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Houses Built on Sand: Violence, Sectarianism and Revolution in the Middle East (Identities and Geopolitics in the Middle East)

Houses Built on Sand: Violence, Sectarianism and Revolution in the Middle East (Identities and Geopolitics in the Middle East)

Current price: $162.50
Publication Date: February 11th, 2020
Publisher:
Manchester University Press
ISBN:
9781526126467
Pages:
272
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Description

The events of the Arab Uprisings posed an existential challenge to sovereign power across the Middle East. Whilst popular movements resulted in the toppling of authoritarian rule in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen, other regimes were able to withstand these pressures. This book questions why some regimes fell whilst others were able to survive.

Drawing on the work of political theorists such as Agamben and Arendt, Mabon explores the ways in which sovereign power is contested, resulting in the fragmentation of political projects across the region. Combining an innovative theoretical approach with interviews with people across the region and beyond, Mabon paints a picture of Middle Eastern politics dominated by elites seeking to maintain power and wealth, seemingly at whatever cost. This, for Mabon, is a consequence of the emergence and development of particular visions of political projects that harness or marginalise identities, communities, ideologies and faiths as mechanisms designed to ensure their survival.

This book is essential reading for those interested in understanding why the uprisings took place, their geopolitical consequences, and why they are likely to happen again.

About the Author

Simon Mabon is Professor of International Politics at Lancaster University where he directs the Richardson Institute. He is also Director of SEPAD.