{"title":"Modern History and Politics: When Parliaments Ruled the Middle East: Iraq and Syria, 1946–63, by Matthieu Rey (book review)","authors":"Ali Elsawi","doi":"10.3751/76.3.307","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3751/76.3.307","url":null,"abstract":"When Parliaments Ruled the Middle East: Iraq and Syria, 1946–63, by Matthieu Rey. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2022. 344 pages. $79.95.","PeriodicalId":18627,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48068066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pre-Twentieth-Century History: Empire of Salons: Conquest and Community in Early Modern Ottoman Lands, by Helen Pfeifer (book review)","authors":"Christine M. Philliou","doi":"10.3751/76.3.311","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3751/76.3.311","url":null,"abstract":"Empire of Salons: Conquest and Community in Early Modern Ottoman Lands, by Helen Pfeifer. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2022. 320 pages. $39.95.","PeriodicalId":18627,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46990887","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Yemen: South Yemen's Independence Struggle: Generations of Resistance, by Anne-Linda Amira Augustin (book review)","authors":"Marieke Brandt","doi":"10.3751/76.3.304","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3751/76.3.304","url":null,"abstract":"South Yemen's Independence Struggle: Generations of Resistance, by AnneLinda Amira Augustin. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2021. £50.","PeriodicalId":18627,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43314217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Egypt: The Muslim Brothers in Society: Everyday Politics, Social Action, and Islamism in Mubarak's Egypt, by Marie Vannetzel. Translated by David Tresilian (book review)","authors":"S. Brooke","doi":"10.3751/76.3.301","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3751/76.3.301","url":null,"abstract":"The Muslim Brothers in Society: Everyday Politics, Social Action, and Islamism in Mubarak's Egypt, by Marie Vannetzel. Translated by David Tresilian. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2020. 484 pages. $49.95.","PeriodicalId":18627,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44452224","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
D. Navot, Yair Goldshmidt, Asaf Yakir, Doha Abdelgawad, Mirna M. Wasef, Yesim Bayar, L. Brand, Marieke Brandt, S. Brooke, Neil Caplan, Ali Elsawi, Christian Koch, Daniel C. Kurtzer, E. Moosa, Christine M. Philliou, Craig Whiteside, Michael Woldemariam, Jacob Passel, Neta Oren, D. Waxman
{"title":"The Limits of Right-Wing Populism in Power and the Israeli Political Crisis of 2018–2021","authors":"D. Navot, Yair Goldshmidt, Asaf Yakir, Doha Abdelgawad, Mirna M. Wasef, Yesim Bayar, L. Brand, Marieke Brandt, S. Brooke, Neil Caplan, Ali Elsawi, Christian Koch, Daniel C. Kurtzer, E. Moosa, Christine M. Philliou, Craig Whiteside, Michael Woldemariam, Jacob Passel, Neta Oren, D. Waxman","doi":"10.3751/76.3.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3751/76.3.12","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Between 2018 and 2021, Israel experienced an unprecedented political crisis that saw four rounds of elections, as the country's parties failed to form a stable coalition government. This article contends that this crisis was the result of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's shift away from neoliberalism and toward a populist \"anti-system\" agenda. While Netanyahu's intensification of institutional subversion played a role in his success in the mid-late 2010s, it complicated relations within his party and among his political allies. The end result was years of political deadlock.","PeriodicalId":18627,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Journal","volume":"76 1","pages":"301 - 302 - 303 - 326 - 327 - 359 - 360 - 382 - 383 - 403 - 405 - 408 - 409 - 410 - 410 - 412 - 412"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43510983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Saudi Struggle for Iraq by Katherine Harvey (review)","authors":"J. Bordón","doi":"10.1353/jsa.2023.a899952","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jsa.2023.a899952","url":null,"abstract":"For all the uncertainty and polarization that followed the United States’ invasion of Iraq in 2003, the administration of President George W. Bush was determined to overthrow Saddam Husayn’s regime and to build a system virtually from scratch. Among the multiple hindrances to the titanic endeavor of stabilizing the emerging political project, one proved to be crucial: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was unwilling to bring the new Iraq in from the cold. This book, beyond addressing the persistent analytical gap on Saudi-Iraqi relations, offers a compelling story that challenges long-held assumptions about the nature of Iraqi politics, the effects of which are still felt today. Katherine Harvey organizes the book around a powerful argument. Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy toward Iraq, for the most part of the twenty-first century, has been both driven by and led to a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Saudi leadership refused to normalize relations with post-2003 Iraq because of the unwavering perception that the Iraqi state had fallen under the control of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Driven by a profound animosity, it was the conviction of ‘Abdullah bin ‘Abd al-Aziz Al Sa‘ud — Saudi Arabia’s ruling crown prince during the invasion and king from 2005 until his death in 2015 — that Iraq posed a threat to the Kingdom and that it ought to be framed and treated as such. However, the argument goes, there is clear evidence that suggests Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister from 2006 through 2014, was not aligned with Iran in the first place, nor interested in turning Saudi Arabia into an enemy. It was ‘Abdullah’s decision to sideline Maliki that pushed the latter to the proIranian camp, instead of the other way around. The absence of literature problematizing the bilateral relationship is quite surprising. Rather, it has often been addressed as part of broader geopolitical cleavages along sectarian lines or as a space for conflict and contestation between regional rivals . The 2003 turning point has provided the basis for many accounts focusing on regional and international developments (not least, the US-led “War on Terror”) as well as on domestic politics. For example, Frederic Wehrey’s book refers to the emerging status quo in Iraq to explain the relations between the Saudi regime and its Shi‘i nationals. Several academic articles have commented on aspects of the SaudiIraqi relationship and, more recently, noted a period of warming exchanges. Nonetheless, more comprehensive attempts to unpack the relationship are long overdue. Therefore, A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy’s purpose is encouraging. In a more theoretical vein, Harvey aims to dissect the intricacies of foreign policy decision-making in admittedly opaque settings, shedding light on the thinking of key political figures, their sets of beliefs, and (mis)perceptions. The book’s theoretical and empirical framework is designed to investigate the minds of ‘Abdullah and Maliki, where subjecti vities and differen","PeriodicalId":18627,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Journal","volume":"76 1","pages":"277 - 278"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47286266","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Iraq: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Saudi Struggle for Iraq, by Katherine Harvey. Foreword by Bruce Riedel. (book review)","authors":"Javier Bordón","doi":"10.3751/76.2.303","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3751/76.2.303","url":null,"abstract":"Iraq: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Saudi Struggle for Iraq, by Katherine Harvey. Foreword by Bruce Riedel. London: Hurst, 2021. 365 pages. £35.","PeriodicalId":18627,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43030784","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The World Cup: A Mixed Blessing for Qatari Soft Power","authors":"J. Dorsey","doi":"10.3751/76.2.30","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3751/76.2.30","url":null,"abstract":"Qatar and the 2022 FIFA World Cup: Politics, Controversy, Change, by Paul Michael Brannagan and Danyel Reiche. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. 186 pages. $49.99 cloth; $39.99 e-book","PeriodicalId":18627,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Journal","volume":"76 1","pages":"265 - 272"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45103122","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"PALESTINE AND PALESTINIANS: Becoming Palestine: Toward an Archival Imagination of the Future,by Gil Z. Hochberg,and Networked Refugees: Palestinian Reci- procity and Remittances in the Digital Age,by Nadya Hajj. (book review)","authors":"Dina Matar","doi":"10.3751/76.2.307","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3751/76.2.307","url":null,"abstract":"PALESTINE AND PALESTINIANS: Becoming Palestine: Toward an Archival Imagination of the Future, by Gil Z. Hochberg. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2021. 208 pages. $94.95 cloth; $24.95 paper. Networked Refugees: Palestinian Reci- procity and Remittances in the Digital Age, by Nadya Hajj. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2021. 146 pages. $34.95 paper","PeriodicalId":18627,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46211405","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Grimness of the Alternatives: Carter, Israel, and the Civil War in Lebanon","authors":"H. H. Waage, Mathias Nesthun Sønsteby","doi":"10.3751/76.2.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3751/76.2.14","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In 1977, United States president Jimmy Carter wanted a comprehensive peace for the Middle East. Amid the devastating civil war in Lebanon, Israel had found common ground with Christian militias and turned against the Palestinians. However, Carter's peace had to include Israel, and his persistent headache was to get the Jewish state to accept his suggestions, be it in Lebanon or in the negotiations with Egypt. Thus, Carter had to sacrifice any heroic peace for Lebanon on the altar of Egyptian-Israeli peace.","PeriodicalId":18627,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Journal","volume":"76 1","pages":"223 - 244"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49383217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}