Power, Resistance, Ideology and the State

A wide-ranging, innovative, and essential exploration of the politics of today’s Middle East.

Power, Resistance, Ideology and the State: Charles Tripp and the Comparative Politics of the Middle East seeks to present a new understanding of a region of unprecedented volatility, where postcolonial projects of state-driven development have now expired, old ruling elites have been delegitimized, and political Islam discredited. The work of Charles Tripp, professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) for over three decades, has shaped a distinct approach to the study of Middle East politics with an analytical sensibility that is empirically rich, theoretically insightful, and historically sensitive. This volume brings together contributions from ten political scientists and historians from across Europe, the United States, and the Middle East, each of which takes Tripp’s work as an intellectual point of departure for studying Middle East politics. 

Against this background, the contributors explore the contemporary developments that have emerged to fill the intellectual and material shortcomings created by the systemic failures of economics and politics in the region. 

The contributions focus on four themes that are central to an understanding of Middle East politics—power, resistance, ideology, and the state—to examine political trends in cases ranging from Iran and Iraq to Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Each chapter combines extensive field research and a knowledge of regional politics with methodological and philosophical reflexivity to produce a collection of papers at the cutting edge of contemporary Middle East Studies.