Middle East

In September 2013, Xi Jinping announced the launch of a Chinese-led megaproject, the Belt and Road Initiative, that would transform Asia's position within the global economy. Some ten    More >

How did the vast Ottoman Empire, stretching from the Balkans to the Sahara, endure for more than four centuries despite its great ethnic and religious diversity? The classic work on this    More >

What are the dynamics of civic activism in authoritarian regimes? How do new social actors—many of them informal, "below the radar" groups—interact with these regimes?    More >

Bouthaina Shaaban worked closely with Syria's president Hafez al-Assad from 1990 until the time of his death, serving as both official interpreter and adviser. Her new book, part memoir    More >

Focusing on the interaction of finely portrayed characters from all elements of society, Days of Dust depicts the existential drama of the Six Days War as it was experienced on a personal    More >

Set against the background of post-1967 Lebanon, this novel caused a sensation in the Arab world because of its frank and realistic descriptions of Lebanon's—and particularly    More >

The Middle East and North Africa comprise by all measures one of the least democratic regions in the world. At the same time, decades of research show robust support for democracy among MENA    More >

What explains the enduring rule of authoritarian regimes in the Arab world? Nicola Pratt offers an innovative approach to this recurring question, shedding light on the failure of    More >

Is Islam compatible with democracy? Despite the seemingly endless debate on this issue, Moataz Fattah's study is a rare investigation of actual Muslim beliefs about democracy across    More >

What drives economic policymaking and performance in the Arab states? Paul Rivlin finds that domestic and international pressures have combined in the past decade to simultaneously foster    More >

Egyptian President Abd al Fattah el-Sisi has sought to create a "New Republic," a stronger, more authoritarian state capable of positively transforming Egypt's polity, economy,    More >

The 18-day revolt that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30 years of rule marked a historic turning point in the political fortunes not only of Egypt, but of the entire Middle East. While the impact    More >

Though the regimes of Egyptian presidents Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak have been decidedly different, the nature of personal authoritarian rule in Egypt has remained virtually unchanged across    More >

Seventeen short stories by such well-known writers as Abdullah, Idris, Mahfouz, Taher, Ibrahim, Sharouni, Fahmy, Sibai, and    More >

As in many developing countries, women in Egypt play a key role in the agricultural sector. This has not been adequately reflected, however, in the official statistics on services,    More >