Agrarian Politics and the Slow Revolution Yet to Come Almost a decade after the 2011 uprisings, we now have an excellent synthetic text by Habib Ayeb and Ray Bush, long-time activists and researchers of (North) African agrarian questions as they relate to food sovereignty, social equality, and the ecology. Max Ajl • 6 min read
The Political Economy of Erdoğan’s Syria Gamble The Turkish invasion of northern Syria, with President Trump's acquiescence, illustrates Turkish President Erdoğan’s authoritarian populist penchant for treating foreign policy as an extension of domestic crisis management. But it will only further aggravate the interlinked economic and political problems facing the AKP-led government—regardless of whether Şahan Savaş Karataşlı • 17 min read
Thinking Critically About Regional Uprisings In order to broaden our frameworks for thinking critically about the new round of uprisings, MERIP editorial committee member Jillian Schwedler asked a number of critical scholars for their perspectives on how we should be thinking about regional protests and what is often overlooked or misunderstoo Jillian Schwedler • 20 min read
Cracks in Tunisia’s Democratic Miracle Less than a decade after the 2011 uprising that ousted a dictator, the election of an anti-establishment president amidst popular turmoil indicates that many Tunisians reject the narrative that all is well with Tunisia’s new liberal democracy. Laryssa Chomiak • 9 min read
Iraqis Demand a Country Chanting “We want a country,” the youth-led protesters of Iraq are demanding nothing less than a new country as the uprising goes beyond narrowly defined political demands concerning electoral politics and legal reforms. Zahra Ali • 10 min read
Current Analysis Making the Economy Political in Jordan’s Tax Revolts The Jordanian citizenry remain unwilling to pay more taxes. The old system no longer works, but the way forward demands that Jordan’s leaders address the need for substantive reforms in both the economic and political systems that currently govern Jordanian lives. Any new social contract between the Laith Fakhri Al-Ajlouni, Allison Spencer Hartnett • 9 min read
Current Analysis Protesting Clerical Welfarism in Iran’s Pious City Protests in Iran's holy city of Qom reveal that social fragmentation in Iran runs so deep that even within a community as intimately related to religious learning and the state as Qom, the divisions and boundaries go beyond easy distinctions between regime and opposition, hardliner and reformer or s Mehdi Faraji • 13 min read
MER Article "The Dubai of..." Over the last several decades, and particularly after upheavals in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, much of the urban center of gravity of the Middle East has shifted to the Gulf. To understand this trend and its consequences, MERIP editorial committee member Jillian Schwedler interviewed Yasser Elsh Yasser Elsheshtawy • 16 min read
Current Analysis “Do You Know Who Governs Us? The Damned Monetary Fund” What had started as protests over a taxation draft law and an increase in gas prices quickly led to a popular uprising against the neoliberal path on which the state has embarked. Sara Ababneh • 16 min read
Current Analysis The Fiscal Politics of Rebellious Jordan Activism in the modern Arab world saw its peak in the Spring of 2011, but Jordanians have returned to the streets in a new round of protests triggered by recent economic policies and long standing grievances. How should we understand these protests? Pete Moore • 10 min read
Divergent Histories and Converging Inequalities in the Middle East and Latin America The field of Middle East studies likes to tell itself that the region is an anomaly within the global South. One peculiarity attributed to the region is a relatively low level of income inequality, purportedly due to a combination of redistributive traditions within Islam, large public sectors and welfare systems, Kevan Harris • 17 min read
Current Analysis Breaking Even, Breaking Down or Going for Broke? As of mid-May 2015, crude oil prices had fallen to the lowest level in recent years, under $60 a barrel for US domestic benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and about $66 a barrel for the international Brent benchmark [http://www.oil-price.net/]. These market prices are compared to several types Karen Pfeifer • 6 min read
