Open research questions in Middle East Politics and Society

What the literature leaves open

• The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the Syria-Turkey border and its formation. The author highlights the need to consider the role of contraband commerce in shaping the border. The paper suggests that existing approaches to understanding the border are limited and do not account for the complexities of contraband commerce.

  Kaçak Territorialization: The Syria-Turkey Border as a Palimpsest of Sovereignty · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the dominant framework for personhood in the study of displacement, which has long been the category of the refugee. It argues that legal binaries such as refugee versus citizen, and internal versus external displacement, have been further blurred. The paper highlights the need for a new understanding of regional displacement in the Middle East, one that takes into account the complexities of belonging, futurity, and rights.

  Death of the Gharīb : A Window towards a Regional Understanding of Displacement in the Middle East · 2025 · DOI

• The challenge of governance in plural societies. The risk of ethno-federalism in Lebanon. The need for a theoretical basis for federal arrangements in Lebanon.

  Towards asymmetrical decentralisation as federal arrangement for Lebanon · 2026 · DOI

• The application of federal principles within formally unitary states remains underexplored in the Lebanese context. There is a need for a theoretical basis for federal arrangements in Lebanon.

  Towards asymmetrical decentralisation as federal arrangement for Lebanon · 2026 · DOI

• Further research could explore the application of cost-reducing construction methods in other contexts. The paper suggests that future research could examine the use of traditional building techniques in contemporary architectural practice.

  Housing, Scarcity, and Vaulted Architecture in 1980s Syria · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the development of vaulted architecture in 1980s Syria. The paper highlights the need for further research on the significance of the Al-Sharqyat project in the context of Syrian architectural practice.

  Housing, Scarcity, and Vaulted Architecture in 1980s Syria · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of how migrant women's precarity is produced and regulated by governance regimes. The analysis highlights the need for a more nuanced understanding of the intersection of migration governance, labor laws, and social policies.

  Indispensable But Disposable? Migrant Women’s Struggle for Rights in Lebanon’s Informal Economy · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies a gap in the understanding of hybrid actors and their resilience, - It highlights the need for a more nuanced approach to security that takes into account the cumulative logic of hybrid power

  Israeli Security Strategies and Hezbollah: The Resilience of Hybrid Actors against Military Superiority · 2026 · DOI

• The complex experiences in a society characterized by religious and national pluralism are not well understood. The role of religion and nationalism in shaping the content of all constitutional systems and articles is not well studied.

  Religion and Nationalism in the Legal and Constitutional Models of State Authority in Syria and Greater Lebanon during the French Mandate 1920–1930 · 2026 · DOI

• The need for a nuanced approach to refugee repatriation in the region. The impact of external financing on refugee repatriation. The role of refugees as a bargaining chip for aid in regional politics.

  Etter Assad-regimets fall: Hva skjer med flyktningene? · 2026 · DOI

• Future research could explore the implications of binarism for other social and political issues in Lebanon. The study's findings could be used to inform strategies for promoting dialogue and reconciliation among different groups in Lebanon. Further research could investigate the role of historical experiences, collective traumas, identity formation processes, and security concerns in shaping public opinion in other contexts.

  Binarism within Polarity Dimensions in Lebanon: A Qualitative Interpretive Analysis of Competing Lebanese Perceptions toward the Resistance Movement in its Conflict with Israel · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies a gap in the understanding of binarism as a social and political mechanism in Lebanon. The research highlights the need to consider the complex historical, social, and political context of the resistance movement.

  Binarism within Polarity Dimensions in Lebanon: A Qualitative Interpretive Analysis of Competing Lebanese Perceptions toward the Resistance Movement in its Conflict with Israel · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in understanding the significance of the Palestinian cause in the Islamic Republic's vision of regional order. The paper highlights the need to analyze the Islamic Republic's support for the Palestinian cause under different presidencies. The paper notes that the Islamic Republic's approach to the Palestinian cause is shaped by both ideological convictions and strategic considerations.

  Continuity and Change in the Islamic Republic’s Vision of Regional Order: The Palestinian Cause in Iranian Foreign Policy · 2026 · DOI

• The Iranian diaspora opposition is divided and lacks unity and internal cohesion. Some factions of the opposition have lost faith in Iran's civil society and turned to foreign powers. The retrotopian tendency of some factions overlooks the possibility of a realistic and hopeful future for Iran.

  Woman, Life, Freedom Movement and the Pathology of Diaspora Opposition: Retrotopia, Co-optation, and Misrepresentation · 2025 · DOI

• Future research should explore the complexities of the Iranian diaspora opposition in more depth. Future research should examine the implications of the paper's findings for the future of the WLF movement and its relationship with the diaspora opposition.

  Woman, Life, Freedom Movement and the Pathology of Diaspora Opposition: Retrotopia, Co-optation, and Misrepresentation · 2025 · DOI

• 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.

  Lübnan’da Ortak Kimliğin Oluşumunda Sedir Devrimi’nin Rolü · 2021 · DOI

• 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 · DOI

• Pluralistic 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 · DOI

• In 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 · DOI

• Little 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.

  Youthful Voices in Post-War Lebanon · 2009 · DOI

• 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.

  Freedom of Expression, Accountability and Development in the Arab Region · 2003 · DOI

• The paper highlights the challenge of incorporating immigrants into Australian social and political structures. The study examines the challenge of balancing the autonomy of immigrant communities with the need for integration into the wider society.

  Community, Mosque and Ethnic Politics · 1987 · DOI

• The study of immigrant politics has tended to ignore the significance of immigrant culture and organization. The role of religion in organizing the culture and politics of immigrants in Australia remains a largely unexplored area.

  Community, Mosque and Ethnic Politics · 1987 · DOI

• The lack of a 'community of sentiment' in Lebanon. The malintegration of the Lebanese state from its very beginnings. The weakness of the Lebanese state-idea.

  The collapse of the Lebanese state · 1987 · DOI

• The complexity of the region's history and the mix of religious and national identities. The repeated patterns of violence and instability in the region. The need for a nuanced understanding of the region's political transformations.

  Lebanon: A conflict of minorities · 1987 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Middle East Politics and Society

• Spatialising the refugee camp · Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers · 2012 · 333 citations
• The War Experiences and Psychosocial Development of Children in Lebanon · Child Development · 1996 · 320 citations
• Organizing Rebellion: Rethinking High-Risk Mobilization and Social Networks in War · American Political Science Review · 2013 · 242 citations
• Ethnic Democracy and the Legal Construction of Citizenship: Arab Citizens of the Jewish State · American Political Science Review · 1992 · 217 citations
• Civic Governmentality: The Politics of Inclusion in Beirut and Mumbai · Antipode · 2009 · 210 citations
• ‘Belonging’in the Cosmopolitan Imaginary · Ethnicities · 2003 · 198 citations
• Permission to Narrate · Journal of Palestine Studies · 1984 · 177 citations
• Globalization, culture, religion, and values: Comparing consumption patterns of Lebanese Muslims and Christians · Journal of Business Research · 2012 · 157 citations
• Authoritarian Learning and Authoritarian Resilience: Regime Responses to the ‘Arab Awakening’ · Globalizations · 2011 · 137 citations
• Bricks and Mortar Clientelism: Sectarianism and the Logics of Welfare Allocation in Lebanon · World Politics · 2010 · 130 citations

Most recent work

• Syria post-Assad: where we are now and the steps ahead · The Lancet · 2026
• The Devil’s in Decline: Western Anti-Gender Politics and the Evolution of Queerphobia in Lebanon · Signs · 2026
• The remarkable shift from ‘students’ to ‘university youth’ protests: the case of Egypt (1919–2011) · Globalisation Societies and Education · 2026
• When health-care workers become the target in Lebanon · The Lancet · 2026
• Spaces of Surveillance, Sites of Subversion: Queer Subjectivities and Intimate Geopolitics in Palestinian Refugee Camps in Lebanon · Population Space and Place · 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

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