The last two and a half years have challenged some of the most enduring assumptions about Middle Eastern order in the field of International Relations of the Middle East. The US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28, followed by Israel's re-invasion of Lebanon, Iran's
How do states deal with routine cross-border smuggling during periods of protracted counterinsurgency? Firat Bozçali's new book, Smuggling Law: Unsettled Sovereignties in Turkey's Kurdish Borderlands, explores the complex interactions between the state and society in the Kurdish-dominated province of Wan which borders Iran. His
That and more in the new wave of the Middle East Scholars Barometer I'm pleased to be able to share the results of the recently completed ninth wave of the Middle East Scholars Barometer. Shibley Telhami and I have been polling scholars of the Middle East once or
Apologies for a second mailing in one day, but this one has been eating at me for the last week and rather than try and publish it somewhere I decided to post it here. The German philosopher and social theorist Jürgen Habermas passed away over the weekend at the tender
I've been running a bit ragged lately, with a lot of travel to various talks and workshops and a number of pressing deadlines. I should have quite a bit of interesting stuff to share next week! For this week, just the podcast and a couple of videos from
We take a break from the grim headlines to spotlight another new episode of the Middle East Political Science Podcast Last year, I published a Cambridge Element called What is the Middle East: The Theory and Practice of Regions. It build upon a March 2022 Foreign Affairs article which argued
"Iran’s bombardment of its Gulf neighbors has inexorably dragged them into a war that they had desperately hoped to avoid. The potential entry of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia into direct war alongside Israel and the United States represents the first full-scale manifestation of
(For those who care. But what's a blog for if you can't share personal news?) First, as some of you may have seen, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation just announced their 2026 class of Distinguished Scholars. I am absolutely thrilled that they chose to support my
In a provocative new article in the Middle East Journal, Mohammed Hafez argues that all threads of the Islamist project have failed, a collective exhaustion as complete as the post-1967 death of the pan-Arabist project. Muslim Brotherhood style movements such as those in Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia that
The Trump administration has been steadily assembling a vast armada of airpower in the Gulf, ostensibly to apply pressure on Iran during negotiations. While the administration has been urging Iranian leaders to take a deal, American public demands on Iran on nuclear enrichment, ballistic missiles, and regional allies seem like
This week we feature new Arab public opinion surveys, a new issue of Middle East Report, and some of the latest research from the MENA Academy. I was traveling all last week, so the Middle East Political Science Podcast will be taking a break this week. The Arab Center recently
I'm on the road this week for the Ruination Tour. Please come out and see me, if you can, at one of these stops: Princeton University, today (Tuesday) at 4:30 at the Bobst Center; Wednesday, New York City - in conversation with Jillian Schwedler at Hunter College'