Open research questions in Middle East Politics and Society
30 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 2,127 Middle East Politics and Society papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.
What the literature leaves open
In the continuation and afterward of the demonstrations that started right after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in Lebanon in 2005, a broad social consensus ground could not be established.
Other publics are more sympathetic, but the ability of ex-detainees to persuade them is limited by these audiences’ historicist presuppositions, particularly their expectations that detainees’ accounts rely on a linear chronology with a clear progression from past to present and that detention narratives provide evidence that can be critically compared and corroborated.
Acting historians: Historicism, memory, and performance among Lebanese former detainees from Syria · 2019 · DOIPluralistic societies are generally characterised by weak national cohesiveness, increasing the risk of political tension and violent conflict; for communities from diverse religious or ethnic backgrounds, peaceful coexistence alone is insufficient to build the social cohesion needed for sustainable development and lasting peace.
The implication of school culture on building a cohesive pluralistic society: Evidence from Lebanon · 2018 · DOIIn the four years since the uprising of January 25, 2011, Egypt has undergone many changes—but exactly what kind of changes? Although January 25, 2011, is marked as the beginning of a revolution, its precise meaning remains unclear regarding how to analyze its outcomes related to transformative social change.
From State Exclusionary Politics to Youth Inclusionary Practices: The Tahrir Square Experience · 2015 · DOILittle is known about the views of the youth, roughly half the country’s population, who have witnessed the enthusiasm and sense of national consciousness sparked by the Cedar Revolution of 2005.
It notes changes that have taken place in this sphere since the start of the 1990s, not all of them positive, and concludes that many more steps remain to be taken if media organizations and non-governmental organizations are to exert pressure for accountability on behalf of citizens, and especially the disadvantaged.
For a long time—at least until the 1988 nationwide popular riots that led to an open challenge of the regime and the beginning of a relative liberalization—the press, like industry and all sectors of cultural as well as political activity.
The fracas of 24 May 1883 is a tantalisingly brief episode in that in 86 Downloaded by [Northwestern University] at 20:17 18 January 2015 intellectual history of the modern East which yet remains to be written.
In the first paragraph of the foreword to his book, the author says that the object of this book is primarily to tell a story and to mark its significance; not to give a final and detailed history of the Arab Movement, but only an outline in the form of a continuous narrative; such a continuous history of the movement is lacking, and what has appeared so far has been based on either Arabic sources or English ones, but not on a combination…
Despite the limited studies on Milihouse architecture since its establishment, contemporary accounts from those who worked within the institution reveal how Milihouse’s management was able to bypass the centralised control of the Syrian state in the 1980s.
While federalism is often discussed in relation to deeply divided societies, its application within formally unitary states remains underexplored in the Lebanese context.
By analysing Kuwait’s current anti-fraud campaign and exploring future deterrence strategies, this study fills a gap in the literature on fraudulent nationality claims, offering a rare criminological perspective on a complex and politically sensitive issue.
Abstract Little is known about racial identity claims of African migrants living in Israel who originate from countries where race is not a dominant identity marker.
If it seems the volume is lacking, however, it is only because it makes such a strong case for the importance of family as a lens for understanding power, imperialism, and nationalism in the region that it leaves the reader hungry for more.
As a critical part of emerging civic cultures in the Arab world, listening helps revealing understudied links between civic knowledge, listening, civic engagement and empowerment.
Listening as a citizenship practice post-Arab Spring: mediated civic listening as a struggle, duty and joy in Urban Morocco · 2020 · DOIThis contribution is in Western Christian and Latin Catholic contexts not well known and yet the continued influence which the Jesuit educational and pastoral ethos encouraged is strongly remembered and held in high esteem by both Muslim and Christian Iraqis into the present.
In the case of Jordan, the role of youth has been widely understudied, resulting in an incomplete interpretation of this revolutionary period in Jordan.
“Jordanian Youth in Collective Action: Structure and Significance of the Jordanian Al-Ḥirāk Al-Shabābī (Youth Movement)” · 2015 · DOIIt does so by using the relatively under explored concept of transitional constitutionalism, interrogating some of the key claims on which transitional constitutionalism is based, and questioning their application in the Egyptian context.
(Source: Doris Bittar) [End Page 257] Conflicting reports of improvements and violations were coming in simultaneously.
The article fills a gap in the literature on sectarianism in postwar Lebanon and helps explain a puzzle identified by Ashutosh Varshney in the theoretical debate on ethnic conflict, namely the reasons behind the “stickiness” of historically constructed ethnic identities.
This paper aims at providing a better understanding of the workings of political rhetoric in the discourse of Hizbollah by examining relatively underexplored socio-cognitive dimensions in production and reception of political speeches.
Hybrid genres and the cognitive positioning of audiences in the political discourse of Hizbollah · 2010 · DOIThe relationship between reformers and nationalists, however, has not been explored, perhaps because sources mention the influence of liberal sheikhs without suggesting where the sheikhs came from or what they signified.
Beyond this it would seem that the sympathetic respect which infused the Moroccan system was lacking in Syria because there were too few officials with native affairs experience gained in Morocco to generate a viable over-all system of native administration.
Since the governments of these countries were incapable of taking charge of irrigation, and the cooperatives were insufficiently developed to do so, land reform resulted in slack production of the land.
This situation remained viable as long as the Arab nationalist movement itself had not clearly defined its purpose and its ideological orientation.
Most-cited papers in Middle East Politics and Society
- ELITE STRATEGIES, CIVIL SOCIETY, AND SECTARIAN IDENTITIES IN POSTWAR LEBANON · International Journal Middle East Studies · 2013 · 46 citations
- Iran’s uprisings for ‘Women, Life, Freedom’: Over-determination, crisis, and the lineages of revolt · Politics · 2023 · 42 citations
- Refugee return and fragmented governance in the host state: displaced Syrians in the face of Lebanon’s divided politics · Third World Quarterly · 2020 · 37 citations
- Practical Ideology in Militant Organizations · World Politics · 2020 · 35 citations
- Explaining Support for Muslim Feminism in the Arab Middle East and North Africa · Gender & Society · 2020 · 32 citations
- Gender identity as a barrier to accessing adequate and inclusive healthcare for Syrian refugees in Lebanon's Northern regions · Frontiers in Human Dynamics · 2024 · 26 citations
- Of bakeries and checkpoints: Stately affects in Amman and Baghdad · Environment and Planning D Society and Space · 2020 · 25 citations
- The Movement Against Democratic Backsliding in Israel · Sociological Forum · 2023 · 24 citations
- The use of political motherhood in Egypt’s Arab Spring uprising and aftermath · International Feminist Journal of Politics · 2017 · 22 citations
- Political Polarisation and the Constitutional Crisis in Israel · Israel Law Review · 2023 · 21 citations
Most recent work
- The remarkable shift from ‘students’ to ‘university youth’ protests: the case of Egypt (1919–2011) · Globalisation Societies and Education · 2026
- Towards asymmetrical decentralisation as federal arrangement for Lebanon · Frontiers in Political Science · 2026
- Urban Displacement: Syria's Refugees in the Middle East Edited by Are JohnKnudsen and Sarah A.Tobin. Berghahn Books, 2024. 330 pages. Open access, ebook. · Middle East Policy · 2026
- A model of religious identities and income redistribution: from the Lebanese Civil War to the Taif Agreement · Economics of Governance · 2026
- Housing, Scarcity, and Vaulted Architecture in 1980s Syria · Architectural Histories · 2026
- Israel’s destructive actions in Lebanon are normalising war without rules · 2026
- Table ronde « Syrie : quel avenir pour les révolutionnaires après la chute du régime ? » — En ligne, 19 mai 2026 · OpenEdition (OpenEdition) · 2026
- A Century of Political Violence in Lebanon: Assassination Culture, State Fragility, and the Persistence of Impunity (1920–2026) · Figshare · 2026
- Islamophobia and Lebanon: Visibly Muslim Women and Global Coloniality · Patterns of Prejudice · 2026
- Words as weapons: Online shaming, sectarian polarization, and identity contestation in post-Assad Syria · Discourse & Society · 2026
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