Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted Terrorism and Border Security in Saudi Arabia: Evaluating Criminological Strategies to Counter Cross-Border Terrorism(University of Sussex, 2024-09) Alsaqoor, Nasser; McGuinness, PaulThe following research describes the grand strategy that Saudi Arabia has adopted to protect its borders from emerging threats in the Middle East and to deter terrorism. The efficiency of such strategies will be judged based on their financial investment, advanced technologies engaged, and international cooperation. This study will employ a mixed-method approach, relying both on quantitative data from official reports and institutional databases and qualitative insights from expert interviews, case studies, and document analysis. Results indicate that the state of Saudi Arabia has been successful in its security at the borders, where terrorist activities greatly reduce due to huge technological investments, such as drones and biometric systems, artificial intelligence, which increase the levels of surveillance and rate of response, thus drastically reducing the level of illegal border crossing attempts and terrorist incidents. Furthermore, an active member of the international coalitions in which Saudi Arabia participates is the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS and the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition, which are two coalitions in which Saudi Arabia heavily participates. The research acknowledges ongoing challenges, including the need for greater flexibility in adapting to a rapidly changing geopolitical environment and continuous threats from the Yemen conflict. Despite these challenges, Saudi Arabia has achieved considerable success, though maintaining and enhancing its security infrastructure will require ongoing investment in technological innovation, deeper international collaboration, and attention to socio-economic development in border areas. This study provides valuable insights into Saudi Arabia's border security and counter-terrorism strategies, offering lessons applicable to other countries facing similar security challenges.20 0Item Restricted What role do video games play in the process of radicalisation?(University of Leeds, 2024-09) Alarifi, Faris; White, SabrinaThis dissertation explores the potential role video games play in the process of radicalisation by focussing on how gaming mechanics, graphics, narratives, algorithms, and online communities might contribute to this process. The first chapter analyses how gaming mechanics and dynamics might facilitate the process of radicalisation by having extreme graphics and narratives developed into some video games. The second chapter explores how the YouTube recommendation algorithm might steer users who watch gaming-related content to real-life radical content. The final chapter delves into online gaming and communities and investigates the social aspect of gaming, where players might cross paths or be matched with radical players, and how extreme organisations are using these communities to their advantages. Although video games do not directly lead to radicalisation, they still have the potential to play a role in this process. Therefore, this dissertation argues that video games are not the root cause of radicalisation, but they might play a role in this process, and they might be one of the mediums extreme organisations employ to radicalise other individuals.22 0Item Restricted Representations of Recognition and the Radicalised in Selected Fiction and TV Shows on ISIS(University of York, 2024-01-22) Alfageeh, Asmaa; Chambers, ClaireAfter the emergence of ISIS, the Anglophone literary and audiovisual scenes witnessed a transformation in the portrayal of the terrorist figure and in the treatment of issues related to jihadism, terrorism and radicalisation in recent works dealing with ISIS. The narratives in these works shifted from depicting the demonised terrorist to representing the humanised radicalised subject, giving the jihadi a voice and recognition. However, there remains not only a need for further studies on terrorism in fiction and visual culture, but also a gap in the fields of literature, film and TV studies on the topic of radicalisation as a precursor to terrorism. Thus, this thesis aims to study these narrations by looking deeply into representations of radicalisation, rather than terrorism, and the figure of the radicalised, instead of the terrorist. Using different theorisations and conceptualisations of the theory of recognition, it examines a selection of fictional and televisual works: Kamila Shamsie’s novel Home Fire, Muhammad Khan’s novel I Am Thunder, Fatima Bhutto’s novel The Runaways, Peter Kosminsky’s factual drama The State and the melodrama Black Crows by Hussam Alrantisi, Hussein Shawkat and Adel Adeeb. I argue that exploring representations of recognition and the radicalised contributes to understanding radicalisation and its factors. The study begins by examining the claim to recognition of the radicalised characters in relation to listening and speaking in the selected novels under scrutiny. It moves on to look beyond the claim for recognition in the selected TV shows by investigating and comparing how they recognise the radicalised. I contend that in these works, recognition is used as a mode of textual and visual engagement. Theories of recognition facilitate an understanding of the process of radicalisation, while factors including the authors’ and directors’ identities and social and political discourses affect the degree of sympathy they evince.41 0