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The purpose of this paper is to examine the main contract principles which govern the international arbitration contract with special emphasis to examine contract principle found of the Middle East, how international principles of contract are perceived in the region, and whether there are any dominant contract principles.

A general exploratory research procedure used to give a better grasp of various aspects of socio‐legal approaches. The paper seeks to create knowledge that can be used to retrieve some pressing social and organisational understanding in the said region. The first part of the paper examines the role of ethics and tradition in understanding Middle Eastern contract principles. The second part examines the impact of Islamic Law on commercial contract principles. The third section analyses the regional perception of international contract principles. Finally, the paper addresses some contemporary issues of international contracts in the Middle East.

The paper showed that the legal perceptions of international contract principles reflect regional legal thinking which has been influenced by a mixed understanding of regional traditions, Islamic contract law principles as well as Western contract principles when these principles match regional legal culture. Overall, it showed that still under such mixed understanding, there are strong regional legal traditions and these are found in Islamic contract principles and affects commercial contract experiences. In general, a significant difference still exists between modern international contract principles and those in the Middle East.

The paper generates a knowledge that mixed understanding in regard to international contract arbitration principles due historical and cultural reasoning. Arab States does not share common understanding of international contract principles. Thus, it is very superfluous to propose the argument that there is sole Middle Eastern regional perception which dominates every Arab State. Therefore, special understandings and considerations should be given to every international arbitration contract from certain Arab State entity to another.

The paper provides a clear understanding of the guidelines for international commercial arbitration contract in the Middle East. Legal culture should be taken into consideration if a successful contract implementation has to be achieved.

Tourism in the Middle East is distinct and diverse, as are its associated challenges. The purpose of this paper is to examine the various opportunities and constraints facing the Middle East region in developing and promoting its tourism.

Content analysis of the current literature was conducted, and industry white papers and government portals were consulted to identify the historical relevance, current proceedings and future scope of tourism in the Middle East.

Given the diverse attractions, history, heritage and cuisine, the scope and potential to develop tourism in the Middle East region is enormous. However, political turmoil in the past and its stereotypical image emerged as the major constraints. Acknowledging the significance of the tourism sector, the governments of the region are trying hard to improve international arrivals and revenues.

Despite a steep growth in international arrivals, tourism in the Middle East has not been adequately addressed in academia. This paper highlights the region’s tourism-related background, issues and constraints, thus, addressing a critical gap in the literature.

This chapter offers a few stylized observations about the middle class and its role in the fall of communist regimes in East Central Europe. I claim that successive East European modernization projects during the 20th century (intrawar, communist, and postcommunist) were essentially middle-class “revolutions from above.” They occurred in a backward region among late modernizers keenly aware of their peripheral position and were based on and carried out by the state. Both a product of the state and dependent on it, the middle class was the main actor and supporter of these modernization efforts. I also argue that the Solidarity movement in 1980/81 and the 1989 collapse of communism were the last successful middle-class revolutions. Hopes for another political rebellion against postcommunist authoritarianism may be misplaced, since the transformational potential of the East European middle class, produced by the peculiarities of communist rule, has been exhausted. Fast progressing modernization, segmentation, and fragmentation of identity of the postcommunist middle class brought about by the economic, cultural, and political integration with the West undercut its mobilizational potential and its role as an agent of political transformations. The East European middle-class revolution against communist rule can offer four basic lessons. First, the middle class is a cultural and historical not economic phenomenon. Second, it is extremely rare for the middle class to become a collective actor, the class for itself. Third, the main competitors of middle-class identity are nationalism, ethnicity and religion. Finally, postmodernity with its fluidity, uncertainty, fractured identities, fragmented lifestyles, consumption patterns, and status configuration does not provide facilitating conditions for middle-class solidarity and mobilization, making it politically feeble.

Super-tall towers have surfaced as a pragmatic remedy to meet the escalating requisites for both residential and commercial areas and to stimulate economic growth in the Middle East. In this unique regional context, optimizing spatial usage stands as a paramount consideration in the architectural design of skyscrapers. Despite the proliferation of super-tall towers, there exists a conspicuous dearth of comprehensive research pertaining to space efficiency in Middle Eastern skyscrapers. This study endeavors to bridge this substantial gap in the literature.

The research methodology utilized in this paper adopts a case study approach to accumulate data regarding super-tall towers in the Middle East, with a specific focus on investigating space efficiency. A total of 27 super-tall tower cases from the Middle East were encompassed within the analytical framework.

Key findings can be succinctly summarized as follows: (1) average space efficiency was 75.5%, with values fluctuating between a minimum of 63% and a maximum of 84%; (2) average ratio of the core area to the gross floor area (GFA) registered 21.3%, encompassing a spectrum ranging from 11% to 36%; (3) predominantly, Middle Eastern skyscrapers exhibited a prismatic architectural form coupled with a central core typology. This architectural configuration mostly catered to residential and mixed-use functions; (4) the combination of concrete and outrigger frame systems was the most frequently utilized; (5) as the height of the tower increased, space efficiency tended to experience a gradual decline and (6) no significant discernible disparities were detected in the impact of diverse load-bearing systems and architectural forms on space efficiency.

Despite the proliferation of super-tall towers, there exists a conspicuous dearth of comprehensive research pertaining to space efficiency in Middle Eastern skyscrapers. This study endeavors to bridge this substantial gap in the literature.

Human capital analytics (HCA) is integral to all other human capital processes. With a mature analytics practice, leaders can make better decisions more quickly and with greater confidences. This paper aims to describe results of research that shows how organizations in Middle East countries are investing in HCA. Specifically, it describes as follows: the extent to which they are investing; types of projects in which they are investing; and factors critical to making analytics work.

While research may include respondents from organizations in developing countries, only recently have efforts been made to monitor progress specifically in these countries. This paper attempts to describe the most recent findings of such research, paying specific attention to the use of HCA in the Middle East.

Organizations in the Middle East embrace HCA. While still in its infancy, analytics is poised to be a strategic driver that will lead to improved organizational performance.

Whether investing in leadership development, talent acquisition, employee engagement or talent development, analytics plays a central role in informing decisions about people investments. To make HCA work, Middle East organizations plan to continue building capability through training; embracing technology and striving to link data across programs and platforms; and integrating systems, processes and people with other functions, particularly finance. In the end, organizations will seamlessly integrate HCA into all processes to drive organization performance.

The purpose of this paper is to study and specify to what extent Iran will succeed in being a regional hegemon. The paper is devoted to clarification of the constitutive elements for regional hegemony. These elements will be related to an actor’s perception of its role and regional perception, and how these hegemons exert power, do these work for the public good in the region (provision) and how this regional power projects power and exerts power to influence others’ preferences and values without reference to violence (projection). For the Middle East, Iran emerged as a key player in most regional conflicts and it tried to increase its sphere of influence as a regional hegemon. Therefore the question here would be: To what extend could Iran succeed in being a regional hegemon and what are the circumstances that could enhance or constrain this Iranian ambition? So the aim of the paper is to look at three dimensions in general and see whether Iran makes a plausible candidate for regional hegemony. The paper outlines the essential traits of a regional hegemon, and the main elements that constitute a regional hegemony such as perception, provision and projection, and then analyze how Iran follows those elements by analyzing internal perceptions of the Iranian elite about Iranian regional role, regional acceptance, provision of public good, projection and finally impact of the relation with external great powers. Through analyzing its regional strategy in Syria and Iraq since 2003, the year of invasion of Iraq, since ever a political vacuum was created, that enabled Iran to extend its regional influence, after the fall of its historical regional rival, Saddam Hussein baathi regime.

The study adopts an analytical framework of analyzing a regional hegemony strategy which is approached by Miriam Prys in her study “Hegemony, domination, detachment: differences in regional powerhood” to study and analyze Iran’s regional behavior as one of regional power that is seeking regional hegemony. This analytical framework is one of the most significant analytical tools that interests in the study of the behavior of regional power and identify the constitutive dimensions for regional hegemony such as self-perception, regional perception, provision and power projection.

The study concludes that there are obstacles completely in front of achieving the Iranian quest to regional hegemony over the Middle East. These are the continuing US involvement in the Middle East and the consequent tense relationship between Iran and the USA. It is most unlikely that Iran will be hegemonic state over the Middle East as long as there are refusal and resistance from other regional states for Iranian regional role; as each of regional powers has tools to contain the influence of the other. The Iranian regional behavior that is sectarianism-based, whether to protect Shiite shrines and holy places or to protect Shiites in the region, such policies deepen the ideological and sectarian conflicts. It also has not provided an attractive cultural model for the peoples of the region.

This paper enhances the deep analysis of the Middle East dynamics through the prospective of regional power. Also, the paper focuses on the analysis of the relation between great power and aspiring regional power and the impact on its strategies.

This study enhances the understanding of how Iranian decision-makers perceive their regional Iranian and the threats. Moreover, the tools that Iran uses its hard power and ideational one to create regional followers and change its allies’ normative and value systems to come in line with its national interests. Moreover, the study tries to measure the actual Iranian influence, its weakness and strength so that the Arab states and the West could behave in a fruitful way.

In the final analysis, the paper offers an insight into the regional behavior and the importance of external power in regional dynamics and to what extent the regional hegemon is applicable to Iran.

Roots of global Terrorism are in ‘failed’ states carved out of multiracial empires after World Wars I and II in name of ‘national self‐determination’. Both sides in the Cold War competed to exploit the process of disintegration with armed and covert interventions. In effect, they were colluding at the expense of the ‘liberated’ peoples. The ‘Vietnam Trauma’ prevented effective action against the resulting terrorist buildup and blowback until 9/11. As those vultures come home to roost, the war broadens to en vision overdue but coercive reforms to the postwar system of nation states, first in the Middle East. Mirages of Vietnam blur the vision; can the sole Superpower finish the job before fiscal and/or imperial overstretch implode it?