:Hajj (Islamic pilgrimage) is not only the world’s largest transnational religious movement, but also the only one in the world explicitly listed as one of the religious pillars of the Islamic faith. Viewing hajj within the context of Islam’s continued global territorial expansion of the faith from the perspective of international relations is of great benefit to a better understanding of Islam and its participation in international relations. The total institution of hajj is composed of basic institutions and different countries’ management institutions. The two holy cities are the cornerstones in Saudi Arabia’s construction of an Islamic international system. Hajj also has impacts on many specific areas of international relations. In the long run, realizing the interaction of hajj and international relations is very important for China’s national security.
:BRICS is indeed viewed as one of the manifestations of ‘Rise of the Rest’ as against the West. In this milieu, China remains the main vehicle of this change in global transformations. Concurrently, GCC was seen broadly as a consortium of the era when the West required venturing with the oil producing countries. Nonetheless, there is potential for improvising connectivity between the GCC and the BRICS in the backdrop of complementarities and dealing with differences. This is true because, on one hand, BRICS is rapidly gaining a central control in international development and cooperation. While on the other hand, GCC countries remain the focal point of the world in terms of energy supplies. Their amalgam can further strengthen the place these blocs enjoy in the globe at large. Furthermore, with the ‘Dawn of the Asian Century’ , China is flexing its muscles as an economic giant quite aptly. Since the formulation of its policy of ‘opening up’ to the world, China has pursued a global agenda of connectivity and growth. Consequently, this rapid development is in consonance with unrestricted energy supply. This is where the GCC countries, especially Saudi Arabia as a major oil exporting country to China, play an important part. In fact, the very rise of BRICS coincides with a radical change in its relations with other countries, specifically with the GCC. For instance, China has succeeded in displacing traditional economic powers, such as Japan, the EU and the US, from the list of the GCC’ s largest trading partners over the past five years. China has also been successful in completing joint strategic agreements, demonstrated most recently by the Chinese-Kuwaiti joint investment of $9 billion (Dh33.05 billion) in petrochemicals and oil products. In this regard, this article aims at answering questions like, can this makeup be interpreted as a more strengthened China-GCC relations? What are the complementarities of both China and the GCC in the realm of political, social, economic and security affairs? And are there any conflicting interests?
Abstract: The Gulf region is in unique geo-political position. The relationship between China and the Gulf region is deeply impacted by the international system and regional patterns, as well as the adjustments of China’s own diplomatic strategies. This article tries to analyze the historical evolution of the relationship between China and the Gulf Region from these three perspectives. At present, this study is very important for China to rightly understand the strategic environment of the “One Belt and one Road” constructions in the Gulf Region. In the period of Cold War, the relationship between China and the Gulf region is deeply affected by the Cold War system, which can be proved by the fact during that time, China’s policies toward the Gulf region depended on the relationship between China and the US and the Soviet Union. Changes in regional patterns in the Gulf Region and China’s own strategic adjustments also have influence on China’s policies toward the Gulf. After the end of the Cold War, many factors, including the changes in the international system, changes in the situation of the Gulf region and the adjustments of China’s development and diplomatic strategies, had influenced the relationship between China and the Gulf. However, in this period, the mutual interdependence between China and the Gulf, and the impact of the adjustments of China’s diplomatic strategies on China’s Gulf policies are increasing. In the future, jointly building the “One Belt and One Road” initiative will be the mainstream of the cooperation between China and the Gulf countries.
:As a key state along China's "land and maritime Silk Road initiative", Israel has many important features, such as a unique geographic location, a stable political and social order, a highly developed economic system, and advanced sciences and technology. All these are of great value to China's new Silk Road initiative and Israel can play a key role with China as a strategic partner. In the past more than 60 years, Sino-Israeli relations went through a long and twisty road. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992, the relationship between the two countries has been developing smoothly, but there is still a big margin to fill. In the new circumstance of China's "land and maritime Silk Road initiative", China-Israel relations can be greatly promoted through areas like infrastructure construction, people-to-people exchanges, economic and trade cooperation.
:Islam is a religion that advocates peace and abides by "the doctrine of balance". However, religious extremism is a "tumor" for the development of Islam, and leads to an alienation of Islam. After the 9/11 attacks, Islamic extremism reappeared, mainly reflected in: 1) the teachings of Islam being distorted, and the civil movement of the Islamic revival leading to the mire of extremism; 2) Jihad ideology of Islam being misread, and the Islamic revival tending to be politicized and increasingly extreme; 3) Al-Qaeda, the "Islamic State" (IS) and other terrorist organizations were rapidly expanding, which drove Islamic extremism globally. The causes of the above circumstances are complex and have far-reaching impacts. The religious extremism has stolen the discourse right of the interpretation of scriptures, resulting in the formation of religious extremism discourse. This became the deep-rooted reason of trends of religious extremism, and also led to the necessity of launching de-radicalization policies. In global anti-terrorism activities, China showed its uniqueness in seeking to play a constructive role in coordinating efforts of three major international anti-terrorist groups. This paper holds that cooperation between China and the Middle East countries on de-radicalization activities could focus on measures such as creating shared consensus in anti-terrorism, advancing the interpretation of scriptures, improving religious dialogue mechanisms, and highlighting the unique role of patriotic religious leaders and other initiatives, in order to effectively prevent religious extremism from expanding.
:Navigation satellite systems are the symbols of states' hard power, and so are the assets of science and technology diplomacy. In the new era, the structure of great powers' navigation satellite systems is characterized by "one superpower" (the US GPS), "multi-pillars" (EU's Galileo, Russian GLONASS and Chinese Beidou), and "multi-centers" (Indian regional navigation satellite system and Japanese quasi zenith navigation satellite system). Beidou is of great significance to promoting "One Belt and One Road" Initiative in the Arab world, and the essential measures to deepen the strategic partnership between China and the Arab League in inter-connectivity; it will also be an essential step for Beidou's "going global" strategy in the long run. The implementation of Beidou's projects in the Arab world is confronted with four dimensions of challenges of political, security, judicial and socio-cultural risks. Its implementation follows an incremental principle, choose pivotal states, create a radiation effect, which will lay a foundation for Beidou to open the West Asian and African market in the years to come.
:The Middle East is a natural ally of China in the “One Belt and One Road” construction. The “understanding between the peoples” of China and the Middle East countries not only has the profound historical basis, but also has strong realistic motives. The great blueprint of the “One Belt and One Road” will link the pursuit of the Middle East people in peaceful development with Chinese people’s dream in national rejuvenation, bringing new opportunities and endowing new connotation for mutual “understanding between peoples” on both sides. However, there is a large gap between the actual demand of the “One Belt and One Road” construction and the existing state of affairs in the understanding between the Chinese and Middle Eastern people. There are not only a lot of problems, but also many interferences and blocking factors. In the context of the “One Belt and One Road”, to further promote the “understanding between peoples” of China and the Middle East countries is a huge and systematic civilizational project, which needs in-depth research and understanding.
:Sovereign wealth funds, as an active participant in the global capital market, have attracted increasingly more attention from both academicians and practitioners. The opacity of the funds is one of the hot issues. A greater transparency is needed for the Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) in the Middle East when they play an increasingly important role in the global capital market. By reviewing the transparency standards and examining the performance of SWFs in the region on information disclosure, this article lists the political, economic and cultural causes of the opacity and justifies the varieties in transparency. It also finds that the legitimacy of these funds should not be challenged because the political motivation does not necessarily change their market attributes. Although effective management of the funds requires improvement of transparency, the transparency standards should be moderate in the context of economic integration and financial globalization, hence international governance is a must. In addition to the reflection on the role of IFSWF in international governance, some lessons and suggestions are given to China’s SWFs at the end of the paper.
:The fall in international oil prices, which began in the second half of 2014, had a severe impact on the economy of Saudi Arabia, and the country began to adjust its economic development policy. The main contents include: changes in the allocation of resources from reliance on government intervention to reliance on the dominance of market; government revenue shifts from dependence on oil revenues to expansion of non-oil revenues; industrial structural changes from excessive dependence on oil economy to diversification in the field of new energy and mining; enterprise ownership structure changes from nationalization to privatization; source of investment funds shifting from basically relying on domestic investment to paying attention to foreign investment; labor and employment change from relying on foreign workers to a trend of localization in Saudi Arabia. Combining priorities in the economic development if Saudi Arabia with the key areas of the “One Belt and One Road” Initiative, energy security, cooperation capacity, infrastructure and finance are the most promising fields in bilateral economic cooperation.
:This article seeks to explain the differing counter-terrorist effects in Algeria and Yemen over the past two decades. While terrorism peaked in both countries in the late 1990s and incumbents in both countries responded with “carrot and stick” strategies, the results have been entirely different, with Yemen mired in deeper violence, whereas domestic terrorist forces were almost wiped out in Algeria in the late 2000s. To account for this variance and to measure the effects of the “carrot and stick” approach, the article adopts the state capacity model by analyzing how Bouteflika centralized Algeria’s bureaucracy and administration since 1999 which facilitated the communication between the intelligence, military and judiciary, thus strengthening military operations and law enforcement, and how Saleh’s Yemen filled with separatism and sectarianism aggravated the regime’s deficiencies of information collection and revenue concentration, leading to the continuation of terrorism. Evidence from my framework and cases suggest that coping with terrorist violence requires much more thoroughgoing measures than military blows; legislative efforts and national dialogues. The study is not limited to the cases of Algeria and Yemen, but aims at shedding light on more countries confronted with terrorist threat.
:West Asia has been the bridge between Asia and Europe. The historical “Silk Road” beginning in China and ending in different ports and cities of West Asia formed the socioeconomic infrastructure of Eurasian commercial and cultural relations. West Asia lost its strategic location after the discovery of sea-routes in the 16th century but regained importance with the progress realised in transportation in the 20th century (highways, railways-airways, etc.) The discovery of rich petroleum reserves reinforced its importance. West Asian region, covering Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Azerbaijan and others can augment and fasten its economic-cultural progress by developing solidarity and forming regional unions. The regıonal, besides upgrading the well-being of neighbouring nations, can also contribute to the stability and security of the area which is actually the most problematic and chaotic area in the world.
:The purpose of this paper is to highlight the origin and evolution of the “Islamic State” (IS) with special focus on the root causes that helped construct its Islamic narrative, such as the idea of the Islamic caliphate. It argues that IS has not concealed all other jihadist groups, and it is just a new face of the same idea associated with political Islam: Salafi-Jihadism. This paper also tries to analyze the changing face of global jihadism through a comparative approach of Al-Qaeda and IS. It has been shown that while both groups have common ideological beliefs, they are in many ways different. By studying and analyzing the Islamic discourse of many Jihadist groups in the Middle East, the paper has showed a case of acute obscurantism which is reflected on the statements and behavior of these groups. However, they are open to communicate between their organizations. For the counter extremism initiatives, the threat of IS and its affiliated groups is not decreasing, but it is changing. What is needed in the region in order to fight this monster is a moment of reflection and reckoning by all Muslims. It requires a revolution in the dominant religious discourse.
:The ideology of Jihadi-Salafism seeks to suspend the dialectic through the positing of an ahistorical state which exists under an unmediated divine sovereignty, through the full exclusion of the "other". Thus the period of the salaf is understood as a golden age, which can be revived without regard to historical context. The "Islamic State" is considered as existing directly under the rule (hakimiyya) of God by way of the shari' a code. There is an attempt to sever oneself from apostates by exercising al-walawa' l-bara and the practice of takfir. The reaching of the perfect end state, however, necessarily entails an activist pursuit of violent change whereby all opposition elements are forcibly removed. Despite its ahistorical pretension, the Islamist ideology developed through distinct stages in Islamic history. The present essay depicts the historical formation of the Jihadi-Salafi ideological principles by tracing back the trajectory. Through attention to the deductive logic implied in the principles, the paper reveals an absolute standpoint precluding the possibility for any form of mediation that has come to be formed. With the delineation of the reasoning underlying Jihadi-Salafi concepts, the basis for the rejection of dialectical development is demonstrated, as well as the implications of the absolutist standpoint for the intensification of extremism culminating in the "Islamic State".
Abstract:From the perspective of energy, the construction of a shortcut, through which the oil pipeline can be directly extended to the Persian Gulf through Pakistan, is very beneficial to China's energy supply security. With "the Belt and road" Initiative, if China is able to build China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Gulf Pearl chain, China would play an influential role in the Arabia Peninsula, as well as in Africa. Pakistan and the Six Gulf Countries are located in the western intersection zone of the belt and road, which makes them important partners of China in promoting "the Belt and Road" Initiative. Once the New Silk Road is built, not only China and its partners can mutually benefit, but also West Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asian economies can be more closely integrated, an occurrence which will continue to enhance and enrich cooperation in "the Belt and Road" Initiative, and to broaden and extend the building space in it. Key Words:: Belt and Road InitiativeGCCPakistanChina and the Middle East
Abstract: Since the Justice and Development Party (AKP)’s coming to power in 2002, Turkey has experienced a decade of high-speed development under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s political group. After outstanding economic and social achievements of the past years, the ruling party of Turkey put forth ambitious visions, plans and objectives, including the centennial political vision of 2023, sexcentenary outlook of 2053 and millenarian objective of 2071, all of which could be summarized as “Turkey dream”. The proposing of “Turkey dream” is both an elaboration of Turkey’s politicians for increasing their popularity among people and a reflection of Turks’ self-confidence after a decade of development. In terms of cooperation under the framework of the “One Belt and One Road” initiative, it is important for China to understand Turkey’s social and economic development strategy. When studying Turkey’s advantages and problems, China needs to pay special attention to Turkey’s soft power in Eurasia. The proceeding of the “One Belt and One Road “initiative in Turkey and even in the Middle East will benefit from exploring the possibility of cooperation on improving both sides’ international influence and on the fight against terrorism.
:As a significant idea in the ideology of modern Islamism, the terminology of “Islamic State” has strict political meanings beyond its cultural meanings. The formation and development of the “Islamic State” thought are closely linked to the reality of the environment and situation changes in the Muslim world, which gives it the characteristics of stability and change. As an important political role in the Middle East, modern Islamist forces. ambition and efforts to establish an “Islamic State” has a major effect on regional and even global situations over a long period of time. Thus, understanding the “Islamic State” thought and its theoretical and realistic dilemmas will be an indispensable step to understand conditions in the Middle East.
:The Middle East is a region where China has more advantages in production capacity cooperation. China started early and has a good reputation in the area of engineering contracting, which has laid good foundations. At present, the Middle East countries are in an important stage of economic transformation. In order to accelerate industrialization, they have developed long-term economic development plan, which provides an important historical opportunity for Chinese enterprises to establish business there. The production capacity cooperation between China and the Middle East countries will utilize the complementary advantages and adhere to mutually beneficial and win-win spirit, and thus has been welcomed by the Middle East countries. At present, the two sides are carrying out fruitful cooperation in infrastructure, high technology and labor-intensive industries, and have achieved significant results. The production capacity cooperation between China and the Middle East countries are facing both opportunities and challenges. We should make good use of opportunities, prevent and resolve risks, and effectively do a good job in production capacity cooperation between China and the Middle East countries
:Germany invited large number of guest workers from Turkey to revitalize its economy after WWII. Following decades of development, the Muslim population has become the largest minority group in Germany making up 5% of today’s German population. The main Muslim political aspiration is to be able to retain Turkish nationality but also access to German citizenship, and to promote the diversified development of German society to recognize their Muslim identity as well. In order to achieve their own political aspirations, they participate in German politics through German political parties, civil society groups and mass media. Their activities not only have great influence on both domestic politics and diplomatic relations, but also in improving their living conditions in Germany. However, the law in both countries will keep them from receiving German citizenship, let alone the dual nationality. Because of the inherent contradiction between Islam and Christianism, Germany has not yet become a truly pluralistic society.
:The Middle East Region has been suffering serious economic difficulties and the governance deficit for a long time, which demands a global response. In this new era, China has become an important actor in the progression of the Middle East economic governance; the contents of China’s participation in the Middle East economic governance include energy, trade, investment, finance and developmental governance. Participation of China to the Middle East economic governance has improved economic climate and the terms of trade for the Middle Eastern countries, and enhanced their sustainable development ability, and also responded to the criticism from the Western countries accusing China of being a free rider with real actions. Compared to the Western countries, China’s participation to the Middle East economic governance exhibits its own characteristics in governance goals, ability, path, regime, contents and governance styles. “The Belt and Road” Initiative marks China’s participation in the Middle East economic governance enters new level. The depth and result of China’s participation in the Middle East economic governance are affected by various factors.
This article addresses the issue of protection against domestic violence in both Jordanian law and international conventions. It does so by defining domestic violence and its various causes and by exploring the relevant global standards and best international practices for combating it. The article also deals with the reality of protection against domestic violence in Jordan by referring to the special protection of the family and to the related follow-up by national and governmental institutions, and the relevant national standards. The Law Regarding Protection from Domestic Violence (Law No. 6/2008) contains protective provisions and other treatments to reduce this phenomenon, but it fails to provide optimal protection against domestic violence. The article proposes a set of recommendations to improve national standards for protection against domestic violence so that Jordan's laws concerning protection against domestic violence conform to international standards.
