Book Reviews

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    Book Review – Claire Beaugrand’s ‘Stateless in the Gulf: Migration, Nationality and Society in Kuwait’

Book Review – Claire Beaugrand’s ‘Stateless in the Gulf: Migration, Nationality and Society in Kuwait’

by Bronwen Manby
Among scholars and activists working on the phenomenon of statelessness, the Bidoon of Kuwait and the Gulf States more generally are simultaneously one of the best- and least-known cases. Best-known, because the Bidoon (“without”, short for bidoon jinsiyya, or “without nationality”), are among the longest-standing populations of stateless persons; least-known, because it has been challenging to acquire […]

July 23rd, 2018|Book Reviews, GCC|1 Comment|
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    Book Review: Alfred Stepan’s ‘Democratic Transition in the Muslim World’

Book Review: Alfred Stepan’s ‘Democratic Transition in the Muslim World’

by Youssef Cherif

‘It first happens in Tunisia, then in Egypt’. This was the common saying in the euphoric days of 2011. Some observers continued to see parallels between the two countries in actions and developments until 2012 and even 2013. Then Abdel Fattah al-Sisi staged his coup. Since that fateful day of July 2013, the two countries went their […]

June 14th, 2018|Book Reviews, Egypt, Tunisia|0 Comments|
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    Book Review – Rania Abouzeid’s ‘No Turning Back: Life, Loss and Hope in Wartime Syria’

Book Review – Rania Abouzeid’s ‘No Turning Back: Life, Loss and Hope in Wartime Syria’

by Malu Halasa

Early massacres and regime-condoned sexual attacks against women have been cited as reasons that changed a people’s nonviolent movement into a proxy sectarian war. Murkier still are the mechanics of violence – the nuts and bolts of gunrunning, militia financing and the rise and fall of armed groups. In No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime […]

May 17th, 2018|Book Reviews, Syria|2 Comments|
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    Book Review – Madawi Al-Rasheed’s ‘Salman’s Legacy: The Dilemmas of a New Era in Saudi Arabia’

Book Review – Madawi Al-Rasheed’s ‘Salman’s Legacy: The Dilemmas of a New Era in Saudi Arabia’

by Paul Aarts

It’s not (yet) easy to make sense of the ‘new’ Saudi Arabia. Among the ongoing flurry of commentaries one regularly reads dire headlines such as ‘The House of Saud: The beginning of the end’ and ‘Saudi Arabia: The coming civil war’. Equally, it’s not difficult to find less gloomy and even outright rosy forecasts of the Kingdom’s future […]

May 11th, 2018|Book Reviews, GCC|0 Comments|
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    Book Review – Mansour Nasasra’s ‘The Naqab Bedouins: A Century of Politics and Resistance’

Book Review – Mansour Nasasra’s ‘The Naqab Bedouins: A Century of Politics and Resistance’

by Dina Matar

The Naqab, the southern region of historic Palestine, is increasingly becoming an established site of interest and research within Palestine studies and, more broadly, studies of marginalised populations in the Middle East that offer more nuanced approaches towards understanding these groups without resorting to well-trodden Orientalist tropes. Mansour Nasasra’s book falls within this expanding body of scholarship and […]

March 21st, 2018|Book Reviews, Israel|1 Comment|
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