The work of Charles Tripp - professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) for over three decades - has shaped a distinct approach to the study of Middle East politics: an analytical sensibility that is empirically rich, theoretically insightful, and historically sensitive. This volume brings together contributions from eleven political scientists and historians from across Europe, the United States, and the Middle East, each of which takes Tripp's work as an intellectual point of departure for studying politics in the region.
The contributions focus on four central themes - power, resistance, ideology, and the state - that are central in the field of Middle East politics to examine political trends in cases ranging from Iran and Iraq to Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Each chapter combines extensive field research and a knowledge of regional politics with methodological and philosophical reflexivity to produce a collection of papers at the cutting edge of contemporary Middle East Studies.
Power, Resistance, Ideology and the State seeks to present a new understanding of a region of unprecedented volatility, where post-colonial projects of state-driven development have now expired, old ruling elites have been delegitimised, and political Islam discredited. Against this background, the contributors explore the contemporary developments that have emerged to fill the intellectual and material shortcomings created by the systemic failures of economics and politics in the region. Examining topics such as the rise of elite-promoted sectarianism in Iraq, thwarted attempts to manage neoliberalism in Lebanon, and new grassroots social movements in Syria, this volume offers a wide-ranging, innovative and essential exploration of the politics of today's Middle East.
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Combining in-depth political analysis, historical scholarship, and theoretical reflection, Power, Resistance, Ideology and the State: Charles Tripp and the Comparative Politics of the Middle East will be of interest to the following readership:
1. The first is political scientists working on the Middle East who adopt a broadly historical-sociological perspective. This approach is well-established in UK-based scholarship on the Middle East, among them seminal works by Ayubi (1995), Halliday (2005), and Owen (2013), as well as by Charles Tripp (e.g. Chubin and Tripp 1988; Tripp 1996; 2000) himself. Although this approach continues to be popular in the UK and beyond, it lacks a recent focal point. This volume aims to fill that gap.
2. The second group comprises those interested in the substantive case studies from the Middle East that are analyzed in the edited volume. Each of the chapters presents a novel contribution to its own field of study. Toby Matthiesen, for example, offers a provocative comparison of Iraq and India to provide unique insights into sectarian identities and imperial power; Jamil Mouawad investigates the paradoxes of state-building in the geographical periphery of Lebanon, ostensibly one of the weakest states in the region; and Evaleila Pesaran transcends old cliches about Islamic government in Iran by focusing on a new wave of entrepreneurialism in the form of 21st-century 'start-ups.' The unusual diversity of these cases will be of interest to academics teaching 'generation Z' students, who profess different interests and motivations for studying the region than in the past.
3. Finally, the volume will appeal to scholars from a range of backgrounds - politics, international relations, history, cultural studies, and beyond - who have an interest in social theory. Several of the chapters take up the thread of Tripp's ongoing engagement with classical and contemporary social theory. Toby Dodge's analysis of patrimonialism and power in Iraq draws on Tripp's encounter with the field theory of Pierre Bourdieu, while Daniel Neep's discussion of secular logics and symbolic politics offers a theoretically informed analysis of Tripp's oeuvre as a whole.
Power, Resistance, Ideology and the State: Charles Tripp and the Comparative Politics of the Middle East cuts across the political science/ Middle East Studies divide and will appeal to a range of scholars working across disciplinary borders. Individual chapters and the volume as a whole will be appropriate for use in advanced undergraduate and postgraduate seminars in Politics, History, Sociology, International Relations and Cultural Studies.
Preface - Eberhard Kienle
1. 'Symbolic Politics and Secular Logics in the Middle East and North Africa:
Charles Tripp as Social Theorist' - Daniel Neep
2. 'States, Elites, and the Management of Change in Beirut's Post-Civil War
Reconstruction'- Hannes Baumann
3. 'Digital Entrepreneurs and State Resilience under Sanctions in Iran' -
Evaleila Pesaran
4. 'My Dream and My Country Walked Away from Each Other": Youth, Education
and Political Agency in Asad's Syria' - Aurora Sottimano
5. 'Performing the Jordanian State: Intervention, Aid Dependence and Eternal
Reform' - Benjamin Schuetze
6. 'Unpacking Governance in Akkar: Producing the "Weak" state in Lebanon?' -
Jamil Mouawad
7. 'Charles Tripp, Pierre Bourdieu and the Writing of a Modern History of
Iraq' - Toby Dodge
8. 'The British Empire, the Modern State and the Institutionalisation of
Sectarian Difference' - Toby Mathiesen
9. 'Myths of the Iran-Iraq War and the Development of the Praetorian State in
Iran' - Ali Ansari
10. 'The Middle East and International Relations: History Lessons Not
Learned' - Louise Fawcett
Bibliography
Ali Ansari is Professor in Modern History with reference to Iran at St Andrews University. He is the author of works including Iran, Islam and Democracy: The Politics of Managing Change, now in its third edition (2019), and The Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran (2012).
Toby Dodge is Professor of International Relations and Kuwait Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His works include Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied (2003) and Iraq: from War to a New Authoritarianism (2017).
Daniel Neep is non-resident fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University. He is the author of Occupying Syria under the French Mandate: Insurgency, Space, and State Formation (2012). His research has been published in International Affairs (2021), New Political Economy (2018), and Journal of Historical Sociology (2017). He has taught Middle East politics at Georgetown University, George Washington University, and the University of Exeter.
Contributors: * Dr Hannes Baumann, Lecturer, Department of Politics, University of Liverpool * Dr Louise Fawcett, Professor of International Relations and Fellow of St Catherine's College, University of Oxford * Dr Toby Matthiesen, Sir Adam Roberts Senior Research Fellow in the International Relations of the Middle East, St Antony's College, University of Oxford * Dr Jamil Mouawad, Max Weber Fellow, European University Institute * Dr Evaleila Pesaran, College Lecturer and Fellow in Politics and International Relations, Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. * Dr Aurora Sottimano, Senior Fellow, Centre for Syrian Studies, St Andrews University * Dr Benjamin Schuetze, Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Freiburg, * Dr Jamil Mouawad, former Max Weber Fellow, European University Institute
