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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:Charles Tripp and the Comparative Politics of the Middle East 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.
List of contents
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
Summary
A wide-ranging and innovative contribution to the field of Middle Eastern studies, political science and contemporary social theory which will appeal to numerous scholars working across different disciplines.
