This CIRS research initiative on weak states in the Middle East begins with a critical analysis of current definitions and terminology of weak and fragile states, scrutinizing the political implications of the prevailing ...

This paper shows that the GCC cities’ remarkable capacity to provide water to all their inhabitants despite the regional aridity should not be explained solely by apolitical factors such as the availability of desalination ...

In this "GCC States' Land Investments Abroad: The Case of Ethiopia" CIRS Summary Report, Benjamin Shepherd uses data generated from fieldwork in Ethiopia to evaluate the country as a potential long-term source of agricultural ...

By the autumn of 2013, the Middle Eastern regional security complex(RSC) had taken on a new configuration, which was substantially different from - and much more explosive than - the one that existed prior to the large-scale ...

This Article traces the emergence and development of the consensus against surrogacy arrangements, mostly in the Sunni world, on the basis of a number of institutional fatwas, recommendations, and decisions. Despite this ...

I develop an empirical methodology to assess the distributional impact of trade-induced price shocks when labour markets are imperfect. The proposed methodology relates exogenous variations in prices to changes in household ...

This paper investigates the extent to which reliance on DNA analysis for paternity verification conflicts with the Islamic law of paternity. More particularly, it seeks to examine the extent to which DNA testing can be ...