Papers by Anoush Ehteshami
Rome, IAI, March 2023, 19 p. (IAI Papers ; 23|07), ISBN 978-88-9368-287-9, 2023
China's engagement with Asian regions beyond its geographical periphery has grown exponentially s... more China's engagement with Asian regions beyond its geographical periphery has grown exponentially since the 1990s and this is nowhere more evident than in West Asia and the Persian Gulf subregion. While energy drove China's early interactions with the Gulf states, within two decades after the Cold War the relationships had evolved into much tighter networks of partnerships. China's relations with the Gulf states, however, has not been uniform and the case studies of the United Arab Emirates and Iran highlight the complexities of China's strategy in this subregion and the ways in which it actively pursues its diverse set of interests.
European Journal of International Relations, 2004
Emanuel Adler, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Mathias Albert, University of Bielefeld; Pierre Al... more Emanuel Adler, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Mathias Albert, University of Bielefeld; Pierre Allan, University of Geneva; Ali Ansari, Exeter University; Daniele Archibugi, London School of Economics and Political Science; Mohammed Ayoob, Michigan State University; Kanti Bajpai, The Doon School; David Baldwin, Columbia University; Michael Barnett, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Jens Bartelson, Copenhagen University; Jean Beate, University of Sussex; Seyla Benhabib, Yale University; Colin Bennett, University of Victoria; Thomas Biersteker, Brown University; Morten Boas, Institute for Applied International Studies (FAFO); James Bohmann, Saint Louis University; John Boli, Emory University; James K. Boyce, University of Massachusetts at Amherst; George W. Breslauer, University of California, Berkeley; Charlotte Bretherson, Liverpool John Moores University; André, Brodocz, Technical University of Bremen; Stephen G. Brooks, Dartmouth College; Chris Browning, University of Birmingham; Victor BulmerThomas, Royal Institute of International Affairs; Henry F. Carey, Georgia State University; William K. Carroll, University of Victoria; Munevver Cebeci, European Community Institute; Lars-Erik Cederman, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich; Philip Cerny, University of Manchester; Victor Cha, Georgetown University; David Chandler, University of Westminster; Fred Chernoff, Colgate University; Thomas Christiansen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Molly Cochran, Georgia Institute of Tecnology; JeanMarc Coicaud, United Nations University; Damon Coletta, United States Air Force Academy; Costas Constantinou, University of Birmingham; Martin L. Cook, United States Air Force Academy; Neta Crawford, Brown
Global Policy, 2018
In 2013 China embarked on a new path of engagement with its Asian neighbours, a process which jus... more In 2013 China embarked on a new path of engagement with its Asian neighbours, a process which just three years later resulted in Asia's most daring and ambitious macroeconomic undertaking-an 'initiative' now known as China's Belt and Road Initiative. The BRI has the potential to transform Asia's political economy and the level of political, institutional and financial support from Beijing is underlining the importance of this major initiative to the world's fast-emerging largest economy. The success of the BRI will place China at the heart of the international system and help it build strong organic networks across Asia, and into Europe and East Africa. But it is in the outlying regions such as Central Asia and the Middle East that the BRI's metal will be tested, as indeed China's resilience as a major power. If China is able to overcome the geopolitical, cultural, institutional and socioeconomic barriers of these Asian regions then it will have made some headway towards creating Asia's first international community, arguably an 'Asian international society'. China and the BRI China's 'New Silk Road' and 'Maritime Silk Road' concepts, launched in 2013, offered the opportunity to create new transport hubs across the countries of Southeast, Central Asia, the Middle East. What started out as a tentative attempt to extend China's economic relations with its Asian hinterland had ballooned, just two years later, into a major national priority of the People's Republic to change the political economy of Eurasia. China now has developed the vision, narrative, as well as the tools for a substantial global presence (Horesh, 2017). Thus, in May 2017 President Xi Jinping hosted the 'Silk Road Summit for International Cooperation', and in front of dozens of heads of state in Beijing he underlined China's resolve to proceed with the BRI. With $1 trillion already allocated and "several more trillion [to] follow in the coming decade", no doubt has been left regarding the financial viability of the BRI and Chinese commitment to it (Cafiero, and Wagner, 2017). Making it 'a priority' and ensuring its inclusion in the Party's amended constitution at the 19 th congress of the Communist Party of China in October 2017, the Chinese leadership has left little doubt as to the centrality of this initiative to its redefining of China's global role (Panda, 2017). The construction of the transport routes, ports and other infrastructural facilities, across over 65 sovereign countries, offers the promise of a new Eurasian order in which China provides the hub and its Silk Road partners the spokes of an integrated post-Western economic order. The BRI agenda is multifaceted; it is political (designed to enhance the legitimacy and valour of the Party at home-to build the 'China Dream'); it is economic (in not only aiming to spread economic growth to Chinese western regions but also
The geopolitics of the Mediterranean region has been changing rapidly in the twenty-first century... more The geopolitics of the Mediterranean region has been changing rapidly in the twenty-first century, partly as a result of local state dynamics and partly as a product of transformational changes at the international and broader regional levels. The European Union is therefore no longer the dominant or key actor in this region and it now has to balance its policies and interests against the perceptible influence of a range of major and regional powers. The major powers exhibiting clear influence are the United States, China and the Russian Federation, each pursuing its own set of interests in this area. Alongside them are a number of regional powers, several of which are relative newcomers that bring with them very different priorities for and narratives about the Mediterranean region: Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. And then there are the "resident regional powers" of Turkey and Israel which have considerable presence in the Mediterranean and which also have longstanding rela...
This paper examines the discourse and practices of Iran in the areas of water and agriculture, ec... more This paper examines the discourse and practices of Iran in the areas of water and agriculture, economy, migration and political ideas, to test Iran's approach and also its influence in various fields. Drawing on a critical discourse analysis approach, it engages with published documents, elite discourses, and public narratives of Iranian leaders and intellectual elites to better understand the country's changing role and influence as well as policies and role perceptions in the Mediterranean area. Examining its alternative discourses, the paper aims at highlighting the conflicting, competing, as well as converging, policies and visions of these actors regarding the EU's policies and engagements.
Report from the DIIS-Durham University Conference ‘One Belt, One Road and China’s Westward Pivot’... more Report from the DIIS-Durham University Conference ‘One Belt, One Road and China’s Westward Pivot’ links China’s contemporary geopolitical and economic ambitions of the One Belt One Road (OBOR) Initiative with the country’s historical, cultural and lingual heritages of the ancient Silk Road. By bringing together a distinguished group of international experts, the conference examines the OBOR and the Silk Road from an interdisciplinary perspective and multiple viewpoints, including international relations, political economy, China’s development politics, archaeological and historical evidence, and transcultural flows. In particular, the conference aims to address the following key questions: What are China’s objectives in launching OBOR and how is OBOR seen from Central and Western Asian perspectives? To what extent the historical memory and cultural identities define the success or failure of OBOR and China’s other initiatives in Central and Western Asia? How does the current discour...
El presente articulo parte de la constatacion de que desde el 11-S la politica internacional y lo... more El presente articulo parte de la constatacion de que desde el 11-S la politica internacional y los acontecimientos geopoliticos en Asia Occidental han afectado la percepcion de las autoridades iranies, que bajo el liderazgo del presidente conservador Mahmoud Ahmadinejad han securitizado ca da vez mas la politica del pais. Bajo el gobierno de Ahma dinejad, Teheran ha penetrado en un terreno nuevo y sin explorar tanto en politica interna como en las relaciones exteriores. Y, si bien su primer mandato estuvo lleno de acon tecimientos en muchos frentes, se puede afirmar que la naturaleza de su reeleccion para un segundo mandato, en junio de 2009, hara que su presidencia sea todavia mas precaria que antes, con un regimen mas vulnerable a la presion interna. Veremos tambien como la inquietud por la probabilidad cada vez mayor de que se produzca una confrontacion directa entre Iran e Israel ha aumentado la tension en la region y ha intensificado la preocupacion sobre la orientacion de la e...
Choice Reviews Online, 1992
Iran has now become an autonomous actor on the international scene and a focus of the Islamic wor... more Iran has now become an autonomous actor on the international scene and a focus of the Islamic world. Khomeini's "neither East nor West" approach to foreign politics and his insistence on Islamic belief as the mainspring of political action have helped lead to a decade of destructive war and to a legacy of hostility with, amongst others, the USA over Irangate and hostage-taking and the UK over the Salman Rushdie affair. Nevertheless, Iran remains an inspiration to many Islamic and Third World countries and the revolution has proved durable, if not exportable. Examining the main features of Iran's foreign policy over the last decade, this book assesses the state's relations with the United Nations, the superpowers, Europe and Iraq. Although the Islamic revolution has made Iran a significant force in the international arena, it is argued that current events in the Gulf states have now created a very different set of foreign policy challenges and options.
Governance, Contestation, and Regime Resilience in Syria and Iran, 2013
ABSTRACT Examines how far external factors contributed to authoritarian regime resilience in Syri... more ABSTRACT Examines how far external factors contributed to authoritarian regime resilience in Syria and Iran, examining political capital (legitimacy from resistence to imperialism); financial capital (rent from aid and hydrocarbons) and human capital (such as the impact of returning or exiting expatriates.
Islam, IS, and the Fragmented State, 2020
We describe the mass spectrum of light pseudoscalar and axial mesons in the context of the modifi... more We describe the mass spectrum of light pseudoscalar and axial mesons in the context of the modified soft wall model with an extra UV cutoff. In order to include the pseudoscalar and axial states, we define an anomalous dimension that shifts the conformal dimension of the non-interacting bulk fields such that the parity behavior of those states is included, thus inducing chiral symmetry breaking. This idea contrasts with the usual approach that uses interacting scalar, vector and axial bulk fields to give rise the spectrum. Using the extra UV cutoff approach, we can fit six η and six a1 organized in radial trajectories with an RMS error close to 16.9%. We also confirm that chiral symmetry is restored in this model after checking that highly excited ρ and a1 states become degenerate.
This paper aims to provide MEDRESET Work Package 2 (WP2) partners with the conceptual<br> a... more This paper aims to provide MEDRESET Work Package 2 (WP2) partners with the conceptual<br> and methodological guidelines that we will pursue in our research. The primary theoretical<br> approach to be used in our research is constructivism and discourse analysis, as elaborated in<br> the WP1 concept paper. The purpose of WP2 is to observe the changing role and influence of<br> different leading stakeholders (the US, Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, and Israel)<br> in the Mediterranean area, as well as their policies,2 in order to show how they construct the<br> region which is called the Mediterranean and to see if these policies are conflicting, competing<br> or converging with the EU's policies.3 This paper provides the framework for such an analysis,<br> encouraging our partners to design their research in such a way as to support the argument<br> that challenges and problematizes the Western and Euro-centr...
This paper will examine the discourse and practices of the two most active GCC countries in the M... more This paper will examine the discourse and practices of the two most active GCC countries in the Mediterranean, and will conduct its analysis through a discussion of such highlighted issues as economy, migration and political ideas. Adopting content discourse analysis, this paper studies documents from Saudi Arabia and Qatar to help better understand these countries' changing role and influence, as well as their policies and role perceptions in the Mediterranean area. Investigating their alternative discourses, the paper will highlight the conflicting, competing and also converging policies and visions of these actors regarding EU policies.
Anoush Ehteshami Professor Anoush Ehteshami is Professor of International Relations and Head of t... more Anoush Ehteshami Professor Anoush Ehteshami is Professor of International Relations and Head of the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University. He was Vice President of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) 2000-2003. His book-length publications since 2000 include Reform in the Middle East Oil Monarchies (coeditor); Globalization and Geopolitics in the Middle East: Old Games, New Rules; Iran and the Rise of Its Neoconservatives: The Politics of Tehran’s Silent Revolution (with Mahjoob Zweiri); The Middle East’s Relations With Asia and Russia (coeditor); The Foreign Policies of Middle East States (coeditor); Iran’s Security Policy in the Post-Revolutionary Era (coauthor); Iran and Eurasia (coeditor).
British Journal of …
This bibliography was compiled at the request of the Institute of Arab Manuscripts ostensibly to ... more This bibliography was compiled at the request of the Institute of Arab Manuscripts ostensibly to assist the activities of the Al Albait Foundation in Jordan in their declared aim of creating a union catalogue of all Arabic manuscripts in the world. The compiler, Korkees Awad ...
A small army of friends, colleagues and interested officials in Europe and the Middle East had th... more A small army of friends, colleagues and interested officials in Europe and the Middle East had thrust upon them by ourselves the unenviable task of keeping us on track, as well as helping us to develop and refine our ideas about the Syrian-Iranian alliance itself, the two states' ...
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Papers by Anoush Ehteshami
A special programme of visual art, film and discussions to mark the occasion of the centenary of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and examine the global implications of revolution today.
This special programme of screenings and discussions examines the paradoxes of revolutionary cycles over the last 100 years. It foregrounds the global reach of revolutionary events, moving from Latin America to the Middle East, from China to the former Soviet Union, from North Africa to Europe.