Follow Us
From the Editors
Jadaliyya Launches DARS Page: Daily Acts of Resistance and Subversion
Tadween Publishing Blog is here! Check it out
Jadaliyya's first book is now available! Click here.
Want to find out about new books? Visit our expanding NEWTON page. Click here.
Interested in writing a Review for Jadaliyya? Visit our Call for Reviews here.
الآن . . . القسم العربي بحلة جديدة
Jadaliyya Launches Photography Page (click here!)
Call for Photos: Become a Contributing Photographer at Jadaliyya
Political Economy
As Syria Free-Falls . . . A Return to the Basics: Some Structural Causes (Part 2)
![[Statue of Hafiz al-Asad in Damascus. Image by author]](/content_images/3/sm_HAIMG_1003.jpg-1.jpg "[Statue of Hafiz al-Asad in Damascus. Image by author]")
[This is Part 2 of “As Syria Falls.” Part 1 can be accessed here] Amid the mounting and tragic violence, loss of life, and loss of Syria, it seems difficult to write about history and causes. Yet it is equally difficult to write critically about the current chaos, precisely because of the information gap. One also wonders, what can be said about Syria anymore? In this vein, and following the despair in the first part of this article, I retreat to the basics, to what we think we know a little better. In the first part, i addressed what I called "Stubborn Factors" that animate the uprising, and discussed the complexity of the Syrian case with an eye on its ...
Keep Reading »A Boiling Kettle: Kuwait's Escalating Political Crisis
![[Kuwaiti men run away from police tear gas during a demonstration in Kuwait City on 21 October 2012. Image by Gustavo Ferrari/AP Photo.]](/content_images/3/sm_APkuwait.jpg "[Kuwaiti men run away from police tear gas during a demonstration in Kuwait City on 21 October 2012. Image by Gustavo Ferrari/AP Photo.]")
Power-sharing is always a messy affair. Under the best of circumstances, striking a balance between competing forces is a perpetual work in progress, with political actors continually vying for control of the driver’s seat. In advanced democracies, the structural checks and balances built into the system limit the powers of each branch and (largely) constrain the contest for control within predefined limits. In countries such as Kuwait, where democratization is an ongoing experiment, these limits themselves remain a subject of contestation that oppositional political forces exploit for often narrow, short-term interests. In fact, the escalating battle to reconstitute the ...
Keep Reading »الاستئثار بالسلطة... الفساد الكبير نموذجاً
من المظاهر الأكثر دلالةً على الاستئثار بالسلطة في أي مجتمع هو تفشي «الفساد الكبير»،. العوائد النفطية الهائلة في دول مجلس التعاون خلقت تناقضاً غريباً على مدى العقود الماضية؛ فالطفرات في أسعار النفط بلورت في دولنا فساداً كبيراً تخطى في كمه ونسبته أية مقارنة مع باقي دول العالم، فتمكن المتنفذون من تجميع ثروات هائلة تعذر إحصاؤها، نظراً لانعدام الرقابة ولضخامة حجمها، حيث من شبه المؤكد أنها تعدت مئات البلايين من الدولارات. لكن العوائد الهائلة من النفط سمحت لدول المجلس في الوقت ذاته بتقديم خدمات متقدمة نسبياً على المستوى العالمي لمواطنيها، بما في ذلك نواحي السكن والبنية التحتية والصحة والتعليم. وأسّس هذا التناقض عقداً غير مكتوب في الدولة الريعية: على الدولة توفير الخدمات ...
Keep Reading »الربيع العربي: الصحة والرعاية في المرحلة الانتقالية
![[تصوير حسام الحملاوي]](/content_images/3/sm_khayma.jpg "[تصوير حسام الحملاوي]")
أدّت الانتفاضات التي شهدتها منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا مؤخرًا إلى بروز عدد من التغيرات السياسية التي طالت جميع بلدان المنطقة تقريبًا وزرعت Keep Reading »
Unionizing in Lebanon: The Struggle is Elsewhere
![[Workers, activists, and reporters at the 30 JUly 2012 press conference wherein Spinneys' workers announced the formation of their independent union. Image by Farfahhine via Flickr]](/content_images/3/sm_7683455134_b507f2ab6e.jpg "[Workers, activists, and reporters at the 30 JUly 2012 press conference wherein Spinneys' workers announced the formation of their independent union. Image by Farfahhine via Flickr]")
Last month saw the successful founding of an independent workers’ union emerge out of the Lebanese private sector. Yet there has been little social media fanfare outside Lebanon over this success … perhaps not surprisingly. Class struggle in contemporary Lebanon has rarely captured the imagination of either scholars or social activists. Long described as a bastion of laissez-faire politics, a site of never-ending civil strife, and a platform for settling regional scores, Lebanon is hardly seen as a crucible for subversive class activity in the Arab world. More recent history has served to reinforce this conception of a complacent – or complicit – middle and ...
Keep Reading »Arabian Peninsula Media Roundup (October 5)
![[Refinery in Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia, 10 April 2007. Photo by Jon Rawlinson]](/content_images/3/sm_SaudiOil.jpg "[Refinery in Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia, 10 April 2007. Photo by Jon Rawlinson]")
[This is a roundup of news articles and other materials circulating on the Arabian Peninsula and reflects a wide variety of opinions. It does not reflect the views of the Arabian Peninsula Page Editors or of Jadaliyya. You may send your own recommendations for inclusion in each week's roundup to ap@jadaliyya.com by Monday night of every week.] Regional and International Relations Why Qatar wants to invade Syria Pepe Escobar analyzes Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani's call for a coalition of Arab countries to solve the crisis in Syria in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly last week, in Asia Times. Reports and Opinions Osama bin Laden and the ...
Keep Reading »What a Seven Day Teachers' Strike Can Accomplish: Key Contract Issues
![[Demonstrators as part of the Chicago Teachers Union strike on 10 September 2012. Image by Sierraromeo via Flickr.]](/content_images/3/sm_TCUPIC.jpg "[Demonstrators as part of the Chicago Teachers Union strike on 10 September 2012. Image by Sierraromeo via Flickr.]")
On 10 September 2012, approximately twenty-nine thousand members of the Chicago Teachers Union began a seven-day strike protesting a host of encroachments on their rights as workers and educators on the part of the Chicago Board of Education. While various news reports have detailed the final contract agreement, the chart below (published by the Chicago Tribune on 18 September) highlights the issues that were on the table and the movement in the board's positions that were achieved through the strike and attendant negotiations. Certainly, there remains much to be analyzed regarding the conditions that made such a success possible and the issues that continue to be ...
Keep Reading »A Rejoinder to the Response of Lama Abu Odeh: On Jordan, the Hashemite Regime, and the Current Mobilizations
![[Mt. Nebo, seen from the east, circa 1915. Image from Oregon State University Archives]](/content_images/3/sm_tellrejoinder.jpg "[Mt. Nebo, seen from the east, circa 1915. Image from Oregon State University Archives]")
[This article was written as a rejoinder to Lama Abu Odeh's response to the author's interview on the history of state formation in Jordan and regime-society relations in the context of the Arab uprisings. Click here to read Lama Abu Odeh's response, and click here to read the original interview with Tariq Tell.] Lama Abu Odeh begins her response to my two-part interview published in Jadaliyya by congratulating me for offering readers an analysis of Jordan’s socio-political “tapestry,” and of the “shifting trajectory of the country’s political economy,” that is “unsparing in it comprehensiveness and unyielding in its attention to detail.” However, she then ...
Keep Reading »'Arab Spring,' Moroccan Winter
![[An image taken at a February 20th Movement protest in Bab El Had, Rabat on 22 July 2012. Image by author.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2012-09-09at10.01.07AM.png "[An image taken at a February 20th Movement protest in Bab El Had, Rabat on 22 July 2012. Image by author.]")
Recent analyses of the Middle East and North Africa indicate that the countries in the region are entering a “third phase” of the Arab Spring. The first phase was characterized by the massive mobilization of the “street,” and the second phase by elections and emergent political organization; this third phase will require governments to overcome the social and economic challenges that continue to plague the region. While the Moroccan case does not conform to this tidy account of political disarticulation (despite having elections last November, there were never calls for outright revolution), Morocco will also be entering this “third phase,” facing the same ...
Keep Reading »الأدب في زمن النفط: أيام الماعز
![[طوابير مزدحمة في معسكر عمال أجانب في دبي]](/content_images/3/sm_TightLines_DubaiLaborCamp.jpg "[طوابير مزدحمة في معسكر عمال أجانب في دبي]")
"منذ تلك اللحظة، بالضبط مثل ذبابة مانيان، بدأ خوف مجهول يغلف عقلي. شك غير منطقي بدأ يتملكني، أن هذه الرحلة لم تكن تقودني إلى حياة الخليج التي كنت أحلم بها وأشتهيها. ذاك الخليج الذي عرفت عنه الكثير من العديد من الأشخاص، لا يشبه ما أراه. يلفحني الخطر، ولا شيء واضح أمامي ." (أيام الماعز، بنيامين، دار نشر بنغوين 2012) لقد خلق زمن النفط مستويات غير مسبوقة من التقييد والقسوة البشرية. وفي الوقت نفسه، فالناس اليوم يسافرون أسرع وفي مجموعات أكبر من أي وقت مضى: والهجرة إلى الخليج بعد الانفجار النفطي في السبعينات خير مثال على ذلك. يوجد هناك ما يقرب من خمسة عشر مليوناً من العمال المهاجرين في الخليج، قدم أغلبهم من دول آسيوية، وأفريقية، وعربية. وقد ارتفع عدد العمال الآسيويين ...
Keep Reading »Arabian Peninsula Media Roundup (August 28)
![[Clashes between protestors and riot police after a funeral in Sitra, Bahrain, in April 2012. Image by Saeed Saif.]](/content_images/3/sm_ISA3481.jpg "[Clashes between protestors and riot police after a funeral in Sitra, Bahrain, in April 2012. Image by Saeed Saif.]")
[This is a roundup of news articles and other materials circulating on the Arabian Peninsula and reflects a wide variety of opinions. It does not reflect the views of the Arabian Peninsula Page Editors or of Jadaliyya. You may send your own recommendations for inclusion in each week's roundup to ap@jadaliyya.com by Monday night of every week.] Regional and International Relations David Cameron Meets Bahrain's King in Low-Key Talks Nicholas Watt reports on the Bahraini King's visit to the United Kingdom in The Guardian. Bahraini Rights Activist Al-Khawaja Banned from Entering Egypt A news report on the Egyptian airport authorities' decision to ban Mariam ...
Keep Reading »On the Nature of the Hashemite Regime and Jordanian Politics: An Interview with Tariq Tell (Part 1)
The following is the first installment in a two-part interview on the history and politics of the Jordanian regime. The interview was conducted during the first two weeks of August 2012 with Tariq Tell, a Jordanian scholar and activist. In this first part, Tell discusses the history of the Hashemite regime and Jordanian state formation as well as the broad outlines of the political field that such a history has engendered. In the second part (click here to access) Tell discusses the positions of various contemporary socio-political forces towards the Hashemite regime and outlines important areas for much-needed further research on the history and politics of state ...
Keep Reading »سياسة الاستئثار واقتلاع الجذور
استهوتني قصة المشاريع العقارية الضخمة والمدن الجديدة التي سيطرت على النشاط الاقتصادي في دول الخليج العربية، لأنها تجسد في طياتها كل أوجه الخلل المزمنة التي تواجهها المنطقة. فيتجسد الخلل السياسي والاستئثار بالسلطة في الفساد الذي استشرى في صفقات الأراضي وعمليات ردم البحر (الدفان) الذي تطلبته هذه المشاريع، بالإضافة إلى انعدام دور غالبية المواطنين في التخطيط والموافقة على هذه المشاريع. أما الخلل الاقتصادي المتجذر في المنطقة؛ فيبرز في الكميات الهائلة من الأموال التي أتت أساساً من الريع النفطي لتنصب في هذه ...
Keep Reading »Currency Crisis in Iran; Copts in Egypt
It is no secret that the lives of ordinary Iranians, the wage earners and the poor, have been adversely affected in recent months by the soaring prices of staple goods. The country is now facing a currency crisis, as the Rial has plunged by nearly 60 percent over the past three months. Popular disaffection with the worsening economic conditions has even led to a rare eruption of protests and merchant strikes in the capital. What are the reasons for the collapse of the Rial and accompanying soaring ...
Keep Reading »التغيير قادم إلى دول الخليج... عاجلاً أم آجلاً
يظن الكثيرون أن أنظمة دول الخليج العربية في منأى عن التغيرات التي طالت ومازالت تطال الدول العربية الأخرى. يرتكز هذا الظن في الأساس على العائدات النفطية الهائلة المتوافرة لديها، والدعم الأمني والسياسي الغربي لها، وتحكّمها المطلق في كل الأجهزة العسكرية والأمنية المحلية. هذا بالإضافة إلى عدد مواطنيها القليل نسبياً، والركود النسبي في مستوى النشاط السياسي في بعض أقطاره (باستثناء البحرين والكويت وعمان). وإن دلت الاحتجاجات التي وصلت إلى ضفاف دول الخليج على شيء، فهي تبين مقدرة الأنظمة على السيطرة على زمام ...
Keep Reading »La Libye un an après
Alors que la scène politique libyenne commence difficilement à se stabiliser (élections au Congrès National le 7 juillet, passation des pouvoirs avec le Conseil National de Transition le 9 août, élection du Premier ministre Mustafa Abou Shagour le 12 septembre puis son renvoi par le Congrès le 7 octobre), les nouvelles autorités se retrouvent toujours confrontées à des défis de gouvernance considérables. Outre la nécessité de répondre aux besoins humanitaires de la population et de localiser les ...
Keep Reading »Egypt’s Withering Paternalism and the Future of Its Political Economy
The 25 January revolution can be considered the final showdown of the Nasserist socio-political order, which has been slowly decaying since the 1967 defeat. Nasserism was based on a paternalistic authoritarian state where political rights were sacrificed for social and economic ones. The collapse of the remnants of the Nasserist political apparatus implies the absence of the institutional framework through which the social conflict was traditionally managed in Egypt for over six decades. This poses the ...
Keep Reading »Dissipating Dissent: Morocco's Stabilizing Spatial Tactics
When considering the wave of uprisings that swept the Arab world recently, otherwise known as the “Arab Spring,” Morocco is often perceived as the exception to the rule. The country’s socio-political profile led many to believe that it was only a matter of time for the disgruntled masses to take to the streets and bring down another regime that has monopolized governance for decades and on whom the country’s ills can be blamed. Morocco has survived the unrest, however, and its leadership seems to be as ...
Keep Reading »“From the American People”: Sketches of the US National Security State in Palestine
“While government sights are set on ‘the enemy,’ ours might be set on them and on how this rush to the intimate structures new sites of imperial governance.” – Ann Stoler[1] “We have to squeeze these guys.” – Senior State Department official in the wake of the 2006 Hamas parliamentary victory.”[2] In tracing the historical circuits through which techniques of colonial management have been tested and transmitted, Laleh Khalili has underscored Palestine’s centrality in global counterinsurgency.[3] Under ...
Keep Reading »Arabian Peninsula Media Roundup (September 11)
[This is a roundup of news articles and other materials circulating on the Arabian Peninsula and reflects a wide variety of opinions. It does not reflect the views of the Arabian Peninsula Page Editors or of Jadaliyya. You may send your own recommendations for inclusion in each week's roundup to ap@jadaliyya.com by Monday night of every week.] Regional and International Relations Gizawy Attends Saudi Trial with Hands and Feet Shackled An Egypt Independent news report on the trial of the Egyptian ...
Keep Reading »التحضّر والانتفاضات العربية: وسط القاهرة وسقوط مبارك
إذا كان القرن العشرين في أوروبا قرناً حضَرياً، فإنّ القرن الـ 21 يشير إلى مرحلة انتقالية عالمية نحو حقبة حضرية. ففي العام 2008، وللمرة الأولى في التاريخ، تجاوز عدد سكان المناطق الحضرية وشبه الحضرية عدد السكان الريفيين. ينتقل مليون شخص أسبوعياً للسكن في مناطق مدينية. التحضُّر السريع يجعل أجزاء العالم أقرب إلى بعضها، في ما يشبه سلسلة واسعة من الخلايا المدينية. غير أنه ضمن المدن نفسها، يزداد السكان تباعُداً. التظاهرات حول العالم، من الانتفاضات العربية وحملة حركة "احتلوا وول ستريت"، وحركة ...
Keep Reading »مغزى التصاريح الإسرائيليّة
في الوقت الذي تزداد فيه الحكومة الإسرائيليّة تطرفًا وتعنتًا إلى حد إفشال كل الجهود والمبادرات الرامية إلى استئناف المفاوضات وإحياء ما يسمى "عمليّة السلام"، وشن حملة متواصلة من وزير الخارجيّة الإسرائيلي ليبرمان ضد الرئيس "أبو مازن" مطالبًا باستبداله، لأنه يشن حملة ديبلوماسيّة وقانونيّة ضد إسرائيل، ويهدف إلى التوجه إلى الأمم المتحدة فيما يعتبر إرهابًا ضد إسرائيل. وفي الوقت الذي تسابق فيه إسرائيل الزمن وتكثف من تطبيق مخططاتها العدوانيّة والتوسعيّة والاستيطانيّة والعنصريّة، والتي بلغت ...
Keep Reading »Jordan's Current Political Opposition Movements and the Need for Further Research: An Interview with Tariq Tell (Part 2)
The following is the second and final installement in a two-part interview on the history and politics of the Jordanian regime. The interview was conducted during the first two weeks of August 2012 with Tariq Tell, a Jordanian scholar and activist. In this second part, Tell discusses the positions of various contemporary socio-political forces towards the Hashemite regime and outlines important areas for much-needed further research on the history and politics of state building and regime-society ...
Keep Reading »The PhD's Job Crisis
[The following analysis of the academic job market was published on marccortez.com]
Keep Reading »Hot on Facebook
There is one question that pundits and politicians keep posing to the Occupy gatherings around the country: What are your demands? I have a suggestion for a response: We demand that you stop demanding a list of demands.click | email | tweet
.jpg){kind=small}
From Jadaliyya Reports
Top Jadaliyya Tags
Jadalicious / جدلشس
Noteworthy
Twitter Updates
Jadaliyya Features
.jpg)
Latest Entries
View All Entries »- Defining the Terrain of Struggle in Taksim
- New Texts Out Now: Markus Dressler, Writing Religion: The Making of Turkish Alevi Islam
- Arabian Peninsula Media Roundup (June 18)
- فرانكشتاين في بغداد
- O.I.L. Media Roundup (17 June)
- هل يمكن تطوير الجدل حول المثلية الجنسية؟
- Resisting Tear Gas Together
- معتقلو موريتانيا في غوانتانامو
- Last Week on Jadaliyya (June 10-16)
- Will the Presidential Elections “Cure the Pain” of the Iranian People?
- الانترنت والعولمة الثقافية
- #resistankara: Notes of a Woman Resisting
- It Is About the Park: A Struggle for Turkey’s Cities
- 'Ottomanalgia' and the Protests in Turkey
- إصلاح بروتوكول باريس في عامه العشرين: أسئلة وأجوبة لإرضاء الإصلاحي العنيد
- Report from Istanbul: Koray Caliskan on Democracy Now
- Syria Media Roundup (June 13)
- Maghreb Media Roundup (June 14)
- Debunking the Myth of the Zionist Left
- Iran’s Presidential Elections: The Live Embers of a Democratic Opposition Glow
Pages/Sections
Archive
©2010-2013 by the Arab Studies Institute. All Rights Reserved. info@jadaliyya.com
site by concepcion design