by Toby Dodge
This memo was presented at a workshop organised by the LSE Middle East Centre on 29 June 2018 looking at the comparative politics of sub-state identity in the Middle East.
If the study of sectarian mobilisation is both driven and constrained by the polarisation of rationalist individualism and collective structuralism, then applying insights from Pierre Bourdieu’s work may well help […]
by Toby Dodge
This memo was presented at a workshop organised by the LSE Middle East Centre on 29 June 2018 looking at the comparative politics of sub-state identity in the Middle East.
It is always a good idea to start any discussion of sectarianism with a clear working definition. Sectarianism is the reification of religious distinctions, in this case between Sunni and […]
Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011 and Syria’s descent into civil war, there has been an upsurge in the number of publications that have sought to explain the spread of political mobilisation, justified through sectarian rhetoric, across the contemporary Middle East. A great deal of this work is highly descriptive in its approach. […]
by Renad Mansour and Christine van den Toorn
On 12 May 2018, Iraqis went to the polls to vote for their next parliament, prime minister and cabinet. The elections delivered a surprise, with Muqtada al-Sadr’s Saairun Coalition winning the most seats of any bloc, although not enough to form a government alone. The results also carried a number of clear […]
by Raad Alkadiri
Najaf takes a stand
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and the Marjaiʻyah in Najaf have largely kept their powder dry since the 12 May elections, refraining from any overt interference in the government-formation process. Not so any more.
In his Friday sermon on 27 July, delivered in Karbala by one of his most senior representatives, Abd al-Mahdi al-Karbalai, Sistani was […]
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