Coping with Kaleidoscopic Change in the Middle East

Freeman, Chas W.

doi:10.1111/mepo.12043

Cited by 17 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In order to embed democratic practices these states must avoid the dangers of majoritarianism and coup d'état. 65 Turkey's reasonable success in doing so gives a glimmer of hope that they may one day succeed. In these three regions, Australiaoften as an ally of the UKhas deployed its armed forces ostensibly for the sake of supporting democracy and human rights.…”

Section: The Usefulness Of Ancient History For Political Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Democracy and War in Ancient Athens and Today

Pritchard¹

2015

Greece & Rome

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ancient Athens developed democracy to a higher level than any other state before modern times. It was the leading cultural innovator of its age. This state is rightly revered for its political and cultural achievements. What is less well known is its extraordinary record of military success. Athens transformed ancient warfare and became one of the ancient world's superpowers. There is a strong case that democracy was a major reason for this success. The military impact of Athenian democracy was twofold. The competition of elite performers before non-elite adjudicators resulted in a pro-war culture, which encouraged Athenians in increasing numbers to join the armed forces and to vote for war. All this was offset by Athenian democracy's rigorous debating of war, which reduced the risks of Athenian cultural militarism. It also made military reforms easier and developed the initiative of the state's generals, hoplites, and sailors. Political scientists have long viewed Athenian democracy as a source of fresh ideas. At present they cannot satisfactorily explain the war-making of modern democracies. Consequently ancient history can provide political science with new lines of enquiry into how democracy affects international relations today.

show abstract

Section: The Usefulness Of Ancient History For Political Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Democracy and War in Ancient Athens and Today

Pritchard¹

2015

Greece & Rome

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Today, it is difficult to determine if Al Qaeda Central is still the organization that is the most dangerous to global security. 19 In regard to the U.S. security strategy for dealing with ungoverned spaces and dangerous places, there was criticism of the initial U.S. approach from 2001 to 2008 as too broad, encompassing too many ungoverned spaces, weak and rogue states, and violent non-state actors. It was only when the Obama administration came to office that the focus narrowed to Al Qaeda and its franchises, which were really the only organizations intent on attacking the United States and U.S. interests abroad.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Challenges in Securing the Horn of Africa and Sahara

Burgess

2015

Comparative Strategy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Geography helps to explain why violent extremist organizations are difficult to counter; vast ungoverned spaces combined with weak states make it nearly impossible to decisively defeat them. However, partial success has been achieved by the United States in the Horn of Africa with a strategy of training, equipping, and supporting African intervention forces and attacking extremist leaders. In contrast, a strategy of containment in the Sahara, focusing on counterterrorism training for regional security forces and countering extremist ideology, did not succeed in preventing militant groups from taking over northern Mali and expanding their activities to other parts of the region.

show abstract

Athenian Democracy at War

Pritchard¹

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Before the Persian Wars the Greeks did not rely on public fi nance to fi ght each other. Th eir hoplites armed and fed themselves. But in the confrontation with Persia this private funding of war proved to be inadequate. Th e liberation of the Greek states beyond the Balkans required the destruction of Persia's seapower. In 478 Athens agreed to lead an alliance to do just this. Already it had Greece's largest fl eet. Yet, each campaign of this ongoing war would need tens of thousands of sailors and to go for months. No single Greek state could pay for such campaigns. Th erefore the alliance agreed to adopt the Persian method for funding war: alliance members would pay annually a fi xed amount of tribute. Th is enabled Athens to force Persia out of the Dardanelles and the Anatolian seaboard. Nevertheless the Athenians also realised that their military might depended on tribute and so tightened their control of its payers. In so doing they turned the alliance into an empire. By 450 Athens had become a threat to Greece's other dominant power. Sparta, however, struggled to meet this threat eff ectively. In the Peloponnesian War the Spartans realised that they could only do so if they too became a seapower. But their state's weak fi nances ruled this out. All changed in 412, when Persia's Great King decided to give it the necessary funds. In exchange for the right to levy tribute again on Anatolia's Greeks, he helped the Spartans to acquire a large fl eet. In 405 this fl eet captured the last warships of Athens. Sparta could now dismantle the Athenian empire and force Athens to surrender by a land and sea blockade. In the Corinthian War the Persians initially funded the anti-Spartan alliance, because the Spartans had decided to fi ght them for control of Anatolia's Greek states. Th e Athenians used Persia's gold to rebuild their fl eet. With these warships they set out to re-establish the Athenian empire. But this represented a still bigger threat to Persia. Consequently the Great King switched his funding to the Spartans. Th ey quickly assembled a fl eet terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.

show abstract

Coping with Kaleidoscopic Change in the Middle East

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

Democracy and War in Ancient Athens and Today

Democracy and War in Ancient Athens and Today

Comparative Challenges in Securing the Horn of Africa and Sahara

Athenian Democracy at War

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About