Identities, Nationalism, and the State: The Politics of Ethnicity and Minority Regimes in the Middle East

Identities, Nationalism, and the State: The Politics of Ethnicity and Minority Regimes in the Middle East, calls attention to the question of how minorities position and represent themselves during and after regime transitions and the dilemmas that minorities pose to regime change and how social cleavages shape minority preferences for regime type. It traces the path of ethnic and religious identities of minority regimes using the theories of modernization and nationalism to find that ethnic nationalism can be—and often is—incompatible with nation-building. The author examines ethnic identity and ethnic conflict in the Middle East, exploring the process of identity formation within the context of colonial politics and postcolonial Arab nationalism. By considering Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Bahrain, all significant regional actors, Identities, Nationalism, and the State tries to answer questions of legitimacy and inclusivity of minority rule, focusing not only on the outcomes of minority and majority rule but also on examples of where minorities find communal representation better than modern state governance.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction Chapter One: Understanding the Middle East: Theoretical Approaches Chapter Two: Ethnicity, Nationalism, and the State Chapter Three: Precursors to Ethnic Conflict Chapter Four: State Formation and the Search for Identity Chapter Five: Majorities under Minority Regimes Conclusion Bibliography About the Author

About the Author :
Miaad Hassan is assistant professor at the American University of Kurdistan.

Review :
From ethno-religious frays to authoritarian fires, Miaad Hassan’s debut not only presents an engrossing and informative canvas of the Middle East. It delivers a compelling and comparative narrative of the region's complex regimes by telling how and why these regimes engage with the issues of legitimacy and modernity in a postcolonial world. It is a book appealing to both scholars and readers. Hassan sets the scene for the book by defining clear aims and establishing a strong theoretical framework based on a humble approach that considers the work of many scholars who previously tackled matters of nationalism, ethnicity, identities, and minority regimes. Within this framework, there is an acknowledgement of “the siloing of issues in studies on nationalism and ethnicity.” This point is relevant to the cases under study because it is one explanation for why research before the Arab Spring had failed to account for the resilience of sectarian identities in politics and its impact on social life. Personal experience is also applicable here. In the immediate leadup to 2011, political and social experiences in much of the region were not sectarian in nature but rather characterised by any sort of challenge to the regime, regardless of the sectarian identities that might define those challenges. These experiences of cross-sectarian repression should enrich social scientists’ understanding of the region without essentialising any Arab state, because the dynamics at work in one state can obviously be different to those in another.