This article examines factors that influence the stability of the Saudi political regime. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has faced serious threats that have had impacts on the country; however, none of them has threatened the survival of the Saudi royal family in the Kingdom. The Arab uprisings, the well-known Arab Spring, led to the collapse of political regimes in the Arab region surrounding Saudi Arabia, as in Egypt and Yemen. However, the Saudi political regime was able to overcome this wave of popular revolutions and changes. Thus, this study attempts to answer a major question: why is it difficult to topple the Saudi political regime? Whereas the country’s oil wealth or external protection by great powers, Great Britain in the past, and currently the United States, are seen as main factors in the stability of the Saudi political regime, it is suggested here that the key factor that has helped the Saudi political regime successfully confront all internal and external threats rests on the influence of the religious Wahhabi concept, called “ ta’at wali al-amr .”

This article argues that the Moroccan monarchy’s past political projects seek to perpetuate social representations and monarchial rituals. Moreover, the monarchy started with primitive strategies such as radical repression to maintain these representations. Meanwhile, through socio-historical changes, the Moroccan monarchy has been remarkably dynamic in adapting to the new social realities. This explains why the monarchy has reconstructed social representations. Thus, the resilience of the monarchy is not only due to its authoritative features, but in fact, due to the cultural foundations of authoritative relationships that exist in the Moroccan society as well.

This paper seeks to challenge the interpretations found in Western political philosophy on Oriental or Asian tyranny. The main research questions are: Is tyranny the inevitable fate of non-Western societies? To what extent do these societies tolerate political oppression? To provide initial answers, the paper analyzes certain aspects of tyrannical phenomenon found in some non-Western countries, in Arab, Asian, African, and Latin American contexts. It offers two new interpretive terms: “possible tyranny” and “impossible tyranny.” It suggests that each country inevitably has its own share of tyranny in both quantity and quality, for a period of time. However, if this type of tyranny oversteps certain boundaries in a country, that country will likely experience another kind of tyranny: impossible tyranny. The study offers preliminary definitions, an initial justification of these two terms, and suggests many questions for future studies.

For many decades, Egypt has been considered a distinctive society in which individuals from different nations with different backgrounds and ideologies can live. However, it seems that the Egyptian political, social, and media landscape has witnessed considerable shifts in the dimensions of such diversity. This study examines the contemporary Egyptian perspective on the presence of foreign correspondents and the radical change in Egypt’s regulations toward their work, and moreover, the repercussions of such policies that might be affecting the safety, level of freedom, and sometimes the whole identity of foreign correspondents in Egypt. Moreover, it examines the tactics with which the government seeks to accentuate the discourses of “Othering” in Egyptian public perceptions via whipping up hype in the media. Undoubtedly, the events experienced by Egypt between 25 January 2011 and the present have changed the idea the state and society have of foreigners, in general, and foreign correspondents, in particular. Some indicators confirmed that a state of “xenophobia” has been escalating over the past nine years. Foreign correspondents and journalists have been among the groups harmed by this sentiment, to the detriment of their working conditions. Results show that the transitional period that followed Hosni Mubarak’s toppling in 2011 until today has witnessed many transformations in the handling of foreign correspondents’ work in Egypt. There have been attacks on and expulsions of journalists from Al Arabiya, Al Jazeera, The Associated Press, the BBC, CBS, CNN, Danish television, and others.

According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), gender inequality is the loss in potential human development that occurs due to differences between the genders in achievements with respect to health, empowerment, and labor market participation. These differences in achievements typically favor men. Gender inequality is especially visible in the Arab world. We compare gender inequality in Arab countries with that in non-Arab countries, especially developed countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). We argue that cross-national differences in gender inequality reflect cross-national differences in patriarchy, in particular differences in how men use their power over women to limit their agency or ability to make decisions for themselves. We set out a causal model to account for cross-national variations in gender inequality. Direct causes include fertility rate, per capita income, polygamy, OECD country, and corruption. Gender inequality in Arab countries is highly variable due to large differences in per capita income and is elevated because of polygamy and corruption. Arab countries can enact policies that would reduce gender inequality, especially improvements to women’s secondary and higher education. We analyze gender inequality in the Arab world and address the following questions: Is gender inequality greater in Arab countries? Among countries in the world generally, what differences in patriarchal practices contribute to differences in gender inequality? Where are Arab countries found with respect to such practices? What policies in Arab countries would reduce gender inequality? Our focus is upon cross-national differences in gender inequality, not upon differences in gender inequality within societies.

This study compiles historical information to highlight the role played by both East and West European countries in the creation of Israel since before World War I. East European countries, especially Russia, Poland, and Romania, were as effective in this regard as the West Europeans. While racial policies were paramount in East Europe, including Germany, religious and strategic policies were as effective in the West, especially in Britain. Two points can be redrawn in this regard: That the question of Palestine was a Western question on both sides of the continent; it had nothing to do with the Eastern question that engulfed the Ottoman Empire before and during World War I. Additionally while World War II did not start the process of creating Israel, it accelerated it since the United States became an active supporter of the Zionist project. The second conclusion explains why all major powers give so much latitude to Israel, regardless of its constant neglect of international law to this very day.

The study re-examines the phenomenon of “Arab exceptionalism” from the perspective of human rights’ recognition. The formal changes introduced since 2004 in the new Arab bills of rights (comprising the Arab Charter on Human Rights plus the bills of rights of the new constitutions of Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt) are presented and analyzed with the purpose of answering the following questions: From a descriptive–analytical perspective, are the new Arab bills of rights adopting similar designs? From a formal perspective, do these new designs imply a shift with respect to previous patterns of Arab exceptionalism? Finally, from an explanatory perspective, is there an evolutionary rationale accounting for the specific designs adopted in the new Arab bills of rights?

The study identifies the contribution of Jordanian civil society institutions to the enhancement of political trends that signify the beginnings of democracy. This leads to constructive and innovative thought by ensuring freedom of opinion and expression, while the absence of democracy generates a state of political and ideological despotism. The loss of basic rights and freedom of individuals negatively affects political stability of countries’ religious and moral trends, as well as developmental trends which represent an enhancement of ideological security. Ideological security is a key issue in any society due to its association with the concept of national security. The researchers in this study adopt a quantitative approach in which a questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection. The study sample consisted of 1093 male and female students who were chosen by multistage sampling. The study instrument consisted of two parts: first, the demographic variables; and second, the 24 items that measured the process of enhancing ideological security with its three dimensions. The responses to the items were measured according to the Likert five-point scale. The study had several results. First, there is a low level of contribution from Jordanian civil society institutions to the enhancement of ideological security on the whole, and enhancing each trend in particular. The first part addresses the formation of ideological conceptualization, while the second part focuses on analyzing the dimensions of societal processing with the contribution of religious, educational, familial, security, and media institutions, whereas the third part emphasizes several future recommendations that are suggested by the researcher. Second, there are no differences in the level of the contribution of Jordanian civil society institutions to the enhancement of political, religious and, moral trends, while there is a difference regarding the level of contribution of Jordanian civil society institutions to the enhancement of developmental trends according to the variable of gender in favor of females. Third, there are differences in the level of contribution of the Jordanian civil society institutions to the enhancement of ideological security for each of the three domains: political, developmental, and religious, in particular, as well as all the domains as a whole in terms of the variable of membership of civil society institutions and these differences were in favor of the students who were not members of these institutions.