Playing the regional card: why and how authoritarian gravity centres exploit regional organisations

Demmelhuber, Thomas; Peresson, Raphael; Zumbrägel, Tobias

doi:10.1080/01436597.2018.1474713

Cited by 52 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…In the wake of the Arab Uprisings, the Arab League and the GCC became a mere foreign policy tool of Saudi Arabia. Beck () exemplifies this with the Arab League’s condemnation of Iranian ally Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in March 2016, and Kneuer et al show this using the example of the GCC intervention in Bahrain in 2011. The GCC failed to play a mediating role in the severe conflict between its members Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain on the one hand and Qatar on the other, which culminated in the imposition of a fully‐fledged embargo spearheaded by the former on the latter in 2017 (Neubauer, ).…”

Section: The Decline Of Regional Institutionalismmentioning

confidence: 97%

Fluctuating Regional (Dis‐)Order in the Post‐Arab Uprising Middle East

Beck

Richter

2020

Global Policy

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The Middle Eastern regional order has been undergoing profound changes in the current decade. These can be traced back to a reconfiguration of international and regional structures. On the one hand, shifts in US foreign policies towards the Middle East corresponded with new regional dynamics. On the other, the monarchies of the Arab Gulf have become more active in regional politics. In this contribution, we scrutinize these two changes and explore their interplay. We argue that a new regional order has emerged that can be characterized as a highly contested multipolar system in flux. Subsequently, three aspects that constitute and reinforce this disorderly regional system of the Middle East are discussed: first, the securitizing of policies by regional and extra‐regional political leaders; second, the increasing disintegration of regional institutions; and third, the emergence of lasting war zones. The paper concludes with a discussion of the meaning of these profound dynamics for future aspects of Middle Eastern regional affairs.

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Section: The Decline Of Regional Institutionalismmentioning

confidence: 97%

Fluctuating Regional (Dis‐)Order in the Post‐Arab Uprising Middle East

Beck

Richter

2020

Global Policy

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“…Constructivist arguments refer to legitimacy concerns and identity-based motives. An RO can be used to stabilize a domestic regime but also as a tool for antagonizing the Western liberal-democratic model by proposing an alternative identity based on historic or religious sources and ties (Kneuer, Demmelhuber, Peresson, 2018: 5-7).…”

Section: Regionalism In the Middle East Through The Prism Of Internatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Regime Type and Regional Cooperation – a Case Study of Arab States

Grabowski

2020

10.14746/ps

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The purpose of the article is to show how the type of political system (authoritarian regime) influences the shape of regionalism in the Middle East and to what extent this political system determines the features of cooperation between Arab states. To this end, a hypothesis was put forward according to which the authoritarian political system is a key obstacle to the successful integration and unification of the Middle East. Middle Eastern regionalism serves to protect and legitimize the political power of authoritarian leaders, whereas in Europe it guides to peace, stabilization and development. Authoritarian regionalism tends to reduce democratic ambitions and maintain the authoritarian status quo. In order to verify the hypothesis, the following research questions were posed. First, how is the type of political system related to successful integration? Second, can autocracies work effectively together? To verify the hypothesis and answer the research questions, the author referred to the theories of realism, constructivism, neo-functionalism and the typology of political systems to show that there is no single theory that could fully explain the processes in international relations. The conclusion of this article is that regional organizations created by authoritarian states are only symbolic and instrumental in nature and are oriented towards internal policy (the survival of the regime) rather than regional cooperation.

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“…(Graham et al 2015) Another future avenue for RCT would be to account for the variation of the level of institutionalization in various regions across the globe. (Kneuer et al 2018) Without falling into cultural relativism or becoming Western-centered, it can be argued that only established IRCs can maintain regional organizations, which over time do not evolve into "talking clubs" (mere consultation platforms) or "zombies" (lacking any bureaucratic agency), and which functions can go beyond sovereignty boosting. In Western Europe, NATO, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the EU all have their formative roots deeply embedded in the cluster's Liberal Democratic ideology.…”

Section: Conclusion and Future Avenues For Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2019

IJPT

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Since the 2008 financial crisis, the attempts to use Karl Polanyi's framework to make sense of current developments have multiplied, producing a noticeable and lively debate. This debate centres on the notion of double movement put forward by the Hungarian thinker in his masterpiece -The Great Transformation. The paper is a contribution to this debate. The first part addresses a series of questions that make the interpretations of the double movement advanced so far not very compelling. To this end, a close reading of Polanyi's text, with the aim of dismantling and rearticulating its analytical structure, is carried out. The upshot is a dynamic and multistage picture of the double process as a recurrent and vortex-like attempt to progressively commodify natural and social resources against growing opposition. The second part employs this revised reading of the double movement to explain the collapse of the postwar consensus politics, the success of the neoliberal counterrevolution and the development of the knowledge economy. The claim put forward here is that, in addition to sustained efforts to deepen previous forms of commodification (land, labour and money), we are witnessing a fullblown attempt to turn knowledge into a new fictitious commodity. Building on the idea of digital Taylorism, the paper tries to show that information and computer technologies are being used to standardise and routinise a growing number of intellectual, professional and managerial activities which were able to escape previous attempts in this direction. Once again, at the forefront of this process there are powerful state actors, who are using New Public Management policies strategically to: support the enclosure of intangible cultural resources through the creation of intellectual property rights regimes, and undermine the counter-reaction of negatively affected societal actors by rising the collective action problems they face.

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Playing the regional card: why and how authoritarian gravity centres exploit regional organisations

Cited by 52 publications

References 56 publications

Fluctuating Regional (Dis‐)Order in the Post‐Arab Uprising Middle East

Fluctuating Regional (Dis‐)Order in the Post‐Arab Uprising Middle East

Political Regime Type and Regional Cooperation – a Case Study of Arab States

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