Publications

Countless combinations of tastes and textures shape the rich culinary landscape of the region. Bridging cultural differences and political rifts, food is a common thread for many in the Arabic speaking world. It is an essential part of a nation’s identity and sophisticated recipes are almost an issue of national pride: although most mouth-watering dishes are often the result of a long history of international migration of ingredients.

This year marks 50 years of occupation – a significant period, not only for Palestinians living inside historical Palestine, but indeed first and foremost for them. It means an accumulation of 50 years of dispossession, displacement and oppression, 50 years under threat of being evicted, of losing their fields, springs, orchards and homes. 50 years without political and civil rights, without a future for themselves and their offspring. 50 years of despair and shattered hopes.

The Tunisian coalition for the rights of LGBTIQ people submits this report on the situation of the LGBTQI community on the occasion of the Universal Periodic Review of Tunisia scheduled for May 2017.

Demokratie und Demokratisierung erscheinen derzeit als gefährliche Luxusgüter. Dieses E-Paper bietet einen einführenden Überblick in die Reihe „Stabilität ist eine Illusion“ zu den aktuellen Entwicklungen in zentralen Politikfeldern Ägyptens.

Brutal regime repression, including rape and torture in detention, has initiated and fueled radicalization amoung youth activists who had originally adopted non-violent strategies.

The Egyptian economy is in continuous decline. To a significant extent, this crisis is a result of the ways in which the current rulers have secured their power and avoided social unrest.

Despite waging a «war on terror» for more than three years, the current Egyptian leadership has failed to provide lasting security. Instead of focusing on the real terrorist threats that do exist, the security approach was exploited to silence and remove political opponents and to squash resistance against authoritarian rule.

Contrary to external appearances and official propaganda, the Egyptian Armed Forces are not a unified and cohesive actor, and Abdelfattah al-Sisi is far from being an undisputed leader.

When women in the Middle East make the headlines, it is usually as victims. Disturbing stories of the so called 'Islamic State' (ISIS) kidnapping and raping tens of thousands of women are sadly often the ones which stick in the Western memory. But there is more to women's political lives in the region than their victimisation and oppression. We decided to look to the future, present and past in this issue, in order to present an alternative narrative which challenges these representations of women.

In Paris in December 2015 the parties to the UN Climate Convention agreed to keep global warming „well below“ 2 degrees Celsius, ideally at only 1,5 degrees by 2100.