Mahmood Monshipouri

Information Politics, Protests, and Human Rights in the Digital Age

We live in a highly complex and evolving world that requires a fuller and deeper understanding of how modern technological tools, ideas, practices, and institutions interact and how different societies adjust themselves to the emerging realities of the digital age. This book conveys such issues with a fresh perspective and in a systematic and coherent way. While many studies have explained in depth the change in the aftermath of the unrests and uprisings throughout the world, they rarely mentioned the need for constructing new human rights norms and standards. This edited collection provides a balanced conceptual framework to demonstrate not only the power of autonomous communication networks but also their limits and the increasing setbacks they encounter in different contexts.

Counterterrorism, Nation-building, and Human Rights in the Middle East: Complementary or Competing Interests?

Nation-building has been a steady and conspicuous feature of U.S. foreign policy since the end of World War II, but since 9/11, it has become directly linked to the so-called war on terror. While the language of nation-building has been embraced by some policymakers who view it as an effective measure to fight terrorism, it has by now become abundantly clear that the imposition of altering alien political and legal structures is a problematic process at best that may yield an undesirable outcome. This is especially true regarding countries that are unwilling to easily accept the whims of foreign governments as their own. There has emerged a fundamental question about whether nation-building has become the ideology and tool of dominant political players. Similarly, invoking the use of force in the name of democracy promotion has become just as controversial.

A Review of Dominic McGoldrick's Human Rights and Religion: The Islamic Headscarf Debate in Europe

This is a book review of Dominic McGoldricks Human Rights and Religion: The Islamic Headscarf Debate in Europe, Portland, Oregon: Hart Publishing, 2006, pp. 309, Plus Index.