The Routledge Handbook to the Middle East and North African State and States System

Description

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 twenty-six 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. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of tables List of figures List of contributors PART I: Historical context, state-building and politics in MENA Chapter 1: State, revolution and war: conflict and resilience in MENA’s states and states system The theme of the book Overview of the studies Part I: Historical context, state-building and politics in MENA Part II: State actors, societal context and popular activism Part III: Trans-state politics: The political economy and identity contexts Part IV: The international politics of MENA References Chapter 2: Historical context of state formation in the Middle East: structure and agency Structure: the historical inheritance of state-builders Agency: regime building after independence Structure and agency: the MENA states system and its evolution Notes References Chapter 3: States and state-building in the Middle East Introduction What is a state? State formation in the Middle East Theorizing state-building: contexts and processes The internal–external nexus: vulnerability and the democracy deficit Regime–society relations: political change and continuity Conclusion Notes References Chapter 4: Political regimes of the Middle East and North Africa Post-independence political unrest, state-building and regime formation Middle Eastern versions of authoritarianism Causes of authoritarian resilience in the Arab world The Middle Eastern political landscape after the 2011 uprisings Conclusions Notes References Chapter 5: Authoritarian adaptability and the Arab Spring Post-colonial Arab authoritarianism Upgrading authoritarianism in the Arab world The Arab Uprisings: authoritarian collapse in the republics The resilience of monarchies during the Arab Spring After authoritarian breakdown: democratization or civil wars, and authoritarian restoration? Conclusion Notes References Chapter 6: The Arab Spring and the Gulf monarchies Evolving opposition Modernizing forces and authoritarian resilience Countering the Arab Spring: the wrong side of history? Conclusion References Chapter 7: Leadership and legitimacy in MENA Conceptualizing legitimacy Leadership, state and nation Forms of legitimacy Plausible legitimacy claims in the Middle East and North Africa Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes References PART II: State actors, societal context and popular activism Chapter 8: The military in the Arab state “Path dependence?”: the changing face of the military dimension in Arab politics The 2011 Uprisings and the return of the military to politics? The renewed wave of militarism after 2011 Notes References Chapter 9: Tribes in MENA politics: the Levant case Who are the Bedouin and what is the nature of their tribal society? The (Bedouin) tribes in the Levant (modern states of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan) Accommodation at the turn of the twenty-first century The Bedouin and the Syrian Uprising Conclusion References Chapter 10: Political parties in the Middle East Introduction A note on political parties, proto-parties and relevance Categorizing political parties: the importance of the local environment The Arab Uprisings and political parties Slim winnings and the issues of trust and representation Conclusion Notes References Chapter 11: Islam and Islamic movements and MENA politics Political Islam and state power Islamist oppositions Violent Islamism Islam and state politics beyond Islamism Islam and international politics Conclusion Notes References Chapter 12: Civil society in the Middle East and North Africa Introduction Civil society and democracy The application of civil society to the Middle East Conclusion References Chapter 13: The Arab Spring is not lost: moral protest as the embodiment of a new politics Introduction Al-hirak: “peoplehood” in the Arab Spring Top-down vs. bottom-up change: the limits of state-centred analysis of the Arab Uprisings One hirak, divergent patterns Conclusions Note References Chapter 14: Tunisia’s “civic parallelism”: lessons for Arab democratization Introduction Foregrounding knowledge: democratization vs. “democratic learning” Background: Tunisia’s political-historical lineage Tunisia’s democratization: germination Civic/democratic parallelism Democratic learning: perceptions of Islamist parliamentarians Conclusion: toward a knowledge-centred approach Notes References PART III: Trans-state politics: the political economy and identity contexts Chapter 15: The Middle East and North Africa in the lens of Marxist International Relations theory Marxism, dependency and the Middle East The Iraq War of 2003 and the Middle East and North Africa in international relations UCD and the international relations of the Middle East Marxism, international relations and the Arab Uprisings of 2011 Conclusion Notes References Chapter 16: Oil and the rentier state in the Middle East Introduction Oil in the Middle East and North Africa The idea of the rentier state and its evolution as an analytical concept Other types of windfall gains Conclusion Notes References Chapter 17: Divergent development in Egypt and the Gulf Weak economic co-operation and integration Regional transportation infrastructure Informal economic activity The economy of the ISIS phenomenon Ease of doing business Economic diversification into services Perceptions of well-being Poles of economic growth Egypt’s economic performance Conclusions Notes References Chapter 18: Studying identity politics in Middle East international relations: before and after the Arab uprisings Introduction Debating identity politics in Middle East international relations before the Arab Uprisings A new Middle East—a new kind of identity politics? Still dripping with identity politics . . . Notes References Chapter 19: Arab nationalism in Anglophone discourse: a conceptual and historical reassessment Introduction European Nationalism between culture and politics Whither the cultural and republican project of Arab nationalism? The search for political autonomy: roots in anti-colonialism After decolonization and Israel Syria, Islamist allies and relevance today Conclusion References PART IV: The international politics of MENA Chapter 20: Conflict in the Middle East Roots of conflict The Arab–Israeli conflict Conclusion References Chapter 21: Regionalism in the Middle East and North Africa What is regionalism and how to evaluate it? The Middle East as an outlier? History and development of regionalism in MENA Explaining regionalism in the Middle East Conclusion Notes References Chapter 22: An exceptional context for a debate on international relations? Toward a synthetic approach to the study of the MENA’s international politics Introduction The MENA and international relations: a penetrated system IR theory and the region: realism and its rivals Evolution of the regional system Conclusion Note References Chapter 23: US hegemony and MENA Historic US interests and strategies in MENA Militarization of US policy in MENA: the invasion of Iraq US retrenchment and the Arab Uprisings: policy under Obama Nuclear non-proliferation Israel Notes References Chapter 24: Alliances and the balance of power in the Middle East Explaining alliances Shifting alliances and the Middle East balance of power Conclusions References Chapter 25: War in the Middle East A war-prone region A Waltzian paradigm: levels of analysis Explaining War: quantitative distributions of war-proneness factors Toward understanding the interaction of man, the state and system: testing the lines of war causality Conclusions Appendix: Middle East wars (since 1945): an empirical survey Notes References Chapter 26: International relations of the Gulf: from stable rivalry to spreading instability Rise of the smaller GCC states Saudi Arabia in the maelstrom Crisis over Qatar Expansion of the Gulf security complex Conclusion References Index