Ali Hüseyinoğlu

Since the end of the Cold War, the Western orientation of the Balkans has been an important topic for the U.S. However, the region has ceased to be a priority object for the U.S. foreign policy since the early 2000s and the 2008 economic crisis led the EU to downgrade its enlargement agenda creating a vacuum that enabled the non-Western actors, notably Russia and China to extend their influence over the region. This study offers a comparative and multi-actor analysis combining the regional developments with systemic-level shifts. It aims to examine the rise of multipolarity and the reflections of geopolitical competition in the Western Balkans in the post-Cold War era. It argues that despite the reduced U.S. involvement, the American engagement still remains crucial for the regional stability. Given the EU’s weakening role, this article contributes to the literature by analyzing how the great power rivalry among the U.S., Russia, and China shapes the stability in the Western Balkans with a particular attention to the developments in BIH and Kosovo.

The visibility of women and their freedoms in the French public sphere is envisaged in this article on the basis of laïcité and gender equality. Within the debate about the rights and limitations of Muslim women, French feminist ideology seems to be torn between two totally contradictory positions. Anti-veil and anti-burqa laws are on the one hand defended in the name of laïcité and the emancipation of women. On the other hand, the laws are severely criticized because they marginalize Muslim women from the majority of French society. The main aim of this research is to analyze anti-veil and anti-burqa laws in France by focusing on their historical and social foundations from a feminist perspective. Next, this study argues that the visibility of Muslim women in the French public space, which is banned in the name of republican and laic values, is actually valued by some feminist groups who cast an exclusionary and othering glance at the clothing of Muslim women, such as the headscarf or the burqa.

Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity is the last installment of a four-volume series written by Prof. Akbar Ahmed. The text is composed of three parts and nine chapters. It starts by outlining the historical presence of Islam in Europe and continues elaborating theoretical discussions about modernity and tribalism in respect to the (re)construction of European identity and the formation of nations from ancient times to the present.