Inside The Arab State

The 2011 Arab uprisings and their subsequent aftermath have thrown into question some of our long-held assumptions about the foundational aspects of the Arab state. While the regional and international consequences of the uprisings continue to unfold with great unpredictability, their ramifications for the internal lives of the states in which they unfolded are just as dramatic and consequential. States historically viewed as models of strength and stability have been shaken to their foundations. Borders thought impenetrable have collapsed; sovereignty and territoriality have been in flux. This book examines some of the central questions facing observers and scholars of the Middle East concerning the nature of power and politics before and after 2011 in the Arab world. The focus of the book revolves around the very nature of politics and the exercise of power in the Arab world, conceptions of the state, its functions and institutions, its sources of legitimacy, and basic notions underlying it such as sovereignty and nationalism. Inside the Arab State adopts a multi-disciplinary approach, examining a broad range of political, economic, and social variables. It begins with an examination of politics, and more specifically political institutions, in the Arab world from the 1950s on, tracing the travail of states, and the wounds they inflicted on society and on themselves along the way, until the eruption of the 2011 uprisings. The uprisings, the states' responses to them, and efforts by political leaders to carve out for themselves means of legitimacy are also discussed, as are the reasons for the emergence and rise of Daesh and the Islamic State. Power, I argue, and increasingly narrow conceptions of it in terms of submission and conformity, remains at the heart of Arab politics, popular protests and yearnings for change notwithstanding. Much has changed in the Arab world over the last several decades. But even more has stayed the same.

Barnett explores the relationships among Arab identity, the meaning of Arabism, and desired regional order in the Middle East from 1920 to the present, focusing on Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia.

The author's objective within this book is to place the Arab world within a theoretical and comparative framework that avoids both orientalist and fundamentalist insistence on the utter peculiarity and uniqueness of the region. The book focuses in detail on eight Arab countries.

It has often been argued that Arab states are arbitrary political creations, lacking historical or present legitimacy. This book, first published in 1990, provides a different picture of ‘the Arab state’, drawing on historical, economic, philosophical and sociological perspectives to give a balanced and convincing view of the complex reality of contemporary Arab politics. The contributors, from the Arab countries, from Europe and the United States, investigate the roots of the nation state in the Arab world, evaluating in particular the economic bases of individual states. They discuss the evolution of Arab societies and the way this is reflected in different states, and examine the problems of domestic and international integration in the Arab context. Original and comprehensive in its findings, this is an essential text on the fundamental political structure of the Arab world. Its interdisciplinary breadth makes possible an entirely new reading of the political reality of the Middle East.

Comprehensive survey of the Arab world.

The Foundations of the Arab State deals with the conceptual, historical, and cultural environment in which the contemporary Arab state system was established and has evolved. With contributions from established scholars in the field, this volume addresses the major issues posed by the emergence of contemporary Arab states, by their consolidation, the role played by foreign powers in their creation, and their future within the region.

A comprehensive guide to 20th-century architecture which places design in its historical, sociological and political context. Intended as a text, but useful to professionals, it covers all periods, types and movements including examples from the Third World and Eastern Europe. Four parts examine puristic tendencies, organic architecture, urban arch.

The founding, structure, and operations of the League of Arab States since its organization in 1945 are analyzed. In the first half of the book the author discusses the League's decision-making processes, considers regional dynamics, the polarization of power between Egypt and Iraq, and the impact of such major issues as Palestine on the League. He considers the League’s techniques of cooperation with the United Nations and its specialized agencies, neutralism and nonalignment, and the boycott of Israel. In the latter half of the study, three major operational questions typical of regional organizations are examined: functional integration in cultural, social, economic, and scientific affairs; problems of regional security and peaceful settlement of disputes; and interaction between the Arab League and the United Nations. Originally published in 1965. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This book explores the conditions of state survival in the Middle East. Capturing the dilemmas that 'late-forming states' face as they cope with domestic and international pressure, it provides a model for study of the state in the Arab world and a theory to explain its survival.

As the Gulf assumes an ever more important identity in the global political economy, we see the emergence of a new popular and political culture underpinning its increasingly self-confident national identities. This volume explores the new dynamism of the Gulf, reflected not just in high-rise buildings and booming stock markets, but also manifested in the realms of art, ideas and expression, and their relationships with political authority. Contributors include figures instrumental to the emergence of these new identities, including artists, broadcasters and cultural commentators.