Amin Saikal
Biographic Data
| ID | 1152343 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Amin Saikal |
| GIVEN NAMES | Amin |
| FAMILY NAME | Saikal |
| SIGNATURE | SAIKAL A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Australian National University |
| ORCID | 0009-0006-3819-640X |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 45 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 71 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 43 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1980 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Afghanistan: America's Failed Intervention
Many factors contributed to America's failure in Afghanistan. Most prominently, they included the US's lack of a firm understanding of Afghanistan's historical and prevailing conditions; its inability to uproot the Taliban and Al Qaeda, resulting in a long “hunt” for Osama Bin Laden; its conflation of the Afghanistan campaign with two broader goals of democracy promotion and war on terrorism; its lack of effective and reliable partners on the gro…
Islam beyond Borders: The Umma in World Politics
Assuming a central place in Muslim life, the Qur'an speaks of one community of the faith, the umma. This unity of the faithful is recognised as the default aspiration of the believer, and in the modern era, intellectuals and political leaders have often vied both to define, and to lead it. Based on case studies of actors such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and ISIS, James Piscatori and Amin Saikal consider how some appeals to pan-Islam prove useful, yet …
Iran Rising: The Survival and Future of the Islamic Republic
On the fortieth anniversary of the 1978-79 Iranian revolution, a definitive political picture of the Islamic RepublicWhen Iranians overthrew their monarchy, rejecting a pro-Western shah in favor of an Islamic regime, many observers predicted that revolutionary turmoil would paralyze the country for decades to come. Yet forty years after the 1978-79 revolution, Iran has emerged as a critical player in the Middle East and the wider world, as demons…
Islam Beyond Borders: The Umma in World Politics
The prospect of a united Muslim world has long inspired both dreams and fears. Many Muslims regard the pan-Islamic community, the umma, as the embodiment of the spiritual kinship of the faith, but it has also often been assumed to be inherently antagonistic to adherents of other faiths. Questions over relations with the Other are mirrored by debates over what constitutes the acceptable contours of Islamic doctrine itself. Indeed, the umma has had…
Iran Rising: The Survival and Future of the Islamic Republic
When Iranians overthrew their monarchy, rejecting a pro-Western shah in favor of an Islamic regime, many observers predicted that revolutionary turmoil would paralyze the country for decades to come. Yet forty years after the 1978-79 revolution, Iran has emerged as a critical player in the Middle East and the wider world, as demonstrated in part by the 2015 international nuclear agreement. In Iran Rising, Iran specialist Amin Saikal describes how…
How Islamic Has the “Islamic State” Been
Two principal views have emerged on the nature and operations of the so-called Islamic State or khilafat. One contends that IS had nothing to do with Islam in both its ideological disposition and practical operations. The other view claims that IS was the embodiment of a Salafist‒Wahhabi version of Islam, and therefore it was Islamic. Whereas the first view recognizes the fact that Islam like any divine faith is open to a range of interpretations…
Women andJihad: Combating Violent Extremism and Developing New Approaches to Conflict Resolution in the Greater Middle East
The subject of female participation in combative jihad has proved to be contentious in Islam. Whilst some extremist Islamist groups, such as the so-called Islamic State (IS), have advocated women’s direct engagement in fighting in defense of Islam, others, for example Al Qaeda, have endorsed only a supporting role for women, primarily for the purpose of producing the next generation of jihadis. Whatever the validity of this debate, most radical j…
Democracy and Reform in the Middle East and Asia: Social Protest and Authoritarian Rule after the Arab Spring
The protests that swept across the Middle East and North Africa in late 2010 and 2011 confounded long-time observers of the region, in both the media and academia. After addressing the conditions in the Middle East and North Africa that produced these attempts at revolution, Amin Saikal and Amitav Acharya explore the global impact of the protests, both in terms of their ideological influence on opposition groups and the prospects for democratic t…
Afghanistan's Geographic Possibilities
Afghanistan's geostrategic potential is hampered by domestic weakness, regional tensions and major-power competition
American Democracy Promotion in the Changing Middle East: From Bush to Obama
During the first decade of the twenty-first century, the United States found itself heavily involved in efforts to build democracy in two states in which US forces had been deployed to overthrow unappetizing regimes, namely the Taliban in Afghanistan and the regime headed by Saddam Hussein in Iraq. At one level, the exercise might have seemed relatively straightforward. In both countries, ordinary people had suffered at the hands of rulers whose …
The UN and Afghanistan: Contentions in Democratization and Statebuilding
Following more than a decade of NATO's intervention in Afghanistan, it is often argued that the UN, alongside its international partners and the Afghan government, has failed to facilitate good governance and a stable democratic political order. In charting the evolving UN role in ‘democratizing’ Afghanistan, this article analyses why this is so. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), facing considerable historical and institutional co…
Afghanistan: How the West lost its way
Afghanistan: The Status of the Shi'ite Hazara Minority
The predominantly Shi'ite Hazara minority in Afghanistan has historically been a deprived and poorly treated cluster. During the theocratic rule of the Taliban (1996-2001), they were subjected to an unprecedented degree of violence and persecution. However, since the US-led NATO intervention a decade ago their situation has improved substantially. They have succeeded in securing a sizable share in the political and economic life of Afghanistan in…
Authoritarianism, revolution and democracy: Egypt and beyond
The pro-democracy Arab popular uprisings have been spontaneous, but perhaps not all that unpredictable. They have come against the backdrop of a growing gulf between the rulers and the ruled, political repression, social and economic inequalities, demographic changes, unemployment and foreign policy debacles. Although the uprisings began in Tunisia, it is the case of Egypt that illustrates the situation more compellingly and the impact that it ha…
Afghanistan on the Edge of a Political Abyss
Ten years into the war on terror, the Karzai government and its international backers, namely the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), continue to face bleak prospects in Afghanistan. The country suffers from political uncertainty and instability, with a resurgent Taliban movement in control of vast swaths of territory. This article argues that five key factors have interacted inauspiciously to contribute to this situa…
Afghanistan and Pakistan: The Question of Pashtun Nationalism
The Pashtun people that straddle Afghanistan and Pakistan are divided along family, clan and tribal lines, but constitute an ethnic-based nation in the classic sense of the term. Since the end of 2001, many of them find themselves subjected to intense efforts by the Afghan and Pakistani governments, backed by the US and many of its allies, to expunge the Pashtun-dominated radical Taliban Islamic movement from their midst. However, many Pashtuns n…
The Rise and Fall of the Shah: Iran from Autocracy to Religious Rule
On November 4, 1979, when students occupied the American Embassy in Tehran and subsequently demanded that the United States return the Shah in exchange for hostages, the deposed Iranian ruler's regime became the focus of worldwide scrutiny and controversy. But, as Amin Saikal shows, this was far from the beginning of Iran's troubles. Saikal examines the rule of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, especially from 1953 to 1979, in the context of his regime…
The Way Forward in Afghanistan: Three Views
Additional informationNotes on contributorsBarnett R. RubinBarnett R. Rubin is Director of Studies and a Senior Fellow at New York University's Center on International Cooperation and the author of The Fragmentation of Afghanistan (2nd ed., 2002). He served as an adviser to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General at the UN Talks on Afghanistan in Bonn in 2001.Amin SaikalAmin Saikal is Professor of Political Science and Director of the…
The Roots of Iran's Election Crisis
The Iranian leadership's handling of the dispute over the June 2009 presidential election not only bitterly alienated a sizeable proportion of the population; it also deeply split the ruling clerics. The government has lost the support of many ranking Islamist figures, whose continued backing is necessary to maintain its coherence and effectiveness, and its legitimacy has been eroded. If it fails to modify its authoritarian Islamist mindset and p…
Iran's new strategic entity
This article focuses on the two political factions in Iran, the Jihadi (traditionalist combative) and the Ijithadi (creatively interpretive) and their competition and accommodation since the Revolution. The author argues that US-policy and developments in the region have favoured the Jihadis and enabled President Ahmadinejad to act more intransigently and assertively than would otherwise been the case. At a time of profound shift in the sectarian…
The Iran nuclear dispute
Afghanistan's transition: Isaf 's stabilisation role
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) deployed in Afghanistan has played a critical role in that country's transition. Without its security and peace-stabilising contributions, the government of President Hamid Karzai and its international supporters would, arguably, not have been able to move Afghanistan on a path of stabilisation and reconstruction. Yet the isaf has also suffered from certain shortcomings, arising mainly from polic…
Securing Afghanistan's border
As Afghanistan goes through a painful transition from a theocratic past to a possible pluralist future, the country continues to face serious border-security problems. The most problematic border is with Pakistan. Although Islamabad has repeatedly pledged to stop cross-border armed infiltrations and drug trafficking, Kabul strongly believes that Pakistan has not done enough. Unless this long and treacherous border, with a complex history, is secu…
Islamic Perspectives on the New Millennium
Preliminary pages 1. Islamic Perspectives on the New Millennium by Virginia Hooker The New World Order 2. Islam and the West: Challenges and Opportunities by Amin Saikal 3. Indonesian Responses by Samsu Rizal Panggabean
Iraq, Saudi Arabia and oil: Risk factors
As two oil-rich states and significant members of OPEC, Iraq is in the grip of a devastating conflict and Saudi Arabia is confronted with a serious legitimacy crisis. They both face much uncertainty over the next few years, although from different sources and in different degrees. The world has been able to cope with Iraq being an erratic oil producer since 1991, with its production at times falling to negligible amounts. Saudi Arabia, however, h…
The rise and fall of the Shah
Afghanistan: The Status of the Shi'ite Hazara Minority
The predominantly Shi'ite Hazara minority in Afghanistan has historically been a deprived and poorly treated cluster. During the theocratic rule of the Taliban (1996-2001), they were subjected to an unprecedented degree of violence and persecution. However, since the US-led NATO intervention a decade ago their situation has improved substantially. They have succeeded in securing a sizable share in the political and economic life of Afghanistan in…
Afghanistan and Pakistan: The Question of Pashtun Nationalism
The Pashtun people that straddle Afghanistan and Pakistan are divided along family, clan and tribal lines, but constitute an ethnic-based nation in the classic sense of the term. Since the end of 2001, many of them find themselves subjected to intense efforts by the Afghan and Pakistani governments, backed by the US and many of its allies, to expunge the Pashtun-dominated radical Taliban Islamic movement from their midst. However, many Pashtuns n…
The UN and Afghanistan: Contentions in Democratization and Statebuilding
Following more than a decade of NATO's intervention in Afghanistan, it is often argued that the UN, alongside its international partners and the Afghan government, has failed to facilitate good governance and a stable democratic political order. In charting the evolving UN role in ‘democratizing’ Afghanistan, this article analyses why this is so. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), facing considerable historical and institutional co…
Women andJihad: Combating Violent Extremism and Developing New Approaches to Conflict Resolution in the Greater Middle East
The subject of female participation in combative jihad has proved to be contentious in Islam. Whilst some extremist Islamist groups, such as the so-called Islamic State (IS), have advocated women’s direct engagement in fighting in defense of Islam, others, for example Al Qaeda, have endorsed only a supporting role for women, primarily for the purpose of producing the next generation of jihadis. Whatever the validity of this debate, most radical j…
Authoritarianism, revolution and democracy: Egypt and beyond
The pro-democracy Arab popular uprisings have been spontaneous, but perhaps not all that unpredictable. They have come against the backdrop of a growing gulf between the rulers and the ruled, political repression, social and economic inequalities, demographic changes, unemployment and foreign policy debacles. Although the uprisings began in Tunisia, it is the case of Egypt that illustrates the situation more compellingly and the impact that it ha…
The Roots of Iran's Election Crisis
The Iranian leadership's handling of the dispute over the June 2009 presidential election not only bitterly alienated a sizeable proportion of the population; it also deeply split the ruling clerics. The government has lost the support of many ranking Islamist figures, whose continued backing is necessary to maintain its coherence and effectiveness, and its legitimacy has been eroded. If it fails to modify its authoritarian Islamist mindset and p…
The Iran nuclear dispute
Afghanistan after the Loya Jirga
Afghanistan's ethnic conflict
Since the end of the Cold War, the war in Afghanistan has been transformed from an ideological struggle into a brutal ethno-nationalist conflict. This transformation has largely been fuelled by Afghanistan's neighbours, most importantly Pakistan, which have pursued competing policies of cross-border ethnic clientelism. In the search for a solution to the crisis, the US must take the lead, enlisting international support to pressure Pakistan and t…
How Islamic Has the “Islamic State” Been
Two principal views have emerged on the nature and operations of the so-called Islamic State or khilafat. One contends that IS had nothing to do with Islam in both its ideological disposition and practical operations. The other view claims that IS was the embodiment of a Salafist‒Wahhabi version of Islam, and therefore it was Islamic. Whereas the first view recognizes the fact that Islam like any divine faith is open to a range of interpretations…
Afghanistan's transition: Isaf 's stabilisation role
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) deployed in Afghanistan has played a critical role in that country's transition. Without its security and peace-stabilising contributions, the government of President Hamid Karzai and its international supporters would, arguably, not have been able to move Afghanistan on a path of stabilisation and reconstruction. Yet the isaf has also suffered from certain shortcomings, arising mainly from polic…
Afghanistan, terrorism, and American and Australian responses
The war against terror in Afghanistan has indeed been complex and multi-dimensional. On the one hand the situation in Afghanistan demanded it, not only to eliminate an important source of international terrorism but also to help the Afghan people to liberate themselves from the brutal, medievalist rule of the Taliban and their foreign supporters. This may well prove to be one of the most positive outcomes of the US-led military intervention. On t…
T he R ole of O utside A ctors in A fghanistan
Iraq, UNSCOM and the US: A UN Debacle
The UN and Afghanistan: A case of failed peacemaking intervention
If there is one conflict which has constantly defied the UN's efforts at conflict resolution it is that in Afghanistan. The UN's political response to this conflict has been profoundly imperceptive. The sheer complexity of the Afghan situation has overwhelmed the UN, which has proved incapable of tackling the conflict from other than the rigidly conventional angle that has generally characterized its approach to conflict resolution. Successive re…
Afghanistan: A New Approach
Soviet Policy toward Southwest Asia
This article analyzes changing Soviet foreign policy toward Southwest Asia, mainly Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. The region is important to Soviet security and strategic interests, and Soviet policy toward the region has been consistently cautious, far-sighted, flexible, and shrewd. Moscow avoids serious risks and adjusts quickly to changing conditions. The USSR is interested in widening and protecting its interests in Southwest Asia in order …
The rise and fall of the Shah
The Rise and Fall of the Shah
Soviet Policy toward Southwest Asia
This article analyzes changing Soviet foreign policy toward Southwest Asia, mainly Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. The region is important to Soviet security and strategic interests, and Soviet policy toward the region has been consistently cautious, far-sighted, flexible, and shrewd. Moscow avoids serious risks and adjusts quickly to changing conditions. The USSR is interested in widening and protecting its interests in Southwest Asia in order …
The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Russia and Afghanistan: A Turning Point
1989). Russia and Afghanistan: a turning point? Asian Affairs: Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 165-183
The Persian gulf crisis: Regional implications
The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Iranian Foreign Policy, 1921–1979
In recent times, a significant aspect of Iran's foreign relations has been foreign interference in the country's affairs, with varying Iranian response to this. Three major factors have played a determining role in this: Iran's growing strategic and economic importance as an oil producer in a zone of major power rivalry; the national features of Iran as a predominantly Shī'ī, but socially heterogeneous society, with no consensus over the appropri…
The Cambridge History of Iran
This final volume of The Cambridge History of Iran covers the period from 1722 to 1979. Part I sets out the political framework. Beginning in the reign of Nadir Shah, it traces the establishment of the Qajar dynasty and the rise and fall of the Pahlavi autocracy. Part II discusses relations with the Ottoman Empire, Russia, European countries, Britain and British India. Part III covers economic and social developments, including systems of land te…
The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Afghanistan: Culture and ideology under pre‐1978 governments
Afghanistan: A New Approach
The UN and Afghanistan: A case of failed peacemaking intervention
If there is one conflict which has constantly defied the UN's efforts at conflict resolution it is that in Afghanistan. The UN's political response to this conflict has been profoundly imperceptive. The sheer complexity of the Afghan situation has overwhelmed the UN, which has proved incapable of tackling the conflict from other than the rigidly conventional angle that has generally characterized its approach to conflict resolution. Successive re…
Afghanistan's ethnic conflict
Since the end of the Cold War, the war in Afghanistan has been transformed from an ideological struggle into a brutal ethno-nationalist conflict. This transformation has largely been fuelled by Afghanistan's neighbours, most importantly Pakistan, which have pursued competing policies of cross-border ethnic clientelism. In the search for a solution to the crisis, the US must take the lead, enlisting international support to pressure Pakistan and t…
Iraq, UNSCOM and the US: A UN Debacle
‘Islam and the West’?
Relations between the Muslim world and the Christian West, led by the United States, are complex and multidimensional. Yet two strong but contradictory views continue to raise serious concerns about the state of this relationship at the dawn of the twenty-first century, and each view comes with varying nuances (for a detailed discussion, see Esposito, 1992; Said, 1997, especially Chapter 1; Halliday, 1995, especially Chapter 3). One view is that …
T he R ole of O utside A ctors in A fghanistan
Dimensions of state disruption and international responses
In the post-Cold War period there has been a dramatic increase in the number of states which can be classified as disrupted, thus creating a major source of political, social and military turbulence and instability in world politics. The causes have been
Afghanistan, terrorism, and American and Australian responses
The war against terror in Afghanistan has indeed been complex and multi-dimensional. On the one hand the situation in Afghanistan demanded it, not only to eliminate an important source of international terrorism but also to help the Afghan people to liberate themselves from the brutal, medievalist rule of the Taliban and their foreign supporters. This may well prove to be one of the most positive outcomes of the US-led military intervention. On t…
Afghanistan after the Loya Jirga
Islamic Perspectives on the New Millennium
Preliminary pages 1. Islamic Perspectives on the New Millennium by Virginia Hooker The New World Order 2. Islam and the West: Challenges and Opportunities by Amin Saikal 3. Indonesian Responses by Samsu Rizal Panggabean
Iraq, Saudi Arabia and oil: Risk factors
As two oil-rich states and significant members of OPEC, Iraq is in the grip of a devastating conflict and Saudi Arabia is confronted with a serious legitimacy crisis. They both face much uncertainty over the next few years, although from different sources and in different degrees. The world has been able to cope with Iraq being an erratic oil producer since 1991, with its production at times falling to negligible amounts. Saudi Arabia, however, h…
The Iran nuclear dispute
Afghanistan's transition: Isaf 's stabilisation role
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) deployed in Afghanistan has played a critical role in that country's transition. Without its security and peace-stabilising contributions, the government of President Hamid Karzai and its international supporters would, arguably, not have been able to move Afghanistan on a path of stabilisation and reconstruction. Yet the isaf has also suffered from certain shortcomings, arising mainly from polic…
Securing Afghanistan's border
As Afghanistan goes through a painful transition from a theocratic past to a possible pluralist future, the country continues to face serious border-security problems. The most problematic border is with Pakistan. Although Islamabad has repeatedly pledged to stop cross-border armed infiltrations and drug trafficking, Kabul strongly believes that Pakistan has not done enough. Unless this long and treacherous border, with a complex history, is secu…
Political science (38 works) · Law (28 works) · Politics (27 works) · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East (25 works) · Law (23 works) · Sociology (20 works) · History (19 works) · Political economy (18 works) · Development economics (12 works) · Islamic Studies and History (12 works)