Contemporary debates about civility are shaped by the dominant liberal and secular narratives of a peaceful world of sovereign nation-states. For contemporary scholars and policy makers, the challenge is to insert meaningfully the political evolution of the Middle East in the dominant liberal-democratic discourse about the current international order without invoking ill-conceived notions of Islamic exceptionalism. The analyses gathered in this book challenge conventional ‘western’ perspectives on civility as an expression of state-guaranteed free association in a non-violent space of discourse and behaviour. Considering the articulation of ‘civil’ and ‘civilized’ state-society relations in contemporary Middle Eastern polities, this book proposes both conceptual and empirical insights into the dynamics of the local, national and trans-national formation of civility and of the civil sphere. Bypassing traditional oppositions between the ‘western’ and ‘Islamic’ modernity, it provides an account of the communicative clusters of civility that represent the everyday formations of Islamic and secular subjects in settings organized by authoritarian-inclined state institutions and practices. It examines how the grassroots formation of ‘new’ religious and secular identities/subjectivities and their relations with the ‘Other’ underpin, as well as challenge and transform, the state-led processes of political ordering of a national and regional community. This book was originally published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly.

Contemporary debates about civility are shaped by the dominant liberal and secular narratives of a peaceful world of sovereign nation-states. For contemporary scholars and policy makers, the challenge is to insert meaningfully the political evolution of the Middle East in the dominant liberal-democratic discourse about the current international order without invoking ill-conceived notions of Islamic exceptionalism. The analyses gathered in this book challenge conventional ‘western’ perspectives on civility as an expression of state-guaranteed free association in a non-violent space of discourse and behaviour. Considering the articulation of ‘civil’ and ‘civilized’ state-society relations in contemporary Middle Eastern polities, this book proposes both conceptual and empirical insights into the dynamics of the local, national and trans-national formation of civility and of the civil sphere. Bypassing traditional oppositions between the ‘western’ and ‘Islamic’ modernity, it provides an account of the communicative clusters of civility that represent the everyday formations of Islamic and secular subjects in settings organized by authoritarian-inclined state institutions and practices. It examines how the grassroots formation of ‘new’ religious and secular identities/subjectivities and their relations with the ‘Other’ underpin, as well as challenge and transform, the state-led processes of political ordering of a national and regional community. This book was originally published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly.

This exciting new book for students of Middle Eastern politics provides a comprehensive introduction to the complexities of the region, its politics and people. Combining a thematic framework for examining patterns of politics with individual chapters dedicated to specific countries, the book explores current issues within an historical context. Presenting information in an accessible and inclusive format, the book offers: coverage of the historical influence of colonialism and major world powers on the shaping of the modern Middle East a detailed examination of the legacy of Islam analysis of the political and social aspects of Middle Eastern life: alienation between state and society, poverty and social inequality, ideological crises and renewal case studies on countries in the Northern Belt (Turkey and Iran); the Fertile Crescent (Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, Israel and Palestine); and those West and East of the Red Sea (Egypt and the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council). extensive pedagogical features, including original maps and detailed further reading sections, provide essential support for the reader. A key introductory text for students of Middle Eastern politics and history at advanced undergraduate and postgraduate levels, this book will also be a significant reference for policy-makers and any motivated reader.

This exciting new edition of the successful textbook for students of Middle Eastern politics provides a highly relevant and comprehensive introduction to the complexities of a region in constant flux. Combining a thematic framework for examining patterns of politics with individual chapters dedicated to specific countries, the book places the very latest developments and long-standing issues within an historical context, introducing key concepts from comparative politics to further explore the interaction between Middle Eastern history and the region’s contemporary political development. Presenting information in an accessible and inclusive format, the book offers: • Coverage of the historical influence of colonialism and major world powers on the shaping of the modern Middle East. • A detailed examination of the legacy of Islam. • Analysis of the political and social aspects of Middle Eastern life: alienation between state and society, poverty and social inequality, ideological crises and renewal. • Case studies on countries in the Northern Belt (Turkey and Iran); the Fertile Crescent (Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, Israel/Palestine); and those West and East of the Red Sea (Egypt and the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council), moving through an historical examination to close analysis of the most recent developments and their political and social impacts. • Extensive pedagogical features, including original maps and further reading sections, provide essential support for the reader. A key introductory text for students of Middle Eastern politics and history at advanced undergraduate and postgraduate levels, this new edition has been extensively updated to also become a timely and significant reference for policy-makers and any motivated reader.

Rethinking Middle East Politics considers a range of debates on the character of political and socioeconomic development in the Middle East, focusing on the linked processes of state formation and capitalist development. Simon Bromley seeks to reformulate the central questions involved in the study of state formation. He builds a comparative framework based on an examination of key developmental processes in Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Iran and offers a range of substantive theses on the place of democracy and Islam in the region. His findings explain a very large part of what appears to be significant in the emergence of the modern Middle East. Rethinking Middle East Politics presents a new way of analyzing politics in the Middle East, offering a perspective that has major implications for rethinking Third World politics more generally and for the social and political theory of modernity.

Leading scholars assembled by the Civil Society in the Middle East program provide lucid, informed essays on the quality of political life, weighing the role of civil society and assessing the prospects for political reform in the Middle East.