Georgetown University Professor Edits a Newly Published Book on the Arab Spring

Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) Professor and Director of The Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at GU-Q, Dr. Mehran Kamrava, has edited a new book which explores the political impact of the recent wave of popular uprisings that swept through the region on ruling governments in the Arab world.

Entitled “Beyond the Arab Spring: The Evolving Ruling Bargain in the Middle East”, the book includes chapter contributions from 16 top scholars and academics from around the world who scrutinize the Arab regimes that experienced upheaval during these uprisings. They also examine the nature and evolution of ruling bargains, the political systems that emerged from the post-colonial era, and the structural changes to these old systems that have taken place since the Arab Spring. In particular, the unique insights and perspectives of Arab scholars on these issues are considered.

Dr. Kamrava edited the entire volume, as well as contributed the preliminary chapter,  “The Rise and Fall of Ruling Bargains in the Middle East”, explaining the social, economic, and political context of the Arab Spring. “This book seeks to explain the Arab Spring and its consequences through an understanding of the unraveling of the dominant ‘ruling bargain’ that emerged across the Middle East in the 1950s,” explained Dr. Kamrava. “This is being replaced by a new and constantly shifting system that redefines sources of authority and legitimacy through constitutions, and introduced new processes for civic participation, through mass protests, elections, and in some cases, civil war. Charting the key personalities, functions, structures, and institutions involved in this ongoing renegotiation reveals a dynamic, often violent process that has not reached any definitive conclusion,” he added.

“Beyond the Arab Spring adds new dimensions and considerable depth to our understanding of the extraordinary events in the region since the first days of 2011. From the exploration of an array of institutions and social forces underpinning the uprisings to the examination of particularities of country cases, this volume covers a lot of ground while providing readers with much to think about,” said Miriam R. Lowi, from the Department of Political Science at the College of New Jersey.

The Dean of GU-Q, Dr. Gerd Nonneman, praised the new book’s contribution, saying: “This coherent set of analyses brings us closer to a real understanding of the context, dynamics and implications of the Arab Spring and, more broadly, the underlying evolution of ‘ruling bargains’ between regimes and societies in the Middle East. It draws both widely and deeply on historical patterns and comparative cases, as well as on a masterful grip on the empirical detail of actual contemporary politics in the region. This book will become a standard point of reference.”

This book grew out of one of the research initiatives undertaken by CIRS, and includes a chapter entry from GU-Q Assistant Professor of History, Dr. Abdullah Al-Arian. The book is published by Oxford University Press. Dr. Mehran Kamrava is also the author of a number of books, including, most recently, The Modern Middle East: A Political History Since the First World War; Qatar: Small State, Big Politics; and Iran’s Intellectual Revolution. His specialties include comparative politics, political development, and Middle Eastern politics.

Read the article on Gulf Times