Egyptian-Syrian relations after 2011

Egypt and Syria have been important actors in the Middle East, a region of considerable geostrategic importance. This article analyses relations between the two countries after 2011 in the context of events related to the so-called Arab Spring. The first part of the study describes the common path Egypt and Syria took over the past millennia, which explains the significance of their mutual relations. In the section that follows, the author shows the destructive impact of processes related to the Arab Spring on relations between these countries, most notably the eruption of the Syrian conflict and the takeover of power in Egypt by the Muslim Brotherhood. Next, the article describes the impact of the fall of Islamists in Egypt in 2013. Although since then relations between the two countries have ceased to be hostile, efforts to repair them remain slow. The author argues that the reasons for this delay could be attributed to the pressures exercised by external actors.

The article is about Turkish-Russian relationshps in the context of Syrian conflict. It is known that, this conflict has aggravated due to the coinciding reasons, even led to the emergence of the challenging crisis between the sides. Simultaneously, the chain of events has demonstrated that both states, Turkey and Russia, are forced to cooperate stem from the logic of Realpolitik. The article is devoted to the analysis of the essense of this cooperation.

The article explores the transformation which the Turkish foreign policy has been undergoing in the last decade since the post-Islamist Justice and Development Party had come to power. Whereas in the cold-war era Turkey concentrated its foreign policy on bolstering the alliance with the United States and on efforts to join the European Communities, last couple of years have seen the country diversify its international engagement. Turkey has been using ‘new’ instruments, such as softpower, to build up its regional status. Yet, the ambitious foreign policy is constrained by the regional developments, the Arab Spring turmoil being the prime example.

The “Striped Ones” (Al-Muḫaṭṭaṭīn) by Yūsuf Idrīs – AMirror of the Egyptian Political Scene

This paper is an attempt to interpret Yūsuf Idrīs’ political drama al-Muḫaṭṭatīn (The Striped Ones). Although the author died more than a quarter of century ago, the sociopolitical problems in his dramas still seem relevant. In the face of the latest developments on the Egyptian political scene, “Arab spring”, the overthrow of Husnī Mubārak in 2011, and the depravation of power of a newly elected president Muḥammad Mursī by the Egyptian army in 2013, Idrīs’ dramas, especially Al-Muṭṭaṭaṭīn (The Striped Ones), written in 1969, are especially meaningful. Not only does this drama express the dilemma of a heroic leader whose ideologies are successively satirically blurring, but also addresses the problem of corrupt power, the apparent revolution, ridicule Egyptian bureaucracy, and the phenomenon of bribery. The article’s author tries to show the universal character of this work by comparing its content with the affairs on the Egyptian political scene.

System-based research remains an important yet usually outdated and internally contradictory approach in political science and international relations. Based on concepts borrowed from physiology, cybernetics, and general system theory, the system-based approach popularised in the 1960s was cast away as outdated and ill-focused. Despite those systems, the theory was developed in natural sciences, eventually creating a paradigm more applicable to domestic and international politics. The weakest element of past systems (like the one proposed by D. Easton) was that they did not allow for a sudden and catastrophic transformation and lacked emergence. This paper aims to present a model that would allow for the system’s ordinary and catastrophic transformation. The complex adaptive system features were defined using relevant literature on a paradigm of complexity. Connecting it with the propositions of D. Easton, R. Axelrod, and M. Cohen, as well as R. Jervis, such a model was constructed. The theoretical introduction is supplanted with a general case study of the early phases of the Arab Spring in Tunisia. The model mirrors the complex systems’ dynamics, considering the agent-structure problem.