The upheaval in oil prices in the early 1970s gave rise to major changes in inter-Arab relations. While the oil-producing countries became rich and their citizens enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in the world, the Arab World's cultural and historical leader, Egypt, was enmeshed in an economic morass, barely managing to finance the import of foodstuffs for her population and at the forefront of the Arab confrontation with Israel. The author provides a unique insight into a virtually unseen current that has shaped Middle East war and politics for over 30 years by explaining the intricate and ever shifting relationship between Egypt and the immensely wealthy Arab Gulf newcomers. The efforts of the Gulf states to exert political and cultural influence over Egypt through use of their oil revenues is described in detail, alongside concurrent Egyptian efforts to redistribute the oil wealth while maintaining complete policy independence and primacy. Drawing on previously unpublished reports, and on first-hand interviews with key persons throughout the region (including two Egyptian premiers), the book provides a first-time look at the full extent of the economic ties, at the inner workings of the relations, and at their long-term impact. New data and analysis shows the underlying logic and impact of this relationship, and the powerful interplay and the shifting balance of power. The book analyzes the effects economic aid and cooperation had on the political relationship between the two sides and on President Sadat's peace initiative with Israel. It provides a wealth of new data and original and insightful analysis, and fills an important gap in our understanding of the inner economic workings of the modern Arab world.

The Middle East is an area of great importance globally, yet misperceptions abound. Events have made it a region of special interest to the West and so the search for understanding gains momentum. This publication is intended to clarify the region’s complex history and issues. In developing this project, the contributors’ set out to explore seven significant themes that are usually not found in other sources. While many books focus on political history and conflicts, this two-volume work deals specifically with culture, religion, women, economics, governance, and media, as well as the role that the region’s modern history has played in shaping its society and worldview.

Working into the middle class -- "Crisis of supply in every household" -- 'Provocative consumption' -- 'Parasites' -- The resurgence of middle-class Islam.

This book explores and problematises the war discourse regarding Egypt's victory in the 1973 War. It traces the process through which this discourse was constructed and reconstructed by the state throughout the periods of President Anwar Sadat, his successor Hosni Mubarak, and afterwards. It uses Critical Discourse Analysis to combine analysis of texts commemorating the war with a study of the socio-political milieu related to personal authoritarianism and the state’s intricate relations with the army, the press and Islamists.

This book concerns with the analysis of the impact of globalization on international migration from a distinct international political economy perspective. It confronts theoretical debates from the different international political economy (IPE) approaches and elaborates on the implications of different theories in policymaking and political realms. Here, migration is examined as an integral part of the global political economy that is structurally connected to the process of globalization, although the definition of globalization itself is a subject of enquiry.

In Oil Money, David M. Wight offers a new framework for understanding the course of Middle East–US relations during the 1970s and 1980s: the transformation of the US global empire by Middle East petrodollars. During these two decades, American, Arab, and Iranian elites reconstituted the primary role of the Middle East within the global system of US power from a supplier of cheap crude oil to a source of abundant petrodollars, the revenues earned from the export of oil. In the 1970s, the United States and allied monarchies, including the House of Pahlavi in Iran and the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia, utilized petrodollars to undertake myriad joint initiatives for mutual economic and geopolitical benefit. These petrodollar projects were often unprecedented in scope and included multibillion-dollar development projects, arms sales, purchases of US Treasury securities, and funds for the mujahedin in Afghanistan. Although petrodollar ties often augmented the power of the United States and its Middle East allies, Wight argues they also fostered economic disruptions and state-sponsored violence that drove many Americans, Arabs, and Iranians to resist Middle East–US interdependence, most dramatically during the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Deftly integrating diplomatic, transnational, economic, and cultural analysis, Wight utilizes extensive declassified records from the Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations, the IMF, the World Bank, Saddam Hussein's regime, and private collections to make plain the political economy of US power. Oil Money is an expansive yet judicious investigation of the wide-ranging and contradictory effects of petrodollars on Middle East–US relations and the geopolitics of globalization.

This book is an effort towards an in-depth understanding of the architectural discourse in Egypt developed over more than eight decades. It offers a distinctive theoretical interpretation of the forces shaping the kaleidoscopic shifts in Egyptian architecture through the analysis of the micro space of architectural representation of twentieth century Egyptian architecture. Predicated on historical contextualization, theoretical integration, and global conceptualization, Edward Said’s analytical method of contrapuntal reading and the spatial discourse analysis posited by C. Greig Crysler are lucidly assimilated to generate insights into various voices within the architectural discourse in Egypt. The analysis and critique of two important professional magazines, al-‘Imarah (1939–1959) and ‘Alam al-Bena’a (1980–2000), which shaped the collective psyche of both the academic and professional communities in Egypt and the wider region, coupled with the exploration of two other short-lived magazines, M‘imaryah (1982–1989) Medina (1998–2002), and other less-influential professional magazines, discloses the structure of attitude and reference or the exclusions and inclusions that defined the boundaries of the space of the discourse. Influence and Resistance in Post-Independence Egyptian Architecture paves the way to genuinely debate a yet to mature twenty-first century’s architectural discourse in Egypt. This book is a key resource for architects, architectural historians, and critical theorists and will appeal to academics and to both graduate and advanced undergraduate students in architectural history and theory and Middle East and Global South studies.