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One year has passed since the start of coalition air strikes against ISIL in Syria. Over that year ISIL has endured setbacks and defeats in a number of areas, perhaps the most important of which are Ain al-Arab (Kobani) and Hasaka. However, it succeeded in expanding its influence and incorporated new towns and villages such as Tadmur, the eastern Rif Homs, northern Rif Aleppo, Qalamon, and the Yarmouk refugee camp in the capital into its “state”. In this way it cut up the majority of Syrian territory and threatened strategic centers and urban areas such as Homs and the capital Damascus. The paper concludes that ISIL is imposing the rhythm and variables of battle in various parts of Syria. The international coalition remains unable to eliminate it or degrade it in the short or medium term. Eliminating ISIL may take years if the piecemeal US approach to confronting it continues as now.

This study compares the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with the outcomes of development policies in Algeria, in particular those related to employment, social protection, education, and health, since 1990 until the latest year for which data are available. These are outcomes of the policies laid down within the eight MDGs, among them: ending extreme poverty, universal elementary education, reduction of infant mortality, and improving maternal health. The study attempts to answer a central question: how far have the outcomes of development policies met the MDGs? In its answer, the paper includes an explanation of the contents of the MDGs and follows their historical progress, and details the goals, objectives, and indexes. The study also deals with the only Algerian MDG report, which appeared in 2005, to clarify the course of policies directly linked with the fight against extreme poverty and hunger, education, and infant and maternal health. The study concludes that Algeria was able to achieve the first, second, and fourth goal, but failed to meet the fifth goal (maternal deaths in childbirth) while expressing reservations about the funding for development policies and justice, and the implementation mechanisms for some policies.

​This paper agrues that although the Arab Gulf is strategically located and of economic importance to China, the Gulf states did not fall along the original routes demarcated by the Belt and Road initiative roadmap. Nevertheless, both China and these states have begun to engage with the initiative and its projects by signing strategic partnerships, and to enmesh these projects with perspectives on national development in the Gulf. This has unsettled the United States and its allies, some of whom have begun to view this expansion as a serious challenge. As a result, there has been an attempt to impede the initiative's projects through debt-trap debate, geopolitical alliances, and putting forth alternative economic proposals. This study argues that the Gulf is of great concern to China and the requirements of the Belt and Road initiative, identifying where the Arab Gulf states are located on the initiative map and illustrating the way in which each state has gradually become involved in associated projects. It considers Western mechanisms and alternative projects in response to respond to and impede the initiative and the degree to which these mechanisms may apply to the Gulf states. The paper presents deductive observations as to China's likely approach in the event that the initiative is obstructed and its interests undermined. Will it modify its foreign strategy – and will this impact the Gulf?

​Digital communication technology plays a central role in broadening the scope of political participation by allowing most social groups to express their views and positions on issues, thus contributing to shaping the local or national political culture. It seems that all the political elements related to political culture (representation and mediation, media, parties, etc.) were greatly influenced by the emergence of digital social networks and experienced profound changes that became real challenges to classical political culture theory. This paper aims to explore the characteristics of political culture in the digital age and discuss its .challenges to orthodox political culture theory.

This study is a reading of the results of the referendum on the Egyptian constitution which was backed by 63.8% of those who voted and rejected by 36.2%. The opposition saw this result as testimony to it having become an organized force opposing political Islam whose popularity was declining. Do the results of the referendum really indicate a decline in the strength of political Islam in Egypt? Or a fall in the levels of support for the Muslim Brotherhood specifically? And that the opposition has developed an attractive alternative for voters? This study concludes that the drop in turnout at the referendum, most likely, reduced the share of the opponents of the Islamist trend, for the opposition has failed, or so it seems till now, to formulate a clear alternative program to the Islamist project. On the other hand, if turnout continues to decline, this suggests that a section of Egyptians feel that no one represents them or that they are beginning to despair of the political process. That is something that all the political currents and forces should pay attention to.

The 2011 Arab uprisings sparked hopes for positive change in the regional politics of the Middle East. The uprisings not only challenged the authority of states at the domestic level but seemed poised to disrupt regional geopolitics and alter the position of the Middle East in the international system. With the outbreak of civil wars in Syria, Libya, and Sudan, military interventions in Bahrain and Yemen, and the unprecedented proliferation of armed non- state actors in the region, the uprisings seem to drive important changes in the nature of the state and its regional and international role. Despite its artificial inception and its puzzling survival throughout the 20 th century, the Arab State faces challenges in the post- 2011 era and its vulnerabilities have been exposed. While the uprisings may have weakened Arab states, changes at regional and international levels created permissive conditions to challenge the regional state system. Hamas's 7 October 2023 operation and Israel's ensuing wars in the region have further exacerbated state erosion and reinvigorated post- 2011 regional dynamics. This paper examines how structural international and regional conditions have reshaped statehood and agency in the region post- 2011. It also explores how the responses of Arab states to international conditions and the regional reverberations of the uprisings have further generated disintegrative effects for the Arab state.

​ In order to keep pace with trends in Western studies that became popular in the early twenty-first century, this study addresses the status of political science in the Tunisian University, focusing on the Faculty of Law and Political Science. It monitors the Faculty’s relationship to public and private law, tracking its development and the challenges it faced. The study further examines the obstacles to its progression, its professionalism, and influence, as well as looking at its ability to stand up to international scrutiny.

​This study examines the foundations and development of teaching political science in Sudanese universities. It begins with the establishment of Gordon Memorial College in 1902 which became later the University of Khartoum. This is because it is the oldest Sudanese university, and the first to teach political science. Influenced by the objectives of the Gordon Memorial College formation, the attachment with the University of London before independence, and the early lecturers who taught there, the department of political science in the university adopted curricula pursued in British universities. In addition, the study discusses the expansion of political science to include Umdurman Islamic University and other universities. Moreover, it analyzes the intellectual perspectives that influenced the development of teaching political science in Sudanese universities, curricula development, means of training, and the impact of politics and policies on political science teaching.

This report highlights some of the major milestones of the Arab democratic transition. The countries covered include Tunisia, Egypt, Libya,Syria and Yemen.

Civil society rests on the principle of economic independence from politics, deemed to be a long-standing precondition to limiting the despotism of a political authority and its ability to wreak havoc on society. The paper poses the question of why civil society has thus far failed to materialize in Algeria, despite the existence of political pluralism in the country dating to the 1989 Constitution. The author contends that the persistence of rentierism in the Algerian economy has enabled the country’s government to prevent the rise of a genuine civil society in Algeria, despite the de jure acceptance of political pluralism in the country. The government has been able to use the levers of a rentier economy to subdue the political elites and dominate society, effectively controlling the political fallout of economic liberalization. The paper goes on to survey the political economic context, which led to the failure of a democratic transition in Algeria, by exploring how private capital was unable to echo the catalyzing role played by the European bourgeoisie in the democratization and political modernization of their continent.