Regional Studies Journal

Research Idea: This research underscores the importance of the social dimension in understanding the structure and evolution of the Kingdom of Bahrain, arguing that social dynamics are deeply interwoven with all state institutions and provide a key framework for interpreting national developments.
Objective: The research aims to analyze the components of Bahraini society and document its contemporary transformations by drawing on official national indicators and internationally recognized statistical data.
Methods: The research employs a historical-inductive approach, relying on the collection and analysis of demographic, social, and economic information, supplemented by data obtained from official government sources.
Results: The results indicate that Bahrain’s limited geographic size and focused economic resources, particularly oil revenues, have significantly contributed to improving citizens\\' standards of living. However, these material gains have not translated into strengthened loyalty to the state across all segments of the population.
Conclusion: While oil production has played a decisive role in Bahrain’s socio-economic advancement, persistent sectarian divisions remain a structural challenge that hinders the full realization of inclusive citizenship.

Research Rationale: This research examines the governance of Jordan’s decision-making on the voluntary return of Syrian refugees amid European support and regional shifts. It frames refugee return as a governance challenge shaped by humanitarian commitments, national interests, and international cooperation, rather than a purely administrative procedure.
Objective: The research analyzes Jordan’s governance of the voluntary return of Syrian refugees, focusing on European support, domestic and international constraints, and the key factors shaping policy outcomes in the transitional phase.
Methodology: The research adopts a qualitative descriptive-analytical approach based on interpretive policy analysis. It relies on secondary data from official documents, international reports, and academic literature, applying the PESTEL framework to examine the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental determinants of governance.
Findings: The findings indicate that refugee return governance in Jordan is a multidimensional adaptive process, shaped by political, economic, social, institutional, and legal factors. European support enhances capacities but does not remove existing structural constraints.
Conclusion: The research concludes that refugee return from Jordan is linked to stability in Syria and reflects a balanced approach integrating humanitarian commitments, national interests, and sustained international cooperation.

Objectives: The research aims to identify the power and rationality of the political discourse, to monitor and explore the data of the political discourse of the American President (Joe Biden) during the remainder of his presidential term regarding the course of the Israeli-Palestinian and Lebanese conflicts, to describe it, and to analyze the nature of the duality of power and rationality in this discourse.
Methods: The research employs discourse analysis to reveal how U.S. political discourse utilizes the languages of power and rationality to shape positions and justify policies regarding the conflict. It also applies a descriptive-analytical approach to describe and analyze the U.S. discourse.
Results: The study finds that President Biden’s speeches display a clear duality: the language of power is employed forcefully when addressing Hamas and Hezbollah, while the language of rationality is used gently and calmly in approaching relations with Israel. This reflects a deeply rooted strategic bias in U.S. foreign policy. Furthermore, Biden’s discourse during 2023–2024 was not merely reactive to war events but formed part of a recurring and entrenched rhetorical structure balancing power and rationality.
Conclusion: The contradiction in U.S. political discourse—between rationality and bias toward Israel on one hand, and the use of power and imposition on Palestinians and Lebanese on the other—reflects the challenges U.S. foreign policy faces in reconciling democratic values with strategic interests, including Israel’s security, in the Middle East.

Research Idea: This research assumes that hybrid warfare is no longer a situational tactic but has evolved into a structural strategic framework that reshapes patterns of interaction within the international system. It operates through the synchronized and integrated use of limited military force, cyber instruments, information campaigns, economic coercion, and the employment of non-state actors, thereby generating profound strategic effects without escalating into full-scale conventional war. In doing so, it gradually redefines the concepts of sovereignty, stability, and deterrence.
Objectives: The research aims to analyze the impact of hybrid warfare on international stability, examine its role in undermining traditional deterrence, weakening the effectiveness of international law and collective security systems, and explore its relationship with rising strategic fragility in the international system. It further seeks to develop an analytical framework for understanding contemporary transformations in patterns of conflict.
Methodes: The research adopts a deductive approach, beginning with an analysis of the structure of the international system, comprehensive security concepts, and theories of asymmetric conflict, before moving to selected case studies and response strategies. The analytical method constitutes the primary tool for deconstructing the structure of hybrid warfare, examining its causal relationships, assessing its strategic implications, and projecting its future trajectories.
Results: Hybrid warfare produces an ambiguous conflict environment in which the boundaries between war and peace become blurred, complicating legal attribution and reducing the effectiveness of deterrence. It transforms conflicts into prolonged, low-intensity crises aimed at strategic attrition rather than decisive military victory.
Conclusion: Confronting this pattern of conflict requires a comprehensive strategic approach integrating military, cyber, informational, economic, and flexible alliance dimensions, alongside a redefinition of deterrence and collective security concepts within a fragile and uncertain international environment.

Research Idea: This research introduces geostrategic engineering of power as an emerging analytical framework in contemporary strategic studies, grounded in Lebensraum (vital space) theory. It conceptualizes this approach as a methodological and operational tool for states to design and optimize the spatial distribution of command centers, military forces, and strategic bases, securing geopolitical interests. The study scrutinizes the United States' global military deployment, spanning over 750 overseas installations, emphasizing that efficacy stems not from numerical density but from strategic fulcrums and forward positioning. These nodes ensure control over maritime chokepoints, supply chains, and energy flows across vital regions.
Objectives: The research aims to define and theorize geostrategic engineering, analyze Lebensraum theory's foundations and applications, and assess its influence on U.S. strategic perceptions in delineating vital spaces, engineering military power, and structuring global deployments.
Methods: A descriptive-analytical approach examines theoretical foundations. Developmental and functional methods trace Lebensraum's evolution, its geostrategic dimensions, and implications for U.S. force positioning across key geopolitical theaters, drawing on doctrinal texts, geospatial analyses, and case studies.
Results: The United States has engineered multiple interlocking geostrategic spheres through a global network of bases and forward positions, globalizing and legitimizing Lebensraum principles to dominate maritime routes, supply chains, and energy flows.
Conclusion: Geostrategic engineering of power evolves from Lebensraum foundations, advancing through innovative command-control systems, spatial positioning, and worldwide military deployments that reshape power dynamics in contested geopolitical and geospatial domains worldwide.

Research Idea: This research examines one of the most significant contemporary international phenomena: the emergence and development of the BRICS bloc. The bloc reflects the aspiration of emerging powers to enhance intra-group cooperation in order to advance development across multiple sectors. It supports the establishment of a cohesive framework comprising several subsidiary institutions that regulate collective action among member states. This trajectory corresponds closely with the core assumptions of institutional liberalism, particularly regarding the capacity of international institutions to structure international relations, foster stability, and mitigate conflict.
Objectives: The research aims to highlight the principal institutions representing emerging powers and assess their capacity to strengthen international cooperation. It further seeks to provide a theoretical interpretation, grounded in institutional liberalism, of a non-Western bloc that has become an active contributor to global governance, especially in economic domains.
Methodology: The research employs a descriptive approach to clarify the key concepts underpinning the study, alongside a systems analysis approach to examine the role of the BRICS bloc in promoting cooperation among member states in line with institutional liberalist assumptions.
Findings: The findings indicate that cooperation within economic blocs remains viable despite political and economic disparities among member states, a proposition consistent with institutional liberalism. The existence of consultative mechanisms and coordination tools reduces mutual suspicion and strengthens trust. Moreover, institutionalized regulation of shared interests and codified rules of conduct contribute to stability and mitigate systemic disorder. Nevertheless, divergent foreign policy priorities and substantial economic asymmetries among members constrain the bloc’s evolution into a fully integrated international institution capable of restructuring the global order.
Conclusion: The BRICS bloc has strengthened economic interdependence among its members through expanded trade, investment, and financial and monetary cooperation, thereby reducing the likelihood of conflict. This outcome reflects the core logic of institutional liberalism.

Research Idea: This research examines the structural transformations in global public opinion following the 2023 war in Gaza. It analyzes the implications of these shifts for the political behavior of individuals and non-state actors. The research significance lies in identifying the widening and increasingly visible rift between transnational public sentiment and the official stances of governing elites—particularly within Western political systems—while highlighting the pivotal role of digital platforms in circumventing the hegemony of traditional media and deconstructing their master narratives.
Objectives: The research aims to measure the extent to which the 2023 Israeli war on Gaza reshaped global political convictions. It further seeks to uncover the mechanisms through which public sympathy was mobilized into politically consequential action on the international stage.
Methodes: The research adopts a descriptive-analytical approach, tracing the trajectory of events and the evolution of political attitudes. This is supported by content analysis of digital media and leading international news reporting, complemented by quantitative analysis of statistical data from global public opinion surveys.
Results: Key results indicate a decline in the credibility and influence of traditional media narratives, alongside a pronounced generational divide. Youth in Europe and the United States exhibited significantly more critical political behavior toward Israeli policies compared to older cohorts. The research also documents the growing momentum of boycott movements and a measurable shift in public opinion from emotional sympathy toward sustained political engagement.
Conclusion: The research concludes that the 2023 Gaza war was not merely a military event, but can be understood as a strategic inflection point in global political consciousness. It re-cast the Palestinian issue as a key reference for social justice discourses, facilitating the emergence of a transnational, values-driven public sphere.

Research Idea: Research and study centers are informal institutions that conduct research and provide solutions to the problems and issues facing the decision-maker, as well as work to bridge the gap between the political world and the academic world, and they vary between governmental and non-governmental research centers, and in various countries of the developed world, including the United States of America, as these centers seek to influence public policymaking.
Objective: The research aims to clarify the contribution of research centers to public policymaking in the United States by focusing on the impact of research centers on the formulation of domestic policy in the United States of America.
Methodology: The research relied on the descriptive and analytical methods in studying the subject.
Results: Research and study centers in the United States of America are influencing public policymaking by focusing on the production of effective ideas and perceptions as well as securing a pool of specialists to work in official state institutions.
Conclusion: The research concluded that think tanks in the United States of America play a significant role in influencing domestic political decision-making by providing advice, advice, and information to the decision-maker and securing specialists to work in the government.

Research Idea: This research idea examines the legal basis upon which the administration relies in directing administrative activity through issuing orders without reducing them to writing. These orders represent one manifestation of exercising authority within the state’s administrative apparatus and embody the legal relationship between the superior and subordinates.
Objectives: The research aims to clarify the legal basis underpinning the legitimacy of implementing the oral administrative order and to determine the legal responsibility arising from implementing an unlawful oral administrative order.
Methods: The methodology followed in this research is the comparative analytical method, which relies on analyzing jurisprudential opinions and legal texts and comparing them with the French, Egyptian, and Iraqi systems.
Results: Oral administrative orders do not constitute a violation of the principle of legality; rather, they represent one form of the administration expressing its explicit will, albeit in unwritten form. The employee who fails to comply with their implementation incurs responsibility and penalty.
Conclusion: Oral administrative orders constitute one form of administrative means used to manage the public facility, whereby the administrative superior issues them within the scope of his administrative authority to employees working under his command within the administrative unit he heads. These orders represent binding directives to them based on the duty of functional obedience that binds the subordinate toward his superior. These orders may have a legal effect impacting the legal positions of individuals or employees, thereby becoming administrative decisions subject to annulment challenge; otherwise, they do not exceed being orders specific to work within the public facility.

Research Idea: International law is among the legal fields most closely intertwined with politics and therefore highly affected by political dynamics. It is frequently criticized for being subject to political influence due to its nature and particular characteristics. This interaction with international politics has been explained through theoretical frameworks of international relations, especially realism, liberalism, and constructivism.
Objectives: This research aims to examine the impact of realist theory on international law and to analyze how this influence may affect the structure and development of international legal rules, particularly in areas such as climate issues, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law.
Methods: The research employs a descriptive and analytical approach to clarify the dimensions of the relationship between realist theory and international law. It also adopts an inductive approach by examining selected examples of state practices that reflect realist-oriented policies in international relations.
Results: The findings indicate a significant tension between realist theory and the principles of international law. In practice, international legal rules are often applied selectively according to state interests, which weakens the universality of these norms.
Conclusion: The growing influence of realist approaches in international relations prioritizes state interests over legal obligations, contributing to the marginalization of international law and negatively affecting international cooperation.

Research Idea: The research measures and analyzes the impact of public debt financing risks on the budget deficit in Iraq during the period 1990–2024, within the context of a fragile, oil-dependent rentier economy and volatile macroeconomic and financial conditions. Its core premise is to clarify how public debt, when directed toward financing current rather than investment expenditure, may evolve into a factor that threatens fiscal sustainability and deepens budgetary imbalances instead of supporting long-term growth and development.
Objectives: The research seeks to quantify the effect of public debt financing risks on the deficit and to examine their relationship with gross domestic product, inflation, monetary issuance, and government expenditure, within a theoretical framework that defines the concept of the deficit, its types, and its financing sources.
Methodes: The research adopts a dual methodology combining descriptive analysis to trace the evolution of debt and the deficit across distinct historical phases, and econometric analysis employing dynamic panel models (PMG, MG, DFE) along with Levin–Lin–Chu and Pedroni cointegration tests.
Results
Results: reveal a long-run relationship between debt and the deficit, showing that public debt, monetary issuance, and government spending intensify the deficit, while real growth and nominal inflation only appear to alleviate it superficially.
Conclusion: The study concludes that reducing debt-related risks requires diversifying the productive base, strengthening debt and public finance management, and avoiding inflationary deficit financing.

Research Idea: This research investigates the challenges and opportunities facing the digital transformation of accounting through electronic payment systems in government institutions, identifying key financial, organizational, and technological constraints.
Objective: It aims to assess the performance of government institutions and their success in adopting digital accounting technologies via electronic payment systems, tools now indispensable for keeping pace with financial and economic openness. These systems facilitate digital processes, reducing time and effort. The research problem stems from traditional accounting systems' failure to minimize routine procedures and paper-based transactions.
Methodes: The research adopts a descriptive-analytical approach to systematically analyze the challenges facing digital transformation.
Structure: The research is divided into three sections: first, the conceptual framework of digital accounting transformation within e-payment systems; second, the relationship between digital transformation and e-payment; and third, an analysis of the key challenges and opportunities.
Results: The findings indicate that digital transformation in accounting acts as a catalyst for fundamental change, enhancing the performance of government institutions and improving the efficiency of financial information.
Conclusion: Studying the issue of suspending a public employee is inextricably linked to studying the philosophy of punishment in administrative law and the safeguards that ensure justice within the state's administrative apparatus. This makes it a highly important topic for legislators, administrators, and employees alike.