Acknowledgements
This book was made possible by the relentless support of Professor Martina Haedrich. Your patience, trust and constructive ideas gave me the confidence to embark on and most importantly finish this journey.
I owe my deepest gratitude to the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, especially to Ms. Ursula Bitzegeio, for the financial and moral support. This financial security – a luxury not many scholars are fortunate to be granted – allowed me to live in New York, which provided me with the opportunity to conduct research, experience first-hand how international law is formed and personally grow. Every step along this journey was made possible due to your generosity, which I am indefinitely grateful for.
Also I would like to thank Fordham Law School, especially Professor Martin Flaherty and Professor Toni Fine, for including me into the diverse and supportive Fordham family during my two-year visiting scholarship. You gave me a home and sense of belonging in times when my actual home was far away.
Deep appreciation must be expressed to the true souls of all universities: librarians (Cologne University, Fordham Law School, Columbia Law School, United Nations Headquarter, Technical University Berlin – El Gouna campus). Your patience brought this research to another level.
A number of friends cannot go unacknowledged: Armaghan Naghipour, Eileen Mai, Melike Wanik, Dominik Becker-Schwarz, Sarah Sadek, Ferdaous Kabteni, Radwa Elrafai, Fatema Waheb, Kaylee Dueber, Gaudys Sanclemente, Wiebke Uhde and Mohamed Reda. Your emotional support and intellectual generosity gave me tremendous strength.
Finally, I would like to thank my beautiful family: my parents Cornelia and Adel Salem, who would not miss a chance to include me and my sister in political discussions since we were little and thereby encouraged us to form political opinions. Due to your unconditional love, mental stimulation, pesistant encouragement, guidance and trust, you bestowed upon me deep-rooted belief that I can achieve anything in life if I only worked hard enough. To my incredible sister, Schirin Salem, who inspired me initially to write this book. You have helped me in so many ways that to mention each single one of them would drastically increase the number of pages. Every word in this book is dedicated to you. I am who I am because you are who you are.
This book is dedicated to New York and Noar Salem Dawy.