Syria changed from a seemingly stable and slowly modernising country to the site of a regional conflict in a matter of months. The factors of escalation are to be sought in three interrelated aspects: in the power structures of the Asad regime, that choose to deal with the reverberations of the Arab Spring through intensified security alone; in the transformation of social protest into a sectarian conflict; in the unconditional support that all sides receive from abroad. As a result, Syria ceased to be what it was three years ago: a country, a state, and a society., Zora Hesová., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The Egyptian army was the actor whose decisions during the Egyptian uprising of 2011 mattered most. Should the army have decided to support the regime, the revolution might have ended, at best, with thousands of casualties; at worst, it might have followed the bloody Syrian scenario of a civil war. Yet, after a long period of waiting and hesitation the military leadership eventually opted to support the demonstrators. In this respects, the underlying aim of this study is to scrutinize the key decision of the Egyptian military not to intervene in favor of Mubarak's regime. By exploring the borader context of the military's role in the Egyptian political and economic life, this study seeks to illuminate not only the army's decision to "betray" Mubarak's regime, but also the controversial performance of the army after the revolution., Helena Burgrová., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The short war waged in the autumn of 1962 between India and China for disputed territory in High Himalayas had a long-term devasting effect on the relations between the two Asian powers. The present first part of a study recapitulating the genesis of the dispute and subsequent road to military confrontation maps the origins of the problem in the colonial period of Indian history, with particular focus on changes in British cdecision making in the evolving international context. The one-sided furthering of territorial claims in the absence of a strong and determined adversary led, paradoxically, to parallel exdistence of several alternative frontier lines with no fixed and clearly demarcated border in existence along the extended Indo-Tibetan boundary. The second instalment will follow the developments in the dramatically changed conditions after the emergence in the 1950s of India and China as two strong independent nations., Jaroslav Strnad., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Secularism and state policies toward religion represent one of the most important issues in Turkey aver since the establishment of the republic in 1923. This contribution briefly summarizes the interpretation of secularism a la turca under the Kemalist leadership and highlights the significant changes that have happened in this area under the AKP government of Prime Minister Recep Tayip Endogan after 2002. The AKP's attempts to introduce Islam-based morality into public space waswelcomed by various religious communities while diminished pressure from the state authorities allowed religiously oriented Turkish movements to act more freely. With the AKP's consolidation of power, the Hizmet movement of Fethullah Gülen finally forged a closer alliance with Ergodan's government and so became an important source of political and economic support both in Turkey and abroad. THe article also shows that the "moderate" secularism as experienced under the current government relaxed the pressure on vocational schools for imams and preachers and transformed the understanding of the state Sunni-Muslim "Church" organization (Diyanet) in the eyes of former hard-line Islamists. Secular circles, however, reject these developments and new trends as signs of continuous Islamization., Gabriel Pirický., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The "Occupy Gezi" protest movement which swept through Istambul and many other Turkish cities in the summer of 2013 started as an ecological protest to save one of the last green areas of Istanbul. After a brutal police crackdown on protesters and the Prime Minister's unbending stance, the protests spread to the rest of the country in support of the young people who were rebelling against the AKP's increasingly authoritarian style of rule and against the gradual Islamization of Turkish politics and society. This article focuses on the creativity of protesters who, through their use of social media such as Twitter, showed that revolutions need not be about throuwing stones and Molotov coctails, but can instead be about playing with words and undermining the ruling elite's insulting remarks with sarcasm and wit. This postmodern revolution took place in a public space which resembled an art scene where singers artists, students and others joined to create a carneval of civic disobedience based on passive resistence, solidarity and humor., Gabriela Özel Volfová., and Obsahuje bibliografii