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REVISTA IEEE 11

348 Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies Núm. 11 / 2018 Regarding minorities within Armed Forces, as Professor Algora points out, the author «presents his analysis from the optic of the evolution of military power» in Arab countries, which permits explanation of «different models of armies, and determining factors in their configuration, such as ethnic favoritism and the perception of legitimacy». The author includes an assessment of the behavior of the Armed Forces in the so-called Arab springs. With reference to military peacekeeping missions, and from a theoretical-practical approach, the article deals with the performance of the Armed Forces, with a contribution from the author’s own on-the-ground experience. The lessons learned in these missions are particularly valuable for the prevention and management of crises in scenarios where ethnic minorities are an essential component. The fourth and last part of the book is the result of the compilation of a series of case studies that enrich the analyses in the previous chapters. The case studies deal with the subject of minorities in the Mediterranean in scenarios ranging from the Balkans in Europe, where Juan Corona analyzes the current state of «permanent Balkanization» as applied to a paradigmatic case such as that of Kosovo, to the western Maghreb, where Cristina Lomba deals with the thorny Berber issue, always present both in Algeria and in Morocco, and Santiago Velasco writes a seminal article about the Arab Berber population in Mauritania. In the part focusing on the area farthest east, the Syrian-Iraqi-Turkish scenario has led to the writing of three articles that keep interest in this area alive, in spite of the changes that have occurred there. The Kurdish issue, as much overlooked then as it is in the spotlight now, is not ignored in this book, and Diego Moreno deals with this issue in his suggestive article entitled «Beyond the Kurdistan Borders». Without leaving this scenario, María González-Úbeda analyzes it in two highly current articles: on the one hand, «The Centrality of Sectarian Policies», in which she focuses her study on Iraq and the vicissitudes occurring after the American intervention and the fall of Sadam Hussein; and on the other, «Power as an Instrument for Survival», applied to the Syrian Alawites. Last but not least, the cases dealing most closely with Israel are covered in three articles. In the first one, Begoña Casas analyzes the Palestinian case, no less pressing for being widely dealt with, focusing on the innovative aspect of «identity complexity». Lebanon, a mosaic of minorities which miraculously survives its multiple crises and wars, is discussed by Mar García and the Lebanese, George E. Irani, in their article, «A Failed State or A Federation of Tribes?» Jordan, that miracle of stability in the midst of crisis, threatened by the growing number of refugees, is discussed by Ignacio de la Cierva and Óscar Sáinz de la Maza, in the article suggestively entitled «In Search of Calm in the Midst of the Storm», which clearly describes the complex equilibrium of the Hashemite country. As may be seen, the work delves into a cross-section of aspects of the minority problem and its effects on security, with multifaceted approaches and from different points of view which are perceived in a coordinated manner thanks to the task of http://revista.ieee.es

REVISTA IEEE 11
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