Arab States

Epic is the poetic narration of heroes' prowess and gallantry in quest of a great desire through a noble style, which has a symbolic structure. Arabic literature has not been familiar with Epic genre in its real meaning due to several reasons, including the lack of a deep imagination and insight, a tendency to adopt imitative styles, and the lack of a unique and all-inclusive nationality. Lack of a lengthy epic masterpiece in the old Arabic literature urged the contemporary Arab poets and writers to fill this gap. Therefore, they started composing epic poems, including Islamic epics. Islamic epics, which are based on the Islamic-historical events, are narrative poems in the form of didactic poetry that depict history of the early days of Islam and its events. Some researchers believe that encountering Western culture and development of nationalistic thoughts in the Arab world led classic poets to find interest in this type of literature, though other political, social and cultural events have been also effective. One of the outstanding Islamic epics is Ahmad Muharram's "Majd al-Islam", where he uses Quranic words and phrases to compose a great and remarkable epic, one which has truly come to be called by critics as "al-Elyazah al-Islamiyah ". In addition, Ahmad Shawqi's " the States of Arabs and the Great Men of Islam" and Bules Salamah's "Eid al-Ghadir" enjoy epic elements and features more than any other Islamic epic does, and so, are considered among the top Islamic epics.

The paper aims at defining the Arab states’ position with regard to the Palestinian refugee question. It will focus on the states neighboring Israel, which are also the Palestinian refugees’ main host states, namely Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. In the past few years, several studies have been devoted to the living conditions and the legal status of the refugees in each of these states. However, little attention has been paid to the latter’s possible role within the framework of the permanent-status negotiations on the refugee issue. Yet, any agreement will necessarily need to be agreed upon by those states, and therefore take their political and socioeconomic interests into account, before it is implemented.
As this paper will endeavor to show, the pressures the Arab states’ have exerted on Israel in order to get resolution 194 (III) implemented have only represented one side –the diplomatic side- of these states’ “refugee policy”. In practice, state interests linked to the preservation of internal stability, from either political or socioeconomic perspectives, have been instrumental in guiding that policy since 1948. This trend will prevail in the future, once the Arab states are included in, or impose themselves on the peace process.

At what point does difference between states become a threat or is perceived so? Difference is something that can be tolerated in normal relations among states, depending also on the degree and quality of difference. But in an arena of heightened alert, suspicion and past negative experiences – and especially in matters relating to security – difference can easily become threatening to various degrees. This chapter analyses and compares threat perceptions and threat narratives of the U.S. toward Iran with those of Arab states toward Iran. Which self-other constructions and which threat narratives exist, and do processes of ‘othering’ become apparent? Has the Arab Spring with its turmoil and new opportunities introduced a change in perceptions and threat narratives? What are the implications for security?