britain and France.
France then advocated the idea of separatism and gave the privilege towards Maronite Christians that were
supposedly lived as minority in Syria own their state, which was now called as Lebanon (History of Lebanon: Civil
War, Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). This country was used as a fortress for Western Countries to create
alliances with America that helps with the collaboration of conflict plots against the Arab neighbors. Moreover,
Lebanon had always been used as the meeting point for any mediation for Syria’s domestic affairs.
Gamal Abdel Nasser who held the position as the Egyptian president were faced by the United States
and British government, thus he tried to privatizing the Suez Canal that attracted the Western Countries (History
of Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). However, when the Lebanese Muslims tried to side with
the Egyptian government, the Christians that currently resides in Lebanon choose to side with the western
power (History of Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). They further this action by asking the
United States to do intervention in Lebanon and end the Muslims oppositions (History of Lebanon: Civil War,
Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). Eisenhower who held the position as the United States’ president reacted
through enabling the operation ‘Blue Bat’ that consists of fourteen thousands of United States’ soldiers to
Lebanon and protect its regime (History of Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). This Blue Bat
operation was held on July 15th, 1958—which shows how Western Countries have a particular interest in
conserving the small state that privileged the Christian majority (History of Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and
Corruption, 2019). This dawned the Muslims into realization that they held no power and thoroughly
outnumbered. Furthermore, America supported Lebanon as the center of capitalism and western perversion. In
around 1960s and 1970s, Lebanon became the wealthiest state in the Middle East (History of Lebanon: Civil War,
Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). It was used as the location for global commerce and finance, which also
became the marking point for the Gulf to send their money to the west and the same goes back to them (History
of Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). They gained the notoriety of ‘Paris of Middle East’ and
is considered as the apotheosis of the after colonial success (History of Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and
Corruption, 2019). Nevertheless, those capitalism that had been brought to Lebanon and was enjoyed by the
elites did not close the fact that there are still darker reality that left Muslims to live strenuously, in the slums
whilst the Christian majority live luxuriously. Even the refugees of Arab-Israeli war—Palestinian people—that
flee towards Lebanon had to live in wretched condition (History of Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and
Corruption, 2019). Then on the April 13th, 1975 a shooting happened to kill four people in church, which then
followed by the bombings that killed twenty-seven of civilians in a bus of Christians (History of Lebanon: Civil
War, Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). Afterwards, that day was marked as the trigger of Lebanese fifteen years
long of civil war that killed hundred thousands (History of Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and Corruption, 2019).
The point that needs to be noted is that those people who did the gunfire, bombings and other form of positions
did not do so because of their Christian and Muslim religions (History of Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and
Corruption, 2019). However, it was all an act against their rulers—it was not religious struggle and neither was a
communist struggle. They did so to end the segregation that dominated all over corner of Lebanon. They also
further explained that they are aware that their rulers live off corruption, frauds and commercial deals. They
found that those leaders unconsciously build a state within a state and also tried to abuse them by forcing them
to work and exploit their money, they strive to gain their rights.
In January 1976, Christian military force operated a massacre in quarantine that consists of thirteen
thousands of poor Muslims that live in barracks, which were surrounded by the rich Christian area (History of
Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). After this occurrence, the same military force carry out
another massacre towards the Palestinian Refugee that lasted for approximately three months (History of
Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). However, another force also comes to view when
Palestinian Liberation Organization also execute massacre the Christian town (History of Lebanon: Civil War,
Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). Because of this, a series of massacre happened regularly which forces the
Lebanese civilians to move out of their houses and constantly in fear of their life by fleeing around the houses in
Lebanon and some also move to another country as refugee but often times were not welcome warmly (History
of Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). Since then, the reasoning of the war started to change,
it used to run because of the class gap that happened as sectarianism between people of Lebanon however, the
war between political parties started to emerge and all of them want a part of Lebanese land (History of
Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). In 1982, Israel tried to conquer the North Lebanon by
guarding the Palestinian refugee camps in Sabra and Shatira. They also further their actions by sending Christian
military forces to kill the refugees (History of Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). No civilians
dare to punish the Israeli president or the Christian Military Commander and his soldiers for their wrong doings
(History of Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). Sabra and Shatira remained as a scar that
imprints the civilians, which the criminals who supposedly responsible for the wrong doings, pull away from it
(History of Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). Since then, the Hezbollah was born and keeps
on flaunting their power in Lebanon by exploiting children in 1982’s witness of war to become their fighter
(History of Lebanon: Civil War, Capitalism and Corruption, 2019). Until today, Hezbollah has been used as an
instrument to maintain Middle East in struggle for two Muslim communities (History of Lebanon: Civil War,
Capitalism and Corruption, 2019).
In other words we can conclude that, the inclination for revenge and retaliation give the impression to
erase the longing for peace and the emergence to apply reasonable way of obtaining things that are convenient
politically turns into the main goal of the Lebanese people (O'Ballance, 2007). With the huge attempts in
obtaining justice, the civilians could still hold onto hope through pushing their hatred and get on with life
(O'Ballance, 2007).
26
 1990 – 1991 Iraq-Kuwait Gulf War
Nandita Putri Kusumawati
18/429316/SP/28541
The Iraq-Kuwaiti Gulf War occurred in 2 August 1990 until 28
February 1991. The war lasted for six to seven months. The war
began when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990 under the claim
that Kuwait is a part of Iraq’s territory. It was discovered and
revealed later that Iraq’s invasion over Kuwait was an attempt
made by Iraq to cancel its large debts that was owed to Kuwait.
Research Question: What are the reasons behind the occurrence of
the Iraq-Kuwait Gulf War? To what extent did foreign interventions
A map of Iraq and Kuwait were needed to quell the Gulf War?
Discussion
The Gulf War happened as a result of Iraq’s invasion over Kuwait in 2 August 1990. The conflict began
when Iraq faced economic problems that were caused by the Iraq-Iran war in 1980 until 1988. Iraq’s economy
was highly dependent on oil production, in which it contributed up to 95% of Iraq’s national income. In 1989, the
price of oil went down drastically and it left Iraq with an economy downturn. Under that situation, Iraq demand
OPEC to raise the price of oil. Iraq also proposed to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to free their $30 billion of debts and
to help Iraq in reconstructing their economy. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait both refused to grant Iraq’s proposal.
Short after, Saddam Hussein accused Kuwait for exceeding the OPEC’s regulation of oil production quota and
accused Kuwait for stealing the crude oil from Ar-Rumaylah oil fields that was located in the Iraq-Kuwait border.
Saddam Hussein also accused both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for conspiring to keep the oil prices low as an
attempt to become the panders for Western oil-buying countries. Not long after, Iraq claimed that Kuwait is a
part of Iraq’s territory under their historical background during the Ottoman Empire era, that Kuwait is a part of
Ottoman’s Province of Basra. Iraq believed that they have a rightful authority over Kuwait. Later, in justifying his
invasion of Kuwait, Saddam Hussein claimed that Kuwait is an artificial state that was carved out of the Iraqi
coast by Western colonial countries. While in fact, Kuwait had been internationally recognized as a separate
entity before Iraq itself was created by Britain under the League of Nations’ mandate after World War I ended.
Iraq began to insert a massive amount of troops within the Iraq-Kuwait border. Alarmed by Iraq’s move,
the President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, initiated to establish negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait to avoid any
foreign intervention from the United States or other foreign powers beyond the Gulf region. After only two
hours after the negotiation started, Saddam Hussein broke off the negotiation and withdrew. In 2 August 1990
at 2 a.m. local time, Hussein ordered an invasion and occupation of Kuwait with the bombing of Kuwait’s capital,
Kuwait City. Feeling alarmed and endangered, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia called for the United States, NATO, and
other Western countries to support them and to intervene Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. By the request made by
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, comes the foreign intervention. The United States’ president at the time, George W.
Bush, threatened to ban all but humanitarian trade with Iraq and to freeze $30 billion worth of Iraqi and Kuwaiti
assets in the United States. In 3 August 1990, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed the 660
resolution, consisting UNSC’s statement regarding the invasion. UNSC condemned Iraq’s action and demanded
them to immediately withdraw all military and forces from Kuwait unconditionally. UNSC called out both
countries to immediately set up intensive negotiations to find the resolution of the ongoing conflict. On the
same day, a meeting was established between the Arab League member states. Fourteen out of twenty one
member states of Arab League demanded Iraq to withdraw their force from Kuwait. On the other hand, Japan,
West Germany, Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands froze all Iraqi and Kuwaiti assets (Simons, 1996). Soviet
Union and the United States declared a joint declaration that called on other countries and weaponry factories
to stop their arms shipments to Iraq. Ignoring all the foreign forces
pressures, Iraq declared Kuwait as their 19th province in 8 August
1990, formally annexed Kuwait. At the same time, the US’ fighter
planes started to arrive in Saudi Arabia, accompanied by troops
from NATO, Egypt, and other Arab Nations as military supports to
guard Saudi Arabia against any possible attack from Iraq. Iraq has
also inserted around 300.000 troops in Kuwait.
On 29 November 1990, the UNSC declared that they will
use all necessary forces and means against Iraq if they did not
withdraw their forces from Kuwait by 15 January 1991. In January A U.S. F-14 flying over burning Kuwaiti
1991, the coalition of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United States, Soviet oil wells in Operation Desert Storm
Union, and some of NATO member states has prepared 700.000
troops personnel, ready to attack Iraq. On the other hand, Iraq was supported by Jordan, Algeria, Sudan, Yemen,
Tunisia, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Iraq decided not to withdraw their forces from Kuwait
by 15 January, ignoring UNSC’s ultimatum. The allied coalition’s military attack against Iraq began on January 17
1991 by the destruction of Iraq’s air defense along with Iraq’s communications networks, government buildings,
weapons plants, oil refineries, and bridges and roads by a massive US led-air forces. These attacks were known
as the Operation Desert Storm. In mid-February 1991, the coalition forces shifted their focus from air forces to
ground forces that mainly direct its attack to Kuwait and Southern Iraq. This ground attacks were known as
Operation Desert Sabre, meant to destroy Iraq’s fortifications and tanks. The coalition also attacked Iraq’s armor
reserves. In three days, the coalition forces of Arab, the US, and NATO had reoccupied Kuwait City. In the end of
February 1991, Iraq cannot stand against the coalition’s forces and their resistance finally came to a collapse.
With Iraq’s condition that was no longer able to resist, George W. Bush declared a cease-fire in 28
February 1991. Iraq accepts the cease-fire terms, ending the Iraq-Kuwait Gulf War. Saddam Hussein agreed to
accept the peace terms that was proposed. Iraq has agreed to recognize Kuwait’s sovereignty as a state and
remove their missiles and weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Iraq
lost the war with the total casualties of around 50.000 deaths, while the coalition’s force experienced the
casualties of only around 300 deaths (Bourgue, 2015). Iraq was way too reckless in starting their invasion of
Kuwait. Knowing that Kuwait was backed up by strong military forces, Iraq did not calculate their worst case
scenario well enough. Iraq could have had proper negotiating processes regarding their debts toward Saudi
Arabia and Kuwait before they actually decided to invade Kuwait. After the Gulf War ended, Iraq was left with
even more economic burden and the country experienced a huge loss of human resource and infrastructure.
27
 Saudi Arabia and Iran Regional Politics
Yosephine Elizabeth Dame
18/429319/SP/28544
Why Saudi Arabia and Iran intervene in Syrian War?
The Syrian War had emerged since 2011 and it all started by a pro – democracy demonstration which
protests against the Syrian government under the government of President Bassar Al – Assad. The
demonstration was inspired by the Arab – Spring that was happening regionally. The government used deadly
force as a response to the demonstration which made the
protest demanding the resignation of the president erupted
nationwide. The unrest was getting more intensed,
moreover, they were starting to arm themselves as
protection from the government and to secure their area of
security forces. The violence continued to escalated and
became civil war. Over time, this civil war involved many
powerful actors such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, The
United States, Turkey, and Israel (BBC, 2019), with each has
their own interests and goal in the region. Their
involvements have created many humanitarian crises and
has drawn the attention of international community.
This essay would focus on the reason of why Saudi
Arabia and Iran involved in the conflict. The answer is that
because Saudi Arabia and Iran have been in the state of
rivalry and distrust for approximately 17 year, therefore, it made them strive to be the regional hegemony by
supressing each other’s regional power. The start of this rivalry is caused by the difference of the two main sects
of Islam between the countries, Saudi Arabia is largely Sunni Muslim and Iran is Shiite Muslim and also their
rivalry in competing claims on the authencity and legitimacy of Islam. Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam,
contains most of important Islamic sites, and one of the biggest oil exporters among its wealthiest countries.
Saudi Arabia sees Iran as a main political and security threat. This is because of Iran’s aims in the region which
are to make a security system in the Gulf, free from foreign entanglement, and to hold Iranian presence in the
areas that it thought to be part of their natural environment to be influenced. Acknowledging this, Iran’s chase
in nuclear weapons and its potential in shaping the region threatens Saudi Arabia. The aims of Iran in the Middle
East stated above are what Iran is trying to achieve in the Syrian War (Berti & Guzansky, 2014).
Iran’s main reason in the war is to gather power. More specifically, Iran’s reason in intervening the
Syrian are divided into two sectors. The first is the economy sector. Iran is supporting Assad’s regime by giving oil
subsidies and military force. Iran also expected that Syria will ask Iran for reconstruction contract when it is time
to build after the war, which Iran sees as a great opportunity to have a loyal trade partner, Syria, for any
economic crisis Iran would encounter in the future. The second sector is to proliferate its power. Iran’s long term
aim in Syria is to establish its military installation, making Syria Iran’s foreign post in the Levant region, and
allowing its permanent presence in the Gulan Heights (Bremmer, 2018). Levant region is countries that is located
along the shoreline of eastern Medditerranean. This region is referred to the coastlands of Asia Minor which
consists of countries such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Palestine (Chepkemoi,
2018). Iran’s aim in making their post there is to make a predominant position in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. If they
succeed in making posts here, it will be easier for them to
combine powers rather than to comfort the Gulf directly, where
there are United States and its allies. This approach is also could
strengthen Iran’s hands in tackling Saudi Arabia and its Sunni
allies. Iran is planning to make two land corridors in the Levant
that would be used and a chain to transport military supports
and military men when needed (Berti & Guzansky, 2014).
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia’s attempt in its
involvement in the Syria War is to maintain Iran’s power in the
Middle East by separating Iran from Assad Regime, because for
years Saudi Arabia had made several attempts in both isolating
and engaging with Syria but it failed as the relation of both
countries never upgraded into a political alliance and Saudi’s aim in separating Syria and Iran was not achieved.
Therefore, in the war, Saudi Arabia’s choice is to support the rebellion group, aiming to topple down Assad and
this aim, including weakening Iran and Hizbullah, has been proliferating as Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy. Saudi
Arabia believes that by weakening Assad regime could decrease the power of Shi’ite Axis. There are several
actions done by Saudi Arabia in supporting the rebellion group and those are strengthening elements among the
rebels, providing material and financial assistance, and also boosting the capabilities and status of the political
opposition towards Assad. Another action that is carried out by Saudi Arabia other than assisting anti – Assad
group is that they have been wanting for international community to put more pressure against Assad and for
the United States to employ more action and have a more active role in Syria (Berti & Guzansky, 2014).
There have been many refugees caused by the war and there of course has been many humanitarian
crises. This war should be slowly settled and finished however, it will be very challenging and would need a very
systemized framework and widely willingness of cooperation from both countries. Unfortunately, researches
said that it would be very unlikely for Iran or Saudi Arabia to manage in pursuing maximalist negotiations and
compromise, specifically in aiming to find a common strategy to resolve the current conflicts in Syria and also to
plan for the future of the region. In this case, the chances to find a common formula that the two countries
would be satisfied by and would agree upon is very hard as the event in the region for both of the countries is a
zero – sum game to a large extent. The civil war has reached a point where both countries would have a very
difficult time to retreat from their current positions that they presented and in addition to that, the reason is
difficult because of their contradicting purposes and value in the region towards each respective sides (Berti &
Guzansky, 2014).
In conclusion, the Syria civil war is a very complex war in the Middle East with the involvement of Saudi
Arabia and Iran two regional powers with different ideologies and religious historical background. The reason for
them to involve in the war is no other than an attempt to be regional power in the Middle East. Iran is trying to
proliferate its power in the region with its strategies in both economy sector and especially in military power and
Saudi are trying to prevent it. With foreign intervention Syrian war would not find an easy solution, and of
course the two powerful regional powers will not achieve an achievement of agreement sooner or later.
28
 Analyzing the Diverse Causes of Israel-Palestine Sustainable Conflict
Samuel Giovanno Johanes
18/425571/SP/28319
What’s actually happened? The Israel and Palestine conflict is a
long everlasting conflict that happened since the late of 1800s or early of 1900s
that continuously happen until now, the dispute between Israel and Palestine is
more than just a conflict of identity, religion, ethnic and ideology perspectives.
Simply, the disputed problem matter is because the claim of certain territory,
Gaza and West Bank area. The conflict has created unprecedented number of
casualties, death and famine, like never before in the humanitarian history. Not
only deaths, the conflict has brought various event of destruction especially to the
Palestine side such as demolition of property and infrastructure that causes the
severe health condition Palestinian people, blockade of area for the limitation on food and health access and
personal development impact on economic and education. The attention of the world must be put on the
Palestinian food security and health (condition & access), health system in the occupied Palestinian territory is
operating under severe pressure due to rapid population growth, lack of economic opportunities and not
adequate financial resources, shortages in basic supplies and the inherent limitations of occupation or blockade,
the blockade has created several checkpoint, separation wall and entry gate where the access of Palestinian
people to the hospital especially in the Jerusalem become very restricted and hard to reach by the patient and
the health personnel and support such as Ambulance(Parry,2017). Food security also matter, the Israel authority
have restricted the food distribution in Gaza strip to enter the area, food availability by particular humanitarian
group or from another nation for the Palestinian people have come into a restriction by the authority that must
be creating severe health condition, malnutrition and famine in the Gaza area(McCarthy,2008). The conflict
continue as both sides maintain the armament action in the first place, the conflict happened has destroyed
people houses that created more homeless population in both sides especially Palestine; health facilities such as
hospital that diminished the administration of health care in the Palestine area and the destruction of
infrastructure for the availability on water, sanitation and hygiene(WASH) that descending the life quality of
Palestinian people(OCHA,2011).
Analyses of The Conflicts Israel-Palestine conflict happened based on various reasons that take
time in the past and in the contemporary era. The Israel-Palestine conflict occur because of: the historical
reasons in the past that explained the Jewish exiled and Islam conquered of the Levant era(Regional Possession),
United States intervention to the Palestine(Foreign Intervention), Hamas improper action triggering more
conflict( Political Legitimacy), Israel exaggerated action towards Palestine and Natural resources dispute
between two states. First, the historical reasons in the past has come into a clarity to make the two entities in a
dispute. The land where Israel possessed the area were conquered by Babylonian that created Israel people into
expulsion from their originated land(Ken Spiro,2007). By the time Israel people expelled, the Muslim had begun
their effort to conquer the levant region including Palestine. After the whole contestation of Arabs Islam in the
Palestine area, the fallen of the power came into reality, the Ottoman empire had loose its power and bring the
light for the Israel people as an opportunity to gained back their originated land, the event where Israel people
coercively try to gain their land back also known as the First Crusade. The effort of the Israel people to gain their
possession back had come into an obviousness as they legalized the “Law of Return” to bring the people’s back
to Palestine as Israel proclaimed its as their land(Tikkanen,2018). Their effort become tangible as Israel succeed
to win the 6 days war in the levant as Israel won over Egypt, Syria and Jordan that changed the political spectrum
in the middle east forever. The conflict between Israel-Palestine has clearly visible as both entities determined to
gain their possession based on each of the two states perspectives. Israel insist the dispute land (West Bank,
Jerusalem and Gaza) as their possession based on their historical originality, in contrast, Palestine insist the land
as their possession based on the Arabs conquer of the Levant during the Jews expulsion.
Second, the US foreign policy on the dispute problem has made the conflict worsen than ever. The
tendency of US to be parted and allied has been known by supporting Israel in economic and military( 3 billion
USD), Israel-US has been a good alliance because Israel’s intelligence service has assisted the U.S. in intelligence
gathering and covrt operations and Israel has missiles capable of reaching as far as the former Soviet Union, it
possesses a nuclear arsenal of hundreds of weapons, and it has cooperated with the U.S. military-industrial
complex with research and development in military technology(Zunes,2002). As a superpower mandated to
maintain the world peace, US has misguided the world perpetual peace purpose as the exaggerated foreign
policy intervention has been implemented to the Palestine that created conflict, not only worsen in the region
but also around the world, such as US action to located the main embassy from Tel-Aviv to
Jerusalem(Farrell,2018), this is an deteriorating action towards the problem because Jerusalem itself is a
disputed area under surveillance and US claimant on Jerusalem is partially advantaging Israel and creating loss
on Palestine side. The problem between US-Palestine is more than just two states problem, the embroilment of
foreign intervention has been degraded the possibility for peace implementation in the region.
Third, Hamas is one of the two faction in the Palestine political stages with several improper action that
making Palestine position more prone than before by numbers of terrorist attack done by the group. The action
includes continuation to call for violence against Israelis, while firing arm and rockets into Israel from Gaza and
Hamas members also continue trying to carry out terror attacks in Israel that causes Israel’s retaliation
attack(Gaydos,2019). Hamas actions can be considered as terrorist group attack as the International world
recognized the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) as the legal authority of Palestine government that the
legitimacy come into the contestation by the Hamas. The Islamist group has done several action diminishing the
legitimacy of PLO and making the Israel side more determined to launch retaliation attack to the Palestine side,
the ambiguity has also come from the International world about the action done by Hamas. As aforementioned,
the conflict will continuously become a cycle as the Hamas and Israel maintain the reciprocal attack.
Fourth, another conflict causes also come from the Israel side. The Israel government has done several
inhumanity and exaggerated event to the Palestinian people as they created blockade to block the humanitarian
aid, health access and food supply to Palestine, the violent acts continue as demolition to the houses and
infrastructure inevitably happened in the Palestine by the Israel (Ghoneim,2018). This action is one of the
prominent causes of conflict that forcing the Palestine side to retaliate and contest the Israel domination, the
result of this action is an interminable conflict.
Fifth, natural resources contestation might be one of the problem that causes an interminable dispute in
the Region as the discovery found oil and gas reserves in Gaza and West Bank(Elfalasteen,2017).
To Conclude, the two states dispute is a historical and contemporary conflict that incessantly happened
and only possibly solved by compromise, cooperation and understanding actions among the states that must not
be done by violent actions by using arms and the embroilment of foreign intervention but by the determination
of international world and both sides to gain perpetual peace by giving up their interest on politic and economic
to save millions life of innocence people. Denial on self-interest must be done to uphold the purity of peace.
 Cementing Further Conflict: One War at A Time
Donny Whisnu Pangestu
18/423177/SP/28151

A Dash of Background inflicted a major discourse for the citizens of both

In 1956, during the Suez Crisis or also known as the second Arab-Israeli war, Israeli forces along with French countries. Habitants of the land have been expelled
and British troops invaded the regions of Sinai which belonged to Egypt (This particular region will once again be from their own homes and be welcomed back by
the subject to be fought over in future wars) seeking to achieve several objectives. For Israel, their main ambiguous policies that does not appear to be as
objective of the operation was to regain access to the Straits of Tiran which Egypt had blocked access from Israel welcoming as it seems on the paper (Morris, Benny
since 1950. Despite joint efforts and multiple attempts made by the three countries, the operations failed due to 1999). Though Israel’s Law of Return stated that it
fierce backlash and heavy pressure from the United States, United Nations and the Soviet Union. Though that would allow for Jordanian citizens to return to their
the United Nations guaranteed Israel the access to the Straits of Tiran would remain open after the conflict, 11 homes in the Golan Heights and the West Bank, in fact
years later in 1967 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced that Israel would once again be denied of the 120,000 that filled an application, only 15,000
access to the Straits and mobilized an army along its borders, effectively heightening the tension between the would actually be granted permission to return.
countries. It is thought that Nasser was very well aware of the possibility of this decision to lead into the Supporters of the Israeli settlements built in
outbreak of another war (J. Bickerton 2009). captured territories argue that it is a necessary buffer
However, tension between Egypt and Israel had built up even before the events of the 1967 war, where in zone that separates the state’s main region from all the
1960 Nasser deployed Egyptian forces to the borders of Israel-Syria to deter the possibility of a war between the Arab countries that may invade the state.
two. While it did succeed in preventing a war between Israel and Syria, both sides of Egypt and Israel took Resolution 242
different lessons from the stand-off. Egypt learnt that merely deploying troops on borders is enough to In response to the Arab-Israeli 1967 war, the
discourage Israel from initiating an offence, while Israel took it to the heart that any future presence of Egyptian United Nations Security Council passed a document
army on its borders shall be deemed as an unacceptable humiliation (Gluska, Ami 2007). This would later on called Resolution 242, also known as the Land of Peace
prove to be vital in tipping the breaking point that led to the armed conflict outbreak in 1967. Formula. The resolution calls for Israel to return the
Aftermath territories it seized from the war against the Arabs and
In the aftermath of the military campaign that lasted from 5th of June to 10th of June 1967, Israel seized withdrawal of military presence of all belligerents from
several territories from the Arab belligerents, including the Gaza strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, Golan the regions that are concerned in the document. An
Heights from Syria and the West Bank from Jordan. Future armed conflict would revolve around the ownership important note to be taken of this resolution is a part
of these lands. Several problems also arose from this conflict, such as the international political repercussions where it says that “every state in the area to live in
against Israel, increasing antisemitism and escalation to cultural violence in Arab societies, as well as the peace within secure and recognized boundaries free
confusion that followed the changing of territory sovereignty which required for a movement of the citizen of from threats or acts of force.” Implying that the Arab states must acknowledge the sovereignty of Israel as a
the previous country. state, as well as its lands as the lands belonging to a sovereign state. Surely enough, this was not immediately
Research Question agreed to as the Arabs, perhaps due to the humility they’ve had gone through in their military campaigns,
What are the extents of the effects that the Six-Day War had on the general affairs of the middle east, how refused to acknowledge Israel as a state. 6 Years later, another war broke out between Israel and a coalition of
has it contributed to the peace resolution and the likeliness of a sustainable peace in the regions? Arab states in an attempt to take back the grounds they lost in the 1967 Israeli-Arab war.
Antisemitism in the Soviet Bloc Conclusions
Following the closure of the Six-Day War, all countries of the Soviet Bloc (with an exception of Romania) The Israeli-Arab 1967 war has, though through indirect and convoluted means, contributed greatly to the
immediately cut all diplomatic relations off from Israel. This was a very firm decision that showed the Soviet realization of an ultimate peace resolution in the Middle East region between Israel and its neighboring Arab
Union’s commitment to its allegiance with Egypt and other Arab countries which had been established since the countries. The taking of Arab territories by Israel, which later then used as bargaining chips between the two
Suez Crisis. This, also was likely acted out in regards to the cold war efforts to condemn the United States and its have made possible to pave the path to negotiation talks between the two sides. The Arabs, for the sake of
allies in the region. In the Soviet Union itself, the rising of an antisemitic public led to many purges (, resulting in receiving back their lost grounds had agreed to finally recognize Israel as a sovereign state, and to pull back
a number of Soviet Jews migrating to Israel. military engagements from each other’s borders. This acknowledgement by the Arabs is a massive leap forward
Regarding Settlements towards a more peaceful future, should any other unfortunate conflicts were to happen. The difference being
The decision made by the Israel government to construct settlements in the regions that it gained from the that this time, a peaceful solution should be much easier to attain, as problems can be talked out with
war in order to set up a more permanent ground is considered as an attempt at Israel’s expanding territory by negotiations and offers, rather than by blind violence.
colonizing Arab lands. The constant take-and-retaking of lands between Israel and other Arab countries have

30
 Yom Kippur War as The Seed For Camp David Accords
S . A Turisina
18/425570/SP/28318
Israel, as a state with a controversial history, has a past with many wars, especially against Arab states,
the most infamous of them all are six days war. On June 1967, War breakout between Israel against Jordan,
Egypt, and Syria. What caught all of the attention is that they triumphantly won the war. This war resulted in the
Sinai Peninsula being captured and occupied by Israel after being taken from Egypt, The west bank from Jordan,
and the Golan Heights from Syria (Bowen, 2017). This six days war really do affect the middle east, and it gave
the message that Israel military are strong and are able to defend their territory, and also broke the pride of
Arab states that even their combined force is not able to defeat Israel. This same set of Arab states, however,
tries to take back their lost territory on the war that is usually called Yom Kippur War or Ramadan War. This
paper would further assess the Yom Kippur war and how
they impact the Middle East, the world, and how they are
the start for the Peace between Egypt and Israel.
The Yom Kippur war, which happens from 6 until 26
October 1973, happens when Muslim are executing fasting
in their holy month Ramadan, hence the so-called Ramadan
war, but more importantly the starts of the attack happens
when the Holy day within Judaism, the holy new year of
Judaism, Yom Kippur. When Yom Kippur is being celebrated,
there is a culture that no electronic device is used, that
includes Phones, Television, Radio, Vehicles such as cars and
motorcycle, and many others. So it must have caught the
surprise of Israel civilians that military, tanks and military
vehicles, ride on their road. Egypt, trying to regain their lost
territory from the six-day war, attacks through the Suez
Canal and the Sinai Peninsula, while Syrian attacks from their
lost territory as well, the Golan Heights.
The cause of this war is mostly due to the newly
elected Egypt president, Anwar Al-Sadat. Egypt economy is
declining post the six-day war, and their pride was shattered
after losing two wars against a “small” country, which is
Israel. The decline of Egypt Economy makes Egypt unable to
Image of the territory that changes post 6 day war and continuously hassle with Israel, so Anwar Al-Sadat at first
Yom Kippur war. Source: History.com wants to gain peace with Israel, but because of the six-day
war, Anwar Al-Sadat knew that any peace resolution or treaty would not be beneficial to Egypt in any way, so he
prepares one last attack. So Anwar Al-Sadat, together with Haffez Al Hasad, the Leader of Syria, attacks Israel
from two different ends. Their main mission: Regaining their lost territory, and reshaping their lost pride.
When the war erupted, the Israel military was taken by surprise and is not ready for war. On the Suez
Canal west bank, 100.000 soldiers, 1.350 tanks, and more than 2.000 artillery piece and heavy mortars are ready
to be used for a full-scale war, while in the Golan heights five military divisions of Arab are also getting readied
for the war (Rabinovich, 2004). Egypt forces easily swept through the Sinai Peninsula, while Syrian troops are
struggling within the Golan Heights. Thousands and Thousands of tanks are destroyed, and this battle is said to
be the biggest tanks war since the World War II, except from the battle of Kursk In the Soviet Union and the
Allied breakout from Normandy (Rabinovich, 2004). It takes several days for Israel forces to fully mobilized due
to the surprise attack, and even then the Israel forces have not lose the war in both of the sides.
Uni-Soviet and the United States are a close ally with Egypt and Israel respectively, so they both support
different sides. Egypt, at first completely dominates the warfront within Sinai peninsula with their Soviet
weapons, but Israel received new arms for the emergency by the United States, even though the reinforcement
by the United States was delayed one week by President Richard Nixon as a symbol of sympathy to Egypt. This
new weapon helps Israel to gain back the control on both the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula and even
managed to take control of Syrian territory past the Golan Heights and near Damascus. Another event that was
important in Yom Kippur War is the embargo of oil by Arab states to Israel and its allies, this causes oil to be
regarded as an economic weapon and creates the energy crisis around the world in the 1970s.
In the end, Israel triumphantly defeats Syria and Egypt forces, regardless of they being pinched from
two sides and being surprise attacked. The United Nation Security Council call for a cease-fire are denied by the
Soviet Union using their Veto rights, but as they realize that their ally Egypt was actually losing the war, They
eventually agree to avoid complete defeat to Egypt, and in 22 October 1973, The Resolution was passed by the
security council, and immediate peace negotiations are called. However, the ceasefire is broken, and Israel
troops continue to march South into Egypt territory. This causes the Soviet to threaten to send their troops in
order to protect Egypt, and the United States wanting to have control within Egypt tells Israel to stop their
attack, effectively ending the war. This war causes heavy casualties for both sides, with around 3000 killed and
8000 wounded for Israel, and around 8000 killed and 18000 wounded for the opposition (Keiler, 2018)
This war, which happens for 20 days, has different impacts on the states that are included. For Israel,
this victory means that they completely declared that their military is the strongest within the area, but they are
careless and must learn from the mistake for getting caught off guard, Their citizens are angry at the mistake,
and they eventually pressured the Golda Meir to step down. For Egypt, this means that they regain back their
pride, eventually gaining Diplomacy values with the United States, and the war help the states to go into the
table and starts the negotiation for peace, with the only negative side foe Egypt being blasted by the other Arab
states and ultimately suspended from the Arab League in 1979. And for Syria, nothing goes well for them, having
their territory taken, being scrutinized by the United Nations states for not following the Geneva Convention,
and gaining no benefits from this war.
For the United States, this means a complete geopolitical victory with the Uni-soviet losing its reign
within the Middle East. They also gain influence within Egypt and through proper influence are able to create
peace through the Camp David accords, and Egypt also gain back the Sinai Peninsula which was the main goal for
the war as part of the accords. It is also said that peace itself has been the true meaning from Egypt, as one of
the lessons that Are learned by the states is that they won't be able to defeat Israel in a rematch, and gaining
peace would mean support from the United States and also stabilizing their economy.
In conclusion, the Yom Kippur war directly made Egypt strive for peace with Israel and are ultimately
the seed for the Camp David accords and ultimately for the peace between those two states, and not only that,
it also helped Israel be recognized as a force to be reckoned with and also helped Israel to gain peace with other
states, namely Jordan. So, even though it bears heavy casualties, Yom Kippur war is highly influential for the
peace between the two states. All of this would not be able to happen if not for the Egypt president, Anwar Al-
Sadat. Anwar Al-Sadat also eventually won the Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment on improving Egypt and
gaining the Peace between Israel and Egypt.
31
 Analyzing the Rise of Hamas and Likud and the Future of Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks
Faiz Rafiza Ahmadani
18/423178/SP/28152

As one of the most important political party in Palestine, the rise of Hamas into power has truly changed
Palestinian political landscape into its current shape. Unlike Fatah who seek to break Palestine from Israel’s rule
by pursuing peace talks, Hamas seek to liberate the State of Palestine by using act of violence as its vehicle,
which in turn has made them being categorized as a terrorist organization by many countries across the globe,
most notably from those in the West (Council on Foreign Relations, 2014). Other than that, major differences
between Hamas and Fatah might also including its relationship with religion, in which Fatah proclaim themselves
as more secular-leaning whereas Hamas proclaim themselves as the guardian of Islamic values in the Palestinian
society and want to turn Palestine into an Islamic state that was governed under the principle of Sharia Law
(Schanzer, 2010).
This kind of condition that has been aforementioned above has swing the general pendulum of
Palestinian politics into more on the right side, and has also led into the resurgence of Likud Party in Israel, which
breaks Israel’s strong leftist traditions (Haaretz, 2015). In this particular essay, I would argue and highlighted that
the rise of right-leaning party both in Palestine and Israel might hinder the development of peace, especially
within the greater context of Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process.
Based on historical perspective, Hamas or also known as ‘Islamic Resistance Movement’ was founded by
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, one of the most influential Palestinian Islamic preacher during the year of 1987 as a
‘reactionary’ right-leaning, Islamist political force. However, the history of Hamas itself might also be traced way
further, as far as the year of 1967 during the period of Six Day War. According to Encyclopedia Britannica (2019),
the ideological basis and motives of Hamas was inspired by an Egyptian Islamic movement called the Muslim
Brotherhood, otherwise known as Ikhwanul Muslimin or ‘the Ikhwan’ which emphasizing on stricter
interpretation of Islamic law and tenets. Born out of frustration of many of Palestine’s political limbo, the
organization strives to spread their idea in mosque and university across the country most. This condition was
more subtle in Gaza than in the West Bank, which might partially explain the current political splits that has torn
the governmental system in Palestine until nowadays.
As a political organization, Hamas strive to the liberate Palestine by using the means of violence, which
include car bombing, attacking civilian target, suicide bombing, and many more. This kind of action has led them
being classified as a ‘foreign terrorist organization’ by the government of United States since 1997 until today
(Council on Foreign Relations, 2014). This condition also led them into clash with Fatah, which prioritize peace
talks as the main means of creating an independent Palestinian state.
Despite being known and designated as a terrorist organization, Hamas also widely known for its social
charity work, which in turn increase their popularity from Palestinian plebeians and commoners. Their works
include the construction of public facilities such as schools, mosques, and also healthcare center such as
hospitals. According to Alijla (2016), the donors for this kind of construction were coming from the countries of
the Gulf and from wealthy Arabic individuals. A worth-noting fact regarding Hamas work on charity issues is that
they manage to run their activities by anti-corruption approach, which resulted into an increasing efficiency,
something that many NGOs might only dream off (Fisher, 2003).
government. On one hand, this kind of charity conducted by Hamas has been an effective tool for them to be
utilized to gather support from the masses, but in other way around, its strong perception with terror and
violence has driven out international support and sympathy away from them.
Just like Hamas that loves to portray themselves as the ‘guardian’ of the people, Israel’s Likud Party also
like to brand itself as ‘protector’ of Israeli’s national values, the one that was built on the values of Judaism. The
rise of Likud into mainstream Israeli political stage is something that needs to be observed clearly, and in some
ways might resemble the way that Hamas did in Palestinian politics. According to BBC (2013), Likud’s strongest
competitor might be the left-leaning Labor Party, or also known as ‘Ha’avoda’ in Hebrew. In these recent years
however, the power of Labor Party has going down significantly especially with the rise of right-leaning parties
such as Likud into Israel’s political stage.
According to historical perspective, Likud was founded in 1973 and was constructed on the basis of right-
wing policies that include a strong sense of nationalist sentiments. This has led into their strong sentences
against the creation of Oslo Accord in 1993. In these recent years, they have been ‘forced’ by other power such
as the US to acknowledge the existence of the State of Palestine and to accept the policy of two-state solution
(BBC, 2013). As of 2019, Likud has collaborated with other right-leaning party called Yisrael Beitanu in order to
maintain their power in the government. As a matter of fact, the current PM of Israel which is Benjamin
Netanyahu come from Likud Party and has been in charge of that position since the year of 2009.
With the rise of right-leaning parties in both of Israel and also Palestine, I would argue that the creation
of peace process for the nearby future would be hindered even way furthermore. This was due to the nature of
both of these political parties that is Hamas and Likud, to prioritize their own goal rather than what their
predecessor such as Fatah and Labor has did in 1993 during the Oslo Accord. As a matter of fact, Hamas has in
many times stated their rejection in the concept of two-state solution, and even when they do so, they refuse to
recognize the sovereignty of the State of Israel (DW.com, 2019). Likud on the other hand has also reject the
concept of two-state solution in a soft yet subtle approach that is continuing the policy of illegal settlement’s
construction in Palestinian territory of West Bank (Cook, 2018). Throughout these recent years, both of these
parties have ‘consistently’ refuse to create a peace talks or negotiations among them which resulted in a never-
ending political limbo between Israel and Palestine.
In order to pave a way for the future Israeli-Palestinian peace process, both of these ruling parties needs
to reduce their own ‘ego’ and rethinking about their current political stance. On one hand, this kind of approach
might help to address the increasing tension between both of these countries but in other way around might
damage the future of both of these parties, especially when talking about voter reduction from their electoral
bases that was mainly compromise of Conservatives. Thus as a conclusion, even though both parties can actually
decide to settle down for peace, their main interests of keeping ‘identity politics’ among their voters would be
on the forefront of their priority first and foremost. And as a result, the future of Israeli-Palestinian would
remain in the status quo, which is in a state of political deadlock between both of Israel and also Palestine.

This perception of Hamas’s ‘cleanliness’ has resulted into an increasing trust by the people of Palestine,
especially in the context of rampant corruption that has been severely reducing the effectiveness of Palestinian

32
PART 5 – MIDDLE EAST AND BEYOND: FOREIGN INTERVENTION

33
 The Role of Foreign Intervention in the Sustenance of the Yemen Conflict and Humanitarian Crisis
Dhania Salsha Handiani
18/423176/SP/28150
The Republic of Yemen has long been trapped in a series of egregious and all-consuming conflict for the
last eight years. It all began when the youths of Yemen were motivated by the Arab uprisings in 2011 to protest
against the decades-long rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh which was rampant with corruption, economic
downfalls, terrorism, and separatist movements (Sharp 2018, p. 1). With Saleh gradually losing his legitimacy due
to the regular fights committed throughout the country and the subjugation of territories by rebel movements
affiliated with Al Qaeda, former Vice President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi was escorted by the international
community to replace his position in 2012 (Sharp 2018, p. 1). Unfortunately, Hadi’s inability to overcome the
government’s previous defects has resulted in the empowerment of the Houthi militias and their decision to
take over the capital, forcing Hadi to flee to Aden and request for international intervention (Lackner 2017).
After the appeal was accepted, Yemen gradually witnessed the unfolding of a full-blown civil war in 2015, the
deaths of 4,773 civilians in 2017, and the exposure of 7 million of its people to famine by 2018 (Arraf 2017, p. 8).
This essay accordingly aims to analyze the extent to which said foreign intervention is sustaining the conflict and
humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Aside from the direct contribution of the Saudi-led coalition, this essay argues that
the Western countries are also responsible for its sustenance through the provision of needed weaponry.
One of the countries that are famous for their hands-on approach to the conflict in Yemen is SAUDI
ARABIA. Saudi Arabia and other Sunni states have long been concerned about the rise of the Houthis due to the
conviction that the group was backed by its Shiite adversary Iran (Jan & Majid 2017, p. 76). When Hadi
announced the need for foreign intervention, Saudi Arabia formed a coalition with eight other Arab countries—
the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Sudan, and Qatar—in March 2015 to
establish military operations in the region (Arraf 2017, p. 9). Although some sources claim that the coalition has
helped the Yemeni government regain 85% of its territory back, many also believe that the Saudi-led coalition
has often violated the International Humanitarian Law when executing its duties (Arraf 2017, p. 9). One of the
most recent cases is shown through the coalition’s objective of regaining the port city of Hudaydah through the
Operation Golden Victory on 12 June 2018. Although aiming to stop the Houthis from profiting off the trading
activities and to resupply themselves easily, the coalition’s aggressive approach of committing assault to the
region has resulted in the displacement of 200,000 civilians, the disruption of the region’s water and electricity
supply, and the destruction of many health alongside sanitation facilities (Sharp 2018, p. 2). In August, the Saudi-
led coalition has also admitted to mistakenly bomb a bus of children which they thought were filled with Houthi
leaders in the province of Saada (The New York Times 2018). From these two cases alone, it can be concluded
that Saudi’s flawed rules of engagement has not only impeded the progress of peace through the failure of
properly handling the enemy, but has also furthered the crisis through the destruction of socio-economic means.
Briefly mentioned in the previous paragraph, IRAN has also been said to intervene in the conflict
through supporting the role of its fellow non-Sunni Houthi militias. Although some claims of the Houthis fully
depending on Iran for the supply of money, weapons, and manpower were blown out of proportion, observers
of the conflict did confirm the fact that the country has supported the rebels via the provision of trainings
alongside directions through the Hezbollah ever since 2011 (Sharp 2018, p. 9). Only recently in 2018, however,
that the United Nations Panel of Experts came up with evidence on Iran supplying the rebels with ballistic
missile-related expertise and by smuggling advanced weapon systems into the country (Sharp 2018, p. 10).
While its involvement in the Yemen conflict has not been a priority and has relatively been modest, Saudi Arabia
still perceives Iran’s contribution to the conflict as an effective way of strengthening the relevancy of the Shiite
belief and the possibility of Arab rebellions against the House of Saud (Jan & Majid 2017, p. 76). Due to the
Background Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Yemen_adm_location_map.svg/3200px-Yemen_adm_location_map.svg.png
preceding factor, the Iranian government’s decision to associate itself with the Houthi militias—albeit not
extravagant—has helped sustain the Yemen conflict through igniting a sense of ideological fear from the Saudis.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, a known ally to Saudi Arabia, has comparatively intervened in the
conflict to ensure the repression of the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), discourage Iranian influence,
and prevent the concession of the Bab Al-Mandeb strait—a strategic checkpoint for international maritime
trade—by the Houthis through empowering the Saudi-led coalition (Arraf 2017, p. 9). In March 2015, for
example, the Obama administration has openly approved of the country’s willingness to equip all operations led
by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) with intelligence, weapons, and mid-air refueling aircraft (Sharp 2018, p.
12). While the country was guilty of directly approving the conduct of 36 airstrikes in 2018 (Kennedy 2019), the
U.S. has always been more notorious for its act of selling over $20 billion worth of weaponry—including arms
that are greatly prohibited in other countries such as the cluster bombs—to the Saudi Arabia in the year 2017
alone (Mechanic 2017). Based on the preceding information, one could generally conclude that the U.S.’ decision
to consistently supply the militaristic needs of the Saudi coalition is one other reason that propels the
sustainment of the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Not only is the provision of supplies and
intelligence capable of fueling the ego of Saudi Arabia to contest its adversaries through the ongoing conflict, but
it is also the main source of Saudi Arabia’s ability to proceed with its aggressive and indiscriminate operations.
Similarly to the U.S., other western countries such as the UNITED KINGDOM and FRANCE have also
intervened in and prolonged the crisis through their indirect contribution of strengthening Saudi Arabia and its
coalition albeit for economic purposes. In 2015, for example, more than 30% of the entirety of the UK’s defense
exports was conducted with Saudi Arabia; from April to December, Saudi Arabia was able to buy £1.7 billion
worth of combat aircraft alongside £1 billion worth of air-delivered bombs (House of Commons of the United
Kingdom 2016, p. 6). When the conflict eventually evolved into a full-blown civil war, the UK’s Foreign Secretary
himself reaffirmed that the Saudi Royal Air Force has been deploying weapons manufactured in the UK (House of
Commons of the United Nations 2016, p. 6). France, on the other hand, has secured its ‘presence’ in the conflict
through supplying Saudi Arabia with $12 billion worth of arms and establishing a joint headquarter with the UK
alongside other countries to train and monitor Saudi pilots in 2015 (Arrafan 2017, p. 10). Through applying the
same logic mentioned in the previous paragraph, it would be safe to say that these western countries have
contributed to the prolongation of both the conflict and humanitarian crisis through continuously supplying one
side of the relatively asymmetrical war with needed ammunition, thus encouraging them to continue to exert
their dominance and aggression notwithstanding the fact that said side is defying international law.
In conclusion, while some might believe that foreign involvement in the Yemen conflict was solely
initiated to help restore Hadi’s government and broker peace within the territory, it would be naive to not
acknowledge the fact that the same intervention has also extended the trajectory of the ongoing dispute and
humanitarian crisis. While the presence of the Saudi-led coalition is what initiated the crisis in the first place, one
should still consider the numerous militaristic blunders committed by the coalition which has resulted in the
failure of properly containing the enemy, a high civilian death toll, and the destruction of basic social
infrastructures needed to prevent the outbreak of chronic diseases. Iran, siding with the rebels through the
provision of ideas and training programs, has also taken part in the extension of the conflict through emitting a
sense of ideological threat to the House of Saud. Saudi’s external allies such as the U.S., UK, and France, on the
other hand, have always been a part of the problem by continuously bequeathing one side of the war with an
immense amount of power to continue their commitment towards the utilization of violence.
34
 Assessing NATO’s Political Backlash upon Libya Intervention
Nabila Talitha Sani
18/425567/SP/28315
I. Moral Relativity of the International Bodies
Cold war has become one of the most influential factors upon the establishment of ideas intersecting war, peace,
and sovereignty. In this sense, before and during the conduct of cold war, in which the world was dominated by
the right wing ways of thinking that the reactive actions among states were legitimate through the direct link of
the sole interest of states, hence creating strict regulation towards state’s sovereignty was to be the only exclusive
mechanism to diminish the conduct of war (Erameh, 2017). Thus, as the world was progressing towards a more
open interdependency, it was also the moment in which the shift of traditional sovereignty principle started to
occur. The emerge of Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) established by the official international bodies, initiated by
the UNSC which was then agreed to be adopted by a number of sovereign states in 2009 has created an official
collective response upon the misconduct of states against human rights violation of civilians
(responsibilitytoprotect.org, 2018). In this case, regional bodies including NATO have agreed to implement such
responsibility within humanitarian issues. In regards to preserving international stability through democracy and
considering past horrendous event of limited intervention upon the urgency of humanitarian violations in Rwanda
and Kosovo experienced by NATO which has created more vigilant awareness embedded within the international
society (Erameh, 2017), NATO served to bypass ICJ into implementing universal idea of stability in Libya during
Muammar Ghaddafi’s Regime under the ground of the International Commission on Intervention and State
Sovereignty supported by three pillars which explicitly mentioned that first, states have an absolute responsibility
to protect their citizens, second, international society have the responsibility to support states’ attempt upon
protecting their citizens, and lastly, should a state fail to comply any of the sort, the responsibility upon protecting
citizens is to be shifted to the international community, all means are necessary (responsibilitytoprotect.org).
II. Libya Crisis under Muammar Ghaddafi’s Regime
Given that during the 42 year Muammar Ghaddafi’s iron fist has ruled Libya,
even after the impressive socio-economic development in comparison to Libya’s
previous years of governance, considering that the illiteracy in Libya had been
wiped out and women’s rights were to be guaranteed by the state, as well as
achieving lower unemployment rate and the rise of net economic development,
shown by Libya’s piled up gold stock valued approximately 7 billion USD in its
central bank, the problem then laid in the tribal demographic landscape urging
for their rights to be identified since Col Ghaddafi, backed up by his military
power, attempted to eliminate these tribal domination in order to seize power
in 1969 (El-Doufani, 2011). During the first ten years of Ghaddafi’s regime, these
1Muammar Ghaddafi
(Biography.com, n. d)
tribalism was to be an insignificant faction of the society. However, within the
timeframe of Ghaddafi’s domination upon Libya, the tribal groups had collectively
prepared armed forces to fight for their rights against Ghaddafi, creating a compelling opposition against the
regime (El-Doufani, 2011). Ghaddafi’s ‘Green Book’ as the foundation of the governance was supposed to be the
establishment of a new kind of democracy in Libya as he promoted the balance of power within the democratic
governance (ecfr.eu). Supported by the majority of the society, Muammar Ghaddafi ended up dominating the
governance by operating military junta throughout the reformation of the country in 1969 (ecfr.eu).
Unfortunately, the agenda did not went according to plan as Ghaddafi censored most of the press freedom in
Libya and started to be more strict upon deciding the democracy in the country, threatening the citizens to be put
in custody should they initiate an establishment on a new political party (Black and Bowcott, 2011). Benghazi,
being the second largest city after Tripoli has become the witness of the first Anti-Ghaddafi movement, in which
protests were becoming outspoken and radical in regards of Libyan tribes, although the growing protests were
indicating a spark of revolutionary demand and high-potential civil war, Ghaddafi was not in a state to cater those
opposition party, the best evidence would be imposing a reactionary violence against peaceful protests through
indiscriminative mass shootings in Benghazi, February 2011, leaving over 100 victims died within four days of anti-
government protests, which immediately triggered the uprising of civil war (Beaumont and Chulov, 2011). Given
the chaotic situation of urgent human rights violation, which has also called upon the last resort in the
International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, allowing UNSC to legitimize regional bodies’
intervention including NATO’s military intervention upon settling dispute in Libya.
III. NATO’s Fault within the Operation of Intervention
What was left in Libya after the civil war was factions inside the
government, being known as ‘One Country, Three Governments’
consisting of Presidency Council led by Fayez al-Sarrai in 2016, GNC
led by Prime Minister, Khalifa Gwell, and House of Representatives
in Tobruk (ecfr.eu). Following the division, Anshar al-Sharia and
other militant rebel groups took control of Cyrenaica creating failure
in the governance of Libya since the Islamist groups that has
demand for Sharia law to be implemented inside Libya has refused to 2Libya Prostest against Muammar Ghaddafi
Regime (Bishara, n. d)
acknowledge the result of election in 2014 (Erameh, 2017). Within
the timeframe of the civil war, NATO’s military backups has become the cause of increased severity inside the
country, Ghaddafi’s reactive attempt to suppress protesters worsened by killing 10,000 people from the initial
number of 1,000 (Pattison, 2011). A number of analysis has been made regarding NATO’s asymmetrical
intervention inside Libya. First of all, NATO’s principle of impartiality and its multi-interpreted quote “all means
are necessary” in Paragraph 8 of the UNSC Rec 1973 as well as Chapter VIII of the UN Charter upon strict
regulation of intervention becoming the last resort of dispute settlement has not given Libya enough time to test
the efficacy of peaceful means before NATO’s bombs fled into the country, backtracking the inherent
international calls for No-fly zones in order to persuade Ghaddafi to minimize indiscriminate harm against civilians
even after the passage of resolution in which the government had agreed to accept a ceasefire (O’ Connell, 2011)
hence, instead of becoming a neutral actor, NATO clearly sided on the rebel groups shown by frequent transfer of
military aid by France until Russia called out to stop such practice (Erameh, 2011) which indicates that NATO hide
under the cover of protecting civilian to cover their real objective, either to forward its interest upon having
access to Libyan oil, shown by NATO’s oil agreements with the NTC during the intervention, or, simply to punish
Muammar Ghaddafi’s attempt to cross roads against Western imperialism during his regime (Forte, 2011).
Secondly, the strong influence of NTC in Libya feared by the international bodies has made especially President
Obama and NATO itself wrongly adopts the UN responsibility to protect and justify Libya intervention, however,
the purpose of creating peace and stability was far worse to be achieved since the NATO intervention only
succeeded in toppling down Ghaddafi, while leaving its citizens in a fatal schism, thus radicalism was to be
generated inside the country and has threatened the whole global security ever since (Erahmeh, 2011). The use of
air bombardment by NATO in regards of carrying the UNSC Mandate has in and off itself violated Article 35 (2) of
the Additional Protocol I that explicitly require discriminative attack has triggered increased activity of terrorists
and the transfer of weaponries from NTC to rebel groups in Syria (Erahmeh, 2011), backlashing the whole initial
idea imposed by the UNSC and NATO in regards of peace and stability as a legitimate ground of intervention.
35
 European Union’s Failure in Bringing Peace to Syria
Kanaya Ratu Aprillia
18/425564/SP/28312
Owing to the fact that Syria comes to be home for seventeen million people has inherited the country
with not only diverse ethnic, but also religious groups who have lived there before its independence from the
Ottoman Empire and British Empire in 1946. Unfortunately, Syria is still being a nest for a continuous unrest. In
2010, Arab Springs, mass demonstration as an expression of deep-seated resentment at the aging Arab
dictatorship, took place and said to be the driving force of the unrest and politic instability in Syria, which has led
to the current crisis. From that time many atrocities against civilian has taken place and has forced many Syrian
to flee the country. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees–UNHCR–has stated that the
organizations and its partners are currently dealing with nearly 6 million refugees who are directly affected by
the violence in Syria (Operational Portal Refugee Situations, 2019). Not only has this occurrence impact
neighboring countries, but also several European countries who receive a massive influx of refugees. The fact
that the crisis is a severe humanitarian crisis and has spread to the whole region as well as to the European
countries makes the European Union (EU) responsible to act. This essay aims to assess on whether or not the
action that has been taken by the European Union to solve the crisis in Syria considered as successful efforts.
The legal basis for relations between the EU and Syria is the Cooperation Agreement signed in 1977.
Primarily, the agreement provides duty free access of most of the Syrian industrial goods to the EU market,
assistance to Syria’s production and economic infrastructure as well as encourages economic dialogue between
the parties (EEAS - European External Action Service - European Commission, 2019). After seven years of brutal
conflict, Syrian civil war has entered a new phase. It has developed into a very complex combination of
revolution, civil war, proxy and direct regional and international war and terrorism. Acknowledging the
repression, the EU has condemned and urging the government to act so that the repression could be restrained.
The European Union has also encouraged the authorities to assemble with the civilian so that they could divulge
their aspirations and demands of the political and socio-economic reforms. The Union has also tried to bring
peace to Syria through the United Nations Security Council. However, this action was seen as an interference by
Russia and China. Unfortunately, the extreme violence and complexity of the crisis, has caused EU to impose
several sanctions and suspended mutual agreements between the EU and the Syrian Government.
Following the crisis in Syria, the EU suspended the aforementioned agreements that the organization
and Syria share taking into consideration the European Neighbor Policy (ENP) and European Syrian Cooperation
agreement. In May 2011, the EU suspended the bilateral cooperation programs with the Syrian government
under the ENP and the participation of the Syrian authorities in the EU regional programs. The European
Investment Bank had also loan operations and technical assistance in Syria, which were terminated after the
crisis turned into a war (European Union External Action – The EU’s relations with Syria). After taking these
actions, the EU has also discharged a number of restrictive measures towards Syria, including an import ban on
crude oil and petroleum products and exports restriction in dual-use goods, luxury products, telecom equipment
and technology for the oil and gas industry. The restrictive measures also reach to the financial and transport
sector, which has made it prohibited to fund certain infrastructure projects and enterprises in Syria. Also,
economic resources of the individual people who have benefitted from the Syrian regime have been frozen
(European Commission, 2019). Despite the sanctions, frozen agreements and programs plus suspension of
bilateral cooperation, the European Commission press release from 2013 stated that several projects with Syria’s
non-state actors are still on going. These projects include for example Erasmus and Tempus programs with
Syrian students and universities (ENP Package – Syria 2013). However, the sanctions against Al-Assad’s
governance turned out to be ineffective and the peace negotiations between the government and the
opposition had not been successful (Dagdeverenis, 2013).
As the war continues, it develops to an extremely large humanitarian crisis and calls for more help and
attention from the international world. Being aware of the amount of people who need humanitarian aid, the EU
has summoned up 3,6 billion Euros for the relief and recovery assistance (European Civil Protection and
Humanitarian Aid Operations - European Commission, 2019). On December 4th 2014 a press release stated that
the European Commission adopted a package worth of 180 million Euros to assist Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. On
the same press release, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the
European Commission Federica Mogherini said that EU is ready and willing to support the people of Syria
continuously.
European Union’s efforts to bring aid to the Syria have to face several obstacles. One of the obstacles
comes from the Big Tree in the EU, France, United Kingdom, and Germany. These power holders are against the
Union on the reaction toward the crisis which influenced small member countries to follow them (Morillas,
2013). Denmark, for example, is following France’s lead and the Netherlands has been together with Germany to
hesitate over military intervention and pushing more responsibility towards the UN Security Council
(Dagdeverenis, 2013). The usage of military force into the crisis is being questioned. There is no unanimity stance
among the European Union’s members for the military aid towards Syria. Some countries acknowledge this
military force as an intervention and reject it. If this situation remains in the EU, it will not change its role as a
passive bystander.
In spite of the actions that have been taken, it can be concluded that the EU has been unsuccessful to
bring peace into the conflict. The main problem is that the organization, especially the states members, cannot
hold a common stance to assistance the peace process of the crisis. The condemnation that has been done by
the EU is also insufficient to change the situation between the Syrian government and the opposition. The Union
need to take more actual actions. The uncertain framework and visions of EU toward the crisis also hinders EU to
bring peace. When a clear framework would already be there, the Union could take a faster reaction and it
would be even possible to prevent the crisis from spreading in the region.
Because the human rights have been violated during the war, it is justified for the EU to get involved in
order to improve the situation and for not letting it happen again. Military intervention could be done by EU. The
consequences of such decisions may be counterproductive, but also important when thinking about the nature
of the EU and what does the organization present (Dagdeverenis, 2013). Since EU represents itself as a civilian
power, using weapons of soft power, which include diplomacy and economy as well as an organization
promoting peace through peaceful means, it would be such a convoluted decision for EU to intervene the Syria
with military forces. Since this action would undermine the use of soft power, which could be said to be included
in the values of the EU. Therefore, the EU should promote a different kind of response, which could assist on
solving the crisis peacefully, but still abide by the character and values of EU. (Dagdeverenis 2013).
36
 Foreign Involvement Impact Within the Syrian Civil War
Agni Firdausya Maylani

18/429308/SP/28533

Syria is a country located in the middle east, with Damascus as its capital. In the north, Syria share borders with Secondly, Iran's involvement. Iran assumes that Syria is part of the fight against western countries. Iran
Turkey, with Iraq on the east , with Israel on the west , and with Jordan on the south (Hourani,2019). In 1971- has made an alliance with the Syrian government and a group of groups in Lebanon as its axis of defense in
2000, Syria was led by a president who served for more than 30 years which made him an influential figure in visiting western countries (Ahmado,2018).
the Middle East with a presidential government system, he was named Hafez Al-Ashad. Instead, Bashar Al-Assad
Then, there are countries that oppose the Syrian
replaced his father's position as president of the country (A&E Television Network,2019). This Syrian civil war
originated from a conflict that occurred in Syria that occurred due to derivatives and the result of events called government, such as the United States and Saudi ArabiA
Arab Spring. Arab spring occurs in many countries in the Middle East, including Syria. In fact, Syria is considered a (BBC,2015). The reason the US is involved in this case as an
country that is relatively more stable compared to other Arab countries. opponent of Syrian government is because the United States
has been very focused on fulfilling energy to support its
The Syrian Civil War is a conflict that is quite large and complicated. This conflict began on March 15, 2011 and domestic needs (BBC,2017). This is intended for petroleum
still continues up to this day (BBC,2018). Broadly speaking, this conflict is a war between two camps. The first
natural resources owned by countries in the Middle East. The
camp was Bashar Al-Assad and his accomplices, and the other party was a group of people who opposed the
Arab3ian Peninsula is described as a great source of strategic
government of Assad (the civilians). Therefore, it can be said that this Syrian conflict is a conflict between the
power and is the greatest material gift in world history. Then
government and civilians. In expressing their dissatisfaction with Bashar Al-Assad's government, they put
political interests are also intended in the United States’s involvement in this case. The United States supports
forward action such as a demonstration assuming that it would make Bassar Al-Assad resign from his position.
But in fact, Bashar Al-Assad did not want to step down from his position, even the government gave a very the movement aimed at overthrowing the Bashar Al-Assad government. This can strengthen and exert political
disgusting response to its people, namely bullet fire attacks and a number of acts of violence. There are also influence in the Middle East. The second country that opposes the Syrian government is Saudi Arabia. On the
several triggers for Syria's civil war such as high unemployment and a lack of domestic political freedom domestic level of the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has succeeded in suppressing Syria to stop the violence, and
(BBC,2019). wants to expand its settlement until it is brought to a higher level, namely the United Nations (Worth,2013).
However, the United Nations rejects the resolution offered by the Arab League, namely proposals related to the
The frenzied complexity of the conflict that took place in the Syrian civil war attracted the attention of
need for international parties. The United States also provides a large amount of assistance by giving them
the international community. Many of international organization and the state itself took part in giving their
around 100 million US dollars for opposition and weapons (Gordon,2013).
attention to this matter. Russia and Iran were involved as supporters of the Syrian government, while Saudi
Arabia and the United States were opponents of the Syrian government or in other words, supporters of the According to the author, the involvement of
opposition / Syrian people. Those countries involved in this war with a variety of intentions and goals, some of outside parties such as several countries that have
them are pure want to help resolve, but there are also those who intend for political interests. Therefore, this intervened in this case can be said because of the
article was created to find out why external parties were involved in this conflict and what the impact was due to purpose of political goals. Many of those who support
their involvement in it. the Syrian government and oppose the Islamic
First, Russian involvement. Russia has been cooperating far since the reign of Hafez Al-Assad. Clearly, the first government, which means supporting civilians is
aspect seen in Russia's involvement in this case has to do with economic factors. Trade relations between the intended because the civil war can have an impact on
two countries are quite intense. Some of the things recorded in the record of Russian-Syrian industrial the international political system or direct impact on
cooperation are petroleum, natural gas, and their country. For example, America, which still wants
even electricity generation projects. then also to exist in influencing politics in the Middle East, until
in terms of regional stability. Russia has a Russia does not want to lose its economic resources
strategic location that share border with because it has trade relations that are quite strong with Russia. Plus the position of Russia, which is very
several countries such as Israel, Iraq, Turkey, strategically located, is directly adjacent to several countries that have a role in the Middle East.
and quite close to Saudi Arabia. The state that
was just mentioned is a country that is rather In conclusion, civil war in Syria involving many foreign parties in it is a natural thing to happen because
close to the United States, which is the reason the political interests and power in the international system are humane and natural characteristics of political
why Russia intervened in the conflict as a actors. All actors must have their own interests and will always strive for the best to achieve them. And this war,
supporter of the Syrian Government, is an event that can change the international system. But this also made the case not resolved and civil war still
including in the stronghold of President Bashar Al-Assad (Demir,2018). continued in Syria.

37
 The Legitimacy of the U.S.-Led Military Intervention in the Iraq War
Felice Valeria T.
18/429311/SP/28536
The disarmament of Iraq had become the priority of the government of the United States (U.S.)
subsequent to the September 11th attacks of 2001 and Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destructions’
(WMDs) manufacture (Britannica, 2019). The non-compliance of Iraq on the UN resolutions on disarmament
had invited the U.S. to intervene in the matter, which drove an invasion by the U.S. and its alliances to eventually
take place in February 2003 (BBC, 2016) to destroy
Iraq’s WMDs and topple down Saddam Hussein as
a dictator, but without the authorization from the
Security Council (Mulcaire, 2014). A violent
insurgency emerged at that time caused the
casualties of more than one hundred civilians and
over 4.700 troops. The resulted atrocities have
further questioned the legitimacy of the U.S.’
intervention in the war. Hence, this essay would
argue that firstly, as the military intervention had
undermined the “Responsibility to Protect (R2P)”
doctrine and the concept of humanitarian
intervention by referring to the aftermaths of the
war (Anderson, 2018), the legitimacy could not be validated. Secondly, no WMDs have been found in Iraq until
now, which could not make the justification of the war becomes valid. Thirdly, it argues that the self-interest of
the U.S. plays a crucial role for the invasion to occur, which include to sustain the oil reserves produced by Iraq
as the second biggest oil reserves in the world, by also maintaining its currency to keep dominating the
international oil markets (Momani, 2014).
The R2P doctrine and the concept of humanitarian intervention in general seemed to not be taken into
account by the U.S. throughout the whole process of intervention, which thus reduced its legitimacy. The
doctrine itself represents the respect both for state sovereignty and states’ responsibilities to protect the human
rights of their people. Nonetheless, it is claimed that it is unlikely for George W. Bush’s administration to comply
with the standards due to the destructive aftermaths of the Iraq war, such as civilian casualties, brutal war,
political instability, and many more (Anderson, 2018). Hence, it could be regarded as only an excuse to conduct
strong military interventions on humanitarian grounds. The disapproval of the conduct by the Security Council
and the violent opposition of the Iraqi government against U.S.’ action also had made the invasion unjustified,
especially by the occurrence of an extensive bombing campaign and the deployment of 150.000 ground troops.
This intervention was without the consent of the government, and the principle of humanitarian intervention
stresses that the act could only be justified under ongoing genocide or mass slaughter, while there was no
ongoing mass killing in 2003. Furthermore, without the approval from the Security Council, the invasion could be
said as destructing the international legal order to protect human rights (Human Rights Watch, 2004). If the R2P
doctrine wants to take place in legitimizing the act, military actions should only be used as the last resort in the
context of humanitarian intervention. It should be ensured that every humanitarian intervention should be
carried out in compliance with international humanitarian and human rights law. Hence, the intervention could
be validated as being legitimate in accordance with the prevailing laws and principles.
Aside from being considered as illegitimate due to its non-compliance with the pre-existing concept of
humanitarian intervention, it could be said as unjustified due to the fact that there have been no biological,
chemical, and nuclear weapons found in Iraq, as they have been claimed to be possessed by Saddam Hussein
(Momani, 2014). As a proof, an inspection team was sent by Bush to investigate WMDs in Iraq, which then
resulted in the absence of any WMDs found in the country. It is claimed that Saddam Hussein’s WMDs were not
accurately represented by the intelligent unit. It seems this problem has been used as a justification for the U.S.
to be able to militarily intervene in the country. The claim is strengthened by an evidence provided by a former
CIA analyst,
John Nixon, that his conducted research had led to the conclusion that Iraq’s nuclear weapons programme had
ended earlier years before (Mortimer, 2017). With the absence of the WMDs in Iraq, it could be seen that the
genuine reason of the U.S. was not to disarm Iraq, as this motive of its intervention might be anything else
outside its explicit factors.
As the second largest oil reserves in the world, the stability of Iraq should be maintained in order for the
global energy supplies to be stabilized by ensuring the free flows of Iraqi oil to global markets (Ahmed, 2014).
Some Whitehall documents stated that the U.S. and British want to privatize Iraqi oil production in order for
foreign corporations to be able to takeover (Bignell, McSmith & Brown, 2011). Its geostrategic location on the
Silk Road, which is among Asia, Europe, Arabia, and North Africa has added a value to its significance as a
prominent oil exporter in the world. In the case of the U.S.’ intervention in the Iraqi War, according to the
Project for a New American Century (PNAC) document, the conflict between the U.S. and Iraq provides a
justification for the U.S. to play a more significant role in Gulf regional security. Hence, WMDs and the dictator
rule of Saddam Hussein are not considered as the root problems of the conflict. With its imperialist
characteristic, the Iraq War might reflect the complex internal relations of bomb & build – a global capitalist
strategy, which in this case creates a linkage between geopolitics and global capitalism (Bieler, 2015). The
justifications provided by the U.S. in terms of disarmament to invade the country, therefore, could be considered
as illegitimate due to the implicit economic motive.
Overall, the U.S.-led military intervention in the 2003 Iraqi War could be regarded as illegitimate, as it
had violated the principle of humanitarian intervention and the R2P doctrine. Furthermore, it is also proven that
there are no WMDs found in Iraq, which might lead to the conclusion that the sole motive of the U.S. and its
allies to conduct military intervention might be to gain economic motive by maintaining the flows of oil supplies
worldwide.
38
PART 6 – IMPACTS OF THE MIDDLE EASTERN CONFLICTS

39
 The Effect of Turkish and Kurdish Conflict Towards Turkey
Ainun Fahirah K

18/423171/SP/28145

part of the Kurdish groups (Stempel, 2014). Another impact

The Turkish-Kurdish conflict is the conflict
of the these issue towards Turkey is the problem of
between the Republic of Turkey and the Kurdish insurgent
underdevelopment and economic obstacle. As the conflict
groups who demand to separate from Turkey and create
mainly happen in the eastern and southeastern of Turkey,
independent Kurdistan. This conflict is also made worse by
the mainly contributed towards the underdevelopment on
the issues of ethnic and also political as well as cultural
those area. Different from the Spain on the case of ETA
rights for the Kurds, and it has been a prolonged affair
where the conflict also followed by development, the
(Beriker-Atiyas, 1997). This conflict originates by the
conflict in Turkey followed by the discrimination and even,
fragmentation of Kurdish populations after the end of the
Figure 1 Kurdish-majority areas of Turkey, as of Ottoman Empire. Then Kurdish separated through Turkey, as mention earlier, language ban.
1992. (CIA/Kurdistan of Turkey) Because the area also exposed to the activity and problem that PKK have caused the region also suffer
Syria, Iraq, and Iran. But was a dominant problem in the
from poor education standards and unproductive or ineffective workforce (Bloc, n.d.). The ineffective workforce
Turkey because of the rejection after the vision of Turkey’s first president, Kemal Atatürk (Beriker-Atiyas, 1997).
also caused the higher business cost thus made a bad economic growth in Turkey. It is estimated that Turkey
Thus, arise some resistance in the Turkey around the late 1970s. the resistance that has most influence in turkey
could have earned 14 per cent higher GDP or around $1,600. But let alone the region could have 6.6 per cent
was coming from the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), who is equip with wide military structure. Since then, there
higher per capita GDP if not being exposed towards the PKK
has been many attack and outbreak of the conflict, not to mention the casualties that those events generate.
Figure 2 – Turkish Regions by Human Development terrorism. The constant conflict with PKK also prevent Turkey
Therefore, this paper attempt to answer the question “How does the Turkey-Kurdish conflict effect Turkey?”. Index Rating, www.earthquake-report.com
to have more advance relations with European Union, where
The cause may also come from the lack of democracy and several repressions from towards the ethnic
EU concerns toward ethnic minority rights hindrance further establishment of closer relationship.
that leads to the armed conflict in Turkey, but the condition also applies to the flourishing of democratization in
This conflict also creates the instability problem towards Turkey. Their economic market also felt the
Turkey. Although various measures have been taken in order to fight against so called terrorism, it also led
impact as the Turkish lira’s value drops. It also contributed by the conflict in Syria and Iraq where Turkey’s role in
towards the human rights abuses and enhance the mistrust between the Kurds and Turkish state, thus taking the
there intensified the PKK activities based on hatred. The constant then problem cause the security concern
path of democracy in Turkey become harder (Aydin-Düzgit, 2017). Proven in 2009 when Turkish democracy
around Turkey thus made one of their main income, Turkey’s tourism industry, also drop in 2016. Whereas the
become stagnant, due to the hostile reaction from PKK and public outcry. While the main hindrance of
reemergence of PKK terrorism also brought disruption to another level as they hit the impact on the urban areas
democracy is not necessarily an ethnic conflict, the temporary end and dispute of the Kurdish still has made
in eastern Turkey, emerge from before where they mainly operate in the rural areas. And the notable situation
negative impact on Turkish democracy. Furthermore, the prolong conflict and difficulty on sustaining peace also
in the Kurdish or PKK conflict is the sustainable peace that is difficult to reach. Many cease-fires resulting the re-
leave Turkey vulnerable in terms of their key allies. One of the reasons is because the lack of democracy on
emergence of terrorism thus also create many casualties. Even in the 2015-2016 the civil victim also unable to
Turkey might made also some allies, the United States and European capitals, side with Kurdish Democratic
return home after the mess caused by military operation, making people suffer and question the lacked of
Union Party (PYD). As the result, it hindrance Turkey to have foreign policy vision in their southern neighbor.
comprehensive plan by the government. Hence the conflict results the failure of addressing economic loss and
To add to that the conflict also brought the issues of warfare, from the strategies shifting, administrative
unable to bring positive impact towards the government.
level, and political level (Isdp.eu, 2016). On the strategy, the shift of the Kurdish to move from the rural area
To conclude all of it, the conflict of Kurdish ethnic group and the PPK party has occurred many years thus
made casualties increase thus put much pressure both on the government and citizens. Not only that, the
create a great impact towards Turkey and its government. After the PKK terrorism reign, not only physical, that
Turkish government also been criticized on their action on approaching the conflict by using force. Because by
mostly happened in the eastern and southeastern Turkey, but Turkey also suffer from noon-physical impact.
this method, resulted the shortage of water, food medical care for the civil population. To add to that the
First on the notion of democracy, which is interdependent to the conflict. In other words, this conflict might
conflict also adds some political value due to the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) exclusion, mean the loss of
happen because of the lack of democracy in Turkey but in the other hand the conflict also unable the democracy
Kurdish representative on the parliamentary. This issues thus escalated at the time the leading figures of HDP.
in Turkey to flourish. As the result the alliance of Turkey is also compromised. Beside the casualties and lives
This shown as the major delay on the Turkish political system and Kurdish participation in the decision-making
that Turkey loss, there are also the issue of underdevelopment. In the case this underdevelopment happened in
process.
the area that is active in conflict, Eastern Turkey, caused by the lack of education and discrimination, thus led
Among those impact, there is also another perspective if one see from the phycological view. The
into economic disadvantage. All of this also resulted the impression of Turkey in the international system lower
conflict have brought Turkey towards the issues of discrimination ang basic human right violation, because after
and disrupt the relations between Turkey and the EU (Bilgel and Karahasan, n.d.). A various factor also
the decline of Ottoman empire in 1913 the Kurds have receive an unfair of treatment. In the case of the use of
contributes on the economic and social disparities made Turkish government should heavily invested their
language, religion, and physical security. Thus, Turkey then perceived as having lack of political loyalty on the
energy to solve this conflict and gain the stability of the nation.

40
 The Persian Gulf War and the Economic Impact Afterwards
Athalla Tiara A
18/425558/SP/2830
Persian Gulf War is an international conflict that was occurred in August 1990 until February 1991. This conflict,
also known as the Gulf War, First Gulf War, or the First Iraq War was triggered by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in
August 1990 (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019). Oil is one of the reasons why Saddam Hussein, as the leader of
Iraq, was ordered the invasion and occupation of Kuwait back in the 1990s and Iraq also wanted to expand its
power to Kuwait and to cancel the debt owed by Kuwait (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019). Kuwait is a neighboring
country to Iraq, it is located in the tip of the Persian Gulf, and it has many oil reserves. As a country that the
economy is dependent on the oil sector, any state or group that can dominate Kuwait indeed, will be rich and
most likely will gaining power. Saddam Hussein was seen Kuwait as Iraq’s province. Therefore, they built an
occupying army in Kuwait. If Iraq were successfully expanded its border to Kuwait, it would be a significant
threat to all Middle Eastern countries. Iraq will
have enough power to targeting Saudi Arabia
to have broader access to the largest oil fields
and drive Iraq out of financial trouble.
The United Nations Security Council or the
UNSC imposed a worldwide ban on trade with
Iraq after the UNSC called for Iraq to withdraw
from Kuwait. The United States and its western
European NATO allies were rushed their troops
to Saudi Arabia to prevent the possible threat
Image source: Health Line, 2016 Courtesy of David Winnett in Saudi Arabia as the largest oil producer and
exporter in the world. The Arabian nations were also built an anti-Iraq military buildup that, famous as Operation
Desert Shield (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019). The United States was leading the coalition’s military offensive
against Iraq with a massive air campaign, and it was continued throughout the war. The United States’ massive
air campaign has occurred after the United Nation Security Council authorized the use of force against Iraq if Iraq
is still in Kuwait by 15 January 1991 that was refused by Iraq. The allied coalition was included in the United
States, France, Britain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, etc. had reached the total number of 700.000 troops. The
Operation Desert Storm was destroyed Iraq’s air defenses, roads, bridges, oil refineries, etc. Other than the
Operation Desert Storm, there was the Operation Desert Sabre, and a massive allied ground offensive was
launched northward from northern-east Saudi Arabia into Kuwait and southern Iraq (Encyclopedia Britannica,
2019). After three days, Kuwait had retaken by Arab and the United States forces. Finally, Iraqi resistance was
utterly collapsed when the United States’ President, George Bush declared a cease-fire. The allies lost about 300
troops in the conflict, and the estimated Iraqi military deaths range was from 8.000 to 50.000 (Encyclopedia
Britannica, 2019).
It was a big war back then in the 1990s. A great war will have a significant impact on the postwar period. Not
only physical damage caused by the war, many environmental hazards on marine life, the air, and water sources
have also occurred after this war. It was because more than 60 percent of the existing oil wells were set on fire
during the Persian Gulf War (The Guardian, 2003). The oil production in Kuwait was shutting down after the war
whereas, Kuwait was and still depending on their economy on the oil resources. It was followed by many
economic downturns such as interrupting the foreign trade, disrupted the domestic financial market, and
crippled the labor market there. The value of real estate and other financial assets were collapsed in the postwar
era. During the war, the Central Bank of Kuwait’s gold holdings and unissued currency were looted, and it caused
very bis losses for Kuwait. Many assets that served as collateral were destroyed. It was a hectic situation in
Kuwait, the lack of labor and the unavailability of specific skills also take credit to the supply side.
The sharp contraction of Kuwait’s population by the end of 1991 has both supply and demand side factors (Sab,
2014). The rising price of gasoline during the Persian Gulf War also can be felt in the United States. According to
the Congressional Research Service, the Persian Gulf War cost around $61.1 billion (Stevenson, 2002). Eighty
percent of the cost of the war was paid by Arab countries rather than the coalition led by the United States.
According to some scholar, the financial impact of any gulf war is difficult to analyze because, on the other side,
the effect of the possible oil supplies disruptions is a different thing. The economic impact of the war mostly led
the western countries’ economy to a serious downturn because most of the western countries were importing
oil from the Persian Gulf’s countries. Other than the United States, Syria and Egypt as the countries that are not
major oil producer but tied to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, also known as OPEC they
are greatly benefitted from the oil-boom in the Gulf states. Egypt was gaining the highest oil price triggered by
the war. Oil export revenue in 1990-1991 were $850 million higher than in the prior year (Kanovsky, 1992). On
the other hand, Egypt was get a tourism declined drastically even if their location is far from the war zone.
Saddam Hussein also sent thousands of Egyptian workers back to the Egypt and it causes a serious problem of
unemployment. Egypt was gained and lost something because of the Persian Gulf War but overall, the impact of
the war on Egypt’s economy was a net loss of about $2.5 billion (Kanovsky, 1992). At the end of the war, Egypt
received compensation from the United States and its allies and the compensation was many multiples of
Egypt’s losses. After that, Egypt was participated in the anti-Iraq coalition following the invasion of Kuwait. The
United States forgave about $7 billion in military debts, and Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states forgave a
similar amount (Kanovsky, 1992). Lucky Egypt, because before the Persian Gulf War, Egypt’s economy had been
worse and worse. Egypt also was the beneficiary of generous grants and soft loans from the Gulf states and
Europe (Kanovsky, 1992).
In conclusion, some scholars called the Persian Gulf War as the third world war because it was a great war
followed by many significant impacts not only to the Middle Eastern countries but also the world. Iraq’s invasion
of Kuwait triggered this conflict. The rising price of oil, lack of labors, environmental hazards, the drop values of
real estates, raising taxes, the damage communication systems, and electricity generating plants, and many
hectic situations was there after the war. On the other hand, Egypt is very lucky to received compensation from
the United States and its allies. Moreover, the compensation is bigger than Egypt’s losses cause by the Persian
Gulf War. Even though the country involved in the war was finally able to overcome this fall, the Persian Gulf
War was continued to the Second Persian Gulf War.
41
 The Domestic and International Impacts of Yemen Crisis
Genesia Lemuel Ginting
18/429312/SP/28537
Yemen, as one of the world’s poorest countries, will continue to have its crisis with the continuity of its
domestic civil war. The crisis itself began in 2011, triggered by the power transition between the leaders in
Yemen, from its longtime president Ali Abdullah Saleh to Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. The political transition itself
did not end well as the new chosen president, Mr. Hadi, had to deal with varieties of problems faced and left by
the previous president, which includes attacks and separatist movement, corruption, high unemployment rate
and food insecurity. (BBC News, 2018) As the new president had to deal with the country’s problem, the Houti
movement took this chance to attack and take control of certain territories in Yemen. The crisis itself has two
sides, where one side is led by the government and supported by countries such as the US, Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates. On the other side, it is led by the Houti and backed by Iran. (BBC News, 2018)
This crisis itself has caused a serious humanitarian crisis, economic crisis, and has becomes a new arena
for international competition. And due to the crisis has continued for 8 years and there are no signs of peace
between the 2 opposing groups, it is important to understand the crisis for the impacts that it brings in order for
the world to understand and in order for there to be initiative and progress to peace in the future.
The most notable and serious impacts that the Yemen crisis had brought to the country are its humanitarian
crisis. The humanitarian crisis in Yemen had turned to be the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, with 14.3
million people being in acute need, 20 million people are food insecure, 17.8 million people lack access to safe
water and sanitation and 19.7 million lack access to healthcare. (UN News, 2019)
The Yemenis are currently lacking in basic needs to sustain their lives for they struggle to gather food
and clean water to survive. As the for the food insecurity, there are also serious threats from famine as public
services had broken down and medicine are limited in the country. Such condition causes the spreading of
diseases such as cholera and malnutrition as the death
tolls continue to increase. The crisis itself had attack a
specific vulnerable groups such as women, children,
elderly and marginalized people. This serious crisis had
to be addressed and calls for international humanitarian
aids, in which already been responded recently by the
United Nations and the Governments of Sweden and
Switzerland in 2019 that summon the third High-Level
Pledging Event for the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen that
required for $3.1billion. (OCHA, 2019) However, more
humanitarian assistance is needed to address the crisis.
Other than the extreme extend of the humanitarian
crisis, it is also important to address the economic crisis
in the country. As the economy collapsed in the country, many had fled Yemen, as they don’t have any source of
income, thus causing them to not be able to afford any basic needs. There are around 3 millions Yemenis that
fled the country to take shelter and protection to countries such as Oman, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Ethiopia,
Somalia and Sudan. (USA for UNHCR, 2019) Oman itself had account for 50,000 refugees in 2017 alone according
to the UNHRC. While for those who are staying in the country, mostly are forced to live in crowded and damaged
homes.
Due to the economic crisis, people are forced to reduce the amount of meals they eat and sell their
assets. And due to the civil war and the explosion damages, it has destroyed the major oil pipeline, which is the
source of most of the country’s fuel. As the country experienced shortage in fuel, the people are not able to
have the fuel to transport goods across the country and to pump most of the country’s water. (Salisbury, 2012)
Thus, it forced the country to import its fuel, where mostly it came from Saudi Arabia to keep the economy
going. Other than that, the economy crisis also cause factories in Yemen to closed, farmers struggled to irrigate
their crops, fuel shortages and blackouts, which made the economic activities to be harder to be carried out.
(Salisbury, 2012) Due to that, it also causes the increase of unemployment rate as joblessness was above 40
percent in average. As a result of the economic crisis, many people are living in poverty and the death toll to
increase.
Lastly, it is also important to address the domestic civil war in Yemen that catch the attention of
international actors to play a role and competing in influencing
the outcome of the crisis. The two opposing groups, the
government and the Houti, which was founded as a revivalist
movement and turned to be a militia, have international actors
to backed their power and claim over the territory in Yemen.
The government that is led by President Abdrabbuh Mansour
Hadi had received support from Saudi Arabia, UAE, and the US.
While for the Houti militia, it had received support from Iran.
Despite of these international actors supporting the different
domestic groups in Yemen, they also have their own agenda
and aspiration to influence the politics of Yemen. The Yemen
crisis to a certain extend could be seen as the part of a regional
power struggle between Shia-ruled Iran and Sunni-ruled Saudi
Arabia. Both countries wanted to spread their power in the
Middle East that stretch from the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf and Arabian Sea, where both countries have
been rivals for decades and view Yemen as part of the Great Game. (Reardon, 2015) While for the USA, their
intervention in the crisis to back the Arabia and its Sunni, Arab states alliances since March 2015, was according
to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) to justify their involvement. The US used the AUMF to
manage any actors who are involved in the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001 and control
the area that are involved with the terrorist attack, thus justifying their air attacks against al-Qaeda bases across
Yemen. (Najjar, 2017) Despite of the casualties that the war brings to thousand of Yemenis, both combatant and
civilians, countries are still conducting air strikes and military forces in the country. There is a proposition from
Trump administrations to call for a political solution in Yemen. However, the two sides of the conflict appear to
disagree over the political solution framework
In conclusion, it is important to analyze and understand the impacts of the Yemen crisis on its people
and also how the international community pursues their interest and agenda in the region. The damages that it
caused to the people of Yemen in form of humanitarian and economic crisis had exceed its limit and continue to
grow despite of the aids given by the international community. Therefore, it is important to first address and
solve the domestic problems between the 2 opposing party through having diplomatic talks and negotiate to
come to an agreement in order to bring peace to the country.
42
 The Harrowing Humanitarian Situation in the Yemeni Civil War (2015-present)
Bonang Titian Rahardjo
18/425559/SP/28307
Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
Part of the Arab Winter, the Yemeni Crisis and the Iran-Saudi Arabia proxy conflict/Qatar-Saudi Arabia proxy conflict
Military situation in Yemen on 13 February 2019
Controlled by the Supreme Political Council (Houthis)
Controlled by the Hadi-led government and allies
Controlled by Southern Transitional Council
Controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)
Controlled by Ansar al-Sharia and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
The Yemeni Civil War is an ongoing conflict that began in 2015 between two factions: the internationally
recognized Yemeni government, led by Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, and the Houthi armed movement, along with
their supporters and allies. Both claim to constitute the official government of Yemen (Orkaby, 2015). Houthi
forces controlling the capital Sana'a, and allied with forces loyal to the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have
clashed with forces loyal to the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, based in Aden. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have also carried out attacks, with AQAP
controlling swathes of territory in the hinterlands, and along stretches of the coast. Concurrently, a coalition led
by Saudi Arabia (Al-Hai, 2015) launched military operations by using airstrikes to restore the former Yemeni
government; the United States provided intelligence and logistical support for the campaign (Mazetti and
Kirkpatrick, 2015).
With the ongoing conflict, surely the prosperity and well-being of the citizens would be at risk and its
effect remain an inquiry that will be answered in this assignment. According to the UN and other sources, from
March 2015 to December 2017, 8,670–13,600 people were killed in Yemen, including more than 5,200 civilians,
as well as estimates of more than 50,000 dead as a result of an ongoing famine due to the war
(Chicagotribune.com, 2017). In 2018, the United Nations warned that 13 million Yemeni civilians face starvation
in what it says could become "the worst famine in the world in 100 years" (BBC News, 2018). The international
community have sharply condemned the Saudi Arabian-led bombing campaign, which has included widespread
bombing of civilian areas. Despite this, however, the crisis has not gained as much international media attention
as compared to the Syrian civil war until recently (Whiteside, 2018) (Amnesty.org, 2019).
CNN reported on 8 April 2015 that almost 10,160,000 Yemenis were deprived of water, food, and
electricity as a result of the conflict. Over 13 million civilians were without access to clean water (Lister, 2015).
The United Nations announced on 19 April 2015 that Saudi Arabia promised to provide $273.7 million in
emergency humanitarian aid to Yemen. The UN appealed for the aid, saying 7.5 million people had been affected
by the conflict and many were in need of medical supplies, potable water, food, shelter, and other forms of
support (Fox News, 2015). As the war dragged on through the summer and into the fall, things were made far
worse when Cyclone Chapala, the equivalent of a category 2 Hurricane (Erdman, 2015), made landfall on 3
November 2015. According to the NGO Save the Children, the destruction of healthcare facilities and a
healthcare system on the brink of collapse as a result of the war will cause an estimated 10,000 preventable
child deaths annually. Some 1,219 children have died as a direct result of the conflict thus far. On March 2017,
the World Food Program reported that while Yemen was not yet in a full-blown famine, 60% of Yemenis, or 17
million people, were in "crisis" or "emergency" food situations.
In June 2017 a cholera epidemic resurfaced which was reported to be killing a person an hour in Yemen
by mid-June (Mcneill and Fuad, 2017). News reports in mid-June stated that there had been 124,000 cases and
900 deaths and that 20 of the 22 provinces in Yemen were affected at that time. UNICEF and WHO estimated
that, by 24 June 2017, the total cases in the country exceeded 200,000, with 1,300 deaths (Unicef.org, 2017). On
7 June 2018, it was reported that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had pulled 71 of its
international staff out of Yemen, and moved the rest of them to Djibouti, with some 450 ICRC employees
remaining in the country. The partial evacuation measure came on the eve of an ICRC worker, a Lebanese
national, being killed on 21 April by unknown gunmen in the southwestern city of Taiz. The ICRC stated "our
current activities have been blocked, threatened and directly targeted in recent weeks, and we see a vigorous
attempt to instrumentalize our organization as a pawn in the conflict." In light of the serious security
deterioration for ICRC personnel, the international organization has called for all parties of the conflict "to
provide it with concrete, solid and actionable guarantees so that it can continue working in Yemen." Since the
beginning of the conflict, more than 10,000 people have been killed and at least 40,000 wounded, mostly from
air raids (Aljazeera.com, 2017).
To conclude, it is undeniable that the Yemeni civil war had caused great devastation towards its civilians,
shown by the evidences mentioned before. In short, the situation in Yemen is the world's worst man-made
humanitarian disaster. Even before the war, tens of thousands of Yemeni children were already dying of
preventable causes. But now, the situation is much worse and an estimated 1,000 children are dying every week.
What is most heart-breaking about Yemen's humanitarian catastrophe is that it is completely and needlessly
man-made. All the suffering was completely preventable and could be stopped within days if the political will -
by the warring factions and their supporters abroad - was there to do so. In the meantime, as international
diplomacy continues to fail Yemenis, their lives will - unimaginably - only get worse.
43
PART 7 – THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE MIDDLE EAST

44
 Egypt’s Economic Under El-Sisi’s Goverment
Rania Rizkiadinda
18/429317/SP/28542

Egypt is a well-known country for its rich ancient history of civilizations and impeccable historical buildings
such as the Pyramid and the Sphinx. Located in a very strategic area, Egypt holds an important role in the
geopolitics stems for the neighboring countries as well. Egypt became a transcontinental nation by possessing a
land bridge, the Isthmus of Suez, that lay across between Africa and Asia, traversed by a navigable and crucially
important waterway, the Suez Canal, that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean by way of the
Red Sea. Being the largest Arab country, with an area sized 386,874 sq miles, Egypt is home for over 94.8 million
people. The population strongly rely on the highly fertile Nile Valley to survive for everyday matter. It’s GDP
achieve $1.2 trillion, with 4.3% economic growth, 3.8% 5-year compound annual growth, and gain %12,671 per
capita (Heritage, 2019).
Egypt’s governmental procedure is not something that can be cherished as well. The country is in a civil
unrest situation since 2011. In just a span of 4 years, Egypt has changed 3 presidents. General Abdel Fattah el-
Sisi launched a coup d’état against the previous leader Morsi’s regime, then step down from his military position
upon joining the presidential election. His leadership is also highly militarized, with military involving in almost
every sector including infrastructure, food and real estate. Civil liberties are still very much oppressed, resulting
in many protests as well.
Since taking the office, Sisi was inherited the economy through numerous ‘mega-projects’, such as the
expansion of the Suez Canal and the construction of a new administrative capital on the outskirts of Cairo, that Sisi’s government tried to save their currency, the Egyptian pound, by restricting access to foreign
were intended to add legitimacy to his rule. Yet, instead of providing a boost to the economy, these projects exchange that unfortunately resulted in a collateral damage to the marker, to confidence and to business in
apparently drained the resources. This reckless spending made the number one example of a such wasteful use general (Springborg, 2017). Being unable to float an international bond issue for more than a year because of
of government funds (Schwab, 2016). anticipated negative market reactions, Egypt faced a severe fiscal crisis. The Minister of Finance predicted that
The structural issues are one of the most profound issue in the country. With the high rate of population their sovereign debt that attracts interest of up to 17 per cent requires a full quarter of the country’s budget to
growth, the number of official youth unemployment reached 24.8 percent, based on a labor force of only one- service in the coming financial year, up from 22 per cent in 2013-14. The financial aid given by Saudi Arabia and
third of the entire population, and poor quality informal employment for most working Egyptians, mainly the United Arab Emirates (UAE) the previous year did not directly provoked a rapid economic growth
became the result of the failing education system that even fail to deliver basic literacy. The people of the (Springborg, 2017).
country are not contributing much to the national income as they don’t have the education sufficient enough for The GDP growth dropped in the first half of 2014 to 1.2 per cent, from the estimated 3 to 3.5 per cent in
them to learn from. early 2013. Then in April 2014, inflation reached more than 9 per cent while the currency had fallen 15 per cent
Sisi’s overly militarized leadership that resulted in many popular protests and his history of taking a part in against the dollar and euro over the previous twelve months despite the efforts done by the central bank to
the Rabaa massacre, that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters, scares off many crank it up. The national savings also collapsed from over 13 per cent in 2012-13 to 7 per cent in 2013-14. To top
future investors and foreign tourists. Successive governments’ reluctance to devalue the overpriced currency all the mess, the number of unemployment is steadily climbing, from 8.9 per cent in 2010 to reached almost 14
had led to an acute foreign exchange shortage dampening imports and pricing Egyptian exports out of foreign per cent in the first quarter of 2014.
markets. The ideology that Egypt perceived as, a tough, austere state inspired by the moral virtues of Islam, will
Sisi’s signature economic achievement so far has been concluding a three-year deal with the International further accentuate Egypt as a risky place to invest on. The reason why el-SIsi’s economic development deemed
Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2016. This deal has expectation to cut costs but boost the investments while not as a failed strategy is because that strategy is formulated and implemented by the heavy influence from the
overburdening the nation where around half of them live on or near the poverty line. This have proven to be military, pursuing a mixed and contradictory aims of national economic growth, enrichment and empowerment
successful as it has helped bring in foreign funds and raising the economic growth that’s targeted to reach 5.8 of itself and its officers, and enhanced coercive powers, both domestically and nationally (Springborg, 2017). The
percent in the financial year starting July 2018 (El-Tablawy, 2018). government will not gain any economic process unless it separates the military from its national decision and
Inflation of the national currency, Egyptian Pound, makes the civilians even more suffer. Having weathered main interest. It is estimated that the military upholds up to 60% of the economic decision in the country. While
inflation of up to 34 per cent in the months after the adoption of IMF-mandated reforms in November 2016, the government is still heavily influenced by the military ways, it will somehow will fail again and again.
Egyptians again faced rising inflation in June 2018, from 11.4 per cent in May to 14.4. per cent in June. This was
largely due to subsidy cuts on items and electricity.

45
 To what extent the Iraq’s UN sanctions affect its economy?
Dara Laras Santi

18/425560/SP/28308

In 1947, Iraq was given sanctions by the United Nations economy and the equalization of installments. The burden of assents kept Iraq's winning the vital remote trades
Security Council due to the Iraq actions regarding their which would bolster its ability to import and meet its worldwide commitments. Meanwhile, the administration
invasion to Kuwait by giving economic embargo to Iraq. facilitated confinements on imports by
the private part, to enable it to carry
The sanction was the main catalyst of why Iraqi economy merchandise into the nation. The
is not developing during those years. As the economic refusal of remote providers to
situation in Iraq has been concentrated from the trade acknowledge the dinar at the official
sector (Al-Roubaie, A. & Elali, W., 1995). The outcome of swapping scale of US$3.20 made the
the sanctions that are given to Iraq to reduce the Iraqi money unsuitable to the outside
government’s income that eventually affect consumption monetary standards to make
and government expenditures and revenues as means of installments on their imported
Saddam Hussein’s decision to stop building nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. merchandise. Be that as it may, due to
the approvals, Iraq was effectively
The sanctions were totally about limiting Iraqi’s exports, especially its oil sectors through Resolution 661 that improved their equalization of
include the removal of weapons of mass destruction. The results to the country was significant to the level that installments which the imports
the UN took complete control over the economy, the country’s assets we developed at 37,1 from 12,7 percent.

The money related weight of Iraq is further confounded by the quick increment in the sum expected to support On the other hand, there was a time
the obligation. The way to recuperation and to financial recovery is additionally hampered by having an that there is a conflict between Iraq and
expanding segment of salary being assigned to support the obligation. This circumstance was disturbed much UN as a result of the sanction. According
more by Iraq's advantages being solidified abroad, which prompted its powerlessness to make utilization of to Geneva International Centre for
them to fund its universal exchanges. This can be seen on the Table 4, the debt is accelerating from 1975 to Justice (GICJ) report, Iraq published how
1990, from 1170 millions USD to 42097 millions USD in 1990. the mortality rate declined significantly
during the sanction given time. This, on the other hand, proved by the GICJ that the statistic was wrong. GICJ
Moreover, Iraq was having a financial crisis because of the hyper-inflation that was most damaging to the thinks that Iraq created such publishing in order to gain international fame to blame UN’s sanctions and get the
economic. Especially the country was dependent on imports particularly in the area of primary needs such as sanctions ended.
food which resulting in food shortage that could be avoided, but was destroyed by the economy weakness that
affects the infrastructure which lead to prevent farmers from expanding production. Most importantly, the In the end, the sanctions seemed to be effective to limit Iraq’s actions in mass destruction as, according to Joe
government has subsided a lot of amount for primary needs. Biden, the US Vice President at that time, the number of violent attacks in Iraq had fallen and he said the people
are rejecting the grim future by extremists (BBC, 2010).
The deterioration of the non-official estimation of the Iraqi cash, extraordinarily invigorated the rate of
expansion in the household economy. To think, the quality of a cash is connected of the condition of the

46
 Assessing the Role of Natural Resources in Algeria’s Political Economy Development
Caesar Leonardo
18/423173/SP/28147
Background
As one of the biggest oil exporters in the world, the development of economic system and condition in
Algeria has fluctuated since its independence from France’s colony in 5th July 1962. Albeit the condition of the
country has suffered social-political turmoil in the recent years, following the protest and violence against
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s 20 years regime, the country economic development has ranked 14th in the
Middle East region. The availability of natural resources especially oil and gas contributed as much as roughly
30% within the country’s GDP, playing a big and essential role for the progressive economic improvement within
the country (Heritage.org, 2019). Similar with the economic condition, the state’s foreign and economy policy,
on the other hand, has also developed a dynamic progress throughout the years. Since the independence era,
the government of Algeria has chosen the idea of socialism for foundation the domestic and foreign policy which
later on become liberated right 20 years after the Independence Day. These changes are considered as an
essential move in order for the country to achieve greater economy capability (Gupte, 1982). However, one has
become more interested in analyzing the correlations between Algeria’s natural resources and their political
economy dynamic change in the corridor to improve their economic development. Analyzing such issue, one has
fundamentally laid the basis of the analysis within the question of ‘To What Extend has the Natural resources
Affected Algeria’s Political Economy Development?’. Therefore, this essay will further explain about such
content, expecting to give brief information and analysis regarding the issue.
Political Economy Development
The People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria’s economy policy that’s being implemented nowadays, has
quite distinction with the policy established during its history as it’s mentioned before. The country’s socialist
foundation didn’t necessarily have any correlations with the colonialization era since France wasn’t the country
with a socialist view and they were considered of having lack in capability of manifesting such ideology (Lorcin,
1999). However, one would argue that the ideologies were coming from the governments and their idea of
forming a suitable policy for the country. The aftermath of Algerian war in regaining independence has resulted
in the establishments of 1963 March Decrees by the Ben Bella, Algeria’s first president, showing the initiative of
the government in gradually gaining total control of the European’s leftover business including agriculture,
industrial, and commercial enterprises through state corporations during the post-colonial era (Smith, 1975).
Other than that, one would also argue that the Cold War (1947-1991) between the United States and USSR also
influenced the country in establishing such policy since Algeria’s Independence was established during those era
considering ‘The Algerian Revolution’ and the growing existence of communist bloc in the country (Asselin,
2015) .
The governmental era before the President Chadli Benjedid’s regime (1979-1992) had established a
strong socialist policies for domestic and foreign affairs. It was noted that up until the year 1982, there were
more than 100 massive government enterprises controlling productions and distributions for roughly 21 million
Algerian in fulfilling the people’s need. This massive government companies then were broken up by President
Benjedid, after three years established as le pouvoir (means as ‘the power’), into other sectors that are sufficient
enough in giving space for other actors to invest their capitals including private sectors and foreign investments
(Gupte, 1982). However, the broke up of these huge institutions were being done in the most efficient way
possible, resulting in the rate of employment fluctuate and over population in the northern region due to the
massive industrialization. This condition marked the downfall of socialism in the country as well as the rise of
capitalism and liberalism which further become the foundation of the Algerian economy development. This
economic policy, however, resulted in Algeria having fluctuated economic and trade progressive grow.
The Natural Resources
Around 90% of the petroleum oil and natural gases from Algeria has been exported towards the Western
Europe, marking the country as one of the biggest crude oil supplier for the EU (Sawe, 2017). The data shows
that Algeria’s natural resources have the capability and power within international trade, enabling such
extractive industry having rapid growth within the country. These natural resources are mostly available within
the middle to southern region of the country (Geology.com, 2008) which are less-populated than the northern
ones due to industrialization and location of the capitals. Petroleum oil and natural gases, as mentioned before,
have dominated 97% of the country’s total exports (OEC, 2017). However, the vast obtainability of these natural
resources have also taken part in the country’s political and economy development as the main export
commodity. Therefore, one would like to elaborate further on how such materials affect the political economy
condition in Algeria and the implications of such condition.
Understanding that natural resources are one of the most materials utilized by vast majority of people as
energy resources on a daily basis, the materials has grown interests for many economy actors to develop and
commercialized. Within the context of Algeria and its economic system, it’s understood that during the history of
the country, the governments of Ben Bella’s administration had acknowledged this particular issue and had the
idea of gaining much benefits for the people in the country through the socialist policy (Smith, 1975). However,
throughout the years of the policy implementation especially in extractive industrialization sectors, it’s
understood that the country hadn’t succeeded in diversifying its economy significantly albeit the massive
investments for integrated industry manufactures by the government (Fanack.com, 2013). Therefore, it’s
understood that the centralization through government corporations have slowed the process of such
developments since the state’s institutions doesn’t necessarily have the capability in expanding the growths of
extractive industry in advanced stage. The implication of such policy, however, resulted in limitations of
extractive industries itself in terms of gaining more trade transactions as well as fulfilling the people’s need of
petroleum oil and natural gases. Preventing further unwanted consequences, the Benjedid’s administration then
opens up the market as well as investments within the country (Gupte, 1982) making it available for the other
actors to get involved within the economy in align with the state’s aims for the welfare of the people.
Conclusion
Throughout the years, Algeria has become dependent towards extractive industries especially petroleum
oil and natural gases. While the world has become more interdependence, natural resource Algeria possesses
has become important as well as growing interests for others to also obtain. It’s further understood that just like
other Middle Eastern countries have tried to maintain the domination of natural resources. Algeria’s economic
policy faced major ideology change affected by these commodities and the industries condition, showing the
capability such materials uphold and its relevancy towards the country’s principle. The implications,
nevertheless, has also felt by the domestic environments and the internationals meaning that one policy
towards natural resources has essentially grown importance for many parties. However, it’s also encouraged to
further conduct a thorough research for further providing complex analysis regarding the issue.
47
PART 8 – CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN THE MIDDLE EAST

48
 The Failure on Qatar Blockade and how it Impacts the Country
Damaris Tama Nathania
18/423175/SP/28149
The “Qatar crisis,” as the land, air and sea blockade by Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates quickly became known, was
meant to break the Qatari economy and force the country’s emir to give in to
a set of demands from the Saudis – namely to fall in line with Saudi leadership
of the Gulf, shut down Al Jazeera and cut ties with Saudi arch enemy Iran.
Arab neighbours and cofounders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which
consist of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain, along with their ally, Egypt. The
so-called quartet abruptly cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar and imposed
travel and trade bans. Why did the blockade on Qatar failed? The tiny emirate
of roughly 2.5 million people, led by the 37-year-old Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad
Al Thani has refused to comply with any of the demands and remained defiant
in the face of pressure from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, 32, and his campaign for regional
domination. The “shock and awe” strategy was meant to precipitate the collapse of the Qatari government, or at
least its capitulation. Thirteen demands were presented to Qatar. They included shutting down the Al Jazeera
media network, reducing diplomatic relations with Iran, and closing a Turkish military base near Doha. Qatar was
also asked to pay reparations for years of alleged damages caused by its policies to the blockading countries. It
was disclosed later that the quartet had also considered military action against Qatar but the US Department of
Defense, which has its largest military base in the Middle East in Qatar, had warned against it.
Qatar was taken by surprise by the Saudi-led diplomatic offensive and was unprepared for such a major
escalation. But the demands were clearly designed to be too much for Doha to immediately accept. Senior Gulf
officials involved in the crisis even made it clear early on that the Saudi camp was unconvinced that Qatar, even
if it engaged with the demands, would genuinely change its behavior. The quartet’s real goal was to essentially
make Qatar a vassal state unable to carry out any independent foreign policy. To that end, the Saudi camp
initiated a massive public relations effort in Western capitals to increase diplomatic pressure on Qatar and turn
public opinion against it. But, by those measures, the crisis has so far played out in Qatar’s favor. Perhaps the
clearest indication of that reality was the series of remarks made by Trump with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad
Al Thani in April (The White House, 2019). Trump attacked Saudi Arabia, including in reference to terror funding,
and acknowledged Qatar’s progress on the matter. Rather than convincing commentators and politicians in the
West that Qatar had serious problems it needed to address, the effect has largely been the opposite. In large
part, that’s because the quartet failed to anticipate Qatar would organize an effective public relations campaign
of its own in the West. One source with knowledge of Gulf’s lobbying efforts estimated that Qatar has spent
about $1.5 billion on PR efforts since the crisis. Similar amounts were expected to be spent by Saudi Arabia.
Unlike other countries that were continuing lobbying efforts that existed before the crisis, such as the UAE,
Riyadh and Doha are widely recognized to have upped their PR efforts before or in the lead-up to the crisis. Ad
campaigns on channels like CNN were canceled out by counter-ads on the same channels. The result is that it’s
the countries of the quartet, rather than Qatar, that have suffered the most significant reputational setbacks.
Saudi Arabia’s long-standing efforts to criticize Doha’s support for extremism in places like Syria and Libya have
now been undermined by the partisan punditry that followed the crisis. Qatar has been able to portray such
allegations as merely part of a paid effort by the Saudi side. Critically, two political developments favoring
Qatar’s image coincided with the crisis. The first development was that Qatar, for reasons unrelated to the
blockade, became less involved with extremist groups in Syria. With the Syrian government gaining momentum
in the civil war, there was less incentive for Doha to support rebel groups such as Ahrar al-Sham in the north. In
the interim, Turkey has instead become their main sponsor. Although it didn’t mark any major strategic shift,
this development gave Doha credit in the eyes of its erstwhile critics in the West.
The second parallel development was the rise of Mohammed bin Salman, who became the Saudi crown
prince less than three weeks into the Qatar crisis. Mohammed bin Salman’s rise had mixed results for Qatar. On
the one hand, he was able to effectively use the dispute with Qatar to consolidate support at home and channel
it against the country’s regional enemies. The new Saudi leader’s personal critics were quickly labeled Qatari
agents; clerics and other influential Saudi citizens quickly understood they were expected to actively speak out
against Qatar, ideally while expressing unconditional loyalty to the new crown prince. When the Saudi-led
coalition launched an offensive against the Houthi rebels in 2015, Qatar sent troops to Yemen to support it. In
January 2016, Qatar also withdrew its ambassador from Tehran in an act of solidarity with Saudi Arabia,
following an attack by angry protesters on the Saudi embassy in Tehran. The Qatari government also considered
providing financial support for the ailing Bahraini economy. Both Prime Minister of Bahrain, Prince Khalifa bin
Salman Al Khalifa and Bahraini Crown Prince Salman Al Khalifa paid separate visit to Doha in February and March
2017 to discuss how Qatar can help in this matter (The Peninsula Qatar, 2019). In short, the view from Doha was
that relations with the three GCC countries were improving at a steady pace after the resolution of the 2014
crisis. It turned out that what was perceived in 2014 to be the turning of a new page between the three GCC
countries was nothing more than a short respite. Failing to secure the backing of the then-Obama
administration, the blockading countries decided to bury the hatchet temporarily and wait for another
opportunity to take care of unfinished business with Qatar, which they claim goes back over 20 years. Donald
Trump‘s victory in the 2016 US presidential elections changed the picture dramatically (Aljazeera.com, 2019).
With a new president in the White House willing to back them, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were encouraged to
resume the conflict and bring it to a decisive conclusion.
The conclude, the reason why the blockade did not achieve the intended result is because despite all
the pressure, however, Qatar, and to the surprise of many, decided to fight back. After surviving the initial shock,
it launched a coordinated diplomatic effort. The key objective was to freeze the conflict and prevent further
hostile actions by the blockading countries. The focus of the campaign was Washington. After months of hard
work, Qatar succeeded in changing the position of President Trump. More importantly, Qatar won a solid US
commitment towards its security. Following the first US-Qatar annual strategic dialogue in Washington, on
January 30, 2018, the US Department of State issued a statement, expressing its desire “to work jointly with
Qatar to deter and confront any external threat to Qatar’s territorial integrity that is inconsistent with the United
Nations Charter” (Aljazeera.com, 2019). On a different front, Qatar implemented a military agreement
with Turkey signed during the 2014 crisis, allowing for the expansion of Turkey’s military presence in Qatar
(Aljazeera.com, 2019). And as a result of being forced to reroute flights to and from Doha through Iranian
airspace, Qatar sent back its ambassador to Tehran. In addition, cutting off supply routes through the blockading
countries made Iran Qatar’s only access to secure food, water and medicine supplies. The trade balance
between the two countries dramatically increased as a result, reaching $2bn over the past year.
The whole crisis has hence ended up producing the exact opposite result of the one intended by the
blockading countries. Instead of reducing Qatar’s ties with Iran, it led to strengthening them, while Turkey has,
for the first time, become part of Gulf security, through its military presence in Qatar. Al Jazeera is still on the air
and continues to broadcast critical reports about the quartet. Even the multi-million-dollar Saudi-UAE PR
campaign to tarnish the image of Qatar and link it to activities related to financing terrorism has failed to
produce the intended effects. The two GCC countries waged a covert information war to demonize Qatar and
precipitate a shift in US policy towards it. They hired PR firms, lobbying groups, and paid think tanks to hold anti-
Qatar public events. Saudi Arabia and the UAE also employed political consulting firms, such as a subsidiary of
SCL group the parent company of the political-research firm Cambridge Analytica, to lead an anti-Qatar media
campaign (NBC News, 2019). These efforts produced little impact, however. Qatar circumvented them by signing
an agreement with the US in July 2017 aimed at combating the financing of terrorism. Indeed, Qatar may have
incurred heavy financial costs as a result of the blockade – estimated at $43bn by Bloomberg– but it has become
more independent than ever (Bloomberg.com, 2019). In fact, most Qataris believe today that they have achieved
their real independence.
49
 The Effects of US Embassy Relocation to Jerusalem Towards The Israel-Palestinian Conflict
Reina Kato
18/429318/SP/28543
On the 14th of May 2018, a decision made by
the United States of America changes the world, more
specifically to the lives of the Palestinians. An action
taken by the US president, Donald Trump, to move
the US embassy in Israel that was located in Tel Aviv
to Jerusalem was very controversial and will bring
more tension towards the conflict between Israel and
Palestine (Khanin, 2018). The long on going conflict
between Israel and Palestine has been an issue that
the international realm is concerning in which then
countries have tried to help solving this dispute for a
very long time and this includes the United States of
America’s role as their ‘Honest Broker’ until President
Trump changes everything.
Before discussing the issues that have risen
Figure 3
because of the embassy relocation, first and foremost
fundamental question that much needed to be discussed is what actually happened between these two
conflicting countries, Israel and Palestine? Also why and how does this conflict even happen in the first place?
The answer to those questions highlighted on the issue of territorial dispute where Jewish people after they
were exiled several times from Palestine longing to return there and create their own state which is Israel long
before the declaration of Israel as an independent state (Britannica, 2014). It all started a long time ago in 586
BC where Jewish people were exiled by the Babylonians from parts of Palestine or now known as the Israel even
though they could return after the Babylonian empire was overthrown, they were exiled again during the Roman
Empire in 135 AD that resulted in the event of diaspora, the spread of Jews to other parts of the world, which
made Jewish people state-less (Britannica, 2014). This event have led Jewish people to an ideology of Zionism,
movement where they believe that Jewish people belongs in their homeland, Palestine, and they would want to
return there and create their own state which is Israel. On the 2nd of November 1917, the British Empire gave
support to Jewish people that were stated in the Balfour Declaration on the creation of their national home in
Palestine, since then Jewish people started to migrate towards Palestine and the numbers increase throughout
time especially in World War II where Jews were extremely annihilate by the Germany’s holocaust (Britannica,
2019). The Arab did not accept this because they are concerned that Palestine will turn into a Jewish state while
the majority of people there are Muslims as a result, a mass conflict between the two states emerged which
happens for a long time until the United Nation intervened in 1947 and came up with Resolution 181 that stated
the division on Palestine into 56% of the land for Jews and 44% or Arab (Hammond, 2010) and the Holy Land of
Jerusalem as corpus separatum, which means separate entity and does not belong to either Arabs or Jews
(Britannica, 2014). This deal does not seem fair to the Arabs and after the declaration of Israel state in 14th May
1948, the Arab-Israeli war started and ended with Arabs lost more land from the previous deal given by the UN
as can be seen from Figure 1 which then leads to other conflict which fundamentally concerning the issue of
territory especially on Jerusalem.
The holy city of Jerusalem is the most prized possession of both Israelis and Palestinians where it is the
holiest as well as a sacred place of 3 Religion worldwide where the Wailing Wall (Judaism), Dome of the Rock &
the al – Aqsa Mosque (Muslims) and the Golgotha (Christianity) is located (BBC, 2014). This land is where
religions rely upon especially for Jews as the wall is a very sacred place for them to worship which they have
been fighting to protect it ever since the wall was built and because they have lose it once they would not want
to lose it again in any way possible including taking the land as their sovereignty. With the fact that the land
belongs together with the Palestinians, Arab Palestinians would not let Jerusalem lies on the hands of Israel as
because that land is sacred for Muslims around the world not only that but also it would not be fair and just. As
tensions have been rising on Jerusalem between the Jews and Arabs on this holy land, the recognition of
Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city by President Donald Trump means that the United States of America is explicitly
siding on Israelis thus, with this condition it shows that Palestinians, where the majority of its citizens are
Muslims, might not have the chance to pray on their holy places in Jerusalem where not only the Jews belong.
Underwood (2018) explains that, ‘The embassy move could also make the chances of a peace deal, already
remote given that the two sides haven’t held serious peace talks in years, nearly impossible.’ With that
statement, all efforts not only done by the United States of America itself but also by the international affairs on
this internationally concerned issue is pointless and vanished in a blink of an eye.
With the raised tension between Israel and Palestine, peace settlements would be hard to achieve
especially with the relocation of US embassy to Jerusalem, Palestinian would work twice or even triple times
harder to make their voices be heard. As soon as the news of US embassy relocation is spread, Palestinians have
been protesting at the Gaza border where the Israeli did not accept it quite well which leads to a catastrophic
protest and the numbers of Palestinians casualties was around 52 people with 2400 people wounded by the
Israeli troops (BBC, 2018). The move that United States of America is lighting up fire to oil that has been pouring
for a long time which creates a reaction of such a fantastic explosion that concerns everyone either domestically
or internationally. Domestically, this issue can be seen through both sides perspective while the Palestinians
view this as a threat toward their sovereignty and existence; the Israelis view this as a very great opportunity for
them to gain sovereignty over Palestine which they have planned from a very long time ago when they were the
ones that got exiled and discriminated. With the US have always be on Israelis side, this step taken was not quite
surprising but very irritating since there are international laws upon the Israel-Palestine conflict especially
Jerusalem which stated that this land neither belongs to Israel nor Palestine but it is declared to be owned
internationally and by that means that this is owned by no one. Moreover, with all the dispute and politics aside,
in a humanitarian perspective, every human lives matter and the outcome that is received is that death has been
occurring and has been happening throughout time of this dispute and the dispute settlements that has never
been ending in a peaceful manner. There will be more time needed in solving this on going dispute which have
impacted this conflict into a more complex and conflicting issue than ever before.
50
 Marriage for Egyptian Women: Status or Contract?
Aditya Wibowo Wicaksono
18/425556/SP/28304
For a very long time, women all over the world have
always been fighting for equality. Various range of movements
have been conducted in order to make their voices heard, their
presence being acknowledged, and their rights to be uphold.
However, there are some burdens in realizing the idea of
“gender equality” in some parts of the world, especially in that
of developing countries. There are several factors that foster
these occurrences of gender inequality. Those being the low
education standard, lack of awareness towards human rights,
and as such. There is also another contributing factor that is
often being imposed in that of countries within the middle east
region. That being the adherence towards particular norms or laws constructed by a particular religious belief,
Islamic laws in this matter. For this paper in particular, author is focusing towards one of the forms of inequality
faced by women in middle eastern countries, especially in that of Egypt to be exact, in achieving gender equality.
The form of problem for this matter is in regards of marriage law, which correlates with the legal age limit for
Egyptian women. The reason why this topic is being brought up is because of how legal age limitation really
affects, the seemingly repeating, (act of) child marriage. This paper is intended to analyze and answer the main
question of to what extent does Egyptian policymaker include women in terms of marriage law? in which
author also includes divorce procedures as well. This “uncertainty” of women’s legal rights is seen as one of the
results of Egypt’s sudden change in politics as well as chaos within its legal system. Therefore, it is going to be
further analyzed what contributes to this gender inequality and how these factors are hampering the process of
reaching gender equality in Egypt.
As one of the islamic countries in the world, Arab Republic of Egypt has the majority—over 94.9% of its
population—of moslem as its citizens (Pew Research Center, 2010). By having islam as the major religion within
the country, it is fair enough for the country to apply or even impose islamic norms and traditions to its legal
system—Sharia Law. However, it seems that the imposal of Sharia Law within the system itself is causing none
other than gender inequality for women (Bishin and Cherif, 2018) as this law put constrains over these women’s
rights and more importantly is their freedom as well. In addition to that, it also seems that the idea of inequality
itself is inherited from the islamic values or even religion’s studies. However, it is worth to keep in mind that
islam—islamic texts; the Quran—do promotes equality between both men and women, yet in the practice,
people often differ the idea of roles between men and women simply based on physiological ability as it has
always been doctrined that men are stronger and physically more capable than that of women.
Despite having almost half of its population as women (World Bank, 2017), around 49.44 percent, the
problem of gender inequality is pretty much prevalent in Egypt, alongside with other countries within the Middle
East region. Movements and organizations have been established to spread awareness on the importance of
gender equality in Egypt. As mentioned, women are being put of “constrain” because of the Islamic norms
imposed and how this constrain is based on the physical ability of the sexes, setting the false interpretation of
gender roles.
Unlike any women in the other part of the world, Arab women are forced to live under a somewhat
“unique” situation where they are often being discriminated in which is being justified by religious belief and
even local tradition. It is said, statistically speaking, that women in Arab region are much of in a disadvantage,
whether it is in politics or even social life (Moghadam, 2003). Being treated as that of a “less-privileged”, for
being a woman, within the legal system is the most significant form of this disadvantages mentioned. One of the
most striking discrimination and/or disadvantageous case for Egyptian women are in regards of their legal age
status and their place and rights in Egypt’s marriage law. Author is going to first describe the flaws within the
legal status then proceeding to the marriage law.
Egyptian government has set the minimum age for girls to be able to get married once they are 16.
However, despite the system made, the report shows that during 2017 alone, there were 122.464 cases of child
marriage—in which 4.522 of those cases involves kids under the age of 15—and somehow the government just
let it all happen without any interference to stop—legally—the despicable practice. Child marriage violates these
girls’ right to live a happy adolescence life as they might not, physically and mentally, capable of handling the
responsibilities of being a mother. In addition to that, according to the Islamic norms, a wife shall be obedience
towards her husband, or else they will be considered as perfidious and “sinning” to his husband, or said so. This
of course impose a certain degree of burden towards women. Marriage should be about listening and
understanding one another but it is a whole different case for some women, especially in Egypt.
To end a marriage, during pre-reform era; before 2000, is not an easy task for Egyptian women.
Although, back in the ‘80s, Arab countries—including Egypt—established family law; in which grant the status of
dependent and minor in aspects from marriage to inheritance (Moghadam, 2003) and the signing of CEDAW,
women are still associated with their role as a stay at home mother and as such—still giving men the full
authority. This resulted in the cumulative gender-based violence across the nation. Furthermore, during
Mubarak era, the role of women went to a downfall as personal status law was revoked in which leads to
women not being able to divorce their husband without the consent from the husband himself. This term of
divorce is called as Khula’. Before being reformed, Khula’ was used by men to just easily turn down any divorce
offer from the wife. This is undeniably unfair for the wife. Furthermore, even if the divorce offer is being granted
by the husband, the wife might face the worst possibility of not getting any inheritance or even short period of
custody towards their kids.
However, Egyptian government has done reformation in their legal system to be more protective
towards women after three decades of efforts (Reda, 2018). Some of the efforts of bringing justice to marriage
for women include the reformation of the basis Khula’ law itself, refers to Law 1 of 2000—in which now allows
women to file for divorce without needing the agreement from the husband prior. Also, Law 10 of 2004
established the “Family Court” where women can seek for legal protection against domestic violence, as well as
Law 11 of 2004 in regards of child support money. With that being said, it can be concluded that due to the
turmoil of politics during pre-reform era, where women were not being put in the place they supposed to be, it
caused marriage to be a contract of ownership towards the wife by the husband himself. However, as time
passes, efforts were made to make marriage as more of a legal status—as seen by the reformation of some laws,
protecting the women. Hence, policymakers of Egypt, in contemporary era, are considering the role and rights of
women even more—making it to be more inclusive and is resulting in the creation of a system that is less
patriarchic than how it was back then.
51
 The Solutions to Lebanon Waste Management Crisis
Verena Widanti
18/423190/SP/28164
Upon hearing the word Middle East, one’s mind would instantly think about proxy war, government
corruption, dictatorship, and many other. But in Lebanon, environmental issue is becoming a dangerous issue
that should be handled immediately. In 2015, Lebanon reach its peak of environment issue when the citizens
demand government’s actions to handle the nation-wide waste management crisis. This public uproar began
after the government closed its national landfill site without any replacement but instead they dumped and
burned the garbage everywhere, even in plain sight causing what people claimed as a “national health issue”
(Galer, 2018). According to American University of Beirut, there are 77% of garbage that are being thrown away
in public or landfilled although those that cannot be composted or recycled only amount to 12% (Human Rights
Watch, 2017). Citizens of Lebanon went to the streets to protest and overthrow the government in a campaign
called “You Stink” (Wedeman, 2018). Moreover, the government’s solutions which are open-burning system for
garbage and dumping the garbage into the sea exposes the citizens to several health risks. Lebanese waste
management crisis is not an issue that should be underestimated. The problem stems back from decades ago
and the causes are not just because of government’s inactions but also because of corruption and civil war of the
country. This essay will further explain the main causes of Lebanon waste management crisis and its impacts and
also the best solutions possible to solve this issue. In this crisis, as the government is slow on making changes,
non-state actors are currently doing their job to solve the problem. However, they still need government and
their support since they have bigger roles than the civil society. Therefore, the question that this essay will try to
answer is ‘how can the government and civil society cooperate to solve its waste management crisis?’
The waste management crisis occurred as an aftermath of the 15 years of civil war in Lebanon that began in
1975 until 1990 (NOW, 2019). Following this civil war, waste management became a problem that the
government tried to cover from time to time but without long-term and sustainable plan to truly fix the issue.
During the war, many infrastructures were destroyed and the government was unable to aid the coumtry. There
was no place for them to collect their garbage during that time and they were left to deal with their garbage to
their own devices (Haines-Young, 2015). Moreover, in 1987, Lebanese Forces disposed their toxic waste,
approximately 15,800 barrels and 20 containers of it to the hills in Beirut. Following the end of the war, the
government tried to develop a strategy to handle its waste management crisis. However, the strategy was not
nation-wide as it initially aimed for. The waste management was only established in Beirut and Mount Lebanon
while the waste in the southern and northern parts of the countries were not being managed. Many of the
trashes in Lebanon were being thrown away to Naameh, a city 30 minutes away from Beirut (Haines-Young,
2015). Trashes that ended up in Naameh were mostly general and household waste, but 60% of it were found to
be from the rubbles from the civil war. This landfill site is the one that was closed in 2015 due to overcapacity
and insanitary issues the government was forced to throw away the garbage to the sea and the streets, causing
air pollution from the smell and also water pollution. Government’s initial plan when establishing Naameh
landfill was actually only for emergency plan to handle the waste crisis, however and the garbage there was not
properly managed and they continued to expand its capacity, making it closer to housing sites (Mavropoulus,
2017).
From the Naameh landfill case it can be concluded that the government lacks a long-term and sustainable
plan for managing its waste disposal. Its plans so far are like ‘band-aids’ without proper further strategies. Many
environmental activists believe that corruption also fuels this problem (Galer, 2018). According to 2017
Corruptions Perceptions Index, produced by the NGO Transparency International, Lebanon is the 143rd least
corrupt nation among 175 countries (Galer, 2018). Its confessional political system generates political patronage
and clientelism thus weakening the governance of Lebanon. According to reports, there are two waste
management plants in Beirut that are funded by the European Union that the government failed to manage (Jay
& Russel, 2017). This waste management plants’ budget amount to $400 million but some speculate that some
of the money went into government officials’ personal pockets.
The waste management crisis of Lebanon and the government flawed
solution are growing increasingly urgent as it can harm a lot of aspects of
their country, such as their health and economy. Many people have been
complaining about the strong smell from the huge piles of garbage in the
cities of Lebanon. Moreover, government’s action to implement an open-
burning system to incinerate the garbage is causing respiratory problems
such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coughing, throat irritation,
and asthma (Human Rights Watch, 2017). incinerating different kinds of
garbage, household, medical, food, and many other kinds of waste, is
increasing the amount of carcinogen in the air that can devastate the local
population’s health (NOW, 2019). According to a map by the UNDP, there are 167 municipal waste dumps in
Lebanon, with 150 of them being burned weekly (Human Rights Watch, 2017). According to HRW, residents
living adjacent to these garbage disposal sites are forced to leave their houses to find a safer place to reside,
fearing for their health. Another government’s ‘band aid’ solution is by dumping the trash into the
Mediterranean Sea, causing beaches along the coastline look like sewers (NOW, 2019). Experts are expressing
their concerns on the danger water pollution imposes to the biodiversity of the sea (Jay & Russel, 2017). This will
lead to quality degradation of the water that people consume on daily basis and in the long run, fishes can be
harmful to consume and that can also endanger other countries along the coastline of Mediterranean Sea.
The waste crisis in Lebanon is an overlapping issue that is caused by one thing after the other. The best
possible solutions will have to come from the government itself because they are the ones who has the power to
build infrastructures and make regulations. But that does not mean that the civil society cannot take actions.
Currently, the civil society, especially the NGOs are doing more works than the government. They are building
recycling and composting plants and also sanitary landfills. However, they still need funds from the government
to implement their projects. Civil society can continuously pressure the government to take actions. The
government on the other hand, has a lot of agendas. They have to be able to make a long-term projects to
manage their waste by learning from other countries and also seek help to more experienced countries or
organizations such as the UNDP. There should be a major change within its system and the government should
ban the open-burning system and stop dumping the garbage into the ocean. Laws should be better enforced and
people who failed to comply the regulations should be held accountable. The government should also be more
transparent towards the citizens on how they handle the waste crisis and what are the dangers it possess.
The efforts and cooperation from the government and civil society are still to be seen but people should not
lose hope. Waste crisis is proven to bring dangerous impacts and the government needs the civil society as much
as they need the government. Both parties should cooperate and learn from the other and also from those
outside the borders, such as other countries and organizations to gain a better understanding and knowledge on
the issue. There should be a major change within the system of the country, in which the government should
prioritize the country over their personal needs because in the long run, if environmental issues keep being
neglected, everyone will have to pay the price.
52
 Assessing the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal
Cinthasya Nandini Sangpradipta
18/423174/SP/2814
Iran is well known as a Middle Eastern country that aims to advance their nuclear energy despite them
having ratified the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1970. Asserting their ambition to develop their nuclear
energy, Iran established an Iran Nuclear Program started since the 1950s. However, Iran gained more
determination in pursuing their nuclear program in the 1970s, after they’ve signed the NPT, at the time Iran
planned to build 10-20 nuclear power reactors and produce approximately 20.000 megawatts worth of nuclear
power by the year 1994. (Kerr, 2018) The big nuclear initiative that Iran possesses has a lot to do with the U.S.
influence, as a matter of fact it was the U.S. that initially provided nuclear supplies and fundamental nuclear
operational knowledge towards the Iranians under the program called ‘Atoms for Peace’ proposed by President
Eisenhower in 1953. (Rowberry, 2013) The program delivered a large contribution towards Iran’s nuclear
activities, the Tehran Nuclear Research Center (TNRC) was established as a nuclear research base that was
technologically and operationally supported by the U.S.
A great nuclear development from Iran was highly visible after the end of the war with Iraq, nuclear
research was back to being prioritized into the agenda. However, the rapid development of Iran’s nuclear power
caught some international attention including the U.S., in which they believed that Iran’s nuclear activities were
getting too dangerous so then the U.S. slowly reduced their nuclear supplies towards Iran. In the early 2000s,
suspicions towards Iran’s nuclear activities grew. In 2002, a group of Iranian exiles known as the National Council
of Resistance on Iran (NCRI) claimed that Iran has built nuclear facilities in a number of cities without the license
from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which is an official body to supervise nuclear activities
towards countries in the NPT. (Kerr, 2018) This caused numerous countries to remain cautious of Iran which led
to the imposing of economic sanctions towards Iran by the UN Security Council in 2006 for not abiding to the
NPT and also sanctions imposed by the U.S. themselves towards Iran, yet Iran stresses that they were within the
guidelines of the treaty and that they were developing nuclear energy under peaceful means. (Amadeo, 2019)
On the 14th of July 2015, the U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China, Germany, the European Union, and Iranian
representatives gathered in Vienna, Austria to create the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or
otherwise known as the ‘Iran Nuclear Deal’ to finally make a move on Iran’s nuclear controversies. This
agreement is a result of years of negotiations among Iran and other countries to limit and regulate Iran’s nuclear
activities. The JCPOA succeeded to obtain Iran’s approval by their agreement to waive previous Iran’s economic
sanctions that has supposedly suffer their people due to the poor economic condition that restricted them from
getting involved in the international market. In return to this, the JCPOA contains provisions that would
effectively limit Iran’s nuclear activities and development for a duration of 15 years in hopes that it will
successfully halt Iran’s nuclear production. Some of the most significant provisions of the JCPOA has made a bold
restriction towards Iran’s nuclear pursuit like the strict limitation on Iran’s uranium stockpile, the dismantling of
about 13.000 centrifuges, a rigid supervision and monitoring of Iran’s nuclear research and activities under the
IAEA, allowing the UN Security Council to put sanctions back if Iran were to act in non-correspondence to the
agreement, and many others. (Davenport, 2018)
When it was thought that the Iran Nuclear Deal was finally coming into place and starting a first step to
reach an international society without the utilization of nuclear weapons, challenges began to surface from
several countries that supposedly disagrees and opposes the deal itself as it was thought to be rather ineffective.
Recently, on the 8th of May 2018 U.S. President Donald Trump publicly announced that the U.S. will be
withdrawing from the JCPOA and wishes to re-enforce certain economic sanctions towards Iran. (Joyner, 2018)
The reason was said to be because Iran is perceived as a country that endorses terrorism acts potentially
reaching a nuclear breakout, the president basically addressed that this agreement is not effective enough
because when the end of the agreement span arrives, Iran will definitely continue to develop their nuclear
power which destroys the initial purpose, contrary to the Obama Administration that saw this nuclear deal as
one of the most important agenda during Obama’s presidency. (Cherkaoui, 2018) Another country opposing this
deal is Iran’s fellow Middle Eastern state, Israel. Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu encourages the U.S. to
withdraw and abandon the Iran Nuclear Deal as it was said that Iran did not comply to the provisions of the
JCPOA and was in fact doing secretive nuclear activities away from the attention of the IAEA. (Katzman, Kerr,
Heitshusen, 2018)
The future of the Iran Nuclear Deal is currently still uncertain, if the U.S. were to actually withdraw from
the agreement and re-imposing sanctions to Iran, it may seriously damage Iran’s economy. Iran is still at the
state of recovery from being at a rather low financial condition, with the U.S. spontaneously putting back these
sanctions, this will neglect trades and investments that have only just recently developed from the sanctions
lifting. (Laub, 2018) However Iran is still trying to negotiate with other parties of the agreement to continue its
progress and assist Iran’s economic development, Iran tries to deflect threats and claimants from other
countries not in favor of this agreement. Nonetheless, it is more likely that the JCPOA will still remain in power
with or without he U.S. involvement due to the great support and confidence from Iran and the other countries
concerning the eventual success of this agreement.
 1916. (July 1915).
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PART 2 – GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS OF THE MIDDLE EAST
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PART 3 – THE ARAB SPRING
Essay 1
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https://www.aish.com/jl/h/cc/48938087.html [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
Parry, W. and Parry, W. (2017). A decade under siege: Gaza health sector nears collapse. [online] Aljazeera.com.
Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/06/decade-siege-gaza-health-
McCarthy, R. (2008). Israeli blockade forces UN to suspend food distribution in Gaza. [online] the Guardian.
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/13/israel-gaza-blockade [Accessed 16 Mar.
2019].
Tikkanen, A. (2018). Jew | History, Beliefs, & Facts. [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Jew-people [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
Essay 7
Ian J. Bickerton. (2009). The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History. Reaktion Books. p. 111.
Gluska, Ami. (2007). The Israeli Military and the 1967 War. Routledge. pp. 98–99.
Ringer, Ronald (2006). Excel HSC Modern History. Pascal Press. p. 390.
Morris, Benny. (2001). Righteous Victims: a history of the Zionist-Arab conflict. Vintage Books. p.346
Essay 8
Rabinovich, A. (2004). The Yom Kippur War. New York: Schocken Books.
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2019). Anwar Sadat | president of Egypt. [online] Available at:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anwar-Sadat [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
HISTORY. (2019). Energy Crisis (1970s). [online] Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/1970s/energy-
crisis [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
HISTORY. (2019). Yom Kippur War. [online] Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/yom-
kippur-war [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
Rabinovich, A. (2019). Yom Kippur War Implications | My Jewish Learning. [online] My Jewish Learning. Available
at: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/yom-kippur-war-implications/ [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
Amazine.co. (2019). Apa itu Perang Yom Kippur? Fakta, Sejarah & Informasi Lain. [online] Available at:
https://www.amazine.co/24896/apa-itu-perang-yom-kippur-fakta-sejarah-informasi-lain/ [Accessed 17
Mar. 2019].
Bowen, J. (2019). 1967 war: Six days that changed the Middle East. [online] BBC News. Available at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39960461 [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
Mfa.gov.il. (2019). [online] Available at:
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WAR%20AND%20AFTERMATH%20-%20INTRODUCTION.aspx [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
Essay 9
Alijila, A. (2016). The Unbreakable Relationship: Hamas and the Humanitarian Aid in Gaza. [online]
Huffpost.com. Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/abdalhadi-alijla/the-unbreakable-
relations_b_11727200.html [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
BBC News. (2013). Guide to Israel's political parties. [online] Available at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-21073450 [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
Cook, S.A. (2019). Israel Moves to Annex the West Bank—This Is How the Two-State Solution Dies.
[online] Council on Foreign Relations. Available at: https://www.cfr.org/blog/israel-moves-annex-west-bank-
how-two-state-solution-dies [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
Council on Foreign Relations. (2019). Hamas. [online] Available at:
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/hamas [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
DW.com. (2017). Hamas recognizes 1967 borders, rejects Israel. [online] Available at:
https://www.dw.com/en/hamas-recognizes-1967-borders-rejects-israel/a-38656798 [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2019). Hamas | Definition, History, Ideology, & Facts. [online] Available at:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hamas [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
Fisher, I. (2003). Defining Hamas: Roots in Charity and Branches of Violence. [online] The New York
Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/16/world/defining-hamas-roots-in-charity-and-
branches-of-violence.html [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].

57
 Haaretz. (2015). Israeli leftists lurking in the shadows | Opinion. [online] Available at:
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Mar. 2019].
Schanzer, J. (2010). Hamas vs. Fatah. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2019). Camp David Accords | Summary, History, & Facts. [online] Available at:
https://www.britannica.com/event/Camp-David-Accords [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
PART 5 – MIDDLE EAST AND BEYOND: FOREIGN INTERVENTION
Essay 1
Amnesty International, (2017). Yemen: USA, UK and France risk complicity in collective punishment of civilians.
[online] Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/11/yemen-usa-uk-and-france-risk-
complicity-in-collective-punishment-of-civilians/ [Accessed 15 Mar. 2019].
Arraf, S. (2017). The Armed Conflict in Yemen: A Complicated Mosaic. [online] Geneva: Geneva Academy of
International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, pp. 1-10. Available at: https://www.geneva-
academy.ch/joomlatools-files/docman-files/The%20Armed%20Conflict%20in%20Yemen.pdf [Accessed
15 Mar. 2019].
House of Commons of the United Kingdom, (2016). The use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen. [online]
London: House of Commons of the United Kingdom, pp. 1-79. Available at:
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmfaff/688/688.pdf [Accessed 15 Mar.
2019].
Jan, F. & Majid, S. (2017). Yemen Crises and the Role of Saudi Arabia. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social
Science, [online] 22(8), pp. 75-79. Available at: http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-
jhss/papers/Vol.%2022%20Issue8/Version-7/L2208077579.pdf [Accessed 15 Mar. 2019].
Kennedy, A. (2019). US carried out 36 airstrikes in Yemen last year. [online] The Defense Post. Available at:
https://thedefensepost.com/2019/01/07/us-airstrikes-yemen-2018/ [Accessed 15 Mar. 2019].
Lackner, H. (2017). Yemen in Crisis: Autocracy, Neo-Liberalism and the Disintegration of a State. London: Saqi
Books.
Mechanic, J. (2017). The Ongoing U.S. Role in the Decimation of Yemen. [online] Available at:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-ongoing-us-role-in-the-decimation-of-
yemen_us_58a65d82e4b026a89a7a2913 [Accessed 15 Mar. 2019].
Sharp, J. M. (2018). Yemen: Civil War and Regional Intervention. [online] Washington DC: Congressional Research
Service, pp. 1-23. Available at: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/R43960.pdf [Accessed 15 Mar. 2019].
The New York Times, (2018). Saudi Coalition Admits Error in Yemen Airstrike That Killed Dozens. [online]
Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/02/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-yemen-strike.html
[Accessed 15 Mar. 2019].
Essay 2
Adetunji, J., Beaumont, P. and Chulov, M. (2011). Libya protests: More than 100 killed as army fires on unarmed
demonstrators. [online] the Guardian. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/feb/20/libya-protests-benghazi-muammar-gaddafi
[Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
Black, I. and Bowcott, O. (2011). Libya protests: massacres reported as Gaddafi imposes news blackout. [online]
the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/feb/18/libya-protests-massacres-
reported [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
Biography.com. (n.d.). Muammar al-Qaddafi - Dictator - Biography. [online] Available at:
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Bishara, A. (n.d.). Libya: Peace deal now or full-scale civil war. [online] alaraby. Available at:
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/comment/2015/3/17/libya-peace-deal-now-or-full-scale-civil-war
[Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
Ecfr.eu. (n.d.). A quick guide to Libya's main players | European Council on Foreign Relations. [online] Available
at: https://www.ecfr.eu/mena/mapping_libya_conflict [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
El-Doufani, M. (2011). Do Libya's tribal ties matter?. [online] BBC News. Available at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-12528996 [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
Erahmeh, N I. (2017). NATO Intervention in Libya and its Consequences on Global Security, Global Journal of
Human-Social Science: F Political Science, [online] Available at:
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_Organisation_NATO_Intervention_in_Libya_and_its_Consequences_on_Global_Security/links/5a18ea2
ba6fdcc50ade7ed05/North-Atlantic-Treaty-Organisation-NATO-Intervention-in-Libya-and-its-
Consequences-on-Global-Security.pdf?origin=publication_detail [Accessed at: 16 March 2019].
Forte, M. (2011), slouching towards Sirte: NATO’s War on Libya and Africa. Baraka.
Jabbar, S. (2014). How bad was Gaddafi? - This Is Africa. [online] This Is Africa. Available at:
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O’ Connell M E (2011), “How to lose a Revolution”, [online] Available at http//www.e-
ir.Info/2011/11/12/theresponsibility–to–protect-challenges–opportunitiesin–light-of-Libya-intervention.
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Pattison J. 2011, the ethics of Humanitarian Intervention in Libya. Ethics & international affairs, 25(3), 271- 277.
Essay 3
Dagdeverenis, D. (2013). Syrian Humanitarian Crisis - What role does EU have ?. [online] InterMedia. Available
at: http://one-europe.info/military-intervention-in-syria-and-the-eu [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
EEAS - European External Action Service - European Commission. (2019). Delegation of the European Union to
Syria. [online] Available at: https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/syria_en [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
European Commision (2013). ENP Package – Syria. [online] Available at: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-
release_MEMO-13-255_en.htm [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
European Commision. (2019). Syria - Trade - European Commission. [online] Ec.europa.eu. Available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/countries/syria/ [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations - European Commission. (2019). Syria - European
Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations - European Commission. [online] Available at:
https://ec.europa.eu/echo/where/middle-east/syria_en#view=fit [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
Morillas, P. (2013). Action by Reaction: Assessing the EU’s Response to the Syrian Crisis. [online] Eubulletin.com.
Available at: https://www.eubulletin.com/988-action-reaction-assessing-eus-response-syrian-crisis.html
[Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
Essay 4
Syria | History, People, & Maps. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/place/Syria
Bashar al-Assad. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/people/bashar-al-assad-20878575
What's happening in Syria? - CBBC Newsround. (2019). Retrieved from What's happening in Syria? - CBBC
Newsround. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/16979186
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Russia’s grand strategy: how Putin is using Syria conflict to turn Turkey into Moscow's proxy. (2019). Retrieved
from https://theconversation.com/russias-grand-strategy-how-putin-is-using-syria-conflict-to-turn-
turkey-into-moscows-proxy-104699
Iran's Growing Influence in Syria Sparks Concern. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.voanews.com/a/iran-
growing-influence-in-syria-has-many-concerned/4615242.html
Syria crisis: Where key countries stand. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-
23849587
Syria war: Who's fighting whom?. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-
39528673
Saudi Arabia Rejects U.N. Security Council Seat in Protest Move. (2019). Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/19/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-rejects-security-council-
seat.html
U.S. Aid to Syria Shows Obama’s Cautious Approach to Crisis. (2019). Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/world/middleeast/us-pledges-60-million-to-syrian-
opposition.html
58
Essay 5 Encyclopedia Britannica. (2019). Iraq War | Summary, Causes, Combatants, & Facts. [online] Available at:
Ahmed, N. (2014). Iraq invasion was about oil | Nafeez Ahmed. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/event/Iraq-War [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/mar/20/iraq-war-oil-resources-energy- Kanovsky, E. (1992). The Economic Consequences of The Persian Gulf War: Accelerating OPEC's Demise. [online]
peak-scarcity-economy [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019]. Washingtoninstitute.org. Available at:
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/pubs/PP_30_AcceleratingOPECsDemise.pdf
Human Rights Watch. (2004). War in Iraq: Not a Humanitarian Intervention. [online] Available at:
[Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].
https://www.hrw.org/news/2004/01/25/war-iraq-not-humanitarian-intervention [Accessed 17 Mar.
Essay 3
2019].
BBC News. (2018). Yemen crisis: Why is there a war?. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-
Anderson, K. (2018). How the Iraq war undermined the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. [online] Arab
middle-east-29319423 [Accessed 14 Mar. 2019].
News. Available at: http://www.arabnews.com/node/1306156 [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019]. Najjar, F. (2017). Why the United States will never leave Yemen. [online] Al Jazeera. Available at:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/united-states-leave-yemen-171112191346249.html
PART 6 – IMPACTS OF THE MIDDLE EASTERN CONFLICTS [Accessed 14 Mar. 2019].
Essay 1 OCHA. (2019). 2019 High-Level Pledging Event. [online] Available at: https://www.unocha.org/yemen/2019-high-
Amnesty.org. (2018). Turkey 2017/2018. [online] Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/europe- level-pledging-event [Accessed 14 Mar. 2019].
and-central-asia/turkey/report-turkey/ [Accessed 15 Mar. 2019]. Salisbury, P. (2012). Yemen's unresolved economic crisis. [online] Foreign Policy. Available at:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/04/05/yemens-unresolved-economic-crisis/ [Accessed 14 Mar. 2019].
Aydin-Düzgit, S. and Keyman, F. (2017). Turkey's Kurdish Conflict and Retreat from Democracy. [online] Reardon, M. (2015). Saudi Arabia, Iran and the 'Great Game' in Yemen. [online] Al Jazeera. Available at:
Carnegieendowment.org. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/09/saudi-arabia-iran-great-game-ye-
https://carnegieendowment.org/files/RDN_Duzgit_and_Keyman_Turkey_07102017.pdf [Accessed 15 201492984846324440.html [Accessed 14 Mar. 2019].
Mar. 2019]. UN News. (2019). Humanitarian crisis in Yemen remains the worst in the world, warns UN. [online] Available at:
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/02/1032811 [Accessed 14 Mar. 2019].
Beriker-Atiyas, N. (1997). The Kurdish Conflict in Turkey: Issues, Parties and Prospects. Security Dialogue, 28(4), USA for UNHCR. (2018). Yemen Refugee Crisis: Aid, Statistics and News | USA for UNHCR. [online] Available at:
pp.439-452. https://www.unrefugees.org/emergencies/yemen/ [Accessed 14 Mar. 2019].
Essay 4
Bilgel, F. and Karahasan, B. (n.d.). Estimating the economic cost of Turkey’s PKK conflict. [online] EUROPP.
Available at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2016/09/29/economic-cost-pkk-conflict-turkey/ Al-Hai, A. (2015). Saudis' Operation Decisive Storm in Yemen a 'dangerous step,' Iran warns. [online] The Globe
and Mail. Available at:
[Accessed 15 Mar. 2019].
https://web.archive.org/web/20150326221558/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/saudi-
Bloc, R. (n.d.). Impact of Ethnic Conflict in Kurdish Regions of Turkey. [online] Academia Education. Available at:
arabia has-150000-troops-for-yemen-operation-report/article23628188/ [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
https://www.academia.edu/5058834/Impact_of_Ethnic_Conflict_in_Kurdish_Regions_of_Turkey Aljazeera.com. (2017). Red Cross pulls 71 foreign staff out of Yemen over security risks. [online] Available at:
[Accessed 15 Mar. 2019]. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/06/red-cross-pulls-71-foreign-staff-yemen-security-risks-
Isdp.eu. (2016). Turkey's Kurdish Conflict: 2015-Present. [online] Available at: 180607194452321.html [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
http://isdp.eu/content/uploads/2016/12/2016-Turkeys-Kurdish-Conflict-2015-Present.pdf [Accessed 15 Amnesty.org. (2019). YEMEN WAR: NO END IN SIGHT. [online] Available at:
Mar. 2019]. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/09/yemen-the-forgotten-war/ [Accessed 16 Mar.
2019].
Stempel, K. (2014). The Turkish-Kurdish Conflict in Theory and Practice. [online] Inquiries Journal. Available at: BBC News. (2018). On brink of 'worst famine in 100 years'. [online] Available at:
http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/862/the-turkish-kurdish-conflict-in-theory-and-practice https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-45857729/yemen-could-be-worst-famine-in-100-
[Accessed 16 Mar. 2019]. years [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
Chicagotribune.com. (2017). 50,000 children in Yemen have died of starvation and disease so far this year,
Essay 2
monitoring group says. [online] Available at: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-
Cable, V. (2003). Vincent Cable: The economic consequences of war. [online] the Guardian. Available at:
save-the-children-yemen-20171116-story.html [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/feb/02/foreignpolicy.iraq [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
Erdman, J. (2015). Cyclone Chapala a Rare, Destructive Landfall in Yemen. [online] The Weather Channel.
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2019). Persian Gulf War | Definition, Combatants, & Facts. [online] Available at:
Available at: https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/cyclone-chapala-yemen-
https://www.britannica.com/event/Persian-Gulf-War [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
oman-arabian-peninsula [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
Stevenson, P. (2002). Profound Effect on U.S. Economy Is Seen From a War Against Iraq. [online] Nytimes.com.
Fox News. (2015). Fighting, airstrikes hit across Yemen as Saudi Arabia pledges aid. [online] Available at:
Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/30/world/profound-effect-on-us-economy-is-seen- https://web.archive.org/web/20150419160105/http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/04/19/fighting-
from-a-war-against-iraq.html [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019]. airstrikes-hit-across-yemen-as-saudi-arabia-pledges-aid/ [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019].
Reno, J. (2016). Gulf War Veterans: Serious Health Issues Remain. [online] Healthline. Available at: Lister, T. (2015). Saudi strikes in Yemen: 6 things to know - CNN. [online] CNN. Available at:
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/gulf-war-veterans-still-fighting-serious-health-problems#1 https://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/08/middleeast/yemen-saudi-6-things-lister/index.html [Accessed 16
[Accessed 16 Mar. 2019]. Mar. 2019].
Sab, R. (2014). Economic Impact of Selected Conflicts in the Middle East: What Can We Learn from the Past?.
IMF Working Papers, [online] 14(100), p.1. Available at:
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59
Mcneill, S. and Fuad, M. (2017). One person dying every hour in Yemen's cholera epidemic. [online] ABC News. Sawe, B.E. (2017). “Top Oil Producing Nations for Europe” (Online). Available at:
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devastating- proportions/8609246 [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019]. March 2019>
Orkaby, A. (2019). Houthi Who?. [online] Foreign Affairs. Available at: Smith, T. (1975). “The Political Economic Ambition of Algerian Land Reform, 1962-1974” (Online). Middle East
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Unicef.org. (2017). Statement from UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake and WHO Director-General https://www.jstor.org/stable/4325377?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents <Accessed 18 March 2019>.
Margaret Chan on the cholera outbreak in Yemen as suspected cases exceed 200,000. [online]
Available at: https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/statement-unicef-executive-director- PART 8 – CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN THE MIDDLE EAST
anthony- lake- and-who- director-general-margaret [Accessed 16 Mar. 2019]. Essay 1
Whiteside, P. (2018). Yemen: Faces of the world's forgotten war. [online] Sky News. Available at:
Jazeera, A. (2019). Who is Qatar's emir?. [online] Aljazeera.com. Available at:
https://news.sky.com/feature/yemen-faces-of-the-worlds-forgotten-war-11516374 [Accessed
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16 Mar. 2019].
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PART 7 – THE POLITICAL ECOOMY OF THE MIDDLE EAST The White House. (2019). Remarks by President Trump and Amir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani of the State of
Essay 1 Qatar Before Bilateral Meeting | The White House. [online] Available at:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-amir-tamim-bin-hamad-
Springborg, R. (2017). Egypt’s Economic Transition: Challenges and Prospects. International Development Policy,
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Essay 2 Aljazeera.com. (2019). US ready to work with Qatar to 'deter' external threats. [online] Available at:
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Essay 4
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Essay 5
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March 2019)

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