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Syria and the Great Powers (1946-1958): How Western Power Politics Pushed the Country Toward the Soviet Union
No full textThis paper reconstructs the political history of the Syrian Arab Republic from the time of the country\u27s emergence as an independent state in 1946 to the merger with Egypt to form the United Arab Republic in 1958. Two main sources of documentary evidence are brought to add to this analysis: firstly, declassified British government sources are utilized; secondly, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) database on arms exports to the Middle East is used to back up the descriptive analysis of Western strategic interests in the Middle East during the early Cold War period with some relevant quantitative data. From the beginning, Syria faced geopolitical challenges, which worked to undermine the country\u27s political stability. Apart from intra-Arab conflicts and the issue of Zionist colonization in Palestine, Syria quickly developed into a focal point of the Cold War between the Western powers and the Soviet Union. This was due to the refusal of the United Kingdom (UK) and United States (US) governments to support Syria\u27s statehood in economic and military terms. The Western rejection of substantial assistance to Syria, largely motivated by efforts to back up Israel and fully unrelated to the question of whether or not Syria was governed by democratic or authoritarian rulers, explains the country’s shift toward the Soviet Union in the mid-1950s. Next, UK and US attempts to unseat Syrian governments through covert action (especially in 1949 and 1956-1957) are examined. It is shown that these events pushed Syria’s leaders to opt for merger with Nasser\u27s Egypt and military assistance from the Soviet Union in order to avoid further destabilization. The paper concludes that Western failure to welcome Syria as an independent actor in the Middle East, which was due to the existence of previous strategic alignment with competing states in the region, opened the door for the Soviet Union to emerge as the long-term patron of the Syrian state.International Relations
"Balthasar: A (Very) Critical Introduction" by Karen Kilby
No full textReview ofKaren Kilby, Balthasar: A (Very) Critical Introduction (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2012
UK National Print Media Coverage of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) against Refugee Women in Syrian Refugee Camps
No full textThe vulnerability of Syrian refugee women does not draw the public attention it deserves. In this regard, media coverage thus has an important role to illustrate these women’s vulnerable situation and to create public awareness. This research aims to reveal the sensitivity and awareness level of the UK national print media of SGBV (sexual and gender-based violence) against refugee women in Syrian refugee camps. News published in five daily major UK national newspapers (Guardian, Independent, Daily Telegraph, Times and Sun) between March 15, 2011, and December 15, 2014 referencing Syrian refugee women have been analysed in accordance with feminist critical discourse analysis methods. Results show that media coverage of SGBV against Syrian refugee women is limited. Gender and violence perspectives of the refugee dilemma are mostly ignored
THE REVOLUTION “FROM BELOW” AND ITS MISINTERPRETATIONS “FROM ABOVE”. THE CASE OF SYRIA’S NEGLECTED CIVIL SOCIETY
Get PDFn The Revolution “From Below” and Its Misinterpretations “From Above”. The Case of Syria’s Neglected Civil Society, Brownlee reminds us that civil society in the Arab world in general, and in Syria in particular, was not born in the Arab Spring, and perhaps more important, it was not eliminated even after the Uprising evolved into an armed conflict. Through various case studies, Brownlee documents not only how well established the civil society experience in Syria was, but also how resilient it has been to the various attempts by both sides of the conflict to crush it. Yet, as Brownlee’s findings illustrate, Western scholarship is generally captive to an Orientalist approach, which presupposes an attractive and easily accessible narrative, again seemingly sympathetic, and proceeds to explore reality through its prism. Hence, Western media created a bipolar narrative according to which the Syrian population rose in unity against an oppressive regime. This is not only an oversimplification, but it also ignores very important facts that cannot be reconciled with it. Aspects of the narrative that are deemed too complicated however, as Brownlee documents, are simply censored, even when the crisis continues to evolve in a manner that is markedly inconsistent with the bipolar narrative Western media is attached to
"Karl Barth and the Incarnation: Christology and the Humility of God" by Darren O. Sumner
No full textReview ofDarren O. Sumner, Karl Barth and the Incarnation: Christology and the Humility of God (London; New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2014
"The Gift of the Other: Levinas, Derrida, and a Theology of Hospitality" by Andrew Shepherd
No full textReview ofAndrew Shepherd, The Gift of the Other: Levinas, Derrida, and a Theology of Hospitality (Cambridge: James Clarke and Co., 2014
“The Love of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy for Theologians” by Andrew Davison
No full textReview ofAndrew Davison, The Love of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy for Theologians (London: SCM Press, 2013), pp. xvii + 310. £25.00