Interculturalism and the pendulum of identity

This article offers a critical appraisal of the role played by cultural identity in intercultural bilingual Arabic–Hebrew schools in Israel. While engineered as oases of interculturalism amidst a life of ethnic segregation, such schools ultimately confront serious difficulties in escaping the constraints of identity politics and representation. This is expressed by the leading part that group identity plays in the schools’ everyday life. By drawing on the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, we argue that this state of affairs diminishes the potential of the intercultural encounter to overcome emotional and conceptual inhibitions reigning in larger society. Interculturalism, in order to distance itself from a politics of ressentiment that can only restrict its capacity to flourish, needs to place itself before representation.     

中东剧变以来的东盟与海合会关系研究

中东剧变对阿拉伯世界整体格局和阿拉伯板块在国际体系中的地位产生了深刻影响。阿拉伯世界转型促使海合会正不断向阿拉伯君主共同体转型,也加快了东盟本身及其许多成员国的民主化进程。面对当前海合会从海湾次地区力量迈向中东地区性力量的战略走向,东盟在政治与经济层面加强了与海合会的协作,海合会的大国外交战略也将不断变化中的东盟纳入其重要战略目标领域。尽管如此,双边政治合作仍滞后于经贸合作,东盟—海合会自由贸易区仍是未来的首要目标。     

中东大规模动荡与我国的外交应对

中东剧变一年多以来,阿拉伯国家蒙受巨大冲击,引起了所有中东国家乃至国际社会的高度关注,而这首先与中东的重要位置有关.这次变局几乎波及所有阿拉伯国家,民众诉求涉及政治、经济、社会诸多方面.问题是长年积累下来的,2011年的动荡应是这种情绪的大爆发,虽会推动社会前进,但代价却是巨大的.叙利亚问题前景仍不明朗,目前只维持了脆弱的和平.中国以“不干涉内政”原则和“劝和促谈”的方针应对这次大动荡是正确的、主动的,不管外界有多少反对声音和暂时的不理解,都应坚定不移地走下去.     

美国应对中东剧变的“奥巴马主义”探析

美国应对中东剧变的政策措施彰显"奥巴马主义",即军事上谨慎用兵,避免直接地面占领或卷入一场针对伊斯兰国家的新战争,而是通过武装反对派推行"阿拉伯人打阿拉伯人",减少人道主义干预的成本;政治上运用所谓美国的"巧实力",让欧洲大国和阿拉伯盟友提出议程设置,充当"急先锋",美国在背后"掌舵",以最廉价的方式延续美国在中东的领导地位;外交上通过议题设置,让联合国人权委员会等国际组织和非政府组织服务于美国政府;经济上运用援助和制裁两手政策来实现政治目标;文化上利用媒体、非政府组织和网络,开展民间外交和网络外交。奥巴马政府试图综合运用军事、政治、外交、经济和文化手段,推动中东反美国家的政权更迭,维护亲美国家的政局稳定。研究表明,无论是主张依靠硬实力的"布什主义",还是主张依靠巧实力的"奥巴马主义",其在中东维持美国领导地位的战略目标,却是一致的。     

阿拉伯国家政治和社会动荡的前因及后果

阿拉伯世界的政治社会动荡有着复杂的内外原因,动荡可能开启阿拉伯世界寻求新发展道路的历史时代,但由乱到治尚须时日.动荡对中东格局和美国主导中东事务能力产生广泛影响,但美国主导地位并未根本动摇.     

Looking at their side of the conflict? Effects of single versus multiple perspective history teaching on Jewish and Arab adolescents’ attitude to out-group narratives and in-group responsibility

In the last decade, the issue of teaching the Palestinian perspective on the Jewish–Arab conflict in Israeli schools gave rise to considerable debate and competing curricula. A quasi-experimental study compared the effects of these competing approaches on learners’ attitudes to out-group narratives and perceived in-group responsibility (IR). A total of 176 Israeli Jewish and Arab participants were randomly allocated into teaching approaches differing in method of engagement with historical narratives (single authoritative narrative, empathetic dual narrative, and critical analysis of conflicting sources). Results revealed effects for teaching approach and majority–minority status. Engagement with a single authoritative narrative decreased interest in out-group perspectives while empathetic engagement with out-group and in-group perspectives increased it, though the effect was more pronounced for members of the Arab minority than for those of the Jewish majority. Among Jewish participants, an empathetic teaching approach led to a decrease in perceived IR while the critical approach led to the opposite outcome. The trends were inverted for Arab participants. Engagement with historical perspectives also moderated the impact of interest in out-group perspectives on acceptance of IR. Educational implications point to the harmful effects of enforcing a single narrative in conflicted societies and to the beneficial outcomes of multiple perspective teaching.     

Television and Postfeminist Housekeeping: No Time for Mother

This feminist, qualitative study sheds light on how young Arab women used cyberactivism to participate in the wave of political and social transformations widely known as the Arab Spring. It argues that these activists leveraged social media to enact new forms of leadership, agency, and empowerment, since these online platforms enabled them to express themselves freely and their voices to be heard by the rest of the world, particularly the global media. This resulted in a multidimensional personal, social, political, and communicative revolution. This study is based on in-depth, personal interviews with more than twenty young Arab women citizen journalists, bloggers, and activists from Arab countries that witnessed political upheaval.     

Media,State, and Patriarchy

This paper examines one of the dominant discourses that Jordanian media circulate on female virginity, which emphasises the state's various roles in relation to it. Relying on an analysis of virginity in online Jordanian media in the years 2008–2010, I argue that the Jordanian state is portrayed as having three main roles: that of the inspector, certifying the presence and/or authenticity of female virginity; that of the guard, protecting it from any measures or products that may disrupt the status quo; and sometimes, the state is portrayed as an ambivalent observer, flexibly but ambiguously, allowing some room for subversion. The media's portrayal of the state as a paternalistic authority over women's bodies betrays their own complicity in perpetuating the dominant virginity discourse at the expense of more progressive viewpoints.     

Psychology in the Arab World: Past, Present, and Future

In this article, we present a broad-based view of psychology in the Arab countries. We begin by casting light on the relevant contributions by ancient Arab scholars in the Middle Ages. Given that systematic scientific investigation of this legacy has been minuscule, we argue that in the future, scholars seeking to provide a more balanced and comprehensive history of Arab psychology should reanalyze these works. We point out that in the early decades of the modern twentieth century, Western psychology was introduced in the Arab countries, especially in Egypt—the gateway through which such psychology was introduced and practiced. By the early 1960s, a number of universities had been established in some Arab countries, and Egyptian academicians, including psychologists, were invited to perform teaching, research, and administration tasks. Their legacy was a discipline bearing most of the strengths and weaknesses of Egyptian psychology, although in spite of such commonalties, there exist also some interesting differences characterizing psychology in the various Arab countries. The final section of the article summarizes some key aspects endemic to psychology in the Arab countries.