Abstract: This memo outlines factors that have sustained the spiral of militarization in US policy with a focus on the Middle East. These include 1) exaggerated threat perception, 2) declining US political leverage abroad, 3) the workings of a policy and political economy “iron triangle,” 4) US interests and policy defined by militarized masculinity, and 5) technological change and the ongoing blurring of distinctions between peace and war. While these factors suggest seemingly overwhelming pressures for militarization, they also help […]
Read More from Dr. Waleed Hazbun “The Spiral of Militarization in US Policy Towards the Middle East”
Abstract: This special issue on ‘Tourism and the Making of the Modern Middle East’ is based on a conference sponsored by the Southeast Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Society (SERMEISS) and held at the University of Alabama in 2022. While mostly focused on developments in Lebanon and Iraq before they gained independence from France and Britain, the essays explore how national actors used tourism to integrate populations within the newly formed political entities of the Mandate era into viable […]
Read More from Dr. Waleed Hazbun “Tourism and the making of the modern Middle East”
Abstract: In the past two decades China has expanded its influence in the Middle East, working towards what I call “soft integration,” focused on building economic ties through trade and infrastructure development. In contrast, the United States has continued to prioritize what I call “hard integration,” focused on strategic alliances with security commitments, basing of military assets, and the integration of regional defense systems. An ongoing challenge is that the two integration processes are increasingly encountering points of conflict leading […]
Read More from Dr. Waleed Hazbun “China, the United States, and the Reconfiguration of Middle East Geopolitics: New Possibilities for Conflict and Order”
Abstract: Civil wars are complex in ways that challenge effective resolution. Civil war actors tend to be dynamic in nature and often splinter then coalesce over time potentially evolving into multiple dyads pitted against their government. Previous work has demonstrated that when multiple rebel factions emerge, civil wars tend to be longer in duration as satisfying multiple factions tends to be more challenging. However, governments may choose to pursue dyadic agreements hoping to end the conflict either through subsequent dyadic […]
Read More from Dr. Karl DeRouen “Are Non-Inclusive Peace Agreements Effective Counter-Insurgency Strategies”
Abstract: With its troop withdrawals from Iraq in 2011 and Afghanistan in 2021, the US exhibits a much smaller military footprint in the Middle East than it did in the mid to late 2000s. US regional strategy, however, remains structured around the capacity to deploy military force as a means maintain regional influence, contain Iran, and compete against China and Russia. For many analysts, political leaders, and much of the US public, a reduced military posture in the Middle East […]
Read More from “US Military Strategy in the Middle East and the Challenge of Demilitarization”
Abstract: Recent fiscal condition literature has been attentive to the consistency between subjective measures of local fiscal condition based on public officials’ perceptions and their objective counterparts measured using financial data. Studies have found little evidence of a relationship between them, leading scholars to speculate flaws in measurement or intentional lack of association. This study reevaluates the issue by investigating intervening explanations for the absence of connection. Analyzing survey and audited financial data from 185 municipalities across 31 states, […]
Read More from “Revisiting the (lack of) association between objective and subjective measures of local fiscal condition”
Abstract: Tackling COVID-19 requires universal collective action: everyone must play their part to reduce the spread of the virus and quell the pandemic. Yet, some people obstinately refuse to cooperate, irrespective of the consequences for themselves and others. In this note, I illustrate a key element of human psychology that hampers cooperation amid the pandemic: deontological moral intuitions. Deontological morality prescribes that moral taboos must be followed no matter the consequences. This means that people who consider Covid vaccines a […]
Read More from “Join or Die: How Deontological Moral Intuitions Complicate Cooperation amid the Covid-19 Pandemic”
Dr. Alessandro Del Ponte (University of Alabama), Aidas Masiliūnas (University of Sheffield), Noah Lim (National University of Singapore) Abstract: Despite worsening climate change, the international community still disagrees on how to divide the costs of mitigation between developing countries and developed countries, which emitted the bulk of historical carbon emissions. We study this issue using an economic experiment. Specifically, we test how information about historical emissions influences how much participants pay for climate change mitigation. In a four-player game, […]
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Abstract: Short pedagogy article on teaching the Israel-Palestine conflict; appeared as part of the “Justice” Issue of AJS Perspectives
Read More from “In the Shadow of No Future”