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Fuel Smuggling in the West Bank (2018–2021): Palestinian Economic Agency under the Israeli System of Spatial Control Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2024-04-11 Walid Habbas
This article critically re-examines the narrative that the Israeli system of spatial control has an exclusive negative impact on the West Bank economy. It focuses on the burgeoning fuel smuggling i...
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Zionism, Settler Colonialism, and Nationalism: On Motivations and Violence Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2024-04-09 Muhannad Ayyash
In discourse that normalizes and propagates Israeli settler colonial conquest and domination, analytical attention is given to the supposed nationalist nature of the Zionist project painting Zionis...
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Where is Palestine in the Anzacs’ Palestine Campaign? Israel and the Struggle for Indigeneity in Commemorative State Practice Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2024-04-04 Micaela Sahhar
At the end of the second decade of the twenty first century, Israel has sought to align itself with a range of Indigenous struggles both to conceal the ongoing nature of settler-colonialism and to ...
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The Threat of (the Lack of) Social Cohesion: Preventing Violent Extremism in Lebanon Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2024-04-01 Jan Daniel
The article explores Lebanon’s adoption of the Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) agenda in the second half of the 2010s and the consequences of the agenda’s focus on weak social cohesion. Emplo...
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Debt Economy and Class Transformation in Tunisia: A Critical Comparative Analysis (1860s–1970s) Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2024-04-01 Vittorio Caligiuri, Giampaolo Conte, Gaetano Sabatini
The progressive integration of Tunisia into the international capital market implies deep institutional and social transformations as well as the positioning of the country in the semi-periphery of...
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The Contribution of Āstān-e Quds-e Razavī to Iran’s Soft Power Projection Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2024-04-01 Ali Akbar
This article sheds light on the role of Āstān-e Quds-e Razavī, the Iranian foundation that manages the Imam Reza shrine, in furthering Iran’s soft power. Despite the growing body of work on Iranian...
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Palestine Solidarity and Zionist Backlash in Australian Universities Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2024-04-01 Jumana Bayeh, Nick Riemer
Academic solidarity with Palestine in Australia is strongly influenced by multiple factors, in particular the strength of the powerful local Zionist lobby and growing public awareness of Israeli cr...
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Normalization and the Erasure of Palestine: Ideology and Myth in Arab Drama Series Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2024-04-01 Imed Ben Labidi
This article examines recent transformations in Arab drama narratives and TV productions and showcases how two drama series endorse normalization of cultural and social relations between Arabs and ...
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Practicing wujud: A Constellation of sumud in the Fragmented Palestinian Present Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2024-03-25 Tamara Taher
The Zionist conception of history and its material project of expansion and land annexation produce a temporality of catastrophe (Nakba) that constantly reiterates violence, dispossession, and disp...
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Antisemitism and Zionism: The Internal Operations of the IHRA Definition Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2024-03-22 Neve Gordon
In this paper, I focus on the cultural and political work the IHRA definition of antisemitism carries out to explain why it has been adopted by hundreds of actors. I offer three key reasons to expl...
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Bare Life and the Production of Docile Sects: The Case of Christian Community in Lebanon Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2024-03-22 Abbas Assi
In Lebanon, the same political class whose role was instrumental in the economic and financial collapse of the country won the May 2022 parliamentary elections. These results raise questions about ...
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Indigenous Internationalism Against Imprisoned Indigeneity in Australia and Palestine Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2024-03-21 Kim Alley, Lorenzo Veracini
Indigenous Australians and Palestinians experience some of the highest rates of incarceration and state violence in the world. In this article’s first section we focus comparatively on administrati...
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Hydro-Political Relations Between Turkey and Iraq Over the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers: Dyadic Relationships and Structure Matter Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2024-03-21 Luay Hussien Aldalooi
This article addresses the hydro-political relationship between Iraq and Turkey by applying the framework of hydro-hegemony. During the Cold War, the Turkish-Iraqi hydro-relationship was influenced...
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The Visual Narratives of the 1979 Iranian Revolution Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2024-03-20 Marouf Cabi
This article analyzes a series of documentaries on the 1979 Iranian Revolution broadcast by Iran International and Manoto television channels. While covering the era of the Pahlavi dynasty, especia...
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Dark Humor and ‘Humor Talk’ in Algeria’s Hirak Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2024-02-22 Elizabeth M. Perego
Since February 2019, observers and activists alike have commented on the outpouring of humorous expression that Algeria’s ongoing Hirak (‘movement’) for political change has fostered. The present w...
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Editorial Note Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2024-01-30 Eric Hooglund
Published in Middle East Critique (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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Discourse Analysis of Social Justice Policies in Post-Revolutionary Iran Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-12-15 Reza Safari Shali
The article aims to analyze the discursive transformations of social justice to realize social welfare during five successive administrations in the Islamic Republic of Iran from 1981 to 2021. It a...
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Social Construction of Population Policies and Problems in Iran Since 1963 Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-12-15 Abouali Vedadhir, Seyedhadi Marjaei
Population has been and continues to be a significant matter of concern and contention in Iran. A range of different claims-makers, with varying dramas, ideologies, resources, rhetorical strategies...
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Editor’s Note Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-12-15 Eric Hooglund
Published in Middle East Critique (Vol. 32, No. 4, 2023)
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Sociology of Rival Music Genres and Music Consumption in Post-1979 Revolution Iranian Society Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-12-15 Masoud Kowsari
This article examines the genesis of and competition among rival music genres in post-revolutionary Iran. Rival genres (pop music, rap music, rock music, traditional music, etc.) are genres that gr...
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Feeling of Insecurity and Hope in the Future: Case Study of Tehran Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-12-15 Adel Abdollahi
In recent decades, Iranian society has experienced rapid socio-economic changes that seriously affect feelings of hope in the future (HF) among social groups, especially in metropolitan areas such ...
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Iran’s Demographic Transition and Its Potential for Development Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-12-15 Mohammad Mirzaei, Rasoul Sadeghi
Over the past half-century, Iran has experienced unprecedented demographic transition. With a population over 85 million, Iran’s population growth recently has declined below one per cent per year,...
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Anthropology of Water in Varzaneh, Iran Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-12-15 Dina Taghipour Ziksari, Jalaledin Rafifar
Water quality/quantity crises may make water a hazard source. This study investigates the coded meaning that water crisis causes, how water insecurity impacts mental and physical health, and ways o...
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Urbanized Rural Women: A Study in Rural Areas of Gilan, Isfahan, and Semnan Provinces Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-12-15 Soheila Alirezanejad, Nafiseh Azad
Considering the changing circumstances of Iranian rural women’s lives, do they still fulfill traditional roles? Have their lifestyles and expectations of themselves changed? To answer these questio...
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Historical Overview of Development’s Impact on Rural and Urban Governance in Iran Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-12-15 Mostafa Azkia, Hossein Imani Jajarmi
The constitutional revolution in 1906 was the beginning of a new era for Iran. A national parliament was established for making laws that established modern institutions such as city and village co...
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Analysis of Social Capital Trends after Iran’s Islamic Revolution Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-12-15 Gholamreza Ghaffari
Contemporary Iran has undergone many small and large transformations at the structural, process and agency levels. This article attempts to present a picture of social relations in Iran after ther ...
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Poverty and Deprivation Problems in Post-Revolutionary Iran Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-12-15 Moosa Anbari, Sedigheh Piri
This article examines both the positive and negative aspects of the performance of various governmental poverty elimination institutions and organizations during forty years of the Islamic Republic...
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One Thousand and One Cities: Socio-Spatial Patterns and Challenges over a Half-Century of Urbanization in Iran Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-12-15 Hamidreza Rabiei-Dastjerdi
Since 1970, Iran has experienced dramatic environmental, political, and socioeconomic changes and events. All these events have impacted and shaped the urbanized landscape in Iran during the past 5...
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Correction Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-11-09
Published in Middle East Critique (Ahead of Print, 2023)
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Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Power Struggle over ‘Muslimness’: Reification, Securitization, and Identification Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-10-17 Jérémy Dieudonné
This paper questions the apparent hostility between Iran and Saudi Arabia and highlights its discursive construction. It explores the centrality of ‘Muslimness’ in both countries’ discourses and ho...
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The Lasting Impact of Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ on the Question of Palestine Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-10-19 Ibrahim Fraihat, Basem Ezbidi
In 2017 US President Donald Trump launched the ‘Deal of the Century’ (DoC) to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Although Trump is no longer in office, the impact of the DoC lingers and will con...
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The Theory of Uneven and Combined Development and the Sociopolitical Transformations in Syria and Libya Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-10-19 Faruk Yalvaç, Hikmet Mengütürk
This article explores the constitutive impact of the ‘international’ on the sociopolitical transformations in Syria and Libya through the lens of the theory of Uneven and Combined Development (UCD)...
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Locating Iranian Diasporas in Fifty Years of Academic Discourse: Critical Review of Acculturation Theory Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-09-14 Zeinab Karimi, Mahmoud Ghazi Tabatabaei
Over the past five decades, Iran has experienced a massive international emigration of its citizens. Consequently, Iranian diasporas formed in several Western countries as their main destinations. ...
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The Hegemony of Resistance: Hezbollah and the Forging of a National-Popular Will in Lebanon Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-09-05 Abed Kanaaneh
Abstract: Drawing on the Gramscian concept of hegemony, this article examines Hezbollah’s muqawama project within the Lebanese political arena. It provides a novel interpretation of Hezbollah’s political development from force operating through a ‘blitzkrieg’ strategy to hegemonic politics. It examines the role that the muqawama concept has played in shaping the organization’s changes in its latest
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Kemalism vs Erdoğanism: Continuities and Discontinuities in Turkey’s Hegemonic State Ideology Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-08-25 Nikos Christofis
Abstract: For over a decade the Turkish ruling party, AKP, is consciously trying to construct a new historical narrative by contesting, and replacing, the dominant ideological doctrine of Kemalism. In so doing, the Turkish government recycles the past selectively and interprets the present in terms of historical myths to offer a counter-memory, challenging the Kemalist indoctrination in Turkish society
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The Violence of Extractive Urbanization: Dying to Live in Lebanon Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-08-10 Monica Basbous
Abstract: Drawing on the case of Lebanon, this article seeks to conceptualize how processes of urbanization are entangled with extractive violence. It begins by situating the establishment of both the cement industry and the legal framework for construction in the historical context of French Mandate Lebanon, and discusses their evolution through the post-independence period, the early 1990s, and until
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Missing Gender: Conceptual Limitations in the Debate on “Sectarianism” in the Middle East Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-08-07 Rahaf Aldoughli
Abstract: This article demonstrates how gender analysis has been profoundly overlooked in many studies of sectarianism in the Middle East. While numerous books and articles have discussed the question of gender in the MENA region more broadly, dominant scholarship focusing on sectarianism misses this gender-informed perspective. By examining recent publications on sectarianism and showing how gender
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Follow the Grid, Follow the Violence: The Project for a Transregional Mediterranean Electricity Ring Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-08-07 Benjamin Schuetze
Abstract This paper draws on the project for a Mediterranean electricity ring to study questions of structural violence and exclusion. It focuses on how forms of containment at different sites of the envisaged ring connect with energy connectivities enabled by transregional electricity flows. It illustrates how seemingly local manifestations of violence at different nodes of the ring are not a testimony
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UNHCR’s Expansion to the GCC States: Establishing a UNHCR Presence in Saudi Arabia 1987-1993 Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-07-22 Maja Janmyr, Charlotte Lysa
Abstract: How did the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) establish its presence in states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)? And how did it negotiate the legal frameworks needed to formally operate in these states? To answer these questions, the article focuses on the historical case of Saudi Arabia. Based on UNHCR archival material and interviews with key actors (including Government
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The Arab Lecturer on a Zionist Campus: Student Practices Replicating National Hegemony Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-07-15 Ibrahim Mahajne, Nuzha Allassad Alhuzail
Abstract Minority groups tend to experience the academic campus as unpleasant and excluding. Relevant literature attempts to analyze the position of these groups, using terms such as ‘race’ and investigating how higher education institution mechanisms replicate the inequality between the minority group and the hegemonic majority population. In Israel, unresolved problems cause continuing tension between
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Weaponizing Democratization: Street Battles and Transformation in Post-Revolutionary Egypt Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-07-12 Sarah Hynek
Abstract: Scholarship on the connection between democratization and political violence typically views democracy through a liberal prism prioritizing elections and elite dynamics and qualifies violence through the lens of civil war or organized armed conflict, which leaves the political salience and effects of alternative modes of violent contentious mobilization underexamined. This study analyzes
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Correction Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-07-11
Published in Middle East Critique (Vol. 32, No. 3, 2023)
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Leaders and the Breakdown of Democracy in Turkey, 1973-1980 Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-07-03 Tezan Gűműş
Abstract This article focuses on Turkey’s crisis-ridden years, from 1973 to 1980. As an under-explored era in English language scholarship, it makes a distinct contribution to the literature on pre-1980 coup Turkish politics. In doing so, it illustrates the implications for the democratic order arising from the two central political leaders of the era Süleyman Demirel and Bülent Ecevit’s tussle for
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The Politics of Faith among the Palestinian-Arab Minority in Israel: Increasing Human Capital and Public Engagement Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-06-29 Muhammed Khalaily, As’ad Ghanem
Abstract This article examines the steep rise in self-confidence among the Arab-Palestinian public in Israel over the last two decades. We suggest that this self-confidence is partially due to higher education levels and the rise of the middle class. We argue that these enhanced levels of human capital have led to more concerted cultural, political and social activism. Our analysis is grounded in the
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Israeli Colonial Governance vs. Palestinian Resistance: An Institutional Genealogy Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-06-28 Hani Awad
Abstract This article examines the institutional genealogy of Israeli colonial governance (ICG) and the accompanying patterns of Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. It argues that ICG has experienced three phases, each marked by a particular form of direct or indirect colonial rule. Each of these colonial rule forms has been resisted through a distinct pattern of centralized
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Re-Narrating the Past, Producing the Present and Unlocking the Future: Haris al-Quds, a TV-Dramatization of ‘Post-war’ Syria Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-06-28 Christine Crone
Abstract Regaining control of Aleppo was an important symbolic victory for the Syrian state army, which has opened the way for state-sanctioned narrations of ‘post-war’ Syria. To elucidate the workings of this narration, I explore the TV drama Haris al-Quds (2020) as a fascinating window into Syrian state ideology in Bashar al-Assad’s ‘post-war’ Syria. I argue that the Syrian state holds on to future
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Hypocrisy & Norm Enforcement: US Responses to Chemical Weapons Allegations against Iraq and Syria Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-06-27 Mohammad Samiei, Janice Webster
Abstract The use of chemical weapons (CW) by Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War appears to have been subject to far less decisive US responses than similar accusations against Syria during the Syrian civil war. However, the two instances have not yet been subject to direct scholarly comparison. This article treats the Iraqi and Syrian instances as two distinct cases and compares US actions to prevent, investigate
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The ‘War on Terror’ as Primitive Accumulation in Tunisia: US-Led Imperialism and the Post-2010-2011 Revolt/Security Conjuncture Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-05-08 Corinna Mullin
Abstract: This article examines the rearticulation and reconfiguration of US-led imperialism vis-à-vis Tunisia in the aftermath of the 2010–2011 popular revolt. Challenging the prevalent economic-military binary in analyses of US-led imperialism in the region, it treats instead economic intervention in Tunisia as linked to and shaped by ‘security’ intervention, with the violence of the War on Terror
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Gunning for Damascus: The US War on the Syrian Arab Republic Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-04-19 Patrick Donovan Higgins
Abstract: Commentators across Anglophone media and academic institutions frequently have minimized the role of US-led imperialism in Syria. This trivialization has been made possible by the covert nature of the war’s initial phases. Therefore, this article aims to piece together some of the most conspicuous aspects of the empirical record of the war. It begins with a historical overview of major US
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Imperialism and Neoliberal Redeployment in Post-uprising Tunisia Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-04-17 Mustapha Jouili
Abstract: Since the early 1970s, neoliberalism has not spared Tunisia’s subordinate integration into the global capitalist system. This process strengthened a dominant ruling class, closely connected to international capital interests, while leading to growing social polarization and rising socio-economic inequalities. Faced by popular resistance, authoritarianism, with the support of imperialist powers
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Logics of Elimination and Settler Colonialism: Decolonization or National Liberation? Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-03-23 Max Ajl
Abstract: This article engages with Patrick Wolfe’s theoretical underpinnings and programmatic consequences of his settler-colonial theory. It contextualizes the renaissance of the settler-colonial paradigm, scrutinizing its theoretical innovations. In doing so, the article traces Wolfe’s work back to its origin in the work of Marcel Mauss and his notion of total social facts, discussing this theory’s
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Modified J-Curve Theory, Iran’s Socio-Economic Bottlenecks and the 1979 Fall of the Pahlavi Monarchy Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-02-27 Gholam Reza Vatandoust, Maryam Sheipari
Abstract No one disputes the authenticity of the Islamic Revolution of 1979 that led to the overthrow of the Pahlavi regime and left its footprint in the region and the world at large. This research is an attempt to revisit the Islamic Revolution from an entirely new perspective, looking at the fall of the Pahlavi regime from a combined modified J-Curve Theory of James Davis and Abraham Maslow’s theory
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The Iranian-American Intelligentsia in U.S. Foreign Affairs: Ahistoricism, Anti-Structuralism, and the Production of Idealism Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-02-25 Nina Farnia
Abstract This article challenges the anti-structural and ahistorical turn in recent histories of the Iranian Revolution. Tracing the genealogy of this anti-structural turn to the publication of Foucault’s writings on Iran, the author argues that the continued decline of US-Iran relations, coupled with hostility toward anti-imperialist scholarship in US academia, has created the conditions for an ahistoricism
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Editor’s Note Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-02-12 Eric Hooglund
Published in Middle East Critique (Vol. 32, No. 1, 2023)
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The Imperialist Question: A Sociological Approach Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-02-09 Matteo Capasso, Ali Kadri
Abstract: This article provides a conceptual background to the general theme of this Special Issue ‘On Imperialism in the Middle East’. First, we posit that the concept of imperialism can be understood as a sociological process, through an approach that centres the primacy of politics vis-à-vis accounts that sever theory and praxis via empiricism. In probing this issue, the article shows how dominant
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Intergenerational Transmission of Social Movement Activism in Bahrain Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-02-08 Luke G. G. Bhatia
Abstract This article examines the intergenerational transmission of social movement activism in Bahrain, with a focus on the human rights movement and al-Khawaja family. The research argues that intergenerational transmission and the inheritance of capital, in a family setting, is a vital resource for the local and transnational movement. Specifically, the research investigates multiple generations
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Emergence of Palestine as a Global Cause Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-02-06 Sune Haugbolle, Pelle Valentin Olsen
Abstract In the late 1960s, Palestine became an iconic signifier of solidarity and support for the Left, but also a transgressive tool that shaped and re-situated ideological positions at domestic levels. In this article, we attempt to answer why, how, and when this happened. Most research to date has stressed the global diplomatic offensive by the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization). Palestinian
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Remembering Defeat in Counter-Revolutionary Egypt Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-02-06 Judith A Naeff
Abstract: This article analyses how a creative writing workshop in 2017 Cairo dynamically engaged with cultural memories of the 1967 defeat of the Arab armies. The article first situates 1967 as a crucial reference point in discursive attempts to tie personal life stories to national history and in making sense of a widespread feeling of postcolonial disenchantment. It is in the ruinous aftermath of
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The Neoliberal Cage: Alternative Analysis of the Rise of Populist Tunisia Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-02-01 Carmen Fulco, Mattia Giampaolo
Abstract On the occasion of Tunisia’s 2019 legislative and presidential elections, politics witnessed the proliferation of distinct varieties of populism that culminated in the electoral victory of the current president, Kais Saied. This article argues that the Kais Saied phenomenon inscribes into a Tunisian ‘populist moment’ that found fertile terrain in the protraction of the socioeconomic crisis
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The European Union’s Policies in Historic Palestine: Two-Step Securitisation, Differentiation and Its Discontents Middle East Critique (IF 1.63) Pub Date : 2023-01-28 Itxaso Domínguez de Olazábal
Abstract Most analyses of European Union (EU) policies relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict do not question the epistemological framework on which these policies are based. The 1967 paradigm preferred by the EU does not address the inalienable rights of all Palestinians but rather focuses exclusively on a particular group, those Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, territories