The Contemporary Middle East in an Age of Upheaval

The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the Arab uprisings of 2010–11 left indelible imprints on the Middle East. Yet, these events have not reshaped the region as pundits once predicted. With this volume, top experts on the region offer wide-ranging considerations of the characteristics, continuities, and discontinuities of the contemporary Middle East, addressing topics from international politics to political Islam, hip hop to human security.

This book engages six themes to understand the contemporary Middle East—the spread of sectarianism, abandonment of principles of state sovereignty, the lack of a regional hegemonic power, increased Saudi-Iranian competition, decreased regional attention to the Israel-Palestine conflict, and fallout from the Arab uprisings—as well as offers individual country studies. With analysis from historians, political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists, and up-to-date discussions of the Syrian Civil War, impacts of the Trump presidency, and the 2020 uprisings in Lebanon, Algeria, and Sudan, this book will be an essential guide for anyone seeking to understand the current state of the region.

ISBN-13: 9781503627697

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Publication Date: 05-18-2021

Pages: 368

Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

James L. Gelvin is Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of The New Middle East: What Everyone Needs to Know (2018) and The Modern Middle East: A History, now in its fifth edition (2020), among other books.

Table of Contents

1. Is There a New Middle East? What Has Changed, and What Hasn't?
—Joel Beinin
2. What Future for the Private Sector in the New Middle East?
—Ishac Diwan
3. Education and Human Security: Centering the Politics of Human Dignity
—Laurie A. Brand
4. Myths of Middle-Class Political Behavior in the Islamic Republic
—Kevan Harris
5. Poets of the Revolutions: Authoritarians, Uprisings, and Rappers in North Africa, 1990s–Present
—Aomar Boum
6. Islamism at a Crossroads? The Diffusion of Political Islam in the Arab World
—Peter Mandaville
7. Islamists before and after 2011: Assuming, Overlooking, or Overthrowing the Administrative State?
—Nathan J. Brown
8. Homeland (Dis-)Engagement Processes among the New Syrian Diaspora
—Lindsay A. Gifford
9. Saudi Arabia: How Much Change?
—F. Gregory Gause III
10. Erdoğan, Turkish Foreign Policy, and the Middle East
—Henri J. Barkey
11. The Syrian Civil War and the New Middle East
—James L. Gelvin
12. State Building, Sectarianization, and Neo-Patrimonialism in Iraq
—Harith Hasan
13. The Post-Uprising Transformation of International Relations in the Middle East and North Africa
—Fred H. Lawson
14. Proxy War and the New Structure of Middle East Regional Politics
—Marc Lynch
16. Afterword: The Fourth Dream
—Moncef Marzouki Show More