Obaida Hitto

Moravcsik is confident in his ideas and committed to understanding Europeanization. By his own admission, he was also pleased, just as Caporaso was, that liberal intergovernmentalism took some air out of the neofunctionalism balloon. Moravcsik’s rational approach to national preference formation and European integration is now the baseline theory for understanding major European integration events. Moravcisk admits that his theory is not a general theory of European integration but instead focused only on answering the question of how countries formulate national preferences when making historically significant constitution amending European integration decisions and is not useful in explaining day to day happenings of European integration - especially within the structure of EU institutions such as the European Council, the European Commission, the European Court of Justice, and the Committee of Permanent Representatives. His claim is accurate and built on a clear understanding of what his work is meant to do and the limits of what is possible based on his work. He defends his methodology with an explanation of the sources he depended on for data and analysis of the critiques posed regarding the rogor of his analytical approach. Regarding his methodology it is clear that his research was meticulously executed covering each aspect of every assumption made to support his claims. His reliance on primary data and analysis of observable behavior does give his claims empirical substantiveness. It would be helpful to categorize specific types of behavior related to the three phases of integration: national preference formation, intergovernmental bargaining, compliant institutionalization of policies. Evaluating the behavior types of the various actors involved in any aspect of the three phases of integration in the cases chosen by Moravcsik and comparing those actors and their correlating behaviors would reveal the consistency of those actors and end provide some insight as to how those decisions are being made and what factors are leading to such decisions. Those observable behaviors can then be measured to evaluate compliance, or a threat of non compliance, resistance from domestic actors, pressures from supranational institutions and other relevant contributions to the integration process.  This may require the fusion of political, social, economic, and political approaches to understanding how national preference formation processes affect supranational institutionalization in the EU, and possibly beyond.

This paper will explore how the current world system is in a state of epistemological racism against Islam. The paper will discuss how this racism has resulted in the recurring phenomenon of racist acts being carried out against Muslims all over the world under a the pretext of reacting to the actions of a few. This analysis will focus on the public discourse about Islam following the appearance of Daesh in 2014 using the Venetian School of Discourse Analysis Theory and Postcolonial Theory. The paper will show how Muslims are blamed for actions of certain violent groups for the mere fact that they were Muslims and not with any real justification for assuming a real relationship between the Muslims at large and the individuals that carry out violent acts. This then resulted in a major backlash against Muslims manifesting in the form of violent and racist acts.

This paper analyzes the evolution of the interpretations of democracy of Jabhat al Nusra from their appearance in Syria at the start of the Syrian war. The analysis is conducted by using the Viennese School of Discourse Theory to evaluate the varied political positions towards democracy and the shape of a future Syrian state taken by the Al Qaeda inspired Syrian militant group Jabhat al Nusra throughout their various changes including their change to Jabhat Fateh al Shaam (JFS) and then Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS). It will look at the statements, public discourses, critiques, and news stories related to how the group shifted alliances and engaged in discourse with other Syrian groups based on interpretations of how a democratic system would be implemented to hold to power in Syria.

This paper is an analysis of the available research and primary texts related to Ibn al Qayyim and an evaluation of his contribution to psychology. First the paper introduces the development of Islamic intellectual thought starting with revelation. Then there is a short description of the tradition of psychology and its historic significance. Then the contributions made by Ibn Al Qayyim are summarized and evaluated. In the end conclusions are made about how pervasive these contributions are to modern psychological practice and modern Islamic intellectual thought.