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The Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) stands as a significant player in the hydrocarbon landscape of the Middle East, necessitating an in-depth analysis of its role in the exportation process to Turkey and Mediterranean ports, thereby fostering economic and political ties and projecting toward the future. Situated as a semi-autonomous entity in northern Iraq, the Kurdistan Region boasts abundant natural gas resources, attracting interest from Russian firms and Turkish stakeholders. However, Iran’s influence in Iraq and the wider region poses a regional threat to the Kurdistan Region’s natural resources. This chapter meticulously examines the oil and gas blocks within the Kurdistan Region amidst the backdrop of transformative global energy market shifts, including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian–Ukrainian conflict. Through this lens, it seeks to delineate the Kurdistan Region’s political and economic positioning within the evolving regional order.

This study aims to investigate how feelings for a country influence visitation to conflict-ridden destinations. It also examines the moderating effect of communications – news about terror or pictures of the place’s attractions – and whether the pictures counteract the damaging news.

This study examines the influence that feelings for a country have on visitation intentions, via the destination’s perceived risk and overall image. Furthermore, an experimental design is used to test the moderating influence of two communications stimuli. The sample consists of 309 individuals from the USA who were randomly exposed to various stimuli.

The findings confirm that feelings for the country shape risk perceptions, overall destination image and visitation intentions. Communications moderate the influence of these emotions. In addition, pictures of the destination’s attractions mitigate the adverse effect of negative news.

The investigation focuses on Turkey, a popular tourist destination, despite being subject to biases due to its geopolitical situation and ongoing armed conflict. The findings suggest that conflict-ridden destination managers should understand and use emotions, distinguishing between country and destination, while emphasizing the place’s attractions with visual communications to counter negative country reports.

This research contributes a comprehensive model that explains the impact that feelings for a country have on visitation decisions, highlighting the mediating role of risk perceptions and destination image. Furthermore, the study underlines the moderating role of communications, both positive and negative, that shape the effect of the emotions on the studied variables.

The geopolitical significance of the Mediterranean Sea transcends regional security and energy supply, profoundly impacting global security dynamics. Daily headlines underscore the plight of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa crossing the Mediterranean, exacerbating humanitarian crises and European identity challenges. Environmental concerns are further heightened by the abundance of global ports facilitating oil and goods transportation, alongside the staggering number of tourists flocking to the Mediterranean coast annually. This chapter serves as a gateway to the book, exploring the concept of “geopolitics” and delineating its characteristics. It specifically delves into the political economy of the Eastern Mediterranean and the geopolitical obstacles to energy security in the region. The chapter strategically selects four primary issues to dissect the region’s conflict complexity: the Syrian crisis, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the unresolved Cyprus dispute, and the Lebanon–Israel conflict over water border demarcation.

This study aims to investigate the impact of leader’s religiosity on teachers’ organizational commitment and leaders’ virtuous behaviors. Second, it is intended to examine the significant influence of Al-Ghazali’s fundamental virtues – wisdom, justice, temperance and courage – on the level of commitment displayed by teachers in K12 schools.

To analyze this connection, a total of 335 surveys were collected from K12 private schools situated in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The data were then evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

It has been found that leaders’ virtuous behaviors have significant positive effects on teachers’ commitment. Furthermore, while religiosity did not directly influence teachers’ commitment, the virtuous behaviors of leaders played a significant mediating role in this relationship.

This research fills a gap in the literature by exploring the impact of Islamic ethical principles on employee commitment, specifically within the context of K12 education in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It emphasizes the critical role of leaders’ virtuous behaviors in improving employee commitment.

Since March 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted refugees by compounding preexisting and systemic health, social and economic inequities. In Canada, approximately 50,000 Syrian refugees arrived between 2015 and 2020 and were in the process of rebuilding their lives when the pandemic started. This study aims to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for Syrian refugees in Canada and identify supports needed.

Drawing on frameworks for refugee psychosocial adaptation and social integration and a qualitative descriptive design, the study used thematic analysis to examine semi-structured interviews with 10 Syrians.

Findings indicated four themes that provide a snapshot of impacts relatively early in the pandemic: facing ongoing development, inequity and insecurity during integration; disruption of settlement, integration and adaptation due to the pandemic; ongoing adaptation and resilience during integration in Canada; and ongoing needs and solutions for integration and adaptation.

This study builds upon growing research concerning Syrian refugees and psychosocial adaptation, particularly during the pandemic. The findings highlight the impacts of the pandemic on a population already facing inequities in a resettlement country. While the findings emphasize the resilience of the Syrian refugee community, the study also demonstrates the need for ongoing supports and justice-oriented action to fulfill resettlement commitments, especially in the face of additional stressors like the COVID-19 pandemic. Implications for policy, practice and future research are discussed.

All four propositions, assumptions (A), presumptions (P), suppositions (S), and presuppositions (PS), are, in general, part of human language and its usage, usually studied under the domain of linguistics. Critical thinking, as we understand in these volumes, is critical analysis of human language and its linguistics and narratives and arguments, which freely or spontaneously use A, P, S, and PS. These in turn are composed of signs, symbols (e.g., the alphabet) that bear meanings (semantics), messages and information (informatics), and motivation and persuasion via argumentation (pragmatics). We elaborate on these in this appendix.

Our major thesis here is the epistemological quasi necessity of A, P, S, and PS, which we freely and spontaneously use in linguistics, informatics, semantics, semeiotics, and pragmatics in our day-to day discussions, dialog, research, teaching, conversations, and conventional rationalizations. These can be both good from the viewpoint of transparency and honesty, opacity, and human exchange information asymmetry. They are dangerous since such A, P, S, and PS could be based on false dichotomies of man/Nature, male/female, truth/falsehood, objectivity/subjectivity, riches/poverty, equality/inequality, and the like; most of the negative aspects of such dichotomies are being used for self-serving, profit-maximizing, wealth-accumulating, poverty-perpetuating, and socially polarizing purposes. Human Anthropocene history is dotted with them, especially in the developmental context of industrialization and economic infrastructure development.

Hence, the vital necessity of critical thinking for critical self-examination, especially in current MBA curricula. All the three volumes of this book on critical thinking are expressly designed for this purpose.