“If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more ‎violence. If the Jews put ‎down their weapons ‎today, there would be no ‎more Israel” Golda Meir I have underscored in the previous posts that the interpretation which attributes the authoritarian nature of Middle Eastern regimes to the “intrinsical” nature of Islamic precepts is fallacious and misleading. Rather, the roots are to be found in the...

The grim picture of Athens provided by the archaeological evidence suggests that recovery during the Dark Ages was slow and gradual. As few architectural remains survive, almost all our information comes from wells and graves. Other than a few bronzes and, later, some iron tools and weapons, pottery is the main survival from these difficult centuries (1100–750 B.C.). The pots are decorated in a distinctive style, with painted geometric...

With the introduction of metallurgy, the Bronze Age began, and along with it the beginningsof a recognizable, distinct history of Athens. The early Bronze Age (3000–2000B.C.) was an island and coastal civilization, and the clearest evidence for human activity hasbeen found largely in excavations of cemeteries and settlements by the sea (see fig. 7):Aghios Kosmas (near Hellenikon Airport) on the west coast, Thorikos, Raphina...

In the renowned work on democracy consolidation coordinated by Larry Diamond, civil society is defined as “a sphere of organized intermediary groups that are voluntary, self-generated, independent from the state and family and interconnected by a legal order and a set of common rules.[1]” Indeed, this comprehensive working-definition does have the merit of laying the theoretical ground for the subsequent discussion. Nevertheless, the...

A more ample discussion of the Arab civil society is first and foremost justified by the premise established at the beginning of this chapter: civil society is one of the five arenas of a democratic system. Therefore, in order to pave the way for an in-depth assessment of the chances of democratization in the Middle East, as well as the impact of concrete US policies, it is peremptory to first comprehend the configuration of the Arab civil...

For the earliest history of Athens we rely on the results of archaeological exploration, supplemented by the myths and legends familiar to the Athenians of later times. The land of Attica has been inhabited since at least the Upper Paleolithic period (30,000–10,000 B.C.), when humans hunted and gathered their food. Early traces from this time have been found in the Kitsos cave near Laureion and in chance finds elsewhere of early stone...