Category: Uncategorized
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Reflections on the endurance of authoritarianism: how should we try to understand it?
What tools are most useful in assessing authoritarianism and change in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)? In answering that question, I think it’s best to think back to Anderson 2006, and the analogy of a streetlight. Anderson’s key complaint in 2006 is that scholars of the Middle East often attempt to retrofit modes…
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Uneasy is the head that relies on the ulama
The key fact that underlies the struggles of monarchies in the Middle East & North Africa is that most of them are modern inventions. In many cases, existing noble families were imported or given assistance in taking control of territories that they had not held previously. In fact, as Russell points out in “Monarchical Authoritarianism”,…
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“Under the ashes burns the flame”: Apocalypse and environment in A Siege of Salt and Sand
Near the beginning of “A Siege of Salt and Sand”, we are introduced to the town of Kerkennah. It is observed by a local fisherman that the name is allegedly Roman in origin, bastardized over millennia from the name of a Carthaginian girl. I found this moment to be particularly striking. At one moment, it…
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Oil rents: size or scope?
“Oil” is probably one of the first words that come to my mind when Americans think about the Middle East. This seems true across the political spectrum. Even those who criticize American foreign policy in the region see oil as the key to understanding the region, often holding oil interests to be decisive in determining…
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What’s under a streetlight? Reflecting on Anderson 2006
In thinking about Anderson’s 2006 essay “Searching Where the Light Shines”, it is useful to begin by interpreting the analogy that she uses to frame the piece. An unfortunate man looking for his key in all the wrong places stands for a common error that many Western social scientists commit when trying to explain the…