Conflict, Collapsed State, and Social Movements in the Contemporary Asia and Middle East

本研究项目旨在分析中东和亚洲的冲突，并研究在冲突后局势中可能阻碍国家机器发挥作用的各种社会和政治因素。在这项研究中，我们主要关注冲突后国家的政治重建过程，包括伊拉克、黎巴嫩和阿富汗等冲突后国家的国家机器民主化和制度化。通过我们的研究，我们发现传统的社会网络，如种族、宗派和部落关系，在冲突后国家新建立的选举制度中得到了强烈的反映。这是因为民主制度的流于形式，政党和组织还没有发展起来，还不能适当地代表社会的不同声音。值得注意的是，在外国势力介入后，包括政权更迭在内的这一过程被外部行为者加速。我们还澄清了传统社会网络在维系威权政权的治理机制方面发挥了重要作用。它使我们认识到研究支持威权政体稳定的非制度性网络的重要性。这是我们在研究项目期间见证和体验所谓“阿拉伯之春”的一个很好的机会。分析“阿拉伯之春”的每一个案例，我们得出的结论是，我们需要引入新的分析方法，将新制度主义、新社会运动理论和国际关系结合起来。

This research project is to analyse the conflicts in the Middle East and Asia, and study various social and political factors that might be obstacles to the function of state apparatus in the post-conflict situations.In this research we mainly focused on the processes of political reconstruction, including democratization and institutionalisation of state apparatus in the post-conflicts state, such as Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan. Through our research we found that the traditional social networks such as ethnic, sectarian, and tribal ties, are strongly reflected in the newly established electoral systems in the post-conflict states. It is because of the quick introduced formality of democratic system in which the political parties and organizations have not developed yet to represent diverse voices from the society properly. It is also worth noting that this process, including regime changes, was accelerated by the external actors, after the intervention of foreign powers.We also clarified that the traditional social networks played an important role in maintaining governing mechanism in the authoritarian regimes. It led us to recognize the significance in studying the uninstitutional networks that support the stability of authoritarian regimes.It was a great opportunity for us to witness and experience the so-called" Arab Springs" during our research project. Analysing each case of the" Arab Springs", we concluded that we need to introduce new method of analysis, combining the new institutionalism, new social movement theory, and international relations.