POMEPS Middle East Political Science Podcast

Emy Matesan of Wesleyan University talks about her latest book, The Violence Pendulum: Tactical Change in Islamist Groups in Egypt and Indonesia, with Marc Lynch on this week's podcast. In the book, she argues that Islamist groups alter their tactics in response to the perceived need for activism, shifts in the cost of violent versus nonviolent resistance, and internal or external pressures on the organization. (Starts at 31:05). Giulia Cimini of University of Bologna speaks about her new article entitled, "Learning mechanisms within an Islamist party: Tunisia’s Ennahda Movement between domestic and regional balances," published in Contemporary Politics. (Starts at 0:50). Jana Belschner of University of Bergen discusses her new article, "Electoral Engineering in New Democracies: Strong Quotas and Weak Parties in Tunisia," published in Government and Opposition, an International Journal of Comparative Politics. (Starts at 15:11). Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his Facebook and Instagram page.

Somdeep Sen of Roskilde University talks about his latest book, Decolonizing Palestine: Hamas between the Anticolonial and the Postcolonial, with Marc Lynch on this week's podcast. The book considers the case of the Palestinian struggle for liberation from its settler colonial condition as a complex psychological and empirical mix of the colonial and the postcolonial. (Starts at 27:13). Lisel Hintz of Johns Hopkins University discusses her new article, "The empire’s opposition strikes back: popular culture as creative resistance tool under Turkey’s AKP," published in the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. (Starts at 0:54). Also, Michaelle Browers joins the podcast to discuss her article "Beginnings, Continuities and Revivals: An Inventory of the New Arab Left and an Ongoing Arab Left Tradition," published in Middle East Critique. (Starts at 14:50). Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his Facebook and Instagram page. You can listen to this week’s podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or SoundCloud

Justin Schon of the University of Virginia talks about his latest book, Surviving the War in Syria: Survival Strategies in a Time of Conflict, with Marc Lynch on this week's podcast. In the book, he emphasizes that civilian behavior in conflict zones includes repertoires of survival strategies, instead of migration alone; he utilizes a microanalysis of civilian self-protection strategies during armed conflict in Syria. (Starts at 32:01). Tarek Masoud of the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Middle East Initiative speaks about his new article entitled, "The Arab Spring at 10: Kings or People?," published in the Journal of Democracy. (Starts at 1:03). Justin Gengler of Qatar University discusses his new article (co-authored with Mark Tessler of University of Michigan, Russell Lucas of Michigan State University and Jonathan Forney of the George Washington University), "Why Do You Ask?’ The Nature and Impacts of Attitudes towards Public Opinion Surveys in the Arab World," published in the British Journal of Political Science. (Starts at 16:20). Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his Facebook and Instagram page.

Marc Owen Jones of Hamad bin Khalifa University talks about his latest book, Political Repression in Bahrain, with Marc Lynch on this week's podcast. The book explores Bahrain's modern history through the lens of repression, and spans the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, looking at all forms of political repression from legal, statecraft, police brutality and informational controls. (Starts at 26:28). Drew Kinney of Tulane University discusses his article, "Sharing Saddles: Oligarchs and Officers on Horseback in Egypt and Tunisia," published in International Studies Quarterly. (Starts at 0:47). Chad Raymond of Salve Regina University talks about his article, "Old Wine in a New Bottle: How to Teach the Comparative Politics of the Middle East with Fiction," published in the Journal of Political Science Education. (Starts at 14:36) Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his Facebook and Instagram page.

Devorah Manekin of Hebrew University of Jerusalem talks about her latest book, Regular Soldiers, Irregular War: Violence and Restraint in the Second Intifada, with Marc Lynch on this week's podcast. The book presents a theoretical framework for understanding the various forms of behavior in which soldiers engage during counterinsurgency campaigns—compliance and shirking, abuse and restraint, as well as the creation of new violent practices. (Starts at 32:41). Jeannie Sowers of University of Hampshire and Erika Weinthal of Duke University speak about their new article entitled, "Humanitarian challenges and the targeting of civilian infrastructure in the Yemen war," published in International Affairs. (Starts at 0:54). Joshua Freedman of Oberlin College discusses his new article, "The Recognition Dilemma: Negotiating Identity in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," published in International Studies Quarterly. (Starts at 18:17). Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his Facebook and Instagram page.

Dara Conduit of Deakin University talks about her book, The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, with Marc Lynch on this week's podcast. The book explores the Muslim Brotherhood's history to understand why it failed to capitalize on its advantage as the most prominent opposition group in Syria as the conflict unfolded, addressing significant gaps in accounts of the group's past to assess whether its reputation for violence and dogmatism is justified. (Starts at 29:05). Marwa Shalaby of the University of Wisconsin joins to talk about her article, "Women in Legislative Committees in Arab Parliaments" (co-authored by Leila Elimam), published in Comparative Politics. (Starts at 0:47). Bozena Welborne of Smith College discusses her article, "On Their Own? Women Running as Independent Candidates in the Middle East," published in Middle East Law and Governance. (Starts at 15:35).  Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his Facebook and Instagram page.

Robert Springborg of the Naval Postgraduate School talks about his latest book, Political Economies of the Middle East and North Africa, with Marc Lynch on this week's podcast. In the book, he discusses the economic future of the [MENA] region by examining the national and regional political causes of its contemporary underperformance.  (Starts at 37:19). May Darwich of the University of Birmingham, Waleed Hazbun of University of Alabama, Adham Saouli of University of St. Andrews, and Karim Makdisi of the American University of Beirut speak about their new collection of essays entitled, "The Politics of Teaching International Relations in the Arab World: Reading Walt in Beirut, Wendt in Doha, and Abul-Fadl in Cairo," published in International Studies Perspectives. The collection also includes pieces by Morten Valbjorn of Aarhus University, Bassel Salloukh of the Lebanese American University, Amira Abu Samra of Cairo University, Said Saddiki of University of Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah, and Hamad Albloshi of Kuwait University. (Starts at 0:55). Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his Facebook and Instagram page.

Avital Livny of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne talks about her latest book, Trust and the Islamic Advantage: Religious-Based Movements in Turkey and the Muslim World, with Marc Lynch on this week's podcast.  The book shows that the Islamic advantage is rooted in feelings of trust among individuals with a shared, religious group-identity, and presents a new argument for conceptualizing religion as both a personal belief system and collective identity. (Starts at 27:01). Ala' Alrababa'h discusses the article, Attitudes Toward Migrants in a Highly Impacted Economy: Evidence From the Syrian Refugee Crisis in Jordan (co-authored by Andrea Dillon, Scott Williamson, Jens Hainmueller, Dominik Hangartner, Jeremy M. Weinstein) published in Comparative Political Studies. (Starts at 0:58). Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl of Leiden University talks about his article, On-Side fighting in civil war: The logic of mortal alignment in Syria, published in the Rationality and Society journal. (Starts at 12:58). Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his Facebook and Instagram page.

Glenn Robinson of the Naval Postgraduate School talks about his latest book, Global Jihad: A Brief History, with Marc Lynch on this week's podcast. The book tells the story of four distinct jihadi waves, each with its own program for achieving a global end: whether a Jihadi International to liberate Muslim lands from foreign occupation; al-Qa'ida's call to drive the United States out of the Muslim world; ISIS using "jihadi cool" to recruit followers; or leaderless efforts of stochastic terror to "keep the dream alive." (Starts at 24:22). Dina Bishara of Cornell University discusses her new article, "Precarious Collective Action: Unemployed Graduates Associations in the Middle East and North Africa." (Starts at 0:50). Sarah Parkinson of Johns Hopkins University talks about "Practical Ideology in Militant Organizations." (Starts at 10:17). Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his Facebook and Instagram page.

Ahmed Khanani of Earlham College talks about his latest book, All Politics are God’s Politics: Moroccan Islamism and the Sacralization of Democracy, with Marc Lynch on this week's podcast. The book enables readers to understand and appreciate the significance of dimuqrāṭiyya [democracy] as a concept alongside new prospects for Islam and democracy in the Arab Middle East and North Africa (MENA) (Starts at 22:49). Kaoutar Ghilani of Oxford University speaks about her new article, "The legitimate’ after the uprisings: justice, equity, and language politics in Morocco," published in the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. (Starts at 0:56). Chantal Berman of Georgetown University discusses her new article, "Policing the Organizational Threat in Morocco: Protest and Public Violence in Liberal Autocracies," published in the American Journal of Political Science. (Starts at 11:41). Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his Facebook and Instagram page.