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Despite Turkey's changing political regimes, sports have remained under state governance since 1938. This article analyzes the ideologies, influences, and politics that have shaped this state monopoly over the sports system across three phases from the 1920s to the 1990s: establishment, stabilization, and instrumentalization. The establishment phase aimed to align sports with nation-building ideals, incorporating nationalist ideology and paramilitarism. The stabilization phase embraced a statist approach influenced by socio-economic conditions and Soviet influence. The instrumentalization phase, beginning with the Özal years, utilized sports for political discourse and socio-economic purposes, retaining the state-run system even during the era of neoliberalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the creation of Pakistan in 1947, the state has been struggling in nation-building efforts because of mainly ethnic differences in the country. This is most evident in Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province, which has been suffering from insurgency since the late 1950s. Being home to the Gwadar Port, there is a growing Baloch resistance to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) since 2015. This situation necessitates a thorough examination of how the locals view and have reacted to the CPEC. This research investigates Baloch reactions to the CPEC and how the federal and provincial governments as well as Beijing have tried to address these challenges. China's investment is seen by the Baloch as neo-colonialism—something they must fight at all costs. Therefore, the CPEC, and particularly projects like the Gwadar Port, have added to the locals' grievances against the state, reflected through an increasing number of terrorist attacks in Balochistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estonian nationalism has undergone a transformation from 'state-seeking' to 'state-led' since acquiring independence, which has affected the Estonian national identity. Estonia is commonly labelled as an 'ethnic democracy'; however, we propose a dichotomy between open and closed ethnic democracies. The process of national state-building in Estonia is still going on, with the concept of 'Estonianness' consisting of the 'Finno-Ugric,' 'Nordic/Scandinavian,' and 'European' identity structures. These form the basis for an inclusive, or open ethnic democracy. Though Estonianness is primarily defined in cultural and linguistic terms, a newcomer may ascribe oneself to it and become a member of the ethno-civic nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In countries emerging out of conflict, state-building initiatives tend to prioritize gender-balancing. Post-conflict police reform in the Solomon Islands aligned with this set standard, as capacity-building efforts within the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) prioritized the empowerment, inclusion, and promotion of women within the force. Through the use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) this study investigated, identified, and described common perceptions held by eighteen (18) officers about how they viewed gender reform in the RSIPF. The research found that although officers believed that gender-balancing was necessary, the increased inclusion of women conflicted with their traditional roles and positions and brought several challenges to the effective functioning of the force. It was also revealed that officers were of the view that the organization was not yet ready to fully embrace gender-balancing. The arguments presented herein further build on scholarly discussions about gender equality in policing organizations in small-island developing states in the Pacific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do radical reforms shape economic development over time? In 1790, the French Constituent Assembly overhauled the kingdom's organization to establish new local capitals. In some departments, the choice of local capitals over rival candidate cities was plausibly exogenous. We study how changes in administrative presence affect state capacity and development in the ensuing decades. In the short run, administrative proximity increases taxation and investments in law enforcement. In the long run, capitals obtain more public goods and grow faster. Our results shed light on the dynamic impacts of state building following one of history's most ambitious administrative reforms. (JEL D70, H41, H71, O18, O43) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since gaining independence in the early 19th century, Mexico embarked on a path toward building a nation-state. In criticizing the evolutionism that promotes white supremacy, Mexican society has embarked on a journey of introspection, delving into the essence of its indigenous national character. Following the Mexican Revolution at the turn of the 20th century, a nationalism advocating for integration was firmly established. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) government incorporated the principles of national integration into the broader building of the nation-state. On the one hand, it affirmed the crucial role of indigenous peoples and their cultures, tracing the origins of the Mexican nation-state back to these roots. On the other hand, the promotion of unified education, coupled with the implementation of a land-centered state corporatist system, aimed to achieve the integration and governance of Indigenous peoples, thereby incorporating them into the nation-building process and ultimately facilitating the integration of the nation-state. While the PRI government's integration efforts led to tendencies towards marginalization and assimilation of indigenous peoples, alongside insufficient attention to their rights and political participation, it fundamentally changed the historically unrecognized status of indigenous communities since the colonial era. These efforts primarily addressed the issues that had challenged Mexican social development concerning indigenous peoples since the colonial era, contributing to maintaining national stability over an extended period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Becoming Catawba: Catawba Indian Women and Nation-Building, 1540-1840" explores the resilience and ingenuity of Catawba Indian women in preserving their identity and nation amidst European colonization and cultural changes. Through kinship, land control, and pottery production, Catawba women played a crucial role in maintaining their culture and land ownership. The article highlights the challenges faced by native peoples in the Southeast, emphasizing the importance of Catawba women in retaining their lands and cultural heritage. The author, Brooke M. Bauer, provides a detailed account of how Catawba women's efforts were instrumental in the survival of the Catawba nation. [Extracted from the article]

Between 1848 and 1867, at a time that is often considered to be central to Italian, German, and Slavic nation building, the Habsburg port city of Trieste witnessed a significant immigration from throughout Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. While the historiography of the city has focused on the Triestine entrepreneurial class, understandably described as cosmopolitan, little research has been conducted on the rest of the urban population, too often seen as polarized along distinct national affiliations. This article argues that such national allegiances are anachronistic and that 'vulgar cosmopolitanism', national indifference, dynastic patriotism, and urban and regional allegiances better define the lived experiences of the majority of the population. Archival material, the applications for Austrian naturalization that thousands of foreigners submitted in the period studied here, shows the intense inter-ethnic engagement of those people who did not belong to the cosmopolitan trading community, who often proved to be insensitive to nationalist agitation and unaware of the existence of 'nations'. This study of Habsburg Trieste at the time of nation building in Central and Southern Europe provides further elements that refute standard national narratives and classic interpretations of the development of nationalism. It also offers comparative evidence for global cities that have been integrated into mono-national states or have managed to avoid such integrational efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the postwar period of 1918–1919, specifically focusing on the situation in Lebanon and the Levant following the Allied occupation of Ottoman territories. The aim of the article is to reexamine the situation in the former Ottoman territories that became modern Lebanon, and assess the nationalistic wishes as expressed by their people. To do this, the global and regional political context is established, before homing in on the establishment of the “1919 Inter-Allied Commission on Mandates in Turkey,” more commonly known as the King-Crane Commission. This fact-finding mission provides a uniquely direct understanding of the wishes of the Lebanese people, so its work, as well as the complementary writings of its members, are analyzed contextually to determine what accurate results can be derived. By doing so, the article sheds further light on Lebanese popular will after World War I. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the failures of democratization in Afghanistan (2001–2021) after the collapse of the Taliban regime in 2001. Over the last two decades, the Afghan state has experienced major setbacks in its journey of democratic development and statebuilding. This article, therefore, analyzes the pressures facing the state from the crisis of performative legitimacy, fraudulent election processes, political centralization, and state failure and corruption. More specifically, it argues that from the above-mentioned factors when considered, the lack of performative legitimacy played a significant role in the failure of democracy and statebuilding efforts. Towards that goal, each of these areas has been defined through an emphasis on how they relate to the broader challenges of legitimacy building, statebuilding and democratization in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the case of Canaan – a massive informal settlement that emerged in the wake of the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti – in order to examine the often-forgotten aftermath of international aid programming in an urban, fragile-state context. Originally categorized as an (informal) internal displacement site, Canaan continued to expand in the years following the quake, reaching an estimated population of 300,000 by 2016. Using a qualitative case study of Canaan conducted nearly 15 years after its creation, the paper makes two interrelated arguments: first, that the ways in which the United Nations' "durable solutions" framework is frequently understood and applied may be unrealistic and even deleterious for state–society relations in some fragile urban contexts. Second, even calls to shift (urban) internal displacement programming to a more development footing is far from a panacea if these interventions are not designed to be more politically nuanced, context-sensitive and modest about what can be achieved in such complex environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 terminated the country's democratisation. The crisis was more an outcome of the two-decade-long flawed state-building and democratisation, and the escalation of the insurgency than an overnight change in the country's politico-military landscape. This paper examines Afghanistan's failed democratization from 2001 to 2021 by focusing on five variables including stateness, welfare, rule of law, political regime, and political community. The paper explains how flawed progress in the five areas gradually eroded the democratisation process resulting in state collapse and the restoration of the Taliban's Islamic Emirate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the linguistic choices of a group of young merchants and merchants' sons are discussed. Living in Bergen in the second half of the 19th century, they wrote Danish and spoke a dialect marked by centuries of dialect and language contact. Most of them had some competence in German, some also in English and French. When Romanticism and nation building became dominating ideas in Norway, the merchants' European culture and their mixed dialect did not seem appropriate. These men therefore turned their backs on both city culture and city language and started studying Old Norse and rural dialects as part of a movement promoting a language called Landsmål. They formed an organization called Vestmannalaget 'The Association of Westmen' in 1868, with the aim of helping to create a new Norwegian standard. In other places in Norway, those working for this new standard language usually had a rural background, and their mission was to promote pride in and the use of their own dialects and their own culture. The Association of Westmen however, aimed to learn a refined version of the dialects of the less privileged classes. This was controversial in the social class to which they belonged, and most of them did not linger on in the Landsmål movement as adults. They were young radicals who paved the way so that others, with closer ties to rural Norway, could take over the linguistic struggle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the question of mosque construction and its interrelationship vis-à-vis nation-building in contemporary Turkey. The dynamics of a secular state ruling over a conservative society have always been conflictual in republican Turkey, and this ever since the modern state began initiating a number of radical secular reforms in the 1920s and the 1930s. Among those reforms, disruptive in a previously conservative society, were the dissolution of the caliphate and dismemberment of religious institutions, coupled with widespread Westernizing policies including the adoption of Western sartorial habits, emphasis on science and technology, and changing the alphabet from the traditional Arabic to the current modern (romanized) Turkish script. On the other hand, the advent of democracy and changeover of government in 1950 brought with it the emergence of a renewed religious discourse and a desire for more mosque construction in order to accentuate the Islamic facet of Turkish culture. Therefore, the religious dimension of Turkish identity has increasingly been buttressed by mosque construction by right-wing governments, reaching its zenith with the current Justice and Development Party (JDP) government (beginning in 2002). Coupled with the emergence of an illiberal democracy bolstered by Turkish populism, this article proposes to analyze the linkage between mosque construction and the building of an Islamic conservative Turkish nation contrasting the secular Turkish identity of the ancien régime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research partnerships between Tribal Nations and rural colleges and universities can support rural development and strengthen Tribal Nation building through reclamation of economic, political, cultural, and social affairs. However, Tribal Nation–University relationships have received little attention in rural sociology. While scholars identify best practices for research engagement in light of colonial harms, the ideal visions that Tribally and university‐affiliated people have for research partnerships and the barriers to achieving those ideals are poorly understood. Without identifying these visions and barriers, we risk making wrong assumptions about each party's needs and cannot implement appropriate policies. Semi‐structured interviews with Tribally‐affiliated (n = 20) and university‐affiliated (n = 20) people in rural southeastern Idaho suggest, contrary to literature on best practices for collaborative research, that participants in both groups viewed what we term “Tribally‐responsive research engagement” as ideal, though few projects met this goal. Tribally‐responsive research directly addressed Tribal priorities but did not necessarily involve close collaboration. The University's failure to acknowledge past or colonial harms, university‐affiliated researchers' historicization of those harms, and negative Native student experiences reinforced distrust, limiting desired research engagement. In sum, Tribally‐responsive research engagement could strengthen Native Nation building, but requires universities to acknowledge harms, create more welcoming campus environments, and prioritize Tribal benefits in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the role of textbooks in the construction of national identity by analyzing state-approved versions of national identity and history in Kazakhstan. By doing so, this project seeks to highlight what understanding of identity prevails in the history textbooks of Kazakhstan, what narratives regarding the key historic events are promoted, particularly with respect to the Dzhungar wars, annexation of Kazakh Khanate by the Russian Empire, and the Soviet era. Finally, this article compares the main narratives in the textbooks published in Kazakh and Russian languages to illustrate differences and various understandings of identity in the two linguistic realms of Kazakhstan. The article argues that Kazakhstan's textbooks combine new, independence-focused narratives with the old approaches and partial reproduction of the Soviet symbolic discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of Italian nationalism in general, and in Habsburg Dalmatia in particular, has escaped any systematic theorizing in the field of nationalism studies. In the 1860s, changing geopolitical scenarios, resulting from the process of Italian unification, triggered a heated debate among Italian- and Slavic-speaking Dalmatian politicians and intellectuals over the introduction of equal status for the Italian language and Slavic-Dalmatian. Although Italian-speaking Dalmatians constituted a very tiny minority of the population of the Austrian province, the Italian language had a dominant role in public life as a legacy of previous Venetian colonial rule. While the majority of the Slavic-Dalmatian intelligentsia and political elites sought rights for the local Slavic language in public life without undermining the existence of Italian, Italian-speaking elites opposed measures aimed at language equality in their attempt to maintain their privileged position within Dalmatian society. In the same period, Niccolò Tommaseo emerged as the leading figure against any concessions to Slavs, thus distancing himself from his previous "multinational" ideas and igniting anti-Slavic Italian nationalism in the region. And the nationalist tropes used by Italian-speaking Dalmatians, Tommaseo included, mirrored the very same primordialist rhetoric of modern-day nationalist leaders, from Russia to China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the relationship between military conflicts and state-building in pre-imperial China. I develop an incomplete contract model to examine rulers' and local administrators' incentives in conflict. Defensive wars drive decentralization: landowning local administrators have more to gain from a successful defense and are therefore more committed to it. Offensive wars drive centralization: the landowning ruler has personnel control over the non-land-owning local administrator and can therefore force the latter to participate in less lucrative attacks. Model predictions are corroborated with empirical evidence and historical case studies, and offer broader implications for the political divergence between China and Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reputations for resolve are critical in international relations for deterring adversaries and reassuring partners. However, a state's resolve is unobservable and can change unbeknownst to its audience. How does the possibility of unobserved change impact reputation dynamics? I provide a theory of long-run reputations with changing resolve via a formal model covering conflict and cooperation domains. In the model, the possibility that current reputations are based on outdated information makes the audience extend the benefit of the doubt to states with poor reputations. This leads to states building or spending their reputations depending on their current reputations. Importantly, when damaged reputations can be rebuilt, states with better reputations face stronger temptations to spend them. Thus, reputations constrain states with poor reputations the most. Further, because demonstrations of resolve improve reputations, which, in turn, reduce incentives for future demonstrations of resolve, there is a cyclical rhythm to conflict and cooperation. A major implication is that a state's behavior changes with its reputation even if its resolve is unchanged and the stakes are identical. Reputational enforcement works, but the price is occasional breaches of trust. These results also settle a few long-standing controversies in the IR-reputation literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores bottom-up responses to the Kremlin's approach to nation-building in a multi-ethnic state. How do residents of ethnically mixed cities navigate conflicting themes of unity and diversity in the federal discourse of Russia as a multi-ethnic nation (mnogonatsional'nyi narod)? This discourse runs counter to assimilative policies and a concurrent vision of Russia as a civilisation rooted in Slavic culture. In the diverse city of Kazan, the discourse is shown to be easily adopted by residents in narrating belonging, while being a problematic basis for nation-building. The discussion highlights the importance of regional and ethnic subject positions in bottom-up engagement with nation-building in Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review article assesses three new books on the "Golden Age" of caricature in Britain and the United States: Tim Clayton's James Gillray: A Revolution in Satire  (2022), Amanda Lahikainen's Money and Materiality in the Golden Age of Graphic Satire  (2022), and Alison M. Stagg's Prints of a New Kind: Political Caricature in the United States, 1789-1828  (2023). The article considers how satirical cartoons simultaneously educated and entertained the public about important issues, such as political corruption, nation building, and the perils of a credit economy based on paper money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why did America's twenty-year war in Afghanistan fail to establish a self-sustaining non-Taliban government? Analysts have cited cultural obstacles in Afghanistan, bureaucratic inertia in Washington, and a lack of strategic commitment, in part because Iraq dominated national security policy. Such claims tend to draw evidence from Germany, Japan, and Iraq, places where the U.S. military achieved some measure of success establishing pro-American governments. The present article broadens the comparison to consider Afghanistan alongside Germany, Japan, Iraq, and two examples of post-Cold War regime-change success: Panama (1989–1990) and Haiti (1994–1995). The cases indicate that U.S. influence in the postwar environment has depended on the prospects for integrating old regime elites into the new government and on the strength of indigenous opposition forces. Both variables were unfavorable in Afghanistan, and they shaped the boundaries of political order—no matter how hard U.S. forces fought or how long they stayed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I discuss the radical gender equality reforms in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), also known as Rojava, and how they have affected women's lives since the implementation of the Women's Law in 2014. Based on 40 in-depth interviews, eight group interviews, and participant observation, this ethnographic study illustrates how the ideal of the "free" woman permeates society in North and East Syria, prescribing desired forms of behavior and appearance. Drawing on the literature on gender and nationalism in postcolonial processes of state building, my study provides an analysis of the AANES' gender discourse that considers the real-life governing effects of the reforms. Building from the Foucauldian premise that modern power engenders disciplinary practices, I examine how awareness-raising efforts and education seminars establish new forms of control in the public sphere. I contend that the reforms operate as governing tools and, as such, shape women's subjectivities. Engendering both discipline and resistance, they result in the emergence of new subjectivities that are not entirely determined by either ideology or by patriarchal structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Helpem Fren, Michael Wesley's diplomatic history of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), the Australian-led multilateral intervention in Solomon Islands from 2003-2017, is a near definitive study of the intervention from an Australian perspective. As such, it shares some of the failures of RAMSI itself, such as overconfidence in its success. The reviewer, based on his experience of living in the Solomons during many years of the RAMSI intervention, examines both the strengths and weaknesses of RAMSI and this volume, its semi-official history. These include RAMSI's early success in peacemaking and its more problematic long-term exercise in state building, including its inflexible entrenchment in law and justice, finance, and governance sectors to the exclusion of support for sustainable human development. The reviewer notes areas not dealt with in the book, including RAMSI's cost and its relations with the Solomon Islands Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the churches. While Helpem Fren is an essential study for understanding the Australian role in RAMSI, its strictly Australian perspective calls for further critical study of RAMSI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid a relative withdrawal of western, liberal states from the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates have taken over some of the burden of regional security assistance – doing so redefining norms and practices of security assistance. Unlike western counterparts, the UAE are investing into security assistance in Libya or Yemen, not so much as a means of state and nation-building overseas, but as means of building networks allowing the small state to project influence and power with few normative strings attached. More so, the UAE deliver security assistance via surrogates as discrete means of statecraft allowing Abu Dhabi to compete overseas with plausible deniability. Many of these surrogates do not only challenge the state's monopoly over violence but ultimately undermine legitimate government institutions by creating alternative forms of security sector-based governance. Ultimately, the UAE's approach to security assistance is based on divide-and-rule, ripening particularly potent networks of surrogates over others to ensure that competitors are unable to secure their interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Markets require rules, made and enforced by governments, and modern market-making has therefore unfolded as an intrinsic part of state-building. While the European Union is not a state, it has not been immune to these processes. Over the last three decades it has expanded its Single European Market and created a currency while constructing European political authority and deepening its institutional capacities. The EU has done this through supranational market-making largely centred on neoliberal precepts of competition and openness. Today, however, the EU is breaking with that tradition by pursuing a visibly interventionist European industrial policy and geopolitical market strategy. I suggest a theoretical framework to illuminate how this policy turn may reconfigure the EU's political authority and build it as a polity. After briefly identifying the contours of the new European industrial and geoeconomic policy, I outline a research agenda to probe how the new market activism may reformulate societal interests and coalitions, increase the politicisation of the EU's governing institutions, raise the stakes for democratic legitimation, and project the EU as a geopolitical actor. The conclusion notes how this new market-making translates into significant policy challenges for both the EU and the international economic order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Turkish Studies - Economics, Finance, Politics is the property of Electronic Turkish Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The story of Kenyans who travelled to study in the United States of America, in what is known as the airlifts program and, its resultant implications on the project of the nation building, is well known. So much has been extensively written and documented in various forms on this subject from multiple and multi-layered dimensions and perspectives. However, my entry into this subject is through a critical encounter with Philip Ochieng's life's story, who happens to be one of the airlift beneficiaries to the United States of America, as reconstructed by Liz Gitonga-Wanjohi. I am especially interested in the way that his (Ochieng's) life-story in this reconstruction is proliferated with aspects of nomadism. I discern nomadism in this discussion in a plural sense. As both literal and figurative, manifested through his practices of the everyday rituals of life. I argue that the nomadic tendencies, exhibited in his total lifestyle, define him as a glocal citizen: always oscillating between and betwixt the local and global spaces, languages and ideologies. In reading the nomadic subject, that is Ochieng, I consciously and cautiously, rely on Rosi Braidotti's ideas of nomadic subjects as accentuated in her book Nomadic Subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Adab Al-Kufa is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article sheds light on the efforts of intellectuals and women’s circles in the struggle for equal inheritance rights in modern China. By analyzing various social campaigns for women’s equal rights during this period, specifically in relation to daughters’ access to inheritance rights, this article explores the complexities and contradictions surrounding daughters’ inheritance rights in twentieth-century China. The argument put forth is that the interaction between the new state-building process and the influence of social campaigns enabled female to explore new rights holder. However, local practices often adhered to traditional customs that marginalized daughters without inheritance rights. Nevertheless, with the assistance of feminist movements, daughters’ inheritance rights have gradually gained acceptance as an essential component of social claims in modern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the struggles over Ottoman sovereignty in Yemen from the October 1918 armistice to the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey in October 1923. The governor-general (vali), Mahmud Nedim, and Imam Yahya, the principal local ally of the Ottomans, succeeded in upholding Ottoman sovereignty over most of highland Yemen against the Armistice terms, the Treaty of Sèvres, and their local and British rivals, while receiving the political backing of the Ottoman resistance movement in Anatolia under Mustafa Kemal. Efforts of the vali, the imam, and the British to prevent ordinary Ottomans from leaving and entering Yemen were at the centre of these struggles. This changed in 1923 when Mustafa Kemal and Yahya turned to state-building projects emphasising post-Ottoman forms of sovereignty. I thus highlight several aspects of ordinariness. First, the continuation of daily governmental routines in Yemen was a key element of Ottoman efforts to resist British attempts to impose a post-Ottoman political order. Further, Yemeni Ottomans and Ottoman officials were reduced to different degrees of ordinariness because the disintegration of the Ottoman state after the war often eliminated their sources of income. Finally, struggles against the consequences of the Armistice are often reduced to a ‘Turkish War of Independence’ and the actions of policy makers in administrative centres, like Istanbul and Ankara. Studying the end of the Ottoman Empire from the vantage points of Yemen’s ‘spatial ordinariness’ as an imperial borderland and of ordinary Ottomans disrupts this ‘methodological nationalism’ and allows for a more nuanced understanding of the post-Armistice years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1923 Guatemalan author Carlos Wyld Ospina gave a speech celebrating the induction of members to the Theosophic lodge he co-founded in 1922. This article studies this address as a call to action that advocated for an inclusive nation at a time when the hegemonic discourse perpetuated the positivist ideology of exclusion. To begin, I contextualize the author and locate him in the evolution of Guatemalan Literary Studies. Next, I trace the global route of Theosophy and outline how Wyld Ospina funnelled this ideology into Guatemala. Then, I read Wyld Ospina's speech delineating his plan of nation building, and I point to ideological continuities he was to voice in two articles in 1938. Finally, I suggest that this continuity of thought recontextualizes Wyld Ospina's literature and opens it to new interpretations, and I define the epistemic value of these rereadings as one that will allow for the further study of the pivotal and dynamic role of race throughout Guatemalan national history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do substate actors engage in foreign affairs even if endowed with limited formal powers? How are these activities institutionalised and legitimised? This article addresses these questions by examining a critical case: the rise of Scotland's international development cooperation. The spotlight is put on the domestic sources of foreign policy formation. Our core argument is that the politics of nation-building underpins both the ambition and the increased distinctiveness of the Scottish approach to development. This nation-building effort is mainly reflected in the emergence of an assertive narrative: 'Scotland as a good global citizen'. Another core insight is the strong articulation between domestic and international representations. The external projections of the Scottish Government mirror the domestic agenda. Our article places the striking Scottish case in analytical and comparative perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops an analysis of the politics and temporality of infrastructure through a focus on the idea of a project. A project (noun) is an assemblage of expertise, labour, materials and resources. The development of a project to build a port, pipeline, a mine, or a hydropower plant entails the mobilization of ideas, finance, political support and the law, the containment of material forces, as well as the organization of expertise, resources and labour. To project is also a verb; to throw forwards or to imagine, visualize or speculate on a possible future, which may or may not be actualized in practice. Moreover, individual infrastructural projects are often built on the legacy of earlier projects and conceived as contributions to ambitious projections of the future – including modernization, socialism, development and state building. Our analysis of the politics and temporality of projects is both developed and illustrated through an account of infrastructural projects in the Republic of Georgia which are also understood as contributions to a larger project of transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International migrants confront many new challenges from the impact of global populism and geopolitics, but we also see the growth of a new identity culture. The Chinese community in Canada constructs its identity through the collective memory of the image of Chinese railway workers, and realizes the cross-cultural communication of a new identity culture in the course of the interaction of symbolic cultural practices. Since the 1980s, the image of Chinese railway workers has changed from "the indispensable evil" to "pioneers in nation-building" and "a tragic group subjected to injustice." This is a product of the collective memory of the Chinese ethnic group's pursuit of identity in Canada's multicultural reconstruction. The Chinese ethnic group has reshaped an image of Chinese railway workers that has been widely disseminated through cross-cultural means. They have aimed at gaining social acceptance and fundamental recognition of a Chinese-Canadian identity with the help of their "native cultural heritage and historical resources" in Canada. The construction of this identity culture through collective memory has consolidated the foundations of multiculturalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explored the role of municipal collaboration in addressing migration-related challenges within the diverse contexts of the UK and South Africa, aiming to promote DEI in the process of nation-building. Through a secondary data research method and comparative evaluation of policies, initiatives and procedures in both countries, the paper examined how municipal collaboration strategies contribute to fostering unity amidst dynamic migration patterns. The findings highlighted the essential role of collaboration in harnessing collective expertise and resources to tackle migration challenges, enhance social cohesion, and advance the DEI principles. The key components of the paper include an examination of unique migration challenges, an analysis of initiatives, policies, and procedures in both countries, and an emphasis on the importance of collaboration in shaping inclusive societies. Overall, this paper advocates the significance of municipal collaboration as a cornerstone of nation-building, facilitating the creation of cohesive and harmonious communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do rulers soften resistance by local powerholders to state‐building efforts? This paper highlights a strategy of compensation, where elites receive government offices in exchange for relinquishing their localist interests, and become uprooted and integrated into the national political system as stakeholders. We explore this strategy in the context of the Northern Wei Dynasty of China (386–534 CE) that terminated an era of state weakness during which aristocrats exercised local autonomy through strongholds. Exploiting a comprehensive state‐building reform in the late fifth century, we find that aristocrats from previously autonomous localities were disproportionately recruited into the bureaucracy as compensation for accepting stronger state presence. Three mechanisms of bureaucratic compensation facilitated state‐building. Offices received by those aristocrats: (1) carried direct benefits, (2) realigned their interests toward the ruler, and (3) mitigated credible commitment problems. Our findings shed light on the “First Great Divergence” between Late Antiquity Europe and Medieval China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite numerous works of Kartini as Indonesia’s most famous feminist icon, hardly any deep study investigated how Kartini was remembered in the first years of Indonesia’s independence. This study aims to examine how Indonesians celebrated Kartini Day during the Indonesian Revolution (1946–1949), by using print media in Indonesian, Dutch and English from that period. This study argues that for Indonesian nationalists at that time, commemorating Kartini Day was of paramount importance to encourage women empowerment based on the Indonesian nation-state concept. The commemorations were held in many places in Indonesia and were attended by numerous people from different walks of life. During the commemorations, Indonesian women were persuaded to adopt new roles in that era, namely as devoted Indonesian citizens who should contribute to the new country, especially in the field of women empowerment, community service, political participation and war effort. However, Indonesian women were criticised for still being Dutch-oriented and interpreting their freedom way too far. These findings indicate that during the Revolution, the commemorations of Kartini Day was urgently needed by the Indonesian nation-state as a momentum to promote Indonesian nationalism among women and encourage women’s participation in the nation-state building process and in the Dutch-Indonesian conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kosovo Field (Kosovo Polje), the core region of the newly independent Kosovo, experienced several key historical events, each of which left important memories in the space. As political control over territory changed, different memories connected to the area became stronger, while others were pushed into the background. The first battle of Kosovo (1389) and the death of their ruler Lazar, is a key event in Serbian history, identified through spectacular landmarks in the region. Connected to this event, Turkish monuments also exist, commemorating the death of the martyr Sultan Murad I. Following independence, memorials of Albanian fighters started mushrooming as a core element of Kosovar identity building, with the martyrdom of the "legendary commander" Adem Jashari being central to this emblematic memory project. All three nations have an "official" martyr connected to the space, around which different nation-building narratives have been constructed. As the struggle over the control and influence of the region continues, so does the competition of different memories and memorials. Territorialisation and de-territorialisation of memories are ongoing projects in the country by the three nations, linked to competing nation-buildings and political power struggles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1980s, Israel's music scene was largely steered by two major radio stations, G alei Tzahal and Reshet Gimmel. Both played a critical role in shaping musical tastes in Israel, while also serving the music industry as crucial platforms for artist exposure. Regarded as "taste communities," they catered primarily to music enthusiasts and embodied a spectrum of cultural, political, and socio-economic facets of diverse Israeli groups. Galei Tzahal tended to be more selective, elitist, and avant-garde. Reshet Gimmel pursued a more populist agenda, aiming for mass appeal and fostering a seemingly broader sense of shared identity among listeners. Galei Tzahal wished to educate Israelis, Reshet Gimmel aimed to represent what the masses wanted to hear. This research aims to probe into the distinct tactics of these stations, understand their contributions to the cultural conversation, and examine how they helped forge a national identity through music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to explore the influence of heritage on Jordanian national identities, a topic that has received limited attention in research. Specifically, it examines the poetry of Nayef Abu Obeid to investigate how his work addresses the challenges of upholding heritage in the modern era. Furthermore, it assesses how his poetry contributes to the preservation and portrayal of Jordanian culture and identity. By delving into these aspects, this article offers valuable insights into the intricate connections between heritage, national identity, and the current global landscape. Such insights are crucial for advancing the promotion of Jordanian cultural heritage and fostering nation-building efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visigothic script, one of the "national» or «pre-Caroline" graphic forms, aroused the interest of Spanish and European palaeographers due to its originality, geographical diffusion and long chronology. These investigations were carried out in a context defined by the level of development of the discipline, but also by current ideas about the origins of Spain. This paper analyses the influence of the vision of the Visigothic kingdom and its medieval heritage on the orientation of palaeographic studies, as well as the meaning that this script acquired from each of the interpretations of national history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the cultural and literary significance of walking in the context of nineteenth-century imperial geographies. Topics include the role of walking in nation-building, contradictions between pedestrian travel and its historical documentation, and how walking intersects with modernity in various imperial spaces.

The article focuses on the peripatetic mode of walking, where walking is seen as a transformative act for both individuals and society. Topics include the origins of this literary mode in Wordsworth's poetry, its adaptation to colonial South Africa in Olive Schreiner's "The Story of an African Farm," and the varying relationships of the novel's characters to movement and stasis, particularly in terms of nation-building.

European colonialist thinking continues to influence history writing after national independence – even in the construction of national narratives. In the case of Malaysia, the work of the scholar-official, Richard Winstedt, has had a far-reaching impact – and one that is seldom recognised. The 20th century was a crucial period in the political and historical construction of 'Malay(si)a' – a time when a colonial state was imagined, and then positioned as a foundation for post-colonial nation-building. Malay(si)a did not exist as a political entity before this time – it had to be carved out of the Indian (or 'Malay') Archipelago, an enormous region largely under Dutch authority. The historical construction of Malay(si)a was never a homogenous process, even in colonial narratives. This article examines the strategy Winstedt undertook to develop a state narrative – suggesting how his work moved beyond that of earlier British historians. Although Winstedt's project was explicitly 'modern' in its purpose and style, we also note ways in which he was influenced by pre-modern Malay writers. The final section examines Winstedt's impact on local Malay(si)an writing, including Malaysia's standard national narrative. Some local historians, however, resisted Winstedt – and sought to write the Malaysian nation from alternative perspectives. Nation-making in this and other regions of Southeast Asia is all the more interesting because it has been a dialogic rather than merely integrative project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ṣulḥ is a well-known Islamic legal method of dispute resolution through amicable settlement practiced in Western Sahara. It standardly includes different phases, including negotiation between the affected parties mediated by local elites, the payment of compensation (sometimes symbolic), and a ceremony in which the conflict is resolved and social peace restored. This paper examines the implementation and evolution of this practice in the Sahrawi refugee camps from their creation in 1975 to the present day. The article proposes that ṣulḥ has played a central role in building social cohesion in the refugee camps, highlighting the importance of the institutions through which cohesion is maintained in contexts of prolonged conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiculturalism is increasingly shaping contemporary societies, yet food, a fundamental human necessity, often becomes a point of cultural and belief-based contention. The halal food industry has grown significantly, garnering support both locally and internationally. However, this burgeoning sector faces challenges related to establishing standardized regulations that acknowledge its role in nation-building and promote cultural diversity. This study aimed to assess the awareness and acceptance of pre-certified halal food among non-Muslim students across secondary schools in Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat. Employing a descriptive survey research design, the study utilized a researcher-developed questionnaire administered to 350 students selected through simple random sampling from seven identified schools in Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat. Findings indicated that despite Lambayong's diverse population, most respondents demonstrated awareness and positive perceptions of pre-certified halal food. However, some community elders and church leaders expressed reservations about allowing younger generations to consume such food. The study also observed that while many vendors and proprietors were Muslim, not all adhered to the practice of wearing hijab (for Muslim women), and some lacked necessary cooking equipment like gloves and hairnets. Furthermore, certain halal establishments were found to have inadequate sanitation and pest control measures. Ultimately, the study concluded that there exists a moderate relationship between respondents' awareness and their acceptance of halal food. Recommendations include schools collaborating with barangay and local government units to monitor the hygiene of nearby restaurants and canteens. Additionally, halal food establishments should prioritize enhancing their sanitation practices and hygiene protocols to ensure compliance and consumer confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Angolan independence, proclaimed in 1975, instituted a one-party, socialist-oriented revolutionary regime that vowed to create a nation of workers under a secular state with freedom of worship. However, such a framework existed only on paper. A generation gap opposed Protestant, mission-educated leaders to younger agnostic and atheist militants trained in socialist countries. The government acted to circumscribe the public space of churches and enforce compliance with the heavily contested new order, but also promoted certain denominations as a tool to build hegemony. Further complications arise from African religious practices not being deemed religion but tradition, pointing both to superstition and obscurantism on the one hand, and to the cultural corpus of nation-building on the other. This paper posits that the study of secularity in Angola does not fit into the usual theoretical dichotomy but must take into account the intersections and interplay of tradition with both religion and the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]