Recommending Books for Purchase (Bulletin 79 - June 2020): Middle Eastern Politics

This book provides systematic, integrated analyses of emergent social and cultural dynamics in the wake of the so-called Arab Spring, and looks closely at the narratives and experiences of a people as they confront crisis during a critical moment of transition. Providing an interdisciplinary approach to interconnections across regional and communal boundaries, this volume situates itself at the intersection of political science, cultural studies, media and film studies, and Middle Eastern studies, while offering some key critical revisions to dominant approaches in social and political theory. Through the unique contributions of each of its authors, this book will offer a much-needed addition to the study of Middle East politics and the Arab Spring. Moreover, although its specific focus is on the Arab context, its analysis will be of issues of significant relevance to a changing world order. 

This research contributes to the growing body of knowledge as well as offers significant theoretical contributions and policy implications. As far as the researcher's knowledge, this is the first research of its type that investigates the relationship between digital enabled transformation of government and citizens' trust & confidence in government. The proposed conceptual model also makes a novel contribution at a conceptual level, which can be used as a frame of reference by researchers as well as practitioners when planning ICT-enabled transformation projects in government. The context of the research is the Kingdom of Bahrain, the top-ranked country in ICT adoption in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.

The book traces India's Saudi Policy and locates the current state of bilateral relations and the challenges it faces. It argues that during the Cold War the relations were largely shaped by the Pakistan factor which in turn inhibited both sides from exploring the importance and value of one another. As a result, the relations were largely transactional and marginal. The end of the Cold War coincided with two interesting developments, namely, significant growth in India's economic power and influence and the de-hyphenation of Pakistan from its Middle East policy. This resulted in greater political engagements between India and Saudi Arabia and was strengthened by the growing energy trade ties. For long expatiate population and haj have been the backbone of the relations, and they have been new instruments as India looks to enhance its engagements with the Kingdom through investments opportunities, political contacts, shared security concerns and strategic cooperation. India's Saudi policy, however, face many challenges most importantly the regional instability, the Iran factor, low oil price and the international dynamics. The book will be the first comprehensive work on the India-Saudi relations. Though targeting a wider audience, it will be academically grounded and based on primary sources collected from India and Saudi Arabia. 

This book advances an Islamic political philosophy based on the concept of Ihsan, which means to do beautiful things. The author moves beyond the dominant model of Islamic governance advanced by modern day Islamists. The political philosophy of Ihsan privileges process over structure, deeds over identity, love over law and mercy and forgiveness over retribution. The work invites Muslims to move away from thinking about the form of Islamic government and to strive to create a self-critical society that defends national virtue and generates institutions and practices that provide good governance. 

This book reveals aspects of the rise and fall of the European and Iranian Left, their conceptualization of Marxism and ideological formations. Questions regarding the Left and Marxism within two seemingly different economic, political and intellectual and cultural contexts require comprehensive comparative histories of the two settings. This project investigates the intellectual transformations, which the European and Iranian Left have experienced after the Russian Revolution to the present. It examines the impacts of these transformations on their conceptualizations of history and revolution, domination and ideology, emancipation and universality, democracy and equality. The monograph will appeal to researchers, scholars and graduate students in the fields of political science, Middle Eastern and European studies, political history and comparative politics.

How have Muslim marriages legally ended around the turn of the 21st century? Who has the power to initiate and resist shari'a derived divorce? When are husbands and wives made to bear the costs of their marital breakdown? What does divorce law indicate about the development of gender regimes in the Middle East and North Africa? This book opens with a description of the historical development of Islamic divorce in the MENA. Subsequent chapters follow a Syrian male judge, a Moroccan female legal advice worker and a Libyan female judge as they deal with divorce cases in which husbands, wives, their relatives and lawyers debate gender roles in contemporary Muslim marriages. MENA 'state feminism' has increasingly equalized men's and women's access to divorce and encouraged discussions about how spouses should treat each other in marriage. The real life outcomes of these reforms have often been surprising. Moreover, as the last chapter explores, jihadi proto-states (such as Islamic State) have violently rejected state feminist divorce law reform. This accessible book will appeal to students, researchers and a general readership interested in Islamic law; Middle Eastern studies; gender and sexuality; and, legal and social anthropology.

This book examines the linkage between deviance and norm change in international politics. It draws on an original theoretical perspective grounded in the sociology of deviance to study the violations of norms and rules in the global nuclear non-proliferation regime. As such, this project provides a unique conceptual framework and applies it to highly salient issues in the contemporary international security environment. The theoretical/conceptual chapters are accompanied by three extensive case studies: Iran, North Korea, and India. 

This book charts the economic, social and political rise of the Justice and Development Party (JDP) as well as its political resilience over the last sixteen years. Going beyond the standard dichotomy debate of political Islam versus secularism, the author shows how the JDP, a political party with substantial roots in political Islam, came to power in 2002 as an outcome of the socioeconomic transformation process that started in the country in the 1980s. The book further illustrates how the party consolidated its ruling power by catering to its core constituencies via a multifaceted set of policies that gave rise to the emergence of a powerful political machine. A careful analysis of the JDP's policy agenda highlights the discrepancy between the party's discourse and its supply of policies. Furthermore, the author shows how the party has skilfully (re-)framed its ideological stance by changing alliances, and in analysing this hybrid ideological framing she presents key underpinnings of the party that paved the way to a fundamental restructuring of the Turkish party system and establishment of a new regime that replaced the old guard. This book will be of interest to academics, graduate students and researchers interested in comparative politics, political science and sociology.

This book explores the tribal politics of the Awlad 'Ali Bedouin in the borderland of Egypt and Libya. These tribal politics are part of heterarchy in which sovereignty is shared between tribes, states and other groups and, within this dynamic setting, the local politicians of the Awlad 'Ali are essential producers of order beyond the framework of the nation state. Based on long-term fieldwork, this monograph is ideal for audiences interested in North African Politics, Libya, Egypt, and borderland studies.  

This book examines the ways in which Arab civil society actors have attempted to influence public policies. In particular, the book studies the drive towards a change of policies that affect women and their well-being. It does so through the lens of women civil society activism and through analysis of cases of policy reform in three Arab countries namely: Lebanon, Morocco and Yemen. The book addresses the tension between policy change and state repression; between Islamic traditional/religious values and civil/secular ones; between the formal and the informal channels for policy-making. One of the first books to reflect on the capability of Arab civil society actors to influence change, it traces recent policy evolution from before the Arab Uprisings in 2011 until the present day, and describes the limited ability of civil society actors to induce change and substantiate it over recent decades. The book explores the use of policy theories in the analysis of cases, and reflects on the possibility of applying and "adapting" those concepts, largely applied in the Western world, to encompass policymaking in the Arab world without conceptual 'overstretch'.

This edited volume offers an understanding of how the international community, as a collection of significant actors including major states and intergovernmental institutions, has responded to the important political and social development of the Arab Spring. Contributors analyze the response by international organizations (UN, EU, NATO), big powers (US, Russia, China, UK), regional powers (Turkey, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia) and small powers (Kuwait, Qatar). The book thus makes a sound contribution to the existing literature on the Arab Spring in form of foreign policy analysis and provides an overview of the current shape and outlook of global politics.