Volume 1 - isbn 978-88-8311-288-1 [ordina]
Valeria Fiorani Piacentini-Elena Maestri, The Many Shores of the Gulf. Human Security within an Islamic Order. Education in the “Arabian Debate”

The paper is largely based on the authors’ speech at the Gulf Economic Forum “Facing Challenges & Emerging Opportunities”, Muscat (Oman), November 2002, and on Valeria Piacentini Fiorani’s intervention at the 14th International Conference on the Persian Gulf “Regional Developments in the Aftermath of Iraq Occupation”, Tehran (Iran), February 2004. Within such prestigious contexts of regional and international debate and discussion on the synergies and the potential of the Gulf States, the topic of education and human resources development emerged as a pivotal one, opening up the way to new thinking and ideas on the role of leadership as well.

Volume 2 - isbn 978-88-8311-289-8 [ordina]
Ioannis Theodor Mazis, The Mediterranean Geopolitical Structure and the Matter of Resolving the Cyprus Issue in Accordance with the Annan Plan with an essay on The New Geopolitical Reality and its Ideological Requirements.

This paper focuses on the question of discovering the keystone of the South-Eaest (SE) Mediterranean geopolitical shell which is located on the crucial security problem faced by the state of Israel as well as on the question of how the Greek and Greek-Cypriot sides will cope with the impetuously immediate resolution of the Cyprus Issue in accordance with the Annan Plan on “a Comprehensive Settlement of the Cyprus Problem” which creates a new strategic image for Cyprus with significant medium and short term repercussions for the entire SE Mediterranean geopolitical complex – and the Greco-Turkish & Turk-Cypriot relations.

Volume 3 - isbn 978-88-8311-308-6 [ordina]
Taleh Ziyadov, The Baku-Ceyhan Pipeline And its Potential Impact on Turkish-Russian Relations.

Turkish-Russian relations have been undergoing fundamental changes since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The emergence of oil rich independent states in the Caucasus and Central Asia intensified the historical rivalry for the geopolitical dominance and has attracted both regional players. Each player had its own agenda with regard to vast oil and gas resources of the Caspian basin and its transportation to the West. Russia proposed the Baku-Novorossiysk route, which was to pass through Russian territory, thus seizing full control of both Azerbaijan’s oil resources and its domestic policy. Turkey, on the other hand, supported the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, which was to bypass Russia and go through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

Volume 4 - isbn 978-88-8311-320-8 [ordina]
Renaud Bellais, La Maîtrise des Mers face aux Défis de la Mondialisation.

Le présent rapport a pour objectif d’évaluer la pertinence de la notion de “maîtrise des mers” au-delà des implications de l’après-guerre froide et ses implications pour la France. La question est abordée à partir des différentes activités maritimes – aussi bien civiles que militaires, publiques que privées – de manière à souligner les enjeux existants (ou pouvant apparaître) et les missions qu’elles engendrent (ou pourraient engendrer) pour les pouvoirs publics et notamment pour la Marine Nationale.

This report aims at evaluating the relevance of the notion of dominance of the seas beyond the post-Cold War period, and its implications for France and Europe. The issue is analysed from various points of view (civilian, military, public, private) to underline current or emerging stakes and challenges. Our work eventually analyses the resulting missions for public services, especially the French Navy.

Volume 6 - isbn 978-88-8311-359-8 [ordina]
Mirachian Laura, Syria and its Neighbourhood.

Due to its traditional low degree of communication with the outside world, Syria is hardly known to the general public, although academicians and scholars highly value its cultural depth and are regular visitors to its cultural heritage which dates back centuries and millenniums. Syria had been populated thousands of years when the Romans arrived. Subsequent cultural layers can be traced everywhere in the Country and the cities of Damascus, Aleppo and others look literally as books of history. The image of the Country has also been affected by its longstanding dispute with Israel. The overall perception in the West is that of an hardliner Country, difficult to understand and difficult to handle. This is partially true, as Syrians developed a deep sense of collective consciousness and dignity and are not willing to give it up. They are historically familiar both with the West and the East and they have the advantage of belonging to the Mediterranean family. This will help them to make the right choices when confronted with the challenges of this millennium.

Volume 7 - isbn 978-88-8311-370-3 [ordina]
Mashary A. Al-Naim, Political Influences And Paradigm Shifts in The Contemporary Arab Cities: Questioning The Identity of Urban Form.

Searching for social and urban identity in contemporary Arab cities can be seen from the debate that took place in the beginning of the twentieth century when Arab intellectuals questioned the local situation and tried to adopt western culture. This debate goes back to the beginning of the nineteenth century when Mohammed Ali (the governor of Egypt) took over after French withdrawal from Egypt. What we are trying to say here is that the crises of identity in the contemporary Arab cities need to be understood through the political and cultural situations that influenced the formation of modern Arab cities and architecture. In general the study addresses four paradigms that Arab urbanization has passed through. These paradigms are closely linked to the political events that took place in the region. This is because, as Stewart (2001) said: “in the Arabic-Islamic cities there is an interconnection between spiritual and political”. In this sense, it is difficult to understand what happened in the Arab towns without understanding the connection between religion and politics. In this study a number of examples are from the Arab cities presented, but there is a special reference to Saudi urban experience, especially when we come to the modernization of the Arab town in the second half of the twentieth century.

Volume 10 - isbn 978-88-8311-437-3 [ordina]
Mashary A. Al-Naim, The Home Environment in Saudi Arabia and Gulf States. Growth of Identity Crises and Origin of Identity. Vol.I.

This book reflects the interplay of these various aspects. It provides fresh evidence and overviews that, in turn, lead to specific case studies, such as that of Hofuf. All in all it provides new, fresh “thoughts”, to stimulate further research and new studies, to shed new light and enable this region to be explored from north to south: a major cultural, economic, demographic, urban study. This is extraordinary given the international significance of the Gulf: no longer and not only a lake of globalised, westernised economic opportunities, but still a route to many other places, a bridge between the Mediterranean basin and the Indian Ocean, between Arabia, Africa and the Asian continent, where its cities have always been prominent centres of power and civilisation, which determined the fortunes of the world revolving around it for millennia. We are facing a well-documented identity and culture no longer neglected or ignored vs. a Westernised modernity. We are confronted with solid and well-documented reality, which provides a new impending model of “home environment” and identity.

Volume 11 - isbn 978-88-8311-439-7 [ordina]
Mashary A. Al-Naim, The Home Environment in Saudi Arabia and Gulf States. The Dilemma of Cultural Resistance Identity in Transition. Vol. II.

The questions which this chapter tries to highlight are: What was the situation when people in traditional Gulf environment moved from the old city to the new suburbs? To what extent did they maintain or change their identity in the new home environments? We will concentrate on one of the cities (Hofuf, Eastern Saudi Arabia) to build a clear picture of how people regenerate their images in the home environment. This study is concerned with the continuity and change of identity of Hofuf’s home environment. The city, as have we said, underwent continuous change in the twentieth century. This brought the issue of identity to the centre stage. Generally the present chapter aims to implement a diachronic study of the development of the house form in Hofuf (as an example of the Gulf city) in the twentieth century, and specifically between 1904 and 1975. The emphasis will be on the ways that the people of Hofuf followed in order to absorb the new concepts and to redefine themselves in the home environment. We will also consider some aspects of the contemporary home environment, especially the production of the fereej system.

Volume 13 - isbn 978-88-8311-501-1 [ordina]
Maurice Borrmans, Dialogues, rencontres et points de contact entre musulmans et chrétiens dans une dimension historique.

L’Islam, religion dont Muhammad est le prophète-fondateur, en Arabie, au début du VIIème siècle, s’est presque aussitôt opposé aux deux monothéismes qui l’ont précédé, se proposant d’en faire une re-lecture critique. En effet, le Coran, qui en est le «livre sacré», se présente souvent en forme polémique vis-à-vis des Juifs et des Chrétiens, tout en recommandant aux Musulmans de s’adresser aux «Gens du Livre» avec sagesse et de la manière la plus courtoise. Nombreuses sont les hypothèses qui sont avancées pour interpréter les motifs ou les causes de ce malentendu initial (ou fondamental) ou d’un dialogue manqué (ou «raté») entre les premiers Musulmans et les autres Monothéistes, étant donné que l’Islam naissant a prétendu corriger le Judaïsme des Juifs et le Christianisme des Chrétiens pour les ramener au pur Monothéisme des origines, celui d’Abraham, le héraut du «premier Islam».

Volume 14 - isbn 978-88-8311-546-2 [ordina]
Valeria Fiorani Piacentini–Elena Maestri, From Tribe To State. Perspectives on Identità, Social and Cultural Dynamics in Eastern Arabia. Vol. I.

Modernization, progress, efficiency, growth, production do not clash with principles such as social justice and economic progress, as they do not clash with the search for identity, translating social resistance into new forms: the perceptual and collective identities in public and domestic spaces, the process of identification, the phenomenon of continuity and change of identity. The emergence of a modern Administration, a Bureaucracy, and the development of oil can be considered the two major processes that affected the authority system and the new state structures formation within tribal systems in the Arab Gulf region and Eastern Arabia. The social bases of power were transformed and the traditional economy was wiped out. The search and exploitation of fresh sources of wealth and new markets caused the Arab Gulf tribal leaders to forge particularly close links with the expanding Western world, which earned them a privileged position and a reorganised social rank – a sort of institutional formalisation of their new power and role, including bureaucratic-patrimonial positions (of a fiscal nature too), which did not imply any prejudice to their patrimonialism and the local traditional power-system based on the tribal structure. The studies collected in this volume and in the following one explore from different perspectives some implications of such a crucial socio-cultural phase and epoch in Arabia, by shedding light on specific and particularly significant issues and realities.

Volume 15 - isbn 978-88-8311-602-5 [ordina]
Frauke Heard - Bey, From Tribe To State. Political Structure in Five States Of The Gcc. Vol. II.

At the beginning of the 20th century the population of Eastern Arabia was estimated at some 760,000 people. Almost all of them belonged to one of the 260 or more tribes, whose names were enumerated in the Gazetteer as a result of field work conducted between 1904 and 1907. This area is now covered by five modern states. They are the Sultanate of Oman, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the State of Qatar, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the State of Kuwait, making up five of the six member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council . All five states are members of the UN and many other international organisations; they have secured their particular roles on the world stage. For the purpose of tracing the process of transition from tribe to state the seven individual emirates, which now constitute the federal state of the UAE, should also be considered as states in their own right because many parallels can be seen, for instance, between Kuwait or Qatar and Dubai or other emirates in the ways in which authority of a tribal sheikh has developed into the use of executive and administrative power.

Volume 16 - isbn 978-88-8311-644-5 [ordina]
Anna Lissa, The City Of Many Times. The Representation Of Jerusalem in David Shahar’s Short Stories.

Many critics have acknowledged that David Shahar is “among the greatest narrators of Jerusalem”. We can fairly assume that the greatest part of landscapes he evokes and describes are Jerusalem’s landscapes: the new city or the old city, the perspectives from outside the city, and among them the most lovely and charming ones are taken from the Olives Mount. For him, “Jerusalem was not a conceptualized romantic myth, but a natural habitat which he had known ever since he had known himself. This paper will appraise the representation of the city, with its metaphorical meanings, in some short stories of David Shahar: where Jerusalem is represented at a crossroads between sacred time, namely the time of the creation of the world, and historical time, mostly the Mandate Period (1917-1948) in Palestine, when the author was a child: the city itself fluctuates between sacred and profane space. Other motifs are interwoven into this main one: the connection between the representation of the city and feminine characters, and the family saga that will become the central theme of the cycle The Palace of Shattered Vessels.