This open access book presents an international comparison of religiously motivated extremism in the Arab world and around the globe. Based on data from the Arab Barometer and the World Values Survey, it applies advanced statistical techniques to analyze how religiously motivated political extremism affects political and social outcomes as well as political violence. The study clearly shows that identification with a political Islam that also influences elections, promotes religious and gender discrimination, and advocates an Islamist interpretation of Islam, are the main interrelated syndromes of political Islam that together explain more than 50% of the total variance of the 24 model variables used. “A carefully and methodically flawlessly researched work, which is highly recommended for all those who deal seriously with this topic. Professor Arno Tausch is clear-headed and possesses a remarkable ability to make the broad picture of Political Islam accessible.“Hon. Prof. Gunther Hauser, Head of the Department Strategy and Security Policy, National Defense Academy, Vienna, Austria “Methodological rigorous, scientifically sound, empirically rich and combining the best of qualitative and quantitative approaches, Prof Arno Tausch has produced a tour de force on Political Islam. This study reflects the best scholarship on the subject and will be of use to both policy makers and academics.”Prof Hussein Solomon, Academic Head of the Department of Political Studies and Governance, University of the Free State, South Africa

In this book, Austrian political scientist Arno Tausch, born in 1951, looks back on five decades of political science. Was the current global crisis preventable? Tausch, who has had a long career in academia and administration and is now Visiting Professor of Political Studies and Governance at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, tries to show in his scholarly memoirs that the unequal relations between centres and peripheries that he has analysed over five decades, as well as the long conflict-ridden cycles of the world economy and world politics, could have been avoided, and Putinism and nationalism and the end of peace and social justice in the West are also linked to the neoliberal model of society in the West, which he learned to reject as a student of Nobel laureate Friedrich August Hayek in Salzburg from 1969 to 1971. He is one of the few political scientists in the world who, since 1991, has persistently warned against the hardening of Russia's course, including in leading Russian academic journals. In 1991 he wrote his book "Russia's Treadmill", the predictions of which have come true in an almost eerie way. But neo-liberal economic policy also corresponds 1:1 with the foreign policy vision of the "neocons", whose policy of NATO expansion first fuelled those destructive forces in Russia like an accelerant, leading to today's world crisis over Ukraine, which could end in a global nuclear catastrophe. The world must leave behind neo-liberalism, and return to political and economic concepts such as those of Michal Kalecki, Kazimierz Laski, Kurt Rothschild and Josef Steindl, whose basic structures he became acquainted with in the 1970s and which are still valid today: demand as the engine of growth, a stable or rising wage share, the growth of the public sector, fiscal coordination, international cooperation, coexistence and the rule of law within the framework of the 1975 Helsinki Accords.

This book studies values and attitudes in the Gulf region. In light of global power shifts, the threatening collapse of internal security in the West, and uncertainty about the current leadership vacuum in world society, this book explores a future leading role of the Gulf countries in such institutions as the G-20 and the OECD. Based on rigorous analysis of macro-level data and opinion surveys with relevance for the Gulf region, it analyzes the global macro-factors shaping the Gulf's future at a time of the global COVID-19 crisis and depression and rising global tensions. Starting with an empirical time series analysis of the long cycles of global politics and economics, it highlights the implications for the Gulf region. Offering a multivariate analysis of civil society values in the Gulf, the author analyzes value changes and attitudes on antisemitism, political Islam, internal security, democracy, and other issues of Arab politics. The partially optimistic conclusions of the study testify to the underestimated and incipient maturity of the Gulf’s civil society and strongly suggest that the Gulf's future is rather with the free societies of the West and not with a Neo-Ottoman Empire in whatever form. "Exceptional in scope and right up-to-the-minute in coverage" Brian M Pollins, Associate, Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University. "An outstanding and topical book by an astute scholar of the MENA region" Professor Hussein Solomon, Academic Head of Department, Political Studies and Governance, University of the Free State, South Africa. "The most comprehensive and insightful study on the subject to date" Manfred B. Steger, Professor of Sociology, University of Hawai'i at Manoa and Global Professorial Fellow, Western Sydney University.

This thought-provoking monograph analyzes long- medium- and short-term global cycles of prosperity, recession, and depression, plotting them against centuries of important world events. Major research on economic and political cycles is integrated to clarify evolving relationships between the global center and its periphery as well as current worldwide economic upheavals and potential future developments. Central to this survey are successive waves of industrial and, later, technological and cybernetic progress, leading to the current era of globalization and the changes of the roles of both Western powers and former minors players, however that will lead to the formation of the world order without a hegemon. Additionally, the authors predict what they term the Great Convergence, the lessening of inequities between the global core and the rest of the world, including the wealth gap between First and Third World nations. Among the topics in this ambitious volume: · Why politics is often omitted from economic analysis. · Why economic cycles are crucial to understanding the modern geopolitical landscape. · How the aging of the developed world will affect world technological and economic future.“/p> · The evolving technological forecast for Global North and South. · Where the U.S. is likely to stand on the future world stage. Economic Cycles, Crises, and the Global Periphery will inspire discussion and debate among sociologists, global economists, demographers, global historians, and futurologists. This expert knowledge is necessary for further research, proactive response, and preparedness for a new age of sociopolitical change.

In this book, the author presents optimistic, socio-liberal conclusions about Islam in the world system. Countering some alarmist voices in the West, neither migration nor Muslim culture are to be blamed for the contemporary crisis, but the very nature of unequal capitalist accumulation and dependency that is at the core of the world capitalist system. For one, the analysis is based on current thinking on Kondratiev waves of world political development inherent in recent work by IIASA and the NATO Institute for Advanced Studies. Analyses are also presented on the framework of the debate on cross-national determinants of human well-being in the world system. While the author is cautiously optimistic about a socio-liberal, non-interventionist policy alternative, he has come to the conclusion that present patterns of global governance, modeled around the neo-liberal Washington Consensus and American hyperpower, are doomed for failure. A new, socio-liberal global consensus on global migration, global order and global governance could emerge instead.

Aimed to the reader interested to learn about the progress and development of the new toll for the evaluation and assessment of power plant accidents and catastrophes.

This book, based on a 175-nation study, investigates the relevance of dependency theory to the success of eight different dimensions of development, and argues that the pro-globalist policies of the European Commission are the greatest threat to Europe's future developmental performance.

This book is a welcome and timely endeavour to the study of Globalisation, which as we know is the currency of contemporary economic and political debates. It is very broad in scope and its more than 40 pages of references provides the most complete survey for research and information on this field that I've already seen. Undoubtedly an outstanding contribution to the field of international politics, which deserves pride of place in the library of any scholar interested in political and social sciences.

With the process of a 'wider Europe' (EU-Commission President Romano Prodi's 'ring of friends') that extends from Marrakech in Morocco to St Petersburg in Russia gathering speed, the growing rift between Europe and America also is about how to deal politically with the countries of the Mediterranean-Muslim world. The house of Islam (Dar al Islam) was pivotal to the European path to the Renaissance and to the re-discovery of classic Greek philosophy. The Mediterranean policy of the European Union aims at a positive and co-operative relationship with the region. A successful integration of the Mediterranean South would have tremendous and positive repercussions for regional and world peace. World-wide leading experts from the field of world systems analysis, economics, integration theory, political science, theology and area studies, agnostics, Christians, Jews and Muslims alike discuss the issue with European decision makers. The outcome is an interdisciplinary evaluation of this projected export of peace, co-operation, dialogue and stability in the framework of world centre-periphery relationships.