This book analyzes conflicting political views and narratives held by different forces, both at the local and regional levels in the Middle East. Based on case studies and analysis of local economic projects, it highlights the often conflicting concepts and visions for economic and social development in the Middle East as espoused by rival political groups and grassroots organizations. The book also discusses the power of perceptions and knowledge production in shifting dynamics of power a...

The West's two-century epoch as global powerhouse is at an end. A new world order, with China and India as the strongest economies, dawns. How will the West react to its new status of superpower in decline?In Kishore Mahbubani's timely polemic, he argues passionately that the West can no longer presume to impose its ideology on the world, and crucially, that it must stop seeking to intervene, politically and militarily, in the affairs of other nations. He examines ...

There is a quiet revolution that is radically reshaping the Muslim world: 50 million women have entered the workforce and are upending their countries' economies and societies.Across the Muslim world, ever greater numbers of women are going to work. In the span of just over a decade, millions have joined the workforce, giving them more earning and purchasing power and greater autonomy.In Fifty Million Rising, award-winning economist Saadia Zahidi i...

The Persian Gulf state of Qatar has fewer than 2 million inhabitants, virtually no potable water, and has been an independent nation only since 1971. Yet its enormous oil and gas wealth has permitted the ruling al Thani family to exert a disproportionately large influence on regional and even international politics. Qatar is, as Mehran Kamrava explains in this knowledgeable and incisive account of the emirate, a "tiny giant": although severely lacking in most measures of s...

Seventy-two percent of South Sudans population is under thirty years of age. It is this generation that must create a new South Sudanese identity that is inclusive of all its nationalities. In The Power of Creative Reasoning, author Lual A. Deng shows how the ideas and concepts touted by Dr. John Garang could facilitate the advancement of the ideals of freedom, liberty, and human dignity.The Power of Creative Reasoning provides an insiders perspec...

The extensive changes to Emirati women's traditional rights and roles have been one of the most visible transformations taking place in the United Arab Emirates throughout its almost forty years of modern history. This book offers an interpretation of why and how these modifications came about. Its aim is to analyse the promotion of educational, employment and political rights for women as strategic state actions set within a context of broader nation-building goals. The author discovers t...

In the West, news about the Middle East is dominated by an endless stream of reports and commentary about civil war, sectarian violence, religious extremism, and economic stagnation. But do they tell the full story? For instance, who knew that university enrolment in the war-torn Palestinian territories exceeds that of Hong Kong, or that more than a third of Lebanese entrepreneurs are women?Change is on its way in the Middle East, argues Bessma Momani, and its cause is demographic....

A rigorous examination of higher education policymaking in the Arab worldNone of the momentous challenges Arab universities face is unique either in kind or degree. Other societies exhibit some of the same pathologies—insufficient resources, high drop-out rates, feeble contributions to research and development, inappropriate skill formation for existing job markets, weak research incentive structures, weak institutional autonomy, and co-optation into the political ...

Inside the hidden lives of the global “1%”, this book examines the networks, social practices, marriages, and machinations of Pakistan’s elite.Benefitting from rare access and keen analytical insight, Rosita Armytage’s rich study reveals the daily, even mundane, ways in which elites contribute to and shape the inequality that characterizes the modern world. Operating in a rapidly developing economic environment, the experience of Pakistan’s wealthiest and most powe...

The sharp increase in oil revenues since 2002 has left the Arab Gulf States with billions of petro-dollars. But how will these countries fare in the post-oil era? The rulers of these states are taking serious measures to ensure the survival of their economies, and indeed their regimes, in a world with scarce mineral resources. This volume explores the extent to which these countries have been and will be able to prepare for the future by transforming themselves into serious international d...

The Prospects for the American Age, is about the new world order. The book consists of seven chapters that revolve around theory, history, emergence, current status and future of the world order. Drawing on his academic training and practical experience, Dr. Jamal Sanad Al-Suwaidi reveals the ultimate challenges for the world order in the twenty-first century. He critically explains the most important structure, influential factors and forces of the new world order.The book starts ...

The "Hizmet" ("Service")Movement of Fethullah Gülen is Turkey’s most influential Islamic identitycommunity. Widely praised throughout the early 2000s as a mild and moderatevariation on Islamic political identity, the Gülen Movement has long been atopic of both adulation and conspiracy in Turkey. In Gülen, Joshua D. Hendrick suggests that the Gülen Movement shouldbe given credit for playing a significant role in Turkey's rise to globalprominence.