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This case study focuses on the epidemiological situation of the COVID-19 outbreak, its impacts and the measures South Korea undertook during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the first case was confirmed on 20 January 2020, South Korea has been actively experiencing the COVID-19 outbreak. In the early stage of the pandemic, South Korea was one of the most-affected countries because of a large outbreak related to meetings of a religious movement, namely the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, in a city called Daegu and North Gyeongsang province. However, South Korea was held as a model for many other countries as it appeared to slow the spread of the outbreak with distinctive approaches and interventions. First of all, with drastic and early intervention strategies it conducted massive tracing and testing in a combination of case isolation. These measures were underpinned by transparent risk communication, civil society mobilization, improvement of accessibility and affordability of the treatment and test, the consistent public message on the potential benefit of wearing a mask, and innovation. Innovative measures include the mobile case-tracing application, mobile self-quarantine safety protection application, mobile self-diagnosis application, and drive-thru screening centres. Meanwhile, the epidemic has brought enormous impacts on society economically and socially. Given its relationship with China, where the outbreak originated, the economic impact in South Korea was predicted to be intense and it was already observed since February due to a decline in exports. The pandemic and measures undertaken by the government also have resulted in social conflicts and debates, human-right concerns, and political tension. Moreover, it was believed that the outbreak of COVID-19 and the governmental responses towards it has brought a huge impact on the general election in April. Despite of the large outbreak in late February, the Korean government has flattened the COVID-19 curve successfully and the downward trend in the number of new cases remained continuously as of 30 April. The most distinctive feature of South Korea’s responses is that South Korea conducted proactive case finding, contacts tracing, and isolations of cases instead of taking traditional measures of the containment of the epidemic such as boarder closures and lockdowns.

This study explores Thailand's pursuit of BRICS membership through the lenses of Teo's middle power theory and Kuik's theory of regime legitimation, based on archival and secondary materials. Methodologically, a case study research design with a process tracing technique is employed. The key findings indicate that internal and external conditions drove Thailand's BRICS move. Externally, the stratified international structure has motivated the country, self-proclaimed as a middle power, to preserve, if not elevate, its international standing by differentiating itself from smaller nations through active engagement in multilateralism, including the pursuit of BRICS membership. Internally, maintaining regime legitimacy has shaped Thai foreign policy actions towards BRICS, thereby supporting the domestic agendas of the political party in power. The delay in becoming a full member of BRICS from the time publicly anticipated may imply that policymakers in Bangkok need to do more to distinguish the country and demonstrate its value-added to BRICS compared to other middle powers seeking the same status.

This article provides an overview of the development of parties and party systems in the MENA region from early oligarchic pluralism to the mass single-party systems of the populist era and the limited multi-party experiments of the 1990s era of political liberalization. The survey shows how parties develop in parallel with the deepening of politicization and become nearly indispensable adjuncts in the construction of political order. The article then examines parties in the post-2010 period, with case studies of Turkey, Egypt, and Tunisia demonstrating how very different configurations of party development dramatically impact on regime trajectories, ranging from democratization to hybrid regimes.

The Soldier and the Changing State is the first book to systematically explore, on a global scale, civil-military relations in democratizing and changing states. Looking at how armies supportive of democracy are built, Zoltan Barany argues that the military is the most important institution that states maintain, for without military elites who support democratic governance, democracy cannot be consolidated. Barany also demonstrates that building democratic armies is the quintessential task of newly democratizing regimes. But how do democratic armies come about? What conditions encourage or impede democratic civil-military relations? And how can the state ensure the allegiance of its soldiers? Barany examines the experiences of developing countries and the armed forces in the context of major political change in six specific settings: in the wake of war and civil war, after military and communist regimes, and following colonialism and unification/apartheid. He evaluates the army-building and democratization experiences of twenty-seven countries and explains which predemocratic settings are most conducive to creating a military that will support democracy. Highlighting important factors and suggesting which reforms can be expected to work and fail in different environments, he offers practical policy recommendations to state-builders and democratizers.

Despite Lebanon’s relatively wide use as an example in studies of ethnic politics, clientelism, sectarianism, and—most recently—refugees, comparatively few articles in top political science journals are published about Lebanese politics or based on extended fieldwork in Lebanon.1 Yet, in political science research, Lebanon is broadly represented as an area that consistently exhibits specific dynamics. Fieldbased scholarship on Lebanon often works to nuance this framing (see, e.g., Cammett 2014; Salloukh et al. 2015), but these works are few and far between. Lack of contextual knowledge among both qualitatively and quantitatively oriented scholars substantiates overused categories of analyses, undermines data validity, and inhibits ethical production of knowledge. This article addresses three distinct, interrelated predicaments in the Lebanese context: (1) a generally uncritical focus on sect/sectarianism as the primary explanatory factor in Levantine politics; (2) research tourism/voyeurism; and (3) effects of these two factors on the survey-firm industry in Lebanon.

The Arab Spring, as a historical turning point in the Middle East, sparked an unparalleled explosion of violent jihadist groups, armed rebel groups, and transnational religious movements. These violent religious groups claim to advance the correct interpretation of Salafism according to their ideological principles and their interpretation of Islamic rule. To examine the nature, causes, and parties involved in a violent religious group’s turbulent infrastructure, one needs to have a deep understanding of Salafism’s thought and political perspective. This research, conducted using the historical-analytical method, identifies the triangular relationship between the state, its institutions, and Salafism. Our case study is the Saudi state’s role in institutionalizing Salafist doctrine and construing its political behavior. This relationship has deep historical roots, but the participating entities have changed over time from friends to foes. We highlight the analogy and mechanisms used historically by the Saudi state’s apparatus to design and organize Salafist thought and its political platform.

Since World War II, separatist conflicts have been the most common and deadly types of war in international politics. Such wars result from a simple incongruity: ethno-nationalist groups desire a homeland, but on territory that is controlled by states unwilling to give it up. This book examines states’ strategies, particularly their use of violence, when confronted by separatist movements. Using more than 110 interviews, American and British diplomatic archives, and newspaper archives, this book’s emphasis on external security can account for separatist violence, or its lack thereof, in a variety of historical contexts including Pakistan's treatment of Bengali secessionists; India’s treatment of separatism in Assam, Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir; interactions between the Ottoman Empire and Armenia; and Israel's attitudes toward Palestine.

This article looks at how rural inhabitants navigated state power under a regime led by a former socialist party that negotiated its conversion to a market economy while keeping tight control on the whole society. In that regard, it addresses adjustment in a very specific context, by analysing a distinctive chronology, raising the ruling party's ability to negotiate with the international financial institutions, and considering popular reactions from a rural point of view. The regime led by the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) managed to delay measures of structural adjustment during the 1990s and 2000s while deepening structures of state control it partly inherited from the former military junta. Brutal structural adjustment plans were refused, while international financial institutions were kept away from the Ethiopian government's policy mix, by way of elaborate ideological and institutional arrangements. The EPRDF coined its own version of the “developmental state” and renewed state control of the economy while deepening its articulation to global markets. Under the EPRDF, all sectors of society and especially peasantries were closely monitored and mobilized in the name of development. But although the open expression of dissent remained rare, peasants resorted to many strategies to cope with political control and to some extent divert it. By taking agricultural policies as a case study, the article describes peasant practices and questions differences between resistance, false compliance, and diversion, underlining how blurred such labels can actually be.

Objective: This research focuses on the impact of political parties and electoral quotas on women's political participation within the context of Islam. Methods: This study utilizes quantitative methods in analyzing women in eight Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East. The statistical dataset was culled from Kaasem's work entitled Party Variation in Religiosity and Women's Leadership: A Cross-National Perspective, 2008-2010, published by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research of the University of Michigan. The statistical analysis and modeling focused on selected Middle East countries, namely: Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, Turkey, Israel, and Kuwait. The sample consisted of 126 observations at the political party level Results: Gender is construed as a classification of being a woman or a man not merely by biological identification but one that is embedded within culture, and structures of power in families, communities, and states, which have gender in itself, as an organizing principle. Woman's question (dispute of women) is identified as a complex personal and social problem, and therefore cannot be rejected as a valid search for gender sameness or equality. Based on the quantitative analysis of the dataset of the survey conducted among selected Middle East countries, electoral quotas and seats occupied in previous parliaments affect women's nominations in current parliaments. Conclusion: The research shows that electoral quota for women has proven to increase female participation in parliaments. Keywords: Electoral Quotas, Gender Quotas, Female Participation in Parliament, Middle East