Unipolarity and the Middle East. By Birthe Hansen. New York: St. Martin's, 2000. 288p. $59.95. War, Institutions and Social Change in the Middle East. Edited by Steven Heydemann. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. 372p. $60.00 cloth, $24.95 paper. “Pariah States” and Sanctions in the Middle East: Iraq, Libya, Sudan. By Tim Niblock. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2001. 241p. $49.95.

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 263-264
Author(s):  
Robert O. Freedman
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Middle East ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Middle Eastern Studies ◽  
The One ◽  
Middle East Studies ◽  
Pariah States

Scholars of Middle Eastern studies in the last decade often were preoccupied with two major problems. First, the democratization that has spread over most of the globe seems to have missed the Middle East. Second, there appears to be a growing gap between international relations and comparative politics theory, on the one hand, and Middle East studies, on the other. In seeking to explain why, some point to the highly politicized scholarship that can still be found in Middle East studies. Others argue that the theorists simply have not tried hard enough to fit the special nature of the Middle East into their theoretical models, or that Middle Eastern scholars have not tried hard enough to deal with theory. Two of the three books under review, by Hansen and Heydemann, do a great deal to narrow the gap between theory and reality in the Middle East. The book by Niblock is an example of the kind of highly politicized scholarship that is still found too often in Middle Eastern studies.

Middle East Studies & Subaltern Studies

1997 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabra J. Webber
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Latin American ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Subaltern Studies ◽  
Middle Eastern Studies ◽  
Cultural Strategies ◽  
Sustained Effort ◽  
Middle East Studies

Despite the physical proximity of the birthplace of Subaltern Studies, South Asia, to the Middle East and despite the convergent, colliding histories of these two regions, scholars of the Middle East attend very little to the Subaltern Studies project or to the work of Subaltern Studies groups. Although certain stances of Fanon and Said, with their focus on cultural strategies of domination and resistance, have a currency in Middle Eastern studies, no literary theorist, folklorist, anthropologist, political scientist or historian in the field of Middle Eastern Studies, so far as I am aware, explicitly draws upon Subaltern Studies with any consistency as an organizing principle for his or her studies. It is the Latin Americanists (and to a lesser degree Africanists) who have been most eager to build on South Asian Subaltern Studies to respond to Latin American (or subsanaran African) circumstances. Perhaps it is time to take a closer look at what Subaltern Studies might contribute to Middle Eastern studies if we were to make a sustained effort to apply and critique that body of literature.

Pensée 2: New Media and Old Agendas: The Internet in the Middle East and Middle Eastern Studies

2007 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
WALTER ARMBRUST
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
New Media ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Al Jazeera ◽  
Satellite Television ◽  
The Third ◽  
Middle Eastern Studies ◽  
Middle East Studies

My thoughts on the Internet were recently jogged by an experience with a slightly older medium, namely, satellite television. In late March 2007 I attended the Third Annual Al-Jazeera Forum, in Doha. Notwithstanding the attendance of a few academics like me, the forum was largely a networking opportunity for professional journalists, just as MESA is for professional Middle East studies academics. However, unlike MESA, forum presenters, as well as the audience, were handpicked. Even the expenses of the attendees were subsidized (my hotel bill was paid by al-Jazeera). This inevitably made the event an exercise in open self-promotion for al-Jazeera.

MESA and Middle East Studies: An International Perspective from North America

1986 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-170
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Perspective ◽  
Middle Eastern Studies ◽  
Middle East Studies

This Presentation is a rather impressionistic as well as eclectic view of Middle Eastern Studies, one which does not pretend to be complete. Many of you have been associated with Middle Eastern Studies for much longer than I have, and you could undoubtedly see greater changes—or lack of changes—than I will present.Let me begin by briefly looking at the history and growth of the Middle East Studies Association of North America, for the growth of MESA is somewhat a reflection of the structure and changes in Middle East studies, particularly, of course, in the United States. Also, in this way I can make comparisons with MESA when looking at developments elsewhere.

Current Developments and Future Directions in Middle Eastern Studies

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip S. Khoury
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Policy Formation ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
International Agencies ◽  
Middle Eastern Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Middle East Studies

What are some of the new directions that specialists are beginning to chart for Middle Eastern studies? Middle East specialists are finding ways of linking their basic research on these questions and others to policy formation, and, in so doing, they are becoming more closely connected than ever before to international agencies and organizations focused on global change. The charting of these new directions could in time enable the Middle East studies field not only to make new substantive contributions to knowledge but also to convince the social sciences to recognize and incorporate this new knowledge.

Multiple Mobilities, Multiple Sovereignties, Multiple Speeds: Exploring Maritime Connections in the Age of Empire

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 763-766
Author(s):  
Valeska Huber
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The Other ◽  
Global History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
The One ◽  
Indian Ocean World ◽  
Middle East Studies

What can we gain by looking at maritime spaces? Does this enable us to work towards a global history of the Middle East that moves beyond at times arbitrary geographical and disciplinary borders? In this essay I argue that maritime spaces might be particularly suitable for exploring the boundaries of Middle East studies and their interconnection with global history. By implication, the study of Middle Eastern maritime connections might be especially well fitted to develop new and more complex global histories. To make this point, a specific and perhaps unusual maritime site in the Middle East will be assessed. The Suez Canal opened in 1869 and quickly turned into a major artery of traffic between Europe on the one side, and Asia, East Africa, and Australia on the other. More importantly for our purposes, it is located at the very heart of the Middle East, where Africa and Asia, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea (and with it the Indian Ocean world), and water and desert intersect.

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