Regional Studies

First published in 1982, Inside the Middle East is a definitive study of the region. It provides a clear, concise description of the complex social, political and economic life of the Middle East. Beginning with an outline of the birth and growth of...

The Arab world has long been subjected to super-power rivalry for influence and control. The area has been characterized by bloody conflict with Israel and the internal instability that has been particularly prevalent in the last few years. Whilst these...

The Minds of Peace Experiment is a small-scale Israeli-Palestinian public negotiating congress. The exercise invites Israeli and Palestinian delegations to publicly negotiate solutions to their struggle over a limited period of sessions. The initiative...

The Middle East is a region of great traditional diversity, which has been characterized by immense political, social and economic changes, still developing over thirty years after the title's original publication. A group of oil-rich countries have...

This book focuses on Islamic family law as interpreted and applied by judges in Europe, Australia and North America. It uses court transcriptions and observations to discuss how the most contentious marriage-related issues - consent and age of spouses,...

This volume provides a wealth of in-depth, country-specific analyses of the Arab Spring, in addition to works that examine the larger theoretical framework and socio-political implications of events. Unlike other analyses, often from the perspective of...

This collection focuses on the controversial relationship between religion and the state within the Arab Spring context and the evolving debates on democratic transition. In this book, democracy is not questionable; it is hailed by all those vocal on the...

What is the place of the Arab states as a new world order emerges? How can the Arab world respond positively to change as the new Europe emerges, political relationships are restructured, and the information revolution transforms the global economy? To...

This Chatham House Paper examines the nature of Soviet relations with Syria, assessing the commitments made and the gains reaped by Moscow and Damascus in the economic, military and political spheres. After discussing Soviet interests in the region in...

This book traces the development of modern Syria focusing on the contribution of the Ba'th party and Ba'thist ideology. It examines the roots of the Ba'th in the intellectual ferment of the 1940s and charts its growing influence on Syrian politics...

Today, almost a generation has passed since the Iran-Iraq war and the memory of it is set to diminish with each passing generation. The following questions emerge. Can we say that the gradual disappearance of war's memory means that, increasingly,...

Within the democratisation literature, opposition unity is widely seen as an important requisite to successfully pressure authoritarian rulers into liberalising reforms and in bringing about democratic change. Taking up on this theme, this book examines...

Sixty years after the birth of Israel, this fascinating and original book of essays brings together a number of the leading experts on Zionism and Israel to examine the domestic and international context of Israel's transition from community to state in...

The main focus of Literary Subterfuge and Contemporary Persian Fiction is to identify components and elements which define Persian modernist fiction, placing an emphasis on literary concepts and devices which provide the dynamics of the evolutionary...

Israel and Africa critically examines the ways in which Africa - as a geopolitical entity - is socially manufactured, collectively imagined but also culturally denied in Israeli politics. Its unique exploration of moral geography and its comprehensive,...

The topic of sexuality and gender within the South Asian context is timely and widely discussed across a variety of academic disciplines. Since the end of the last century, there have been debates in the cultural sphere in India on issues concerning...

The book brings forth various perspectives on the Israeli "homeland" (moledet) from various known Israeli intellectuals such as Boaz Evron, Menachem Brinker, Jacqueline Kahanoff and more. Binding together various academic fields to deal with...

Women in the Modern History of Libya features histories of Libyan women exploring the diversity of cultures, languages and memories of Libya from the age of the Empires to the present. The chapters explore a series of institutional and private archives...

Practices of Traditionalization in Central Asia focuses on how tradition is 'everyday-ified' in contemporary Central Asia, including Tatarstan and Tibet, and what people seek to achieve in its name. The case studies range from political demonstrations...

Half a century ago, Britain abandoned Aden, its last colonial outpost in the Arab world as itsattempt to establish a new polity foundered amid a rising tide of Arab nationalism, tribalinfighting and anti-colonial sentiment that eventually gave rise to...

As North African, Middle Eastern, and Sahelian societies adapt to the post-Arab Spring era and the rise of violence across the area, various groups find in Islam an answer to the challenges of the era. This book explores how Islamist social movements,...

Despite its impressive economic growth, East Asia is facing daunting challenges in mitigating its social problems, including chronic poverty and worsening social inequality. The past decade has seen growing scholarly interest in the development of East...

In 2011, the Maghreb occupied a prominent place in world headlines when Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, became the birthplace of the so-called Arab Spring. Events in Tunisia sparked huge and sometimes violent uprisings. Longstanding dictatorships fell in their...

Sheikh Yusuf al- Qaradawi is regarded as the most influential contemporary Muslim religious figure. His best-selling book, Al-Halal wal-Haram fi al-Islam ("The Forbidden and the Permitted in Islam") is perhaps one of the most widely read Islamic works,...

The Eastern Himalaya region covers a geographical area that spans five nations and has diverse landscapes, a multitude of ethnic groups and a rich variety of flora and fauna. The region is relatively poor in terms of GDP and per capita income;...

Most aged in India are experiencing a highly protracted death in hospitals, entangled in tubes and machines. Such 'medicalised death' entails huge psychological, social and financial costs for both patients and their caregivers. There are also many who...

Critics and academics have generally dismissed the commercial productions of the late Pahlavi era, best known for their songs and melodramatic plots, as shallow, derivative 'entertainment'. Instead, they have concentrated on the more recent...

This book analyses the formulation, interpretation and implementation of sharia in Pakistan and its relationship with the Pakistani state whilst addressing the complexity of sharia as a codified set of laws. Drawing on insights from Islamic studies,...

Published in 1971: The purpose of this book is to describe and to analyse the administrative policies in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan during the formative years of the Condominium. The period chosen for this purpose corresponds with the governor-generalship...

Published in 1973: This thoroughgoing collection of informed and incisive essay brings together for the first time between the covers of a single volume a very wide spectrum of views on one of the key conflicts in Africa today. The problems underlying...

Published in 1973: This thoroughgoing collection of informed and incisive essay brings together for the first time between the covers of a single volume a very wide spectrum of views on one of the key conflicts in Africa today. The problems underlying...

This book provides an in-depth exploration of South Asian readaptations of race in vernacular languages. The focus is on a diverse set of printed texts, periodicals and books in Hindi and Urdu, two of the major print languages of British North India,...

This book analyses the structure of the India-China relationship and the two prominent powers' positions with and against each other, bilaterally and globally, in a complex Asian environment and beyond. India and China's perceptions of one another are...

Although Asia has a long history of governance practices, its modern governance systems have been profoundly influenced by the Western models. This book explores how the declining economic and political influences on the global stage of the USA and...

China's New Silk Road initiative constitutes one of the most ambitious projects in recent decades designed to change the pattern of the global economic division of labour as well as the geostrategic balance of power. It has the potential to create a new...

Using data collected in fieldwork and surveys, this book examines China's clan system and local clan communities in rural Anhui, covering events in two periods: the imperial pattern as seen in the first half of the 20th century and changes since 1949...

This book provides a unique investigation into the gender dynamics of the Arab Spring as it unfolded in North Africa. It covers issues such as gender legislation in the post-revolution period, sexual harassment, gender activism, politics and the female...

How do videos, movies and documentaries dedicated to indigenous communities transform the media landscape of South Asia? Based on extensive original research, this book examines how in South Asia popular music videos, activist political clips, movies and...

This comprehensive volume investigates the dynamics of mobilization and demobilization of social networks before, during, and after episodes of political turbulence in the Middle East region, focusing particularly on the 2011 Arab uprisings. The authors...

Urban centres are at the heart of the dynamics of war and peace, of stability and violence: as 'safe havens' for those seeking protection, as concentrations of public administrative and military apparatus, and as symbolic bases of state sovereignty and...