Inglorious Revolutions: State Cohesion in the Middle East after the Arab Spring

The Middle East state system, which was largely an artificial construct of the post-World War I international
order, hos faced enormous challenges since Arch uprisings erupted in December 2010. The collection oi essays in this volume, based on a seminar held by the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies in the 2012-2013 academic year, examines state cohesion in the Middle East in the aftermath of the uprisings, and seeks to explain how the region has slipped sideways since 2010, and what it might mean for the existing framework of states. How are the individual states coping with these challenges Are they succeeding If not, what are the potential consequences for the cohesion of states, societies, and the region What kinds of broad patterns are emerging How are these transformations manifesting themselves? The essays presented in this volume address these issues and more, and attempt to analyze the meaning of the momentous change that has taken place across the region since December 2010.

Brandon Friedman is the director of research at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University, where he is a member of the faculty of humanities, lecturing on modern Middle Eastern history and historiography.

Bruce Maddy-Weitzman is senior research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University. He is the author of The Crystallization of the Arab State System, 1945–1954 and the coeditor of The Maghrib in the New Century: Identity, Religion, and Politics; The Camp David Summit-What Went Wrong?; and Religious Radicalism in the Greater Middle East.