Structuring Conflict in the Arab World: Incumbents, Opponents, and
Institutions, Ellen Lust-Okar, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2005, pp. 279.For a very long time, the scholarship on Middle Eastern politics has
suffered from scarce use of the analytical tools provided by the field of
comparative politics. The result has too often been descriptive research
in the anthropological style. Such studies lacked the rigour necessary for
providing cumulative knowledge and theoretical insight. In recent years,
however, an increasing number of scholars have been recognizing the value
of complementing their in-depth knowledge of the region with appropriate
social science theories. New theoretically oriented
scholarship—produced by Mark Tessler (Area Study and Social
Science, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), Carrie Wickham
Rosefsky (Mobilizing Islam, New York: Columbia University Press,
2002), Quintan Wikorowitcz (Islamic Activism, Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 2004), Eva Bellin (Stalled Democracy,
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002), Lisa Anderson (Transition to
Democracy, New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), and a few
others—filled such a need that, as a result of their publication,
knowledge of Middle Eastern politics has taken a great leap forward since
the early 2000s.
