The Myth of Middle East Exceptionalism
Unfinished Social Movements
“The Myth of Middle East Exceptionalism takes stock of the unfinished social movements more than a decade after their birth in the Middle East. A must-read.”—Fawaz A. Gerges, professor of International Relations, London School of Economics
About the book
More than a decade after the birth of contemporary social movements in the Middle East and North Africa scholars are asking what these movements have achieved and how we should evaluate their lasting legacies. The quiet encroachments of MENA counterrevolutionary forces in the post-Arab Spring era have contributed to the revival of an outdated Orientalist discourse of Middle East exceptionalism, implying that the region’s culture is exceptionally immune to democratic movements, values, and institutions. This volume, inspired by critical post-colonial/decolonial studies, and interdisciplinary perspectives of social movement theories, gender studies, Islamic studies, and critical race theory, challenges and demystifies the myth of “MENA Exceptionalism”.
Composted of three sections, the book first places MENA in the larger global context and sheds light on the impact of geopolitics on the current crises, showing how a postcolonial critique better explains the crisis of democratic social movements and the resilience of authoritarianism. The second section focuses on the unfinished projects of contemporary MENA social movements and their quest for freedom, social justice, and human dignity. Contributors examine specific cases of post-Islamist movements, the Arab youth, student, and other popular non-violent movements.
In the final section, the book problematizes the exceptionalist idea of gender passivity and women’s exclusion, which reduces the reality of gender injustice to some eternal and essentialized Muslim/MENA mindset. Contributors address this theory by placing gender as an independent category of thought and action, demonstrating the quest for gender justice movements in MENA, and providing contexts to the cases of gender injustice to challenge simplistic, ahistorical and culturalist assumptions.
Rethinking China, the Middle East and Asia in a ‘Multiplex World’
This book serves as a significant scholarly endeavour; both as a resource for policy-makers and as an academic textbook for students and professors of Political Science, Sociology, History, Anthropology, International Studies, and Middle East, Asia & Chinese Studies.
About the book
This edited volume critically examines the changing dynamics of multidimensional relations between China, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Asia in an emerging ‘multiplex world’. It challenges both extremes of ‘Sinophobia’ and ‘Sinophilia’ by studying the real ‘pragmatist’ China.
This book, in a foreword, introduction and thirteen chapters, problematises what MENA and Asia means to China in the age of neoliberalism, explores what are the real or perceived pillars of Sino‒MENA-Asia relations, and sheds light on how MENA can benefit from its relations with China while keeping a clear distance from the harms of neoliberal authoritarianism.
Contributors are Mojtaba Mahdavi, Tugrul Keskin, Manochehr Dorraj, Sari Hanafi, Habibul Haque Khondker, Dara Conduit, Rigas Arvanitis, Saeed Shafqat, Jordi Quero Arias, Mahesh Ranjan Debata, Andrea Ghiselli, Mher Sahakyan, Michael McCall, Yossra M. Taha and Xiaoyue Li.
Towards the Dignity of Difference? Neither ‘End of History’ nor ‘Clash of Civilizations’
‘In addition to presenting a sophisticated, multi-layered and rigorous set of critiques of neo-colonial hegemonic discourse in this age of pluralistic self-determination, this volume advances the case for a humane and pragmatic alternative of dignity of difference.’ Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, Emory Law School, USA ’Offers a more sophisticated and empirically sound analysis of the discourse of intercultural dialogue, transcending the universalist and particularist models of analysis that have generally defined the field of international relations. As such, this publication opens up new possibilities for imagining alternative policy choices.’ Fackson Banda, UNESCO, France
About the book
The rise of popular social movements throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and North America in 2011 challenged two hegemonic discourses of the post-Cold War era: Francis Fukuyama’s ‘The End of History’ and Samuel Huntington’s ‘The Clash of Civilizations.’ The quest for genuine democracy and social justice and the backlash against the neoliberal order is a common theme in the global mass protests in the West and the East. This is no less than a discursive paradigm shift, a new beginning to the history, a move towards new alternatives to the status quo. This book is about difference and dialogue; it embraces The Dignity of Difference and promotes dialogue. However, it also demonstrates the limits of dialogue as a useful and universal approach for resolving conflicts, particularly in cases involving asymmetric and unequal power relations. The distinguished group of authors suggests in this volume that there is a ‘third way’ of addressing global tensions – one that rejects the extremes of both universalism and particularism. This third way is a radical call for an epistemic shift in our understanding of ‘us-other’ and ‘good-evil’, a radical approach toward accommodating difference as well as embracing the plural concept of ‘the good’. The authors strengthen their alternative approach with a practical policy guide, by challenging existing policies that either exclude or assimilate other cultures, that wage the constructed ‘global war on terror,’ and that impose a western neo-liberal discourse on non-western societies. This important book will be essential reading for all those studying civilizations, globalization, foreign policy, peace and security studies, multiculturalism and ethnicity, regionalism, global governance and international political economy.
