Dietrich Jung

Wolfango Piccoli

Turkey at the Crossroadsexamines the country's attempts at modernization, from the Ottomans in the 19th century to the Kemalist Republic and the current day. The book argues that in order to fully achieve the level of modernization and democratization that will enable itto become a regional power, Turkey must first confront its authoritarian legacy of Ottoman imperial and political culture. Examining current ideological and political conflicts, the authors discuss a range of obstacles posed to future opportunities--especially that of the Kemalist ruling elite and its politically influential military.

Ottoman Legacies and a Greater Middle East

Turkey at the Crossroads

Peter Seeberg

Martin Beck

Since the early weeks of the so-called Arab Spring, high hopes for democratic, social, and political change in the Middle East have been met with varying degrees of frustration. In the sub-region of the Levant, regional uprisings have turned to violent conflict in places such as Syria, Iraq, and the Gaza Strip. In Syria, popular unrest has caused enormous human suffering in one of the most brutal civil wars the region ever has witnessed, yet the international community has shown an appalling inability to act. Taking the war in Syria as its central point of reference, this book raises the question of whether the developments in the Levant might lead not only to processes of regime change, but also to a fundamental alteration of its entire state system.

Syria, Palestine, and the Transformation of Middle Eastern Politics

The Levant in Turmoil

Stephan Stetter

This book brings together theories of world society with poststructuralist and postcolonial work on modern subjectivity to understand the universalising and particularising processes of globalisation. It addresses a theoretical void in global studies by attending to the co-constituted process through which modern subjectivities and global processes emerge and interact. The editors outline a key problem in global studies, which is a lack of engagement between the local/particular/individual and the ‘universalising’ processes in which they are situated. The volume deals with this concern with contributions from historical sociologists, poststructuralist and postcolonial scholars and by focusing in the Middle East, religion in global modernity and non-human subjectivities.

Global Structures and Local Practices

Modern Subjectivities in World Society

This book combines contemporary discussions on modernity with the history of the Muslim world. From a heuristic perspective, it is sketching out a framework for a global sociology of modernity. This framework attempts to accommodate a core assumption of classical modernization theory – the global nature of modernity – with the pluralistic perspective of the rise of a multiplicity of historically concrete forms of modernities. It tries to reconcile a universalistic concept of modernity with the fact of modernity’s multiple historical realizations. At the same time, this discussion of contemporary social theory puts forward a critique of the still so conveniently applied equation of modernization with Westernization. In empirical terms, the book substantiates this critique in drawing its exemplary illustrations from the historical experience of Muslim peoples. Bringing Muslim history and discussions in social theory together, this book represents a synthesis of research efforts in sociology and Islamic studies.

A Global Sociology of Modernity

Muslim History and Social Theory

Stefano Guzzini

This book examines the development of peace research and explores its present challenges, focusing on the contribution made by the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute. The authors investigate how peace research relates to security studies and international relations, providing a comprehensive study of conceptual innovations and a discussion of security analysis in the European context.

Dietrich Jung

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