Comparative Area Studies and the Study of Middle East Politics after the Arab Uprisings

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Bank
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Analytic Framework ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
Middle East Politics ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Heads Of State ◽  
Middle East Studies

The Arab uprisings of 2011 led to the fall of several heads of state, triggered wars in three countries, and threatened the survival of all eight monarchies in the Middle East. In the field of Middle East studies, these processes have led to a fundamental questioning of preexisting theoretical assumptions and methodological approaches. A more self-critical and self-aware research program now exists that seeks to trace the different political trajectories in the region. This chapter argues that comparative area studies (CAS) can further advance the study of the Arab uprisings by employing a broader analytic framework while remaining attentive to the regional context of the Middle East. While qualitative research remains mostly intra-regional, cross-regional comparisons are slowly emerging, utilizing insights from—and comparisons to—the fall of communism and European history. The conclusion considers the promises and pitfalls of CAS in the study of the Middle East and beyond.

(Not) Getting Religion: Has Political Science Lost Sight of Islam?

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sultan Tepe ◽  
Betul Demirkaya
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
North Africa ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Middle East Studies ◽  
Science Association

AbstractIn this analysis, we expand the debate on the place of religion in political science by using the predictions of Wald and Wilcox as our starting point. Following in their footsteps, we ask how political scientists have studied Islam since 2002 and identify the studies on Islam and Muslims at the flagship conference of the discipline, the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. We evaluate not only the quantity but also the approaches employed by these studies. In order to gauge the balancing of roles (or lack thereof) between the discipline and area studies, we also take a closer look at the Middle East Studies Association, the largest association focused on the Middle East, North Africa and the Islamic world and its annual meetings during the same period. Our findings suggest that, unless carefully addressed, the prevailing patterns are likely to result in a crippling knowledge gap among political scientists.

Protest groups signal shift in Middle East politics

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Grassroots Politics ◽  
The Past ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Middle East Politics

Subject Civil society protest movements in Iraq and Lebanon. Significance Protest movements in the Middle East have been curtailed severely by retrenched autocratic governments and civil wars since the Arab uprisings in 2011. With their relatively open political systems, Lebanon and Iraq never participated in these protests fully. However, over the past year they have seen a resurgence in grassroots politics that could influence civil society across the region. Impacts Protest movements provide an outlet for popular frustration; their repression increases the risk of longer-term political instability. Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco have the most favourable conditions for a revival of civil society protest movements. Such movements could play a larger role in Yemen, Libya and Syria after conflicts have ended. In the longer run, these movements could benefit business in the region by driving efforts to fight corruption and improve transparency.

Priorities in Middle East Studies

1972 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 26-28
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
International Education ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Program Directors ◽  
National Defense ◽  
Regional Study ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
New Directions ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Middle East Studies

A number of events, including the Lambert Report on Language and Area Studies, legislation on National Defense Education, and various other bills on international education, provide an important opportunity for reevaluating priorities in the study of foreign regions. We believe that Middle East Studies, as a regional study needs support and that this support is threatened by a shifting attention to domestic needs and by impending reductions in funds for education. But we also believe that what is needed is more than a simple blanket appeal for funding. Clear priorities and new directions are required to give meaning to the call for support and to channel that support into important directions. This matter has been the subject of much discussion within the Middle East studies community and specifically within the Middle East Studies Association. The latest discussions took place at the meeting of Middle East center and program directors, at the Fifth Annual Meeting of MESA in November, 1971.

DO COMPARATIVE AND REGIONAL STUDIES OF NATIONALISM INTERSECT?

2005 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Behar
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Science ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Regional Studies ◽  
Regional Research ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Middle East Studies ◽  
Science Association

The question behind this article evolved from two separate observations. While the expansion of comparative and cross-regional research has been actively promoted by leading scholars of the Middle East (and was later encouraged by such bodies as the Middle East Studies Association and this journal), so has the incorporation of scholarly insights from area studies been urged by leading political scientists as a prerequisite for revitalizing all of the discipline's subfields and institutionally endorsed by the American Political Science Association. Viewed as interrelated, these observations prompted the question framing this text: if the aims of many Middle East scholars and institutions are compatible with the aims of many political scientists and their association, why have they remained largely parallel, as suggested by scholars within both fields?

The Quality of Theory and the Comparative Disadvantage of Area Studies

2000 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian S. Lustick
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Job Market ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Policy Relevance ◽  
Cultural Comparisons ◽  
Middle East Studies

The 1990s were not kind to area studies. They were particularly cruel to Middle East specialists, and even more particularly, perhaps, to social scientists. The job market has slumped as relevant departments have lost positions. Departures and retirements were only irregularly replaced. Foundation officers and other officials in other grant-making agencies who promote guidelines and programs stressed thematics, policy-relevance, and cross-cultural comparisons. Publishers came to avoid monographic studies and seemed increasingly allergic to single-country studies (of most countries). Rashid Khalidi’s Presidential Address to the 1994 MESA conference is only the best known of a host of warnings, jeremiads, and even eulogies offered with respect to current prospects for Middle East studies.

The Role of the Military in Middle East Politics

1953 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 511-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Majid Khadduri
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Political Office ◽  
Middle East Politics ◽  
Heads Of State ◽  
The Military

During the past four years several Middle Eastern countries have experienced governmental changes in which the army took an active part. In Syria and Egypt the army deliberately intervened to overthrow discredited regimes and to depose the heads of state. In Lebanon and Iraq the heads of state, themselves alarmed by an intense struggle among rival political parties, invited the army to intervene in order to maintain order. In Lebanon the army refused to crush the opposition, acting only as a caretaker; in Iraq the army agreed to support authority against disorder and the effect of its intervention cannot yet be foreseen.This control of government by the military is indicative both of serious defects in democratic processes in the Middle East and of the eagerness with which Middle Eastern leaders seek high political office. In Western democratic countries, traditions have developed which tend to keep the army isolated from domestic politics, although military advice has often been sought on foreign policy, and persons whose careers have been in the military service are not infrequently elected, or appointed, to high political positions. This is a quite different matter, however, from the military's choosing to occupy high political office through the weapons of its own profession.

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