RETHINKING RUSSIAN MISSION IN SYRIA
Since the collapse of the USSR, Syria has remained to be center of Russian Middle East foreign policy regarding its economic and political ties. As a result of the Arab Spring, the Syrian regime and President Assad has shaken with the unrestrained uprisings and western sanctions and eventually crisis turned into a fierce civil war. From the inauguration of the crisis Russia has never altered its political view on Syria even though there were expectations to the contrary. Moscow officially remained calling for “No military intervention against Syria” and that’s why three times vetoed US resolutions concerning widening sanctions or allowing multilateral military operations. However, Russia claims that Moscow is not protective of Syrian regime or Assad instead prevents Syria to fall into a long-term civil war. On the other hand, Syria is one of the most crucial arms importer of Russia and hosting Russian naval base on its Mediterranean coast. In this paper it is aimed to analyze the Russian stable and consistent foreign policy on Syria and its reasons as well as latest Russian and US rising tensions.
Syria and the Doctrine of Arab Neutralism: From Independence to Dependence
Introduction - Neutralism in Retrospect: Definitions and Paradigms Syria's Road to Independence: The Emergence of Pragmatic/Calculative Nationalist Neutralism The Rise of 'Anti-Western Neutralism' in Post-Mandatory Syria Neutralism in Practice: Syria and the Consolidation of the Arab-Asian Group Communism, Syria, and Neutralist Trends Syria's Rival Schools of Neutralism and the Road to Union Nasserite 'Positive Neutralism' and the United Arab Republic Conclusion - The Rise of the Neo-Ba'th and the Gradual Demise of Neutralism Appendix - Modes of Practised Arab Neutralism Index.
Letting Women in? Gender Mainstreaming in Regional Policies
Gender mainstreaming has over the last ten years become the dominant strategy of integrating gender issues in public policy. This article presents regional policy as a broad and increasingly important policy field to study, and analyses gender mainstreaming in this policy field in the Norwegian and the Swedish contexts. How do problem representations surrounding “gender equality” and “gender mainstreaming” produce meanings of gender as well as construct possibilities for change? The article shows that, despite some differences between the two countries, gender mainstreaming in regional policy can to a large extent be read as meaning “women”. Women are in this context given a narrow subject position and are constructed as lacking what it takes to produce sustainable regional growth. The concluding discussion highlights the relations between the implementation of gender mainstreaming and neo‐liberal political trends.