The New Middle East: Protest and Revolution in the Arab World, By Fawaz Gerges, Cambridge University Press, 518 pages, £43.40

The last three years or so witnessed a lot of commentary and research as a trial by the academia, especially in the West, to grasp the changes in the Arab World — especially in countries which went through popular protests ousting presidents and changing ruling elites.

The relatively new Middle East Centre (MEC) at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is participating in this effort with a recent book — it’s first publication. Edited and introduced by Fawaz Gerges, professor of international relations at LSE, who also leads its MEC, “The New Middle East: Protests and Revolution in the Arab World” is as its publisher, Cambridge University Press, prefaced it: “Comprehensive book by prominent scholars”.

In 500 pages, it contains contributions from 21 academicians from renowned universities and research centres ranging from AUC, Chatham House, LSE to Oxford and Harvard, among them William B. Quandt, Lisa Anderson, Roger Owen, Avi Shlaim and Charles Tripp.

Even without emphasising it, the book and the whole idea behind it proves the fact that everybody was surprised with the popular protests in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen that toppled long-serving presidents. Politicians might have ridden the wave quickly, but academicians and scholars needed to reflect on how they are taken unawares in one way or the other.

Didn’t they fail to grasp the region’s socio-political complexities? Were there flaws in their historical analysis? Did they apply unsuitable theoretical patterns on states that are not fitting a certain profile?

Reading the book might give you some hints, but it might not answer all these questions. With that variety of scholars brought together, the book covers a good deal of “reflections on the causes, drivers and effects of these seminal events on the internal, regional and international politics of the Middle East and North Africa”.

Acknowledging peculiarities of each country, “authors highlight connections between individual case studies and systemic conditions throughout the Arab arena. These include the crisis of political authority, the failure of economic development and new genres of mobilisation and activism, especially communication technology and youth movements.”

As the contributors vary in their academic and research fields, from political sciences to other arenas, Fawaz Gerges sums up the whole contribution in a 40-page introduction. He starts with the conclusion that “a psychological and epistemological rupture has occurred in the Arab Middle East that has shaken the authoritarian order to its very foundation and introduced a new language and a new era of contentious politics and revolutions.” Then the editor of the book goes on to analyse the flaws in some of the theoretical work on Arabs, political Islam and MENA in general, explaining why prediction of these uprising was difficult.

Gerges concludes: “Beyond the challenge of prediction, the Arab uprisings have shattered two myths about the Arab region: the durability of authoritarian Arab regimes since the 1970s and the powerlessness of agency, both taken as an article of faith at face value and invested with theoretical and ideological currency by political scientists and policymakers alike.”

Egypt as a case-study is covered by a good chunk of the book, and by more than one contributor. It is also used by professor Fawaz Gerges, who is well-acquainted with Egypt and political Islam, in his analytical wrap of the book — Introduction.

Yet, all other developments in the regions are covered by contributors. As Gerges puts it, the contributors “call for rethinking the study of the region and refinement of traditional political science concepts and approaches that analyse political change and democratisation”. That’s how what the region witnessed in the last three years is contributing in “revamping” global social sciences.

Actually, each contributed chapter is a book in itself and that definitely made it difficult for the editor to structure the book that way. Though it might look more of an academic text, the book is an interesting read for anyone keen on grasping the impact of change in the Arab World.

–Dr Ahmad Mustafa is an Abu Dhabi-based journalist