The New Arab Cold War: Rediscovering the Arab dimension of Middle East regional politics

Review of International Studies

Volumn 38, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 3-24

  Valbjørn, Morten ^a   Bank, André ^b  

^a AARHUS UNIVERSITY   (Denmark)

^b GIGA GERMAN INSTITUTE OF GLOBAL AND AREA STUDIES   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84855845945     PISSN: 02602105     EISSN: 14699044     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0260210511000283     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (99)

1. Raymond Hinnebusch, 'Hegemonic Stability Theory Reconsidered: Implications of the Iraq War', in Rick Fawn and Raymond Hinnebusch (eds), The Iraq War: Causes and Consequences (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2006), pp. 297-8.
2. Cf. Rick Fawn, 'Regions and their study: wherefrom, what for and whereto?', Review of International Studies, 35 (2009), pp. 5-34;
3. Andrew Hurrell, 'One world? Many worlds? The place of regions in the study of international society', International Affairs, 83 (2007), pp. 127-46;
4. Barry Buzan and Ole Waever, Regions and Powers - The Structure of International Security (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
5. Cf. Richard N. Haass, 'The New Middle East', Foreign Affairs, 85 (2006), pp. 2-12;
6. Alexander T. J. Lennon (ed.), The Epicenter of Crisis. The New Middle East (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008);
7. Robert Malley and Peter Harling, 'Beyond Moderates and Militants', Foreign Affairs, 89 (2010), pp. 18-29;
8. Vali Nasr, The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future (New York: Norton, 2007);
9. Marina Ottaway et al., The New Middle East (Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2008);
10. Nicolas Pelham, A New Muslim Order: The Shia and the Middle East Sectarian Crisis (London: I. B. Tauris, 2008);
11. Philip Seib, New Media and the New Middle East (New York: Palgrave, 2009).
12. Eyal Zisser, 'Trends in Middle East Politics and their Implications for Israel', Israel Affairs, 12 (2006), p. 688.
13. Fred Halliday, 'A New Global Configuration', in Ken Booth and Timothy Dunne (eds), Worlds in Collision - Terror and the Future of Global Order (New York: Palgrave, 2002), p. 235.
14. Malcolm Kerr, The Arab Cold War, 1958-1964. A Study of Ideology in Politics (London: Oxford University Press, 1965).
15. Condoleeza Rice, Special Briefing on Travel to the Middle East and Europe (21 July 2006).
16. Jerrold Green, 'Are Arab Politics Still Arab?', World Politics, 38 (1986), pp. 611-25.
17. Fred Halliday, The Middle East in International Relations - Power, Politics and Ideology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 321.
18. Amr Hamzawy, 'Adventurism versus submission', Al-Ahram Weekly Online, 805 (2006).
19. Asher Susser, 'Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza: Middle Eastern Trends'. Tel Aviv Notes (23 July 2007).
20. Nasr, Shia Revival.
21. Cf. also Pelham, New Muslim Order.
22. Cf. Mark Sedgwick, 'Measuring Egyptian Regime Legitimacy', Middle East Critique, 19 (2010), pp. 251-67. Egyptian president Mubarak, one of the quintessential 'moderate reformists', was also among the first to fall in the 'Arab Spring' of 2011.
23. Daniel Levy, 'Picking up the Peace', Prospect for Peace Blog (21 January 2009).
24. Cf. also Malley/Harling, 'Beyond Moderates'.
25. F. Gregory Gause, 'Saudi Arabia: Iraq, Iran, the Regional Power Balance, and the Sectarian Question', Strategic Insights, 6 (2007).
26. Being an outstanding legal scholar, a major Islamist ideologist and the famous host of al-Jazeera's most popular religious programme, 'Islamic Law and Life', Yusuf al-Qaradawi is arguably the best-known Sunni religious figure in the Arab world today. Cf. Bettina Graf and Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen (eds), The Global Mufti: The Phenomenon of Yusuf Al-Qaradawi (London: Hurst, 2009).
27. Cf. Rabab El-Mahdi, 'Enough!: Egypt's Quest for Democracy', Comparative Political Studies, 42 (2009), pp. 1011-39.
28. Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development University of Maryland/Zogby International 2006 Annual Arab Public Opinion Survey (8 February 2007).
29. Marc Lynch, 'Power Ploy - Why three Arab regimes are publicly aligning themselves against Hezbollah and Iran', American Prospect (20 July 2006).
30. For a further discussion of how Hizballah framed itself and how the movement was popularly portrayed during the Lebanon War 2006 cf. Graham Fuller, 'The Hizballah-Iran Connection: Model for Sunni Resistance', The Washington Quarterly, 30 (2006), pp. 139-50;
31. Morten Valbjørn and André Bank, 'Signs of a New Arab Cold War: The 2006 Lebanon War and the Sunni-Shi'i Divide', Middle East Report, 242 (2007), pp. 6-11. (Pubitemid 46584974)
32. Rami Khouri, 'Heed the Changes in Arab Public Opinion', Agence Global (28 July 2006).
33. On this terminological distinction and the general debate on 'who are the Arabs' cf. Morten Valbjørn, 'Arab Nationalism(s) in Transformation: From Arab Interstate Societies to an Arab-Islamic World Society', in Barry Buzan and Ana Gonzalez-Pelaez (eds), International Society and the Middle East - English School Theory at the Regional Level (New York: Palgrave, 2009), pp. 142-4.
34. Kerr, Arab Cold War.
35. cf. Raymond Hinnebusch, The International Politics of the Middle East (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003), pp. 14ff;
36. Yezid Sayigh and Avi Shlaim (eds), The Cold War and the Middle East (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997).
37. Paul Noble, 'The Arab System: Pressures, Constraints, and Opportunities', in Bahgat Korany and Ali E. Hillal Dessouki (eds), The Foreign Policies of Arab States (Boulder: Westview, 1991), p. 55.
38. Noble, 'Arab System', p. 56.
39. Hinnebusch, International Politics.
40. Walid Kazziha, 'The Impact of Palestine on Arab Politics', in Ghassan Salamé and Giacomo Luciani (eds), The Politics of Arab Integration (London: Croom Helm, 1988), pp. 300-18.
41. Michael Barnett, Dialogues in Arab Politics: Negotiations in Regional Order (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).
42. Barnett, Dialogues in Arab Politics.
43. Cf. Barnett, Dialogues in Arab Politics, pp. 129ff.
44. Noble, Arab System, p. 57.
45. On permeability cf. Bassel F. Salloukh and Rex Brynen (eds), Persistent Permeability? Regionalism, Localism and Globalization in the Middle East (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004).
46. Fred Halliday, 'The Middle East and Conceptions of "International Society"', in Barry Buzan and Ana Gonzalez-Pelaez (eds), International Society and the Middle East - English School Theory at the Regional Level (New York: Palgrave, 2009), p. 15.
47. Bahgat Korany, 'The Arab World and the New Balance of Power in the New Middle East', in Michael C. Hudson (ed.), Middle East Dilemma - the Politics and Economics of Arab Integration (London: I. B. Tauris, 1999), p. 57.
48. Kazziha, 'Impact of Palestine'.
49. Barnett, Dialogues in Arab Politics, p. 158.
50. Cf. also André Bank and Morten Valbjørn, 'Bringing the Arab Regional Level Back in⋯ - Jordan in the New Arab Cold War', Middle East Critique, 19 (2010), p. 308f.
51. Raymond Hinnebusch, 'The Foreign Policy of Egypt', in Raymond Hinnebusch and Anoushiravan Ehteshami (eds), The Foreign Policies of Middle East States (London: Lynne Rienner, 2002), pp. 91-114.
52. Fouad Ajami, 'The End of Pan-Arabism', Foreign Affairs, 57 (1978), pp. 355-73;
53. For an overview of this debate, cf. Adeed Dawisha, Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century: From Triumph to Despair (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003).
54. Zisser, 'Trends'.
55. Stephen Humphreys, Between Memory and Desire: The Middle East in a Troubled Age (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), p. 82.
56. On the transformations of Arab nationalism before and after the 1950-60s cf. Valbjørn, 'Arab Nationalism(s)', pp. 157ff.
57. Fred Halliday, Nation and Religion in the Middle East (London: Saqi Books, 2000), p. 50.
58. Hussein Sirriyeh, 'A New Version of Pan-Arabism?', International Relations, 15 (2000), pp. 53-66. (Pubitemid 33224234)
59. Shibley Telhami, 'Power, Legitimacy and Peace-Making in Arab Coalitions - The New Arabism', in Leonard Binder (ed.), Ethnic Conflict and International Politics in the Middle East (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1999), pp. 43-60;
60. Marc Lynch, Voices of the New Arab Public - Iraq, Al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006).
61. On the 'hardening' of state institutions in the Arab world cf. F. Gregory Gause, 'Sovereignty, Statecraft and Stability in the Middle East', Journal of International Affairs, 45 (1992), pp. 441-69.
62. Cf. Laura Guazzone and Daniela Pioppi (eds), The Arab State and Neo-Liberal Globalization. The Restructuring of State Power in the Middle East (Reading: Ithaca, 2009).
63. On new Arab media and Arab nationalism cf. Lawrence Pintak, 'Border Guards of the "Imagined" Watan: Arab Journalists and the New Arab Consciousness', Middle East Journal, 63 (2009), pp. 191-212.
64. Lynch, New Arab Public.
65. Peter A. Furia and Russell E. Lucas, 'Determinants of Arab Public Opinion on Foreign Relations', International Studies Quarterly, 50 (2006), pp. 585-605. (Pubitemid 44251856)
66. On the Islamisation of Arab nationalism cf. Oliver Roy, The Politics of Chaos in the Middle East (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008).
67. Shibley Telhami, 'America in Arab Eyes', Survival, 49 (2007), pp. 107-22.
68. Lynch, New Arab Public, p. 4.
69. For a more substantial analysis of the global-regional interplay cf. Morten Valbjørn, 'The 'New Middle East' and the Encounter with the Global Condition', in Stephan Stetter (ed.), Globalisation and the Middle East, forthcoming.
70. For a thorough analysis of the regional-domestic interplay in the New Arab Cold War context cf. Bank/Valbjørn, Jordan, pp. 313ff.
71. Fuller, 'Hizballah-Iran Connection'.
72. On Iran playing 'the Arab card' cf. Roy, The Politics of Chaos, p. 117.
73. Cf. Shibley Telhami, 2010 Arab Public Opinion Poll (5 August 2010).
74. Dan Murphy, 'In war's dust, a new Arab 'lion' emerges', Christian Science Monitor (29 August 2006).
75. Barry Rubin, 'Arab Politics: Back to Futility', Middle East Quarterly, 14 (2007), pp. 53-62.
76. Cf. Human Rights Council, Human Rights in Palestine and other Occupied Territories. Report of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (15 September 2009).
77. For the moderate-radical narrative of the Gaza War cf. Asher Susser, 'The War in Gaza - A View from Israel' (RUSI.org 2009).
78. The sectarian narrative has been partly superseded by the view that Hamas fights a proxy war for Persian-Shi'i Iran, cf. Yossi Klein Halevi and Michael B. Oren, 'In Gaza, the Real Enemy Is Iran', Los Angeles Times (4 January 2009).
79. Ramzy Baroud, 'Gaza: A New Middle East Indeed', Middle East Times (12 January 2009).
80. Nicholas Blanford, 'Deepening Israeli Assault on Hamas Divides Arab World', Christian Science Monitor (9 January 2009).
81. Pew Global Attitudes Project, Little Enthusiasm for Many Muslim Leaders - Mixed Views of Hamas and Hizballah in Largely Muslim Nations (Washington DC: PEW {www.pewglobal.org}, 2010).
82. Bank/Valbjørn, Jordan, p. 316.
83. Halevi/Oren, Real Enemy Iran.
84. Rami Khouri, 'Gaza's Impact on the Arab World', Agence Global (7 January 2009).
85. Marc Lynch, '"Gaza" or "Hamas"', Abu Aardvark Blog (2 January 2009).
86. Birthe Hansen, Unipolarity and the Middle East (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001).
87. Regional-centric perspectives, Efraim Karsh, 'Cold War, post-Cold-War: does it make a difference for the Middle East?', Review of International Studies, 23 (1997), pp. 271-91. (Pubitemid 127350451)
88. Buzan/Waever, Regions and Powers, p. 26.
89. Cf. Morten Valbjørn, 'Culture Blind and Culture Blinded: Images of Middle Eastern Conflicts in International Relations', in Dietrich Jung (ed.), The Middle East and Palestine: Global Politics and Regional Conflicts (New York: Palgrave, 2004), pp. 39-78.
90. For an example of how a growing attention to the regional level does not necessarily imply a concern for non-state actors and of how this may result in a neglect of distinct regional features, cf. Buzan/Waever, Regions and Powers.
91. Paul Noble, 'From Arab System to Middle Eastern System? - Regional Pressures and Constraints', in Bahgat Korany and Ali E. Hillal Dessouki (eds), The Foreign Policies of Arab States: The Challenge of Globalization (Cairo: American University Press 2008, 3rd ed.), pp. 67-167.
92. Barry Buzan, 'The English School: an underexploited resource in IR', Review of International Studies, 27 (2001), pp. 471-88;
93. Barry Buzan, From International to World Society - English School Theory and the Social Structure of Globalization (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004);
94. Barry Buzan and Ana Gonzalez-Pelaez (eds), International Society and the Middle East - English School Theory at the Regional Level (New York: Palgrave, 2009).
95. Gause, 'Sovereignty'.
96. Stephen Krasner, Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999).
97. Barry Buzan, 'International Political Economy and Globalization', in Alex Bellamy (ed.), International Society and Its Critics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 131-5.
98. Cf. Andrea Teti, 'Bridging the Gap: IR, Middle East Studies and the Disciplinary Politics of the Area Studies Controversy', European Journal of International Relations, 13 (2007), pp. 117-45;
99. Morten Valbjørn, 'Toward a 'Mesopotamian Turn': Disciplinarity and the Study of the International Relations of the Middle East', Journal of Mediterranean Studies, 14 (2004), pp. 47-75.