Since the early weeks of the so-called Arab Spring, high hopes for democratic, social, and political change in the Middle East have been met with varying degrees of frustration. In the sub-region of the Levant, regional uprisings have turned to violent conflict in places such as Syria, Iraq, and the Gaza Strip. In Syria, popular unrest has caused enormous human suffering in one of the most brutal civil wars the region ever has witnessed, yet the international community has shown an appalling inability to act. Taking the war in Syria as its central point of reference, this book raises the question of whether the developments in the Levant might lead not only to processes of regime change, but also to a fundamental alteration of its entire state system.

This book combines contemporary discussions on modernity with the history of the Muslim world. From a heuristic perspective, it is sketching out a framework for a global sociology of modernity. This framework attempts to accommodate a core assumption of classical modernization theory - the global nature of modernity - with the pluralistic perspective of the rise of a multiplicity of historically concrete forms of modernities. It tries to reconcile a universalistic concept of modernity with the fact of modernity's multiple historical realizations. At the same time, this discussion of contemporary social theory puts forward a critique of the still so conveniently applied equation of modernization with Westernization. In empirical terms, the book substantiates this critique in drawing its exemplary illustrations from the historical experience of Muslim peoples. Bringing Muslim history and discussions in social theory together, this book represents a synthesis of research efforts in sociology and Islamic studies.

In light of the ongoing public debate that focuses on differences between Islam and the West, this book suggests a change of perspective. It departs from the observation that both western Orientalists and Islamist activists have defined Islam similarly as an all-encompassing religious, political and social system. In shifting from differences to similarities, it leaves behind the increasingly circular debate about the true nature of Islam in which the Muslim religion has been represented either as intrinsically hostile to or as principally compatible with modern culture. Instead, it associates the evolution of a particularly essentialist image of Islam with a complex process of cross-cutting (self)-interpretations of Muslim and Western societies within an emerging global public sphere. Putting its focus on the life and work of a number of paradigmatic individuals, the book investigates the intellectual encounters and discursive interdependencies among western and Muslim intellectuals. In a historical genealogy it deconstructs the essentialist image of Islam in uncovering its conceptual foundations in the modern transformation of European and Muslim societies from the nineteenth century onwards. Thereby, the changing infrastructure of the global public sphere has facilitated the gradual popularization, trivialization, and dissemination of a previously elitist discourse on Islam and modernity. In this way, the idea of Islam as an all-encompassing system has been turned into accepted knowledge in the Western and Muslim worlds alike.

Contents:
1. Copenhagen Peace Research Stefano Guzzini and Dietrich Jung Part I - Peace Research and IR Theory 2. Peace Research and International Relations in Scandinavia. From enduring rivalry to stable peace? Nils Petter Gleditsch 3. Peace Research between Idealism and Realism. Fragments of a Finnish debate Raimo Väyrynen 4. 'The Cold War is What We Make of It' When peace research meets constructivism in International Relations Stefano Guzzini 5. Peace and Security. Two concepts and their relationship Ole Wæver Part II: Globalization and Contemporary Security Studies 6. Wars and the Un-Making of States. Taking Tilly seriously in the contemporary world Anna Leander 7. Post-Trinitarian War and the Regulation of Violence Bjørn Møller 8. 'Civil' and 'Uncivil' in World Society Barry Buzan 9. Globalisation and Societal Insecurity. The securitisation of terrorism and competing strategies for global governance Morten Kelstrup 10. From Bentham to Bush. Surveillance, security and the quest for visibility Lene Hansen 11. The Subversion of Borders Thomas Diez Part III: Security Analysis in the Larger European Context 12. A Deutschian Security Community? Nordic peace reframed Pertti Joenniemi 13. Initiating a Security Community. General theory, history and prospects for Baltic-Russian relations Hans Mouritzen 14. The EU as a Foreign Policy Actor. The limitations of territorial sovereignty Christopher S. Browning 15. Fears into Fences. The isolationist pitfall of European federalism Jaap de Wilde 16. New NATO. Europe's continued security crisis Sten Rynning 17. Securitising European Integration. Turkey and the EU Dietrich Jung 18. Algeria: Violence and Securitisation Ulla Holm

This book brings together theories of world society with poststructuralist and postcolonial work on modern subjectivity to understand the universalising and particularising processes of globalisation. It addresses a theoretical void in global studies by attending to the co-constituted process through which modern subjectivities and global processes emerge and interact. The editors outline a key problem in global studies, which is a lack of engagement between the local/particular/individual and the 'universalising' processes in which they are situated. The volume deals with this concern with contributions from historical sociologists, poststructuralist and postcolonial scholars and by focusing in the Middle East, religion in global modernity and non-human subjectivities.

This book combines contemporary discussions on modernity with the history of the Muslim world. From a heuristic perspective, it is sketching out a framework for a global sociology of modernity. This framework attempts to accommodate a core assumption of classical modernization theory - the global nature of modernity - with the pluralistic perspective of the rise of a multiplicity of historically concrete forms of modernities. It tries to reconcile a universalistic concept of modernity with the fact of modernity's multiple historical realizations. At the same time, this discussion of contemporary social theory puts forward a critique of the still so conveniently applied equation of modernization with Westernization. In empirical terms, the book substantiates this critique in drawing its exemplary illustrations from the historical experience of Muslim peoples. Bringing Muslim history and discussions in social theory together, this book represents a synthesis of research efforts in sociology and Islamic studies.

This book combines sociological theorising with studies on the Middle East and Islam. The diversity of modernities that can be observed in our world is linked to the claim of living in a global modernity, in a world society. The book underpins this claim with numerous excursions into Islamic history. It criticises the view that modernisation can be equated with westernisation and considers different projects of specifically Islamic modernities as integral parts of world society. From this perspective, the study contributes to the "provincialisation" of European history in contemporary social scientific thought. Contrary to the theories of postcolonialism associated with the call for the provincialisation of Europe, however, this book adheres to essential traditions of classical sociology. It thus aims to make a contribution to the social theoretical discussion on modernity, which is empirically underpinned with the help of data from the history of the Middle East and Islam.

This book brings together theories of world society with poststructuralist and postcolonial work on modern subjectivity to understand the universalising and particularising processes of globalisation. It addresses a theoretical void in global studies by attending to the co-constituted process through which modern subjectivities and global processes emerge and interact. The editors outline a key problem in global studies, which is a lack of engagement between the local/particular/individual and the 'universalising' processes in which they are situated. The volume deals with this concern with contributions from historical sociologists, poststructuralist and postcolonial scholars and by focusing in the Middle East, religion in global modernity and non-human subjectivities.

Dieses Buch vereint soziologische Theoriebildung mit Studien zum Nahen Osten und zum Islam. Die Vielfalt von Modernitaten, die in unsere Welt beobachtet werden kann, wird dabei mit dem Anspruch verbunden, gleichzeitig in einer globalen Moderne, in einer Weltgesellschaft zu leben. Das Buch untermauert diesen Anspruch mit zahlreichen Exkursen in die islamische Geschichte. Es kritisiert die Auffassung, dass Modernisierung mit Verwestlichung gleichzusetzen ware und betrachtet unterschiedliche Projekte von spezifisch islamischen Modernitaten als integrale Teile der Weltgesellschaft. Aus dieser Perspektive leistet die Studie einen Beitrag zur "Provinzialisierung" der europaischen Geschichte im zeitgenoessischen sozialwissenschaftlichen Denken. Entgegen den mit der Aufforderung zur Provinzialisierung Europas verbundenen Theorien des Postkolonialismus halt dieses Buch aber an wesentlichen Traditionen der klassischen Soziologie fest. Es will damit einen Beitrag zur sozialtheoretischen Diskussion um die Moderne leisten, der empirisch mit Hilfe von Daten aus der Geschichte des Nahen Ostens und des Islams untermauert wird.

Das Ende des Ost-West-Konfliktes und die Ereignisse nach dem 11. September 2001 haben zu einer Flut von Literatur uber "neue" oder "postmoderne" Kriege gefuhrt. Die Autoren dieses Bandes sehen dagegen keinen radikalen Wandel im weltweiten Kriegsgeschehen. Nicht die Kriege und ihre Ursachen, sondern deren Interpretation ist neu. Die sich wandelnden Erscheinungsformen der Kriege folgen vielmehr langfristigen Entwicklungstendenzen. Sie sind Ausdruck der widerspruchlichen Entwicklungen der kapitalistischen Moderne. Ziel der Autoren ist es, die weit uber 200 Kriege des Zeitraums zwischen 1945 und 2002 sowohl in ihrem globalen Zusammenhang zu erklaren als auch die Besonderheiten regionaler Kriegsentwicklungen in Afrika, Asien, Lateinamerika, dem Nahem Osten und Europa herauszuarbeiten. Ihre kenntnisreiche Darstellung des Kriegsgeschehens ist eingebettet in einen umfassenden gesellschaftstheoretischen Erklarungsrahmen, der den Formwandel der Gewalt aus der historischen Entwicklung der burgerlichen Gesellschaft zur Weltgesellschaft erklart. Damit leistet der Band eine theoretisch geleitete, historisch fundierte und empirisch gehaltvolle Darstellung des Kriegsgeschehens seit 1945, wie sie in der deutschsprachigen Literatur so bisher nicht vorlag."

Die Vielfalt der empirisch nachweisbaren Beziehungen zwischen Politik und Religion lasst sich nicht einmal in, westlichen' Gesellschaften auf einen einfachen Nenner bringen. Der "Sakularisierung" stehen hier, wie die Beitrage des vorliegenden Bandes zeigen, deutliche Tendenzen einer Revitalisierung und Re-Politisierung von Religion gegenuber. Die Autoren untersuchen die unterschiedlichen Auspragungen des Verhaltnisses von Politik und Religion und seine vielfaltigen, teilweise gegenlaufigen Entwicklungen. Sie reflektieren diese an Hand spezifischer empirischer Fragestellungen zur Verfassungsordnung und politischen Kultur ausgewahlter Lander, fragen nach dem Einfluss religioser Orientierungen auf einzelne Politikfelder und analysieren Kirchen und Religionsgemeinschaften als politische Akteure auf der nationalen wie der internationalen Ebene."

In light of the ongoing public debate that focuses on differences between Islam and the West, this book suggests a change of perspective. It departs from the observation that both western Orientalists and Islamist activists have defined Islam similarly as an all-encompassing religious, political and social system. In shifting from differences to similarities, it leaves behind the increasingly circular debate about the true nature of Islam in which the Muslim religion has been represented either as intrinsically hostile to or as principally compatible with modern culture. Instead, it associates the evolution of a particularly essentialist image of Islam with a complex process of cross-cutting (self)-interpretations of Muslim and Western societies within an emerging global public sphere. Putting its focus on the life and work of a number of paradigmatic individuals, the book investigates the intellectual encounters and discursive interdependencies among western and Muslim intellectuals. In a historical genealogy it deconstructs the essentialist image of Islam in uncovering its conceptual foundations in the modern transformation of European and Muslim societies from the nineteenth century onwards. Thereby, the changing infrastructure of the global public sphere has facilitated the gradual popularization, trivialization, and dissemination of a previously elitist discourse on Islam and modernity. In this way, the idea of Islam as an all-encompassing system has been turned into accepted knowledge in the Western and Muslim worlds alike.

How is one authentically" modern? Substantively drawing on contemporary social theory, this book investigates the multiplicity of answers that Muslims have given to this question since the end of the nineteenth century. Through six historical and thematic case studies the chapters examine the historical evolution of multiple modernities within Islam. The book argues that we can observe the rise and spread of a relatively hegemonic idea according to which the relation to Islamic traditions bestows projects of Muslim modernities with cultural authenticity. At the same time, it provides an interpretation of this specifically Islamic discourse of modernity as an inherent part of global modernity in conceptual terms understood as the emergence of world society. Key Features Interprets modern Muslim history as an integral part of global modernity Presents a unique combination of social theory with Islamic studies Critically revises Eisenstadt's concept of multiple modernities Combines two distinct concepts of world society with theories of social emergence Six case studies give an account on the multiple modernities within Islam A theoretically informed fresh view on the construction of modern Muslim identities Based on more than 30 years of experience in Muslim countries "

Turkey's future will be shaped fundamentally by the fate of its Kemalist legacy. A range of ideological currents today - Kurdish nationalists, Islamists, and so-called neo-Ottomanists - are all challenging the received, and still dominant, Kemalist version of the country's history. This book argues that Turkey cannot meet adequately the challenges and opportunities which its Middle East location offers (both its near neighbours and its more distant Turkic cousins in the newly independent states of Central Asia) so long as its ruling elite and its politically influential military continue to deny the significant continuities between the country's imperial Ottoman past and the Kemalist project of the 20th century. The authors examine Turkey's attempts at modernization, starting with the Ottomans' own reform attempts and accelerating with the Kemalist Republic and the country's growing orientation towards the West since 1945. They look at the challenge to Kemalism that Islamism and Kurdish nationalism have posed more recently. And they explore the difficulties and possibilities that Turkey faces in its hinterland - its Arab and Persian neighbours, Central Asia, and Israel. How it plays out its role as a regional actor will, they argue, be decided by the outcome of the profound ideological and political conflicts within the country. More particularly, Turkey cannot take modernization and democratization further until it faces up to the authoritarian legacy that Ottoman political culture passed on to the Turkish Republic.