Orientalism, a concept coined by the renowned American intellectual Edward Said has attracted praise and controversy in equal measure. While remaining Said’s definitive scholarly work, its thesis is a condensation of themes found in his other works such as The Question of Palestine and Covering Islam. To be concise, Orientalism can be defined as the…
Category: Politics
All the articles that come under politics domain.
An overview of the most important policy issues on Turkey’s agenda
Turkey’s political history has had many notable achievements and as well as some obvious failures. Geographically located at the joint of Europe, Asia and Arabia, the nation’s demography is culturally, linguistically and religiously diversified. Generally, policy making is conducted within the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic. The Prime Minister is the head of…
Book Review: All the Shah’s Men – An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer
The book All the Shah’s Men was written by American journalist Stephen Kinzer. The subject matter of the book is the America backed coup-de-tat carried out in Iran in 1953, in which its incumbent Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh was forcefully replaced by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The latter was loyal to Western interests and it…
Legitimacy and the Triumph of the Will
In global geo-politics, the term legitimacy comes up for discussion quite often. This is especially true with regards to a government’s military actions in its foreign affairs. But a distinction will have to be made between ‘legitimacy’ and ‘legality’. ‘Legitimacy’ is seen as a matter of keeping to the spirit of the law, where as…
Nation and the Politics of Congo
While today Congo operates within a Democratic Republic framework, till as recently as 2005 the concept of nationhood is not familiar to the population. The region of Congo had for most part of the twentieth century been ruled by Belgium. And after the withdrawal of Belgian imperial rule in 1960, the region was torn apart…
Comparative sketches of Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin
Hu Jintao is the present Paramount Leader of the People’s Republic of China. He also holds other positions in high office, including the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since 2003. He is also the acting Chairman of the Central Military Commission for the last 7 years. His association with Communist Party of…
Biological and Anthropological Theories of War vis-a-vis the War on Terror
There were numerous stated motivations for the ongoing War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. But ever since intentions of war were mooted in the wake of September 11, 2001, many official statements of motivation have been discredited and disproved. The inefficient manner in which search operations for Osama-bin-laden was carried out showed that the…
Dangers posed by lack of diversity and representation in the mainstream media’s coverage
One of the talking points among the intelligentsia is the dangers posed by lack of diversity and representation in the mainstream media’s coverage, especially that of Television. This situation gives rise to production of news content that serves the interests of select media elite. This concentration of power in the hands of large media conglomerates…
A vignette on the Turkish Political System
Turkey’s political history has had many impressive achievements and also some glaring failures. Geographically located at the joint of Europe, Asia and Arabia, the nation’s demography is culturally, linguistically and religiously diversified. In general, policy making is conducted within the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic. The Prime Minister is the head of the…
The portrayal of Communism in Ayn Rand’s We the Living
‘We The Living’ is the first published work of Ayn Rand. The novel deals with Communism and its various drawbacks. Having escaped from Communist Russia into the United States during her late teens, the novel thus represents a first-hand view of her experiences in Russia. In this sense, the novel can be considered part autobiographical…