Rethinking China, the Middle East and Asia in a 'Multiplex World'

This edited volume critically examines the changing dynamics of multidimensional relations between China, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Asia in an emerging 'multiplex world'. It challenges both extremes of 'Sinophobia' and 'Sinophilia' by studying the real 'pragmatist' China.

This book, in a foreword, introduction and thirteen chapters, problematises what MENA and Asia means to China in the age of neoliberalism, explores what are the real or perceived pillars of Sino‒MENA-Asia relations, and sheds light on how MENA can benefit from its relations with China while keeping a clear distance from the harms of neoliberal authoritarianism.

Contributors are Mojtaba Mahdavi, Tugrul Keskin, Manochehr Dorraj, Sari Hanafi, Habibul Haque Khondker, Dara Conduit, Rigas Arvanitis, Saeed Shafqat, Jordi Quero Arias, Mahesh Ranjan Debata, Andrea Ghiselli, Mher Sahakyan, Michael McCall, Yossra M. Taha and Xiaoyue Li.

Mojtaba Mahdavi, Ph.D. (2006), Western University, is Professor of Political Science and the ECMC Chair in Islamic Studies at the University of Alberta, Canada. He is the author of numerous works on MENA and Muslim politics, and the editor of The Myth of ‘Middle East Exceptionalism’: Unfinished MENA Social Movements (Syracuse University Press, 2022).

Tugrul Keskin, Ph.D. (2009), Virginia Tech, teaches at Cappadocia University in Turkey. He has held the position of Professor of Global Studies and the director of the Center for Global Governance and Political Economy at Shanghai University. He is the editor of Middle East Studies after September 11 Neo-Orientalism, American Hegemony and Academia (Brill, 2018).