The Greek social democrats have been on a recovery path since 2012 when the biggest crisis of their history began. After the successful formation in 1974, the Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) experienced a spectacular rise and for four decades it decisively influenced the prevailing Greek politics. For a long time, PASOK had the broad support of the majority of socioeconomic groups and along with the conservative New Democracy (ND) defined Greece's path to the democratization and Europeanization era. The multidimensional crisis which Greece had entered after the onset of the international economic crisis in 2007 had a drastic impact on the political landscape. In the dual parliamentary elections on May 6 and June 17, 2012, PASOK received 12-13% of the votes, only three years after it had received 44%. In 2015, PASOK received the worst electoral percentage in its history, namely, 4.6%. This decisive defeat was expected for a long time, but no one predicted its dramatic size. In any case, PASOK has clearly lost its earlier influence and entered a long period of resignation and disorientation. This study focuses on the specificities of PASOK in comparison with the social democratic parties of Western Europe.    more »

Initially, Canada had no interest, economically or militarily, in the faraway Arab-Israel region, in particular or in the Middle East, in general. However, post-Second World War, participation in the United Nations had drawn Canada into the Arab-Israel conflict, closely and emotionally. Notwithstanding its traditional position and consistent support for the State of Israel, Canada has been one of the few states that took a position in support of comprehensive peace in the Arab-Israel conflict. Its principal contribution to the Arab-Israel peace process has been in the form of Canada holding the Chair of the Refugee Working Group (RWG)-a group that was created as part of the broad multilateral Middle East Peace Process (MEPP) in the 1990s. This study has made a modest effort to describe and analyze, using historical and comparative methods, Canada's diplomatic engagements with the Arab-Israel conflict and the various peace processes through the United Nations as well as multilateral peace mechanisms.     more »

The Palestinian NGOs (PNGOs) have played a significant role in developing various aspects of Palestine's national welfare. After 1948, another duty was added on to the PNGOs, which is resisting Israeli occupation both directly and indirectly. In that process, PNGOs could not finance themselves because of the economic damages of the Israeli occupation. As a result, PNGOs relied on foreign support, from Arab organizations and non-Arab organizations. In particular, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and European Union (EU) were the biggest funders for the PNGOs. In fact, USAID and EU are still the primary funders for the Palestinian Authority (PA), that emerged from signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. The author argues that conditional funding prevents PNGOs from supporting the exercise of the right of self-determination. Moreover, it marginalizes the PNGOs from the political sphere. Both these are effected by inserting anti-terrorism clauses by the funders in the funding contracts.    more »