Inside the Arab State (Published in Collaboration with: Georgetown University Centre for International and Regional Studies, School of Foreign Service)

Inside the Arab State offers a comprehensive examination of contemporary Arab politics before and after the 2011 uprisings. Mehran Kamrava examines a broad range of political, economic, and social variables that have shaped conceptions of power, the functions and institutions of the state, the rise and evolution of social movements, the eruption of civil war in some countries and fragile polities in others, and evolving civil-military relations before and after the 2011 uprisings. Beginning with an analysis of politics, and more specifically political institutions, in the Arab world from the 1950s onwards, the book traces the challenges faced by Arab states, and the wounds they inflicted on their societies and on themselves along the way. And at the crux of the book are the 2011 uprisings, states’ responses to them, and efforts by political leaders to carve out new forms of legitimacy, as well as the reasons for the emergence and rise of the Islamic State. --