From Resilience to Revolution: How Foreign Interventions Destabilize the Middle East (Columbia Studies in Middle East Politics)

Yom, Sean

ISBN 10: 0231175647 / ISBN 13: 9780231175647

Published by Columbia University Press, 2015

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: From Resilience to Revolution: How Foreign Interventions Destabilize the Middle East (Columbia Studies in Middle East Politics)
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0231175647
• ISBN 13: 9780231175647
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

Based on comparative historical analyses of Iran, Jordan, and Kuwait, Sean L. Yom examines the foreign interventions, coalitional choices, and state outcomes that made the political regimes of the modern Middle East. A key text for foreign policy scholars, From Resilience to Revolution shows how outside interference can corrupt the most basic choices of governance: who to reward, who to punish, who to compensate, and who to manipulate.

As colonial rule dissolved in the 1930s and 1950s, Middle Eastern autocrats constructed new political states to solidify their reigns, with varying results. Why did equally ambitious authoritarians meet such unequal fates? Yom ties the durability of Middle Eastern regimes to their geopolitical origins. At the dawn of the postcolonial era, many autocratic states had little support from their people and struggled to overcome widespread opposition. When foreign powers intervened to bolster these regimes, they unwittingly sabotaged the prospects for long-term stability by discouraging leaders from reaching out to their people and bargaining for mass support―early coalitional decisions that created repressive institutions and planted the seeds for future unrest. Only when they were secluded from larger geopolitical machinations did Middle Eastern regimes come to grips with their weaknesses and build broader coalitions.

About the Author

Sean L. Yom is assistant professor of political science at Temple University. His research focuses on the comparative politics of the Middle East, especially the dynamics and effects of authoritarianism, democracy, and U.S. foreign policy.