This book, originally published in 2008, identified many of the factors that ultimately led to the 2011 'Arab Spring' and the ongoing regional crisis in the Middle East that we are witnessing now today. From the original backmatter:
The system by which the Middle East is divided into separate states is not self-evident. It is largely an artificial, colonial construct that emulates the European state order, whereby territories with defined borders, contain predominately homogeneous peoples, comprised of inhabitants sharing a common language, such as the French in France, or the Germans in Germany. In practice, none of the states in the Arab Middle East fits this bill. In recent years, especially after the US invasion of Iraq, a pervasive sense of uncertainty has gripped the capitals of the Middle East in regard to the continued stability of the region’s state order. The crushing of Iraq has sent shockwaves throughout the Arab East. The relative weakness of the Arab state system, the spread of radical Islam, and the reassertion of primordial sub-state identities threaten to undermine the cohesion of some key Arab states. How are they coping with these challenges? To what extent are their efforts succeeding? These are the crucial questions that this compendium seeks to examine.
Edited by Asher Susser, with contributions by:
Joseph Kostiner, "Solidarity in the Arab State - a Historical Perspective"
Matti Steinberg, "Anarchical Order in the Arab World"
Ofra Bengio, "Iraq- From Failed Nation-State to Binational State?"
Eyal Zisser, "The Struggle for Syria - Ethno-religious communities, regime, and state"
Asher Susser,"Jordan - in the Maze of Tribalism, Jordanianism, Palestinianism, and Islam"
Ephraim Lavie, "The Palestinians - Competing Group Identities in the Absence of a State"
Meir Litvak, "Hamas: Palestinian Identity, Islam, and National Sovereignty"
Joshua Teitelbaum, "Understanding National Cohesion in Saudi Arabia"
Yoram Meital, "National Identity in Post-Revolutionary Egypt"
Yehudit Ronen, "Sudan on the Slippery Slope of Violence: A State's Struggle for Identity"
Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, "Collective Identity in Morocco, in the Light of Political Islam and Globalization"
Gideon Gera, "Algeria - from the Brink of Collapse to Reconstruction"
The system by which the Middle East is divided into separate states is not self-evident. It is largely an artificial, colonial construct that emulates the European state order, whereby territories with defined borders, contain predominately homogeneous peoples, comprised of inhabitants sharing a common language, such as the French in France, or the Germans in Germany. In practice, none of the states in the Arab Middle East fits this bill. In recent years, especially after the US invasion of Iraq, a pervasive sense of uncertainty has gripped the capitals of the Middle East in regard to the continued stability of the region’s state order. The crushing of Iraq has sent shockwaves throughout the Arab East. The relative weakness of the Arab state system, the spread of radical Islam, and the reassertion of primordial sub-state identities threaten to undermine the cohesion of some key Arab states. How are they coping with these challenges? To what extent are their efforts succeeding? These are the crucial questions that this compendium seeks to examine.
Edited by Asher Susser, with contributions by:
Joseph Kostiner, "Solidarity in the Arab State - a Historical Perspective"
Matti Steinberg, "Anarchical Order in the Arab World"
Ofra Bengio, "Iraq- From Failed Nation-State to Binational State?"
Eyal Zisser, "The Struggle for Syria - Ethno-religious communities, regime, and state"
Asher Susser,"Jordan - in the Maze of Tribalism, Jordanianism, Palestinianism, and Islam"
Ephraim Lavie, "The Palestinians - Competing Group Identities in the Absence of a State"
Meir Litvak, "Hamas: Palestinian Identity, Islam, and National Sovereignty"
Joshua Teitelbaum, "Understanding National Cohesion in Saudi Arabia"
Yoram Meital, "National Identity in Post-Revolutionary Egypt"
Yehudit Ronen, "Sudan on the Slippery Slope of Violence: A State's Struggle for Identity"
Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, "Collective Identity in Morocco, in the Light of Political Islam and Globalization"
Gideon Gera, "Algeria - from the Brink of Collapse to Reconstruction"
