#pos495ljamison

Being one of the most important and pivotal states, Iran has a very unique place in the world and it is a prominent member of the Middle Eastern equation. As Iran sees themselves as the dominant state in the Persian Gulf region, they have created a great deal of antagonism between the United States and themselves with the current government. The Iranian nuclear program has been the major fuel to the U.S.-Iranian enmity. The United States maintains that the purpose of the nuclear program is to develop and produce nuclear weapons, an outcome that is highly opposed in nonproliferation principle and because it fears the radical Iranian regime might use weapon it obtains irresponsibly.

After reaching a preliminary framework in April, negotiators are trying to finalize a deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program. According to the New York Times Iran has agreed to providing the International Atomic Energy Agency greater access and information regarding its nuclear program, and to allow the agency to investigate suspicious sites or allegations of covert facilities related to uranium enrichment anywhere in the country. Inspectors will also have access to the supply chain that supports Iran’s nuclear program, including uranium mines and mills, and to continuous surveillance of centrifuge manufacturing and storage facilities.

“The commission of atrocious acts against a target population normally to gain compliance with some demands the terrorists insist upon”, Terrorism as defined by Donald Snow (312). After the tragedies of 9/11 the United States declared a "global war on terrorism" (Snow 320). In 2001 and onwards the focus of the war was Al Qaeda and the Taliban regimes that existed in the Middle East. Today, the focus has shifted and we now have new threats. Popularly known as ISIS they also go by a few other names such as Islamic State, ISOL and, Daesh. ISIS differs from Al-Qaeda because unlike them it wants more than to strike the West, rather, it wants to construct a state with strict Islamic law and beliefs (Films on Demand).

 In December, The New York Times published confidential comments by Major General Michael K. Nagata, the Special Operations commander for the United States in the Middle East, admitting that he had hardly begun figuring out the Islamic State’s appeal. “We have not defeated the idea,” he said. “We do not even understand the idea.” In the past year, President Obama has referred to the Islamic State, variously, as “not Islamic” and as al-Qaeda’s “jayvee team,” statements that reflected confusion about the group, and may have contributed to significant strategic errors.

The group seized Mosul, Iraq, last June, and already rules an area larger than the United Kingdom. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been its leader since May 2010, but until last summer, his most recent known appearance on film was a grainy mug shot from a stay in U.S. captivity at Camp Bucca during the occupation of Iraq. Then, on July 5 of last year, he stepped into the pulpit of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul, to deliver a Ramadan sermon as the first caliph in generations upgrading his resolution from grainy to high-definition, and his position from hunted guerrilla to commander of all Muslims. The inflow of jihadists that followed, from around the world, was unprecedented in its pace and volume, and is continuing.

The Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across the Middle East in 2010. But their purpose, relative success and outcome remain hotly disputed in Arab countries, among foreign observers, and between world powers looking to cash in on the changing map of the Middle East. The uprising began in Tunisia and later spread to countries all across the Middle East. Syria, being one of the countries of the Arab Spring, started their peaceful protests on 26 January 2011 which escalated to an ongoing internal conflict, residents of the small southern town of Dara’a took to the streets to protest the torture of students who had put up anti-government graffiti.  The unrest spread to other parts of the country. Protesters demand reforms, the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, allowing political parties, equal rights for Kurds, and broad political freedoms, such as freedom of the press, speech and assembly. The Syrian government has made several concessions, though widely considered trivial by protesters. On 21 April, the government formally declared the repeal of an emergency law that had been in place since 1963 and which allowed the government sweeping authority to suspend constitutional rights. The same month the Syrian government launched the first of what became a series of crackdowns, sending tanks into restive cities as security forces opened fire on demonstrators. Security forces used tanks and snipers to force people off the streets. Water and electricity were shut off and security forces began confiscating flour and food in particularly restive areas. The conflict is complicated by Syria’s ethnic divisions. The Assads and much of the nation’s elite, especially the military's, belong to the Alawite sect, a small minority in a majority Sunni country.  By October, estimates for the death toll ranged above 2,900, and human rights groups said that well over 10,000 people had been arrested. Syrian dissidents formally established the Syrian National Council which included representatives from the Damascus Declaration group, a pro-democracy network; the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, a banned Islamic political party; various Kurdish factions; the Local Coordination Committees, a group that helps organize and document protests; and other independent and tribal figures.

Source: http://middleeast.about.com/od/humanrightsdemocracy/a/Definition-Of-The-Arab-Spring.htm

Week 6.

 The Arab spring is a movement that has risen in the late 2010 in the country of Tunisia It all started when a Tunisian street vendor set himself on fire in protest against the solicitation of bribe of a nearby official. Since then, this event has emerged on to become an “Awakening” and a movement. One of the countries from the Arab spring I’ve decided to go in depth about would have to be Egypt. In Egypt, it is the second major venue in which an Arab spring uprising had broken out and it has been the most prominent case (Snow, 2014). In January 25, 2011 was the televised demonstration event in Tahir Square in Cairo so that their leader, Mubarak could step down from office. I remember watching this on the news but never really understood the origin of the current events. Now I am able to construct the general issue altogether.. Due to Egypt’s financial situation, the movement was more difficult as well as the transitions.

Currently, it has been four years since the world televised demonstration in Tahir Square and since the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned during the Arab Spring. According to the article, information activists say that government surveillance is getting worse, not better. Basically The Ministry of Interior and other government officials have implemented more surveillance in the country but mainly for the “bad guys”. The reason behind this is to have a tight control on the internet activity in Egypt and to “make repression clearer and organized for the state.”(Ramy Raoof) They are using the U.K. and the U.S. as a model for their action of surveillance saying that” We are trying to keep up with other democracies around the world, to move our country forward in a direction like the U.S.,” (Ramy Raoof) Based on the article it seems as if Egypt believes if surveillance is used, more control on crime or suspicious events can be done.

Work Cited

Snow, Donald M. Cases in International Relations. Sixth ed. Boston: Pearson Long-man, 2012. Print

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/09/arab-spring-surveillance-egypt-intensifies/

Week 5: Terrorism

Why is it that terrorism is a daily reminder of how this world requires many more help than we thought it needed?. Terrorism is a complex term and derives from different meanings as well as different histories. Snow defines terrorism as, “the commission of atrocious acts against a target population normally to gain compliance with some demands the terrorists insist upon.” (Snow, 2014) When it comes to terrorism, the attacks of September 11, 2001 instantly come to mind due to the fact that it shares three common points of reference author Donald Snow explains which are: terrorist acts, terrorist targets, and terrorist purposes. Terrorism is that term that makes human beings cringe due to the severity of their actions as well as plots. The term has been popularized since the French Revolution until this day of age. Many of the attacks terrorists perform are acts that uniformly illegal and serves its general purpose, which is to “terror” others. Dealing with terrorism is both physically and intellectually difficult and one of the challenges America faces today is diminishing the acts of terrorism from being performed in our country from other well-known terrorist groups (i.e., Al Qaeda, ISIS).

In the article provided below, it speaks about the United Nations and Security Council condemning the terrorist attack that had took place on Thursday in Saudi Arabia, which resulted in the death of at least a dozen people, for which ISIL has claimed responsibility for. ISIL, is an acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which appears to be similar to ISIS.   The members of the UN are trying to figure out ways to stop the terrorizing and severe acts of terrorism, ISIL has been doing this past year. The article goes on to explain the UN emphasizedthat such “continued acts of barbarism perpetrated by ISIL do not intimidate them, but instead it stifles their resolve to counter ISIL and other terrorist groups. In essence, terrorism is a daily reminder of how much growth many countries need. It is hard trying to define terrorism because it consists of multiple components, origins, etc. In the end, the truth about terrorism is that it needs be removed for the betterment of a country.

                                                        Works Cited

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=51579#.VceSf_lVikp