Statecraft In The Middle East (foreign Policy, Domestic Politics And Security)

By (author) Mansour Imad
Short description/annotation
Scholarly foreign policy analysis of contemporary statecraft in the Middle East region
Description
What role do ideas play in state-building and state activity? Thisbook argues that government policies in both foreign relationsand domestic politics must always be situated within a broaderideational and societal context. Imad Mansour analyses how governments in thecontemporary Middle East have governed internally and acted externally basedon societal narratives, which bring together a variety of ideas about a society''shistory and place in the world. He argues that there is a dominant societalnarrative that acts as a primary building block of statecraft, where statecraftis understood as an ongoing set of local, regional and global state-buildingprocesses. Mansour investigates the ways in which statecraft in the Middle Easthas been guided by narratives through a close historical reading and comparativediscussion of the political activity of six states - Egypt, Israel, Syria, Turkey,Saudi Arabia and Iran - in the second half of the twentieth century and the earlytwenty-first century. His book demonstrates the analytical power of narrativesin understanding statecraft and explains why governments'' decisions need to beunderstood in complex ways.
Table of contents
Content A Framework for Analysing Statecraft Statecraft in Egypt Statecraft in Israel Statecraft in Syria Statecraft in Turkey Statecraft in Saudi Arabia Statecraft in Iran Concluding Remarks: The Arab Spring, Theoretical Observations on Statecraft and Future Research Bibliography
Review quote
''Well written and authoritative and will make a really helpful addition to the literature for general students of international relations as well as regional specialists.'' - James Mayall, Emeritus Professor of International Relations, University of Cambridge, ''Imad Mansour''s Statecraft in the Middle East successfully combines an innovative theoretical approach with careful empirical analysis and proposes a new and compelling understanding of statecraft in the Middle East. The conceptual depth and empirical richness are certain to make its research questions and findings of interest to a wide audience both inside and outside academia.'' - Michael Brecher, R B Angus Professor of Political Science, McGill University, `important and innovative’ - Louise Fawcett, The Middle East Journal, `Well written and authoritative and will make a really helpful addition to the literature for general students of international relations as well as regional specialists.’ - Professor James Mayall, Emeritus Professor of International Relations, University of Cambridge, `Imad Mansour’s Statecraft in the Middle East successfully combines an innovative theoretical approach with careful empirical analysis and proposes a new and compelling understanding of statecraft in the Middle East. The conceptual depth and empirical richness are certain to make its research questions and findings of interest to a wide audience both inside and outside academia.’ - Professor Michael Brecher, R B Angus Professor of Political Science, McGill University
Biographical note
Imad Mansour is Assistant Professor of International Affairs at the University of Qatar. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Campus Moyen-Orient Mediterranee of the Institut d''Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po Paris) and holds a PhD from McGill University where he was also Faculty Lecturer. He previously studied at the American University of Beirut."
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Scholarly foreign policy analysis of contemporary statecraft in the Middle East region