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Begin New Search Topic Civil Society Content Type Research Paper

1. COVID-19 in the MENA: Two Years On

Author:
Marc Lynch, Vahid Abedini, Yasmina Abouzzohour, Meliha Benli Altunisik, and Mona Ali
Publication Date:
06-2022
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)
Abstract:
Early in the pandemic, POMEPS convened an online workshop with a diverse group of scholars working across the MENA region to discuss the initial impacts and to think through possible trajectories. That workshop resulted in POMEPS Studies 39, which included twenty-one essays ranging across the MENA region. Several major themes ran across those essays. We collectively expected regimes to securitize the pandemic, using the excuse of lockdowns to crack down on a protest wave that had reached multiple countries in 2019 and to further entrench authoritarian rule. We expected variation in state capacity to be a critical variable in terms of the ability of states to effectively respond to the pandemic. And several essays anticipated soft power international competition, as great powers used vaccine diplomacy to sway public attitudes their way. Two years on, how did those predictions hold up? In April 2022, POMEPS convened a follow-up workshop with some of the same scholars and a number of new contributors to assess how well those early projections panned out, and to assess the actual impacts of COVID on the region after two years. We are delighted to now publish the results of that workshop and ongoing conversations among a diverse group of scholars of the region.
Topic:
Civil Society, Health, Politics, Sectarianism, Authoritarianism, Economy, Solidarity, Soft Power, Violence, Public Health, Students, COVID-19, Securitization, Gender, and Regional Politics
Political Geography:
Iran, Middle East, Israel, Palestine, North Africa, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and United Arab Emirates

2. “Re-imagining the Reality of Entrepreneurship in the Lens of Palestinian Youth”

Author:
Pal-Think for Strategic Studies
Publication Date:
11-2022
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Pal-Think For Strategic Studies
Abstract:
As an independent think-tank that works to produce knowledge and spread it in Palestinian society, and in partnership with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, PalThink for Strategic Studies has implemented the “Re-imagining the Reality of Entrepreneurship in the Lens of Palestinian Youth” project, which aimed at promoting entrepreneurship in the Gaza Strip. It is one of PalThink’s core beliefs that entrepreneurship is an effective way to create job opportunities and that promoting it, by refining young people’s skills to design and plan their innovative entrepreneurial ideas, is a valiant attempt to reduce unemployment. The project aimed at enhancing the skills of 20 male and female students and graduates and raising their awareness about entrepreneurial projects, the reality of start-ups, and the economic barriers facing youth in the Gaza Strip. The project also included the production of three research papers discussing the challenges and opportunities of entrepreneurial projects in the Palestinian business environment. This booklet was published after the conclusion of three discussion sessions that presented and discussed the three papers with experts and researchers from Palestinian civil society institutions.
Topic:
Civil Society, Economics, Entrepreneurship, and Youth
Political Geography:
Middle East and Palestine

3. A Civil or Uncivil Civil Society?

Author:
Liv Tørres
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation
Abstract:
Civil society is part and parcel of the institutional architecture that will be crucial to help us out of our current crisis of staggering inequality, pandemic trauma and required recovery. Yet, civil society is large, complex, fragmented, and polarized. It gained renewed and considerable attention during, and after, the ‘Third Wave’ of democracy in the early 1990s when trade unions, professional organizations, women’s and civic organizations, as well as religious organizations and churches in many countries mobilized for democratic change. This was, of course, not the first nor the last period of civic action and mobilization. Civil society has, however, changed dramatically over the past decades. The number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has grown. Membership in civil society organizations has kept up, but the meaning of membership has most probably changed. Civic space is under considerable pressure, while social movements, activism, and protests have increased. All in all, civil society now represents a wide variety of actors with different governance structures, with/without membership, varying in size and agenda.
Topic:
Civil Society, Democracy, NGOs, and Participation
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. Challenges to the Middle East North Africa Inclusionary State

Author:
Marc Lynch, Bassel Salloukh, Toby Dodge, Jeroen Gunning, Dima Smaira, Stacey Philbrick Yadav, Morten Valbjørn, Simon Mabon, Ala'a Shehabi, and Mariam Salehi
Publication Date:
02-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)
Abstract:
The challenges to inclusionary states in the MENA region are daunting—including fiercely authoritarian states, the reality or threat of political violence, and ongoing protest movements. In September 2019, POMEPS and the Lebanese American University (LAU) brought together a diverse, interdisciplinary group of scholars to discuss the challenges to building more inclusive orders under these conditions.
Topic:
Security, Civil Society, Politics, Sovereignty, Sectarianism, Transitional Justice, State, Reconciliation, Inclusion, and Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF)
Political Geography:
Iraq, Middle East, Yemen, North Africa, and Lebanon

5. Israel/Palestine: Exploring A One-State Reality

Author:
Marc Lynch, Michael Barnett, and Nathan Brown
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)
Abstract:
In October 2019, the Project on Middle East Political Science convened a workshop with more than a dozen scholars – Israelis, Palestinians, and others – to discuss the contours of this emergent one state reality. The essays in this collection represent an initial assessment of this reality, and many more will follow over the years to come. The authors each bring their own perspective and history, their own commitments and values, their own aspirations for the future, producing areas of agreement and disagreement. But all agree on the urgent need to recognize the Israeli-Palestinian reality for what it really is and to develop the theoretical language and conceptual tools to rigorously describe and compare that reality. We hope this collection makes a small contribution to the vibrant intellectual debates developing around these issues and joins those ongoing dialogues in a productive way.
Topic:
Civil Society, Human Rights, Territorial Disputes, Citizenship, Ethnicity, Mobility, Settler Colonialism, and Segregation
Political Geography:
Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Mediterranean, and West Bank

6. On “Civil-Military Relations and Today’s Policy Environment”

Author:
George Fust
Publication Date:
05-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:
This commentary responds to Thomas N. Garner’s article “Civil-Military Relations and Today’s Policy Environment” published in the Winter 2018–19 issue of Parameters (vol. 48, no. 4).
Topic:
Civil Society, Politics, Military Affairs, and Civil-Military Relations
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

7. Managing to Adapt: Analysing Adaptive Management for Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning

Author:
Harash Desai, Gabriele Maneo, Erica Pellfork, and Annika Schlingheider
Publication Date:
03-2018
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Adaptive management is at the heart of ‘Doing Development Differently’. It emerges from stakeholders’ calls for development programmes to be more flexible and responsive to their contexts. Whether it becomes a mainstreamed practice depends on how much it is embraced by donors and implementers alike, especially in funding, design, monitoring, evaluation, and learning cycles. This report was developed by a group of students from the London School of Economics as part of their Master’s degree programme, in partnership with Oxfam Great Britain. It presents a collection of case studies from Oxfam and other agencies to illustrate concrete examples of how programmes can incorporate adaptive practices at different stages of the planning cycle. It also offers practical suggestions to development actors to support adaptive practices. It argues that PMEL for adaptive management entails flexible funding mechanisms; iterative design processes; developing locally owned approaches; and creating an enabling environment for learning.
Topic:
Civil Society, NGOs, Management, and Strategic Planning
Political Geography:
Global Focus

8. Transformative Leadership for Women’s Rights (TLWR): Lessons and Recommendations from Oxfam’s Experiences

Author:
Ines Smyth
Publication Date:
04-2018
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The aim of promoting gender equality and women’s rights as integral parts of development efforts is enshrined in the key strategies and plans of many organizations. This is the case for the individual affiliates that comprise Oxfam International (OI), and the Oxfam confederation as a whole. This report sets out to assist Oxfam to better understand and learn from the Confederation’s work in this area to date. The purpose of the report is to provide an initial mapping of work on transformative leadership for women's rights (TLWR) in order to offer suggestions, impetus and a programmatic framework for the development of an ambitious global program on TLWR. It is intended to complement and drive Oxfam’s efforts to bring about the transformation of the pervasive gender inequality that limits women’s wellbeing, confidence and potential, reproduces negative masculinity traits, and contributes to the inequity dominant in contemporary societies.
Topic:
Civil Society, Gender Issues, Leadership, and Feminism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

9. The Cost of Justice: Exploratory Assessment on Women’s Access to Justice in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Yemen

Author:
Sarah Barakat
Publication Date:
06-2018
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Women in the Middle East and North Africa region face challenges in their attempts to seek and get justice. Despite some promising legal awareness initiatives, mostly led by civil society, women’s knowledge of their rights and family law is limited. They lack social capital and the financial means to claim their rights, and the systems in place to provide financial support are insufficient and often ineffective. Women’s pursuit of justice is further limited by entrenched patriarchal values at community and court levels. Though some laws in the countries covered by this research have been positively amended recently, women still face discrimination in the judicial system based on their sex, their religion, and their financial status.
Topic:
Civil Society, Gender Issues, Women, and Justice
Political Geography:
Africa, Middle East, Yemen, Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan

10. Civil-Military Relations in the Middle East

Author:
Ahmed Abd Rabou
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
This book focuses on Civil-Military Relations (CMR) in Egypt, a country that witnessed uprisings calling for democratic change in January 2011, which led to the ousting of Hosni Mubarak from the Presidency, the suspension of the constitution, and the dissolution of the parliament as well as the ruling of the National Democratic Party (NDP). Ironically, revolutionary forces in Egypt were dependent on the Egyptian military in taking these steps, with the military ultimately taking power some 30 months later.
Topic:
Civil Society
Political Geography:
Middle East

11. Civilian Drones and India’s Regulatory Response

Author:
Ananth Padmanabhan
Publication Date:
03-2017
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
Unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as UAVs or drones, have decentralized airspace access, allowing agriculturists, construction workers, and other civilian users to integrate aerial monitoring into their daily work. This technological revolution comes with a set of concerns, impinging as it does upon the proprietary, reputational, and security interests of individuals. An appropriate regulatory response and new policy recommendations must go beyond the current regulatory intervention in India.
Topic:
Security and Civil Society
Political Geography:
India

12. Young Couples in Good Times and in Bad: Social Norms that Perpetuate Violence Against Women and Girls Among Young Tunisians in Peri-urban Areas

Author:
Saskia van Veen, Salma Jrad, and Galand Soufia
Publication Date:
07-2017
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Around half of women in Tunisia have experienced some form of violence in their life. Over 90% of the population thinks women should be discreet to avoid violence in public spaces. From the perspective of Oxfam and dozens of women’s rights organisations, social norms that legitimise gender inequality and violence are rooted in the deeply entrenched belief – found, to some extent, in every country – that men and boys are more valuable than women and girls. ENOUGH, a worldwide Oxfam campaign, aims to replace harmful social norms with more positive ones that promote gender equality and non-violence. To better understand how social norms are constructed among young people in Tunisia and how they influence behaviour, Oxfam Tunisia conducted formative research by interviewing 40 young men and women and analysing the results with experts, NGOs and bloggers working on violence against women and girls (VAWG). From the research and subsequent analysis in a workshop, three social norms were identified as drivers of violence: women should not strive for equal decision-making status in their relationship; women should prioritise home and family over public or professional life; and women should behave in public in a way that respects male domination. This research will inform the development of the ENOUGH campaign in Tunisia, sharpening its focus on changing the norms that underlie VAWG.
Topic:
Civil Society, Gender Issues, Gender Based Violence, and Norms
Political Geography:
Africa and Tunisia