Significant literature has concluded that Islamic-terrorist activity in the Middle East and in Europe had increased drastically since the beginning of the implementation of the Bush Doctrine in 2001 after 9/11, with the rise of ISIS. However, little is known about the causal mechanism that links between the Post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy and the rise of new terrorist organizations, particularly the Islamic State in Iraq. Hence, the focus of this study is to process trace such mechanism. It will also explain why the War on Terror has produced totally opposite results from those it was originally intended for. Finally, this study is a within-case analysis that might be a microscopic observation of the imperial American behavior in the Middle East. This study relies on explaining outcome process-tracing methodology, and employing oral and historical accounts, archives and statistical data. I argue that the War on Terror, precisely the period of the Bush’s presidency (2001-2009), to be the continuity of the historical imperial behavior that inspires the U.S. foreign policy. I will only focus on two main policies: the Invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the Invasion of Iraq in 2003 because invasion is the most concrete manifestation of imperialism. The result shows that the invasion of Iraq led to sectarianism that IS feeds on, and that the invasion of Afghanistan led to the geographical expansion of Jihadists. Together they fused to cause the mutation of Al-Qaeda into a more complex Islamic-inspired terrorist organization (IS).

This study examines how the regime in Algeria could survive the different popular uprisings throughout history, unlike the rest of regimes that experienced the Arab Spring.  The study argues that since the foundation of the republic, the Algerian regime has always supported quick political reforms as a survival tactic. Contrary to other Arab dictatorships, the FLN has always been in power, but, as a survival tactic, it has always been willing to make concessions. The Algerian government used immediate political reforms to dictate the populace's behavior during uprisings, which over time created a kind of negative reinforcement.  The study will employ an extensive literature review and archival records to support this argument. Relying on a fusion of classical conditioning, power-maximization theory and inherent factors approach, this study will prove that political reforms are used mostly as a tool of regime survival and power maximization.

Despite industrialization and modernization, religion still has a significant impact on society and politics. Many theories compete to answer questions about religion, yet this paper argues that religion-market theory has superiority in explaining the failure of secularization to diminish religion even in the most developed nations such as the United States, while it succeeded in others. Relying on Mill’s method of difference, this study qualitatively compares the two cases of the United States and the United Kingdom, relying on the history of religion and the economic structures of religious institutions. This study proves that Americans are far more religious than the British because since the foundation of the republic, the U.S. has not adopted any state religion while the UK has Christianity as the religion of the state since the English Reformation. Hence, religion-market theory that links between state’s regulations of religion and religiosity proves its superiority again.