We are delighted to present the Spring 2020 of the APSA MENA POLITICS SECTION NEWSLETTER. The MENA Politics Section continues to thrive in the second year since its creation, with a rapidly growing membership, a popular Twitter feed (@apsamena), a diverse array of panels at the APSA Annual Meeting, three Section Awards to be announced, and a robust set of programming to support Section members, such as the annual MENA Junior Scholars Research Workshop. We look forward to continuing to grow and evolve over the coming year, despite the challenges posed by the COVID- 19 pandemic.

This issue of the Newsletter features a fascinating glimpse at publication trends for Middle East research in top Political Science journals, and three special sections, each with its own guest editor. The first special section, organized and edited by Lisel Hintz, examines the intersection between domestic politics and foreign policy in Turkey. The second special section, organized and edited by Nadav Shelef, looks at the state of democracy in Israel. Finally, the third special section, organized and edited by me, presents papers from a workshop on Islamist movements at war.

We hope you enjoy the research and analysis presented in this edition of the MENA Politics Newsletter. We look forward to featuring a major symposium on Gender and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa in a coming issue, and welcome your suggestions and proposals for special sections in future issues. Over the coming year, the Section will elect new officers, rotate the Newsletter Editorial Board, and search for a new Newsletter Editor. We plan to continue to innovate with new ways to reach out to and support Section members grappling with the global pandemic and escalating challenges to academic research in the field.

Download the full PDF here.

Marc Lynch
Chair of the MENA Politics Section and Newsletter Editor

Prerna BalaEddy
Newsletter Assistant Editor


WELCOME MESSAGES

Message from the Section Chair and Editor, Marc Lynch

Note from APSA, Ahmed Morsy and Andrew Stinson

THE FIELD

The Middle East in Political Science Journals, Melani Cammett and Isabel Kendall

TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY

Introduction, Lisel Hintz

Understanding Turkey’s Increasingly Militaristic Foreign Policy, Sinem Adar

Understanding Political Islamists’ Foreign Policy Rhetoric in Their Native Language: A Turkish Operational Code Analysis Approach, Sercan Canbolat

Turkey’s Phantom Coalition: The AKP-MHP Partnership and Turkish Foreign Policy, Sibel Oktay

Strategic Ambiguity: Explaining Foreign Policy Under the Erdogan Presidency, Ferhat Zabun

ISRAELI POLITICS

Introduction, Nadav Shelef

It’s Us or Them: Partisan Polarization in Israel and Beyond, Lotem Bassan-Nygate and Chagai M. Weiss

Religious Authority and Political Instability in Israel, Michael Freedman

The Decline of Democracy in Israel’s Sovereignty Discourse, Meirav Jones and Lihi Ben Shitrit

How Many is One Too Many? Israeli Elections 2018-2020, Tamar Hermann

ISLAMIST MOVEMENTS AT WAR

Introduction, Marc Lynch 

Prisons, Emotions and Ideology: Reflections on Egypt’s Cruel and Overcrowded Prisons, Khalil Al-Anani

War, Displacement, and the Islamist Advantage, Steven Brooke

Islamism in Civil War, Nicholas J. Lotito

Islamist Radicalization and Civil War, Elizabeth R. Nugent

 

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