1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook to the Middle East and North African State and States System
Conflict and instability are built into the very fabric of the Middle East and North African (MENA) state and states system; yet both states and states system have displayed remarkable resilience. How can we explain this? This handbook explores the main debates, theoretical approaches and accumulated empirical research by prominent scholars in the field, providing an essential context for scholars pursuing research on the MENA state and states system. Contributions are grouped into four key themes:
• Historical contexts, state-building and politics in MENA
• State actors, societal context and popular activism
• Trans-state politics: the political economy and identity contexts
• The international politics of MENA
The 26 chapters examine the evolution of the state and states system, before and after independence, and take the 2011 Arab uprisings as a pivotal moment that intensified trends already embedded in the system, exposing the deep features of state and system—specifically their built-in vulnerability and their ability to survive.
This handbook provides comprehensive coverage of the history and role of the state in the MENA region. It offers a key resource for all researchers and students interested in international relations and the Middle East and North Africa.
Part I. Historical Context, State-Building and Politics in MENA
1. State, Revolution and War: Conflict and Resilience in MENA’s States and States System
Raymond Hinnebusch, University of St. Andrews
2. Historical Context of State Formation in the Middle East: Structure and Agency
Raymond Hinnebusch, University of St. Andrews
3. States and State-building in the Middle East
Adham Saouli, Doha Institute and University of St. Andrews
4. Political Regimes of the Middle East and North Africa
Oliver Schlumberger, Tubingen University
5. Authoritarian Adaptability and the Arab Spring
Stephen J. King, Georgetown University
6. The Arab Spring and the Gulf Monarchies
Christopher M. Davidson, Leiden University College, The Hague
7. Leadership and Legitimacy in MENA
Mark Sedgwick, Aarhus University
Part II State Actors, Societal Context and Popular Activism
8. The Military in the Arab State
Philippe Droz-Vincent, Sciences-Po Grenoble (France)
9. Tribes in MENA politics: The Levant Case
Dawn Chatty, Oxford University
10. Political Parties in the Middle East
Lise Storm, Exeter University
11. Islam and Islamic Movements and MENA Politics
Ewan Stein and Neil Russell, Edinburgh University
12. Civil Society in the Middle East and North Africa
Vincent Durac, University College Dublin
13. The Arab Spring Is Not Lost: Moral Protest as the Embodiment of a New Politics
Larbi Sadiki and Layla Saleh, Qatar University
14. Tunisia’s "Civic Parallelism:" Lessons for Arab Democratization
Larbi Sadiki, Qatar University
Part III Trans-state Politics. The Political Economy and Identity Contexts
15. The Middle East and North Africa in the Lens of Marxist International Relations Theory
Jamie Allinson, Edinburgh University
16. Oil and the Rentier State in the Middle East
Thomas Richter, German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg
17. Divergent Development in Egypt and the Gulf
Rodney Wilson, Durham University
18. Studying identity politics in Middle East international relations: before and after the Arab uprisings
Morten Valbjørn, Aarhus University
19. Arab Nationalism: A Conceptual and Historical Reassessment
Jasmine Gani, University of St. Andrews
Part IV. The International Politics of MENA
20. Conflict in the Middle East
Francisco Belcastro, Derby University
21. Regionalism in the Middle East and North Africa
Louise Fawcett, Oxford University
22. An exceptional context for a debate on international relations? Toward a synthetic approach to the study of the MENA’s international politics
Pietro Marzo and Francesco Cavatorta, Laval University
23. U.S. Hegemony and MENA
Stephen Zunes, University of San Francesco
24. Alliances and the Balance of Power in the Middle East
Curtis R. Ryan, Appalachian State University
25. War in the Middle East
Raymond Hinnebusch, University of St. Andrews
26. International Relations of the Gulf: From Stable Rivalry to Spreading Instability
Matteo Legrenzi and Fred H. Lawson, University of Venice
Biography
Raymond Hinnebusch is Professor of International Relations and Middle East Politics at the University of St. Andrews.
Jasmine K. Gani is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of St. Andrews.
