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Betrayal Of The Homeland - Disloyal Subjects In Wartime Syria

by Samer Abboud

~~40,56€~~ 36,50€ 10% OFF

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 Samer Abboud argues that the Syrian regime sought to entrench its rule during wartime through bifurcating society into â€œloyalâ€ and â€œdisloyalâ€ subjectsâ€"and punishing those it deemed treacherous.
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Betrayal Of The Homeland - Disloyal Subjects In Wartime Syria

by Samer Abboud

~~33,60€~~ 30,24€ 10% OFF

 The Syrian regime endured the uprisings that began in 2011, aided by Russian military intervention in 2015 that changed the trajectory of the conflict and brought more territory under government control, until its eventual collapse in 2024. Over this period, how did the state attempt to manage the conflict away from the battlefield and reestablish control over the population? Samer Abboud argues that the Syrian regime sought to entrench its rule during wartime through bifurcating society into loyal and disloyal subjectsand punishing those it deemed treacherous. The regime framed the conflict as a war on terror, portraying its opponents as traitors to the homeland. In the post-2015 period, it established new laws, courts, and legal categories that targeted betrayal, which could include anything from military desertion to absenteeism to critical social media posts. Disloyal subjects were subjected to various forms of punishment and denied reentry into the country if they had been displaced. Bringing together the regimes narratives and rhetoric with the machinery of bureaucratic practices, Abboud traces how the state sculpted the divide between loyalty and disloyalty. Empirically rich and theoretically informed, Betrayal of the Homeland offers a panoramic view of the politics of punishment during the final decade of the Assad regime, with broader implications for understanding how authoritarian states manage conflicts.
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Varieties Of Power - Women’S Political Representation In Arab Parliaments

by Marwa Shalaby

~~46,36€~~ 41,72€ 10% OFF

 The introduction of gender quotas has significantly increased women’s representation in national legislatures—not only in democracies but also in many autocracies. To what extent has the growing number of women in authoritarian legislatures granted them more power and influence? What conditions help or hinder women’s political participation under autocratic regimes? And what does the role of women tell us about the politics of authoritarianism today? Drawing on a decade of fieldwork and a vast data set collected across the Middle East and North Africa, Marwa Shalaby develops a new theory of women’s political representation in authoritarian regimes. She examines the dynamics of women’s political inclusion in three Arab monarchies, Morocco, Jordan, and Kuwait, with varying levels of quota implementation and where the strength and capacity of political parties differ widely. Shalaby demonstrates that the degree to which individual parties have been institutionalized plays a significant role in women’s legislative behavior and political power. Parties play integral roles in recruiting, cultivating, supporting, and elevating female candidates in contexts where women have been excluded from existing networks of power, in nondemocratic systems as well as democracies. Although the introduction of quota systems has expanded women’s numerical presence, the absence of institutionalized parties has limited their ability to gain influence. Nuanced and incisive, Varieties of Power offers grounded, comparative insights into the study of gender and politics, political representation, and authoritarianism in the Middle East and North Africa.
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Surviving The Islamic State - Contention, Cooperation, And Neutrality In Wartime Iraq

by Austin Knuppe

~~46,36€~~ 41,72€ 10% OFF

 How did ordinary Iraqis survive the occupation of their communities by the Islamic State? How did they decide whether to stay or flee, to cooperate or resist? Based on an original survey from Baghdad alongside key interviews in the field, this book offers an insightful account of how Iraqis in different areas of the country responded to the rise and fall of the Islamic State. Austin J. Knuppe argues that people adopt survival repertoires—a variety of social practices, tools, organized routines, symbols, and rhetorical strategies—to navigate wartime violence and detect threats. He traces how repertoires varied among different communities over the course of the conflict. In areas insulated from insurgent control, such as cosmopolitan Baghdad, local residents had the flexibility to support coalition forces while also voicing opposition to government policies. For Iraqis in rural communities confronting insurgent control, collaboration and resistance entailed significant risks. In Sunni-majority communities in the western desert, passive acquiescence and active cooperation temporarily insulated Iraqis from insurgent victimization. For ethnic and religious minorities in the north, however, flight or resistance proved the only viable options. In many communities, local residents mobilized neighborhood self-defense groups and militias loosely aligned with coalition forces once the tides turned against the Islamic State. Beyond contributing to academic and policy debates about civilian protection during wartime, Surviving the Islamic State foregrounds everyday people’s experiences while modeling an ethical approach for conducting field research in conflict-affected communities.
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Surviving The Islamic State - Contention, Cooperation, And Neutrality In Wartime Iraq

by Austin Knuppe

~~40,56€~~ 36,50€ 10% OFF

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 Based on an original survey from Baghdad alongside key interviews in the field, this book offers an insightful account of how Iraqis in different areas of the country responded to the rise and fall of the Islamic State.
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Mayors In The Middle - Indirect Rule And Local Government In Occupied Palestine

by Diana B. Greenwald

~~46,36€~~ 41,72€ 10% OFF

 What does local self-government look like in the absence of sovereignty? From the beginning of its occupation of the West Bank in 1967, Israel has experimented with different forms of rule. Since the 1990s, it has delegated certain governing responsibilities to the Palestinian Authority (PA), an organization that, Israel hoped, would act as a buffer between the military occupation and the Palestinian population. Through a historically informed, empirically nuanced analysis of towns and cities across the West Bank, Diana B. Greenwald offers a new theory of local government under indirect rule—a strategy that is often associated with imperial powers of the past but persists in settings of colonialism and state-building today. Grounded in fine-grained data on municipal governance under occupation as well as interviews with Palestinian mayors, council members, staff, activists, and political elites, this book traces how the Israel-PA regime has influenced the constraints and incentives of Palestinians serving in local government. Mayors in the Middle demonstrates that both the indirect rule system itself—as embodied in local policing arrangements—and the political affiliation of Palestinian mayors shape how politicians will govern. This variation, Greenwald argues, depends in part on whether local Palestinian governments are perceived as intermediaries within or opponents of the regime. Although Palestine is often treated as exceptional, Greenwald draws illustrative parallels with British colonial India and South Africa’s apartheid regime. A groundbreaking study of Palestinian local politics, Mayors in the Middle illuminates the broader dilemmas of indigenous self-government under systems of exclusion and domination.
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Smugglers And States - Negotiating The Maghreb At Its Margins

by Max Gallien

~~46,36€~~ 41,72€ 10% OFF

 Winner, 2025 Theodore J. Lowi First Book Award, International Political Science Association / American Political Science Association Smuggling is typically thought of as furtive and hidden, taking place under the radar and beyond the reach of the state. But in many cases, governments tacitly permit illicit cross-border commerce, or even devise informal arrangements to regulate it. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in the borderlands of Tunisia and Morocco, Max Gallien explains why states have long tolerated illegal trade across their borders and develops new ways to understand the political economy of smuggling. This book examines the rules and agreements that govern smuggling in North Africa, tracing the involvement of states in these practices and their consequences for borderland communities. Gallien demonstrates that, contrary to common assumptions about the effects of informal economies, smuggling can promote both state and social stability. States not only turn a blind eye to smuggling, they rely on it to secure political acquiescence and maintain order, because it provides income for otherwise neglected border communities. More recently, however, the securitization of borders, wars, political change, and the pandemic have put these arrangements under pressure. Gallien explores the renegotiation of the role of smuggling, showing how stability turns into vulnerability and why some groups have been able to thrive while others have been pushed further to the margins. With both rich empirical detail and novel theoretical contributions, Smugglers and States offers important insights into security and stability in North Africa and the prospects for economic inclusion in a context where many livelihoods exist outside of the law.
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Suspended Disaster - Governing By Crisis In Bouteflika''S Algeria

by Thomas Serres

46,36€ + 10% CARD

 After Algeria’s president Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced his intention to run for a fifth term in early 2019, a popular peaceful uprising erupted calling for change. Bouteflika, who had been in office since 1999, was eventually forced to resign, but the Hirak ("movement") continued to protest the country’s inequalities and entrenched ruling elite. The Suspended Disaster examines the dynamics of the Algerian political system, offering new insights into the last years of Bouteflika’s rule and the factors that shaped the emergence of an unexpected social movement. Thomas Serres argues that the Algerian ruling coalition developed a mode of government based on the management of a seemingly never-ending crisis, marked by an obsession with security and the ever-present possibility of unrest, violence, and economic collapse. Identifying this form of rule as "governance by catastrophization," he shows how attempts to preserve the status quo through emergency policies and constant reforms can also lay the groundwork for a revolutionary situation. Serres contrasts the government’s portrayal of perpetually imminent disaster with the uncertainty, precarity, and indignity experienced by much of the population, which fueled the rejection of ruling elites, a profound mistrust toward institutions, and new spaces for grassroots opposition. Based on extensive fieldwork and theoretically novel, The Suspended Disaster sheds new light on the political, economic, and social processes underlying an uprising that changed the face of Algerian politics.
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Syria Divided - Patterns Of Violence In A Complex Civil War

by Ora (Associate Professor Of Political Science) Szekely

40,56€ + 10% CARD

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 Ora Szekely draws on sources including in-depth interviews, conflict data, and propaganda distributed through social media to examine how competing narratives of the civil war in Syria have shaped the course of the conflict.
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Syria Divided - Patterns Of Violence In A Complex Civil War

by Ora Szekely

46,36€ + 10% CARD

 The civil war in Syria—which has claimed more than 600,000 lives and displaced over half of the country’s population since 2011—is an enormously complex conflict. The combatants include a wide array of state and nonstate forces, both Syrian and international. Adding to the war’s complexity, its many participants understand and explain the war in a range of different ways. For some, it is a fight for dignity and democracy; for others, a sectarian or communal conflict; still others see it as a fight against terrorism or a consequence of foreign interference. Ora Szekely draws on sources including in-depth interviews, conflict data, and propaganda distributed through social media to examine how these competing narratives have shaped the course of the conflict. Mapping out the broad patterns of violence among combatants and against civilians, Szekely argues that the competition to control the narrative in the eyes of important audiences at home and abroad has not only influenced the choices of participants, it has also—shaped in part by the use of social media—led many to treat warfare as a kind of performance. An insightful analysis of the forces fueling a brutal civil war, Syria Divided offers new perspectives on the performative aspects of violence, the weaponization of social media, and key features of twenty-first-century warfare.
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Security Politics In The Gulf Monarchies - Continuity Amid Change

by David B. Roberts

158,17€ + 10% CARD

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 David B. Roberts offers a definitive guide to continuity and change in the Gulf region. He explores the forces challenging and bolstering the status quo in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates across the political, social, economic, military, and environmental dimensions of security.
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Shouting In A Cage - Political Life After Authoritarian Co-Optation In North Africa

by Sofia Fenner

46,36€ + 10% CARD

 Durable authoritarian rule often rests on the co-optation of challengers. The conventional story is straightforward: rulers entice opposition groups to "sell out," offering them benefits if they set aside their antiauthoritarian aspirations and become part of the system. However, co-optation does not always neutralize former adversaries, and even seemingly domesticated opponents can turn on their rulers. Co-optation does weaken opposition—but it is not as simple, reliable, or transactional as existing theories claim. Shouting in a Cage offers new ways to understand co-optation’s power and its limits by examining two co-opted parties, the Wafd Party in Egypt and the Istiqlal Party in Morocco. Sofia Fenner argues that co-optation is less a corrupt bargain than a discursive contest—a clash of competing interpretations. Co-opted parties conjure up imagined futures in which their short-term choices will lead to the realization of their long-term democratic goals. Meanwhile, other actors point to the disconnect between these parties’ antiauthoritarian aspirations and their participation in authoritarian systems. Fenner demonstrates that co-opted parties come to look hypocritical precisely because they refuse to give up their oppositional commitments. Their credibility sapped, they become unappealing allies and, eventually, political afterthoughts. However, such parties retain a surprising capacity for opposition, rooted in the literal and metaphorical idea of "party as family." Based on extensive archival research and ethnographic fieldwork in North Africa, Shouting in a Cage broadens our understanding of political behavior under authoritarianism.
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Security Politics In The Gulf Monarchies - Continuity Amid Change

by David B. Roberts

46,36€ + 10% CARD

 The Gulf monarchies—Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates—play crucial roles in world markets and politics. Their economies, which have traditionally been driven by oil revenues, have simultaneously propelled transformative change and preserved the traditional order. Fossil fuel wealth has underwritten an implicit social contract characterized by generous welfare states, ruler-centric politics, and a heavy state presence in the economy, facilitating stability during tumultuous times. However, as the transition toward renewable energy looms, will the Gulf monarchies be able to adapt? David B. Roberts offers a definitive guide to continuity and change in the Gulf region. He explores the forces challenging and bolstering the status quo across the political, social, economic, military, and environmental dimensions of security. Roberts examines the six monarchies individually and holistically, considering their recent histories and contemporary concerns. Beneath wide-ranging changes affecting these countries, he pinpoints key dynamics and structures that have persisted over the long term. The book examines key topics such as generational change in leadership, migrant workers, female labor force participation, U.S. military influence, and the multifaceted threat of climate change. Roberts scrutinizes how a move away from the oil-centered economic model could reverberate across the social spectrum, with profound implications for security. Suitable for a range of courses and offering important new insights for experts, this book is an accessible and up-to-date overview of the politics of a key world region.
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Classless Politics - Islamist Movements, The Left, And Authoritarian Legacies In Egypt

by Hesham Sallam

52,99€ + 10% CARD

 Since the 1970s, the Egyptian state has embarked on a far-reaching and destabilizing project of economic liberalization, reneging on its commitments to social welfare. Despite widespread socioeconomic grievances stemming from these policies, class politics and battles over wealth redistribution have largely been sidelined from elite-led national politics. Instead, conflicts over identity have raged, as Islamist movements became increasingly prominent political players. Classless Politics offers a counterintuitive account of the relationship between neoliberal economics and Islamist politics in Egypt that sheds new light on the worldwide trend of "more identity, less class." Hesham Sallam examines why Islamist movements have gained support at the expense of the left, even amid conflicts over the costs of economic reforms. Rather than highlighting the stagnancy of the left or the agility of Islamists, he pinpoints the historical legacies of authoritarian survival strategies. As the regime resorted to economic liberalization in the 1970s, it tacitly opened political space for Islamist movements to marginalize its leftist opponents. In the long run, this policy led to the fragmentation of opponents of economic reform, the increased salience of cultural conflicts within the left, and the restructuring of political life around questions of national and religious identity. Historically rich and theoretically insightful, this book demonstrates how the participation of Islamist groups shapes the politics of neoliberal reform and addresses why economic liberalization since the 1970s has contributed to the surge in culture wars around the world today.
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Lumbering State, Restless Society - Egypt In The Modern Era

by Amr Adly, Nathan J. (Professor Of Political Science And Director, Institute For Middle East Studies) Brown e Shimaa Hatab

40,56€ + 10% CARD

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 Lumbering State, Restless Society offers a comprehensive and compelling understanding of modern Egypt. Nathan J. Brown, Shimaa Hatab, and Amr Adly guide readers through crucial developments in Egyptian politics, society, and economics from the middle of the twentieth century through the present.
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Friend Or Foe - Militia Intelligence And Ethnic Violence In The Lebanese Civil War

by Nils Hägerdal

40,56€ + 10% CARD

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 Under what circumstances are civil-war combatants more or less likely to commit ethnic violence? Nils HÃ¤gerdal examines the Lebanese civil war to offer a new theory that highlights the interplay of ethnicity and intelligence gathering.
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Lumbering State, Restless Society - Egypt In The Modern Era

by Amr Adly, Nathan J. Brown e Shimaa Hatab

46,36€ + 10% CARD

 Lumbering State, Restless Society offers a comprehensive and compelling understanding of modern Egypt. Nathan J. Brown, Shimaa Hatab, and Amr Adly guide readers through crucial developments in Egyptian politics, society, and economics from the middle of the twentieth century through the present. Integrating diverse perspectives and areas of expertise, including the tools of comparative politics, the book provides an accessible and clear introduction to the Egypt of today alongside an innovative and rigorous analysis of the country’s history and governance. Brown, Hatab, and Adly highlight ways in which Egypt resembles other societies around the world, drawing from and contributing to broader debates in political science. They trace the emergence of a powerful and intrusive state alongside a society that is increasingly politicized, and they emphasize how the rulers and regimes who have built and steered the state apparatus have also had to retreat and recalibrate. The authors also examine why authoritarianism, corporatism, and socialism have decayed without resulting in a liberal democratic order, and they show why Egyptian politics should not be understood in terms of a single dominant force but rather an interplay among many actors. At once current, insightful, and engaging, Lumbering State, Restless Society delivers a powerful and distinctive account of modern Egypt in the modern world.
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Friend Or Foe - Militia Intelligence And Ethnic Violence In The Lebanese Civil War

by Nils Hägerdal

46,36€ + 10% CARD

 When civil conflicts break out in plural societies, violence often occurs along group divides—running the risk of spiraling into ethnic cleansing. Yet for militants who do not seek ethnic separation as a political goal, indiscriminate attacks are detrimental to their cause. Under what circumstances are such combatants more or less likely to commit ethnic violence? Nils Hägerdal examines the Lebanese civil war to offer a new theory that highlights the interplay of ethnicity and intelligence gathering. He shows that when militias can obtain reliable intelligence—particularly in demographically intermixed areas where information can cross ethnic boundaries—they are likely to refrain from indiscriminate tactics. Access to local intelligence helps armed groups distinguish between neutral and hostile non-coethnics to target individual opponents while leaving civilians in peace. Conversely, when militias struggle to access local information, they often fall back on ethnicity as a proxy for political allegiance, with bloody consequences. As intelligence capabilities shape the course of sectarian strife, the role of ethnicity can vary even within a particular conflict. Hägerdal conducted sixteen months of fieldwork in Lebanon, interviewing former militia fighters and commanders and collecting novel statistical evidence. He combines documentation by government agencies, NGOs, local news media, and the United Nations with firsthand narratives by participants to provide an unparalleled account of the processes that generate violence or coexistence when a diverse society descends into armed conflict. Theoretically innovative and descriptively rich, Friend or Foe sheds new light on the logic and dynamics of ethnic violence in civil wars.
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Jordan And The Arab Uprisings - Regime Survival And Politics Beyond The State

by Curtis R. Ryan

42,39€ + 10% CARD

 In 2011, as the Arab uprisings spread across the Middle East, Jordan remained more stable than any of its neighbors. Despite strife at its borders and an influx of refugees connected to the Syrian civil war and the rise of ISIS, as well as its own version of the Arab Spring with protests and popular mobilization demanding change, Jordan managed to avoid political upheaval. How did the regime survive in the face of the pressures unleashed by the Arab uprisings? What does its resilience tell us about the prospects for reform or revolutionary change? In Jordan and the Arab Uprisings, Curtis R. Ryan explains how Jordan weathered the turmoil of the Arab Spring. Crossing divides between state and society, government and opposition, Ryan analyzes key features of Jordanian politics, including Islamist and leftist opposition parties, youth movements, and other forms of activism, as well as struggles over elections, reform, and identity. He details regime survival strategies, laying out how the monarchy has held out the possibility of reform while also seeking to coopt and contain its opponents. Ryan demonstrates how domestic politics were affected by both regional unrest and international support for the regime, and how regime survival and security concerns trumped hopes for greater change. While the Arab Spring may be over, Ryan shows that political activism in Jordan is not, and that struggles for reform and change will continue. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and interviews with a vast range of people, from grassroots activists to King Abdullah II, Jordan and the Arab Uprisings is a definitive analysis of Jordanian politics before, during, and beyond the Arab uprisings.
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Local Politics In Jordan And Morocco - Strategies Of Centralization And Decentralization

by Janine A. Clark

99,36€ + 10% CARD

 In recent years, authoritarian states in the Middle East and North Africa have faced increasing international pressure to decentralize political power. Decentralization is presented as a panacea that will foster good governance and civil society, helping citizens procure basic services and fight corruption. Two of these states, Jordan and Morocco, are monarchies with elected parliaments and recent experiences of liberalization. Morocco began devolving certain responsibilities to municipal councils decades ago, while Jordan has consistently followed a path of greater centralization. Their experiences test such assumptions about the benefits of localism. Janine A. Clark examines why Morocco decentralized while Jordan did not and evaluates the impact of their divergent paths, ultimately explaining how authoritarian regimes can use decentralization reforms to consolidate power. Local Politics in Jordan and Morocco argues that decentralization is a tactic authoritarian regimes employ based on their coalition strategies to expand their base of support and strengthen patron-client ties. Clark analyzes the opportunities that decentralization presents to local actors to pursue their interests and lays out how municipal-level figures find ways to use reforms to their advantage. In Morocco, decentralization has resulted not in greater political inclusivity or improved services, but rather in the entrenchment of pro-regime elites in power. The main Islamist political party has also taken advantage of these reforms. In Jordan, decentralization would undermine the networks that benefit elites and their supporters. Based on extensive fieldwork, Local Politics in Jordan and Morocco is an important contribution to Middle East studies and political science that challenges our understanding of authoritarian regimes’ survival strategies and resilience.
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Religious Statecraft - The Politics Of Islam In Iran

by Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar

46,36€ + 10% CARD

 In a revisionist reading of Iranian politics since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Mohammad Tabaar demonstrates that the causal link between religious ideology and political order as it has been perceived is perilously misguided. Instead of viewing ideology as a determinant of an actor's political objectives and interests, he examines the religious consequences of politics. The conflict and violence that has been interpreted as an outcome of an ideology should rather be examined as causes of that particular ideology. Tabaar rejects the claim that Shi'a theology independently led to the Islamic Revolution in Iran and shapes its consequences. In actuality, a Shi'a ideology was specifically constructed to engender and preserve the revolution. That is not to say that religion does not matter. Religious ideas, ideals, and ideologies do play critical roles in generating mass mobilization and elite cohesion. It is precisely because political actors are aware of this function that they invest so much political capital in developing and deploying religious ideologies. Tabaar traces half a century of doctrinal changes against the background of Iranian domestic and international politics, and he argues that Islamic ideology is not only used but more importantly is constructed and strategically institutionalized by elites to deal with changing opportunities and threat perceptions.
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Protection Amid Chaos - The Creation Of Property Rights In Palestinian Refugee Camps

by Nadya Hajj

72,86€ + 10% CARD

 Protection Amid Chaos follows Palestinians living in refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan as they develop binding claims on assets and resources in challenging spaces. Nadya Hajj shows how they adapt flexible though legitimate property rights claims based on legal knowledge retained from their homeland to the restrictions of refugee life.
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From Resilience To Revolution - How Foreign Interventions Destabilize The Middle East

by Sean L. Yom

79,49€ + 10% CARD

 Yom argues that the durability of Middle Eastern regimes stems from their geopolitical origins. Based on comparative historical analyses of Iran, Jordan, and Kuwait, Yom examines the foreign interventions, coalitional choices, and state outcomes that characterize the modern Middle East. A key text for foreign policy scholars, From Resilience to Revolution shows how outside interference can corrupt the most basic choices of governance: who to reward, who to punish, who to compensate, and who to manipulate.
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Arab Uprisings Explained - New Contentious Politics In The Middle East

45,04€ + 10% CARD

 The Arab Uprisings Explained offers a fresh rethinking of established theories and presents a new framework through which scholars and general readers can better grasp the fast-developing events remaking the region
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