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This book examines the projects of administrative and territorial reconstruction of Arab countries as an aftermath of the "Arab Spring". Additionally, it looks into an active rethinking of the former unitary model, linked by its critics with dictatorship and oppression.
The book presents decentralization or even federalization as newly emerging major topics of socio-political debate in the Arab world. As the federalist recipes and projects are specific and the struggle for their implementation has a pronounced variation, different case studies are presented. Countries discussed include Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq.
The book looks into the background and prerequisites of the federalist experiments of the "Arab Spring", describes their evolution and current state, and assesses the prospects for the future. It is, therefore, a must-read for scholars of political science, as well as policy-makers interested in a better understanding of previous and current developments in the Arab countries.
List of contents
Chapter 1. Integration, Federalization and the Arab National Idea.- Chapter 2. Imposed Federalism: Iraq.- Chapter 3. Oil Federalism: Libya.- Chapter 4. Chaotic Federalism: Yemen.- Chapter 5. Elusive Federalism: Syria.
About the author
Leonid Issaev (Ph.D. in Political Science) is currently an associate professor at the Department of Political Science and International Affairs and the Deputy Chair of the Laboratory for Sociopolitical Destabilization Risk Monitoring at the HSE University. He is also the senior research fellow at the Center for Civilization and Regional Studies of the Institute for African Studies, which is part of the Russian Academy of Sciences.He teaches courses in Islamic political philosophy and political systems and political processes in the Arab World.
Andrey Zakharov (Ph.D. in Philosophy) is currently an associate professor at the Faculty of History, Political Science, and Law at the Russian State University of Humanities. The area of his research is comparative federalism, on which he has published several books. He is an editor of "Neprikosnovenny Zapas: Debaty o Politike i Kulture" (Neprikosnovenny Zapas: Debates on Politics and Culture) magazine, one of the leading intellectual periodicals in Russia. From 1990 to 1995, he served as a member of the Russian Parliament. He is an expert of the Gorbachev Foundation.
