Publications

Affiliated Centers

CMES strives to contribute and support research and scholarly work that challenge conventional wisdoms and preconceived notions about the Middle East through its publications. Our Occasional Paper Series features lectures, events and larger research projects of our core faculty, visiting scholars, research affiliates and others edited into short and accessible essays. Our center has also published several co-edited volumes you can read about below.

Books

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  • Sectarianization Book Cover

    Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East (2017)  

    Edited By: Nader Hashemi, Danny Postel

    Sectarianization trenchantly challenges the lazy use of ‘sectarianism’ as a magic-bullet explanation for the ills of the Middle East, focusing on how various conflicts in the Middle East have morphed from non-sectarian (or cross-sectarian) and nonviolent movements into sectarian wars. Through multiple case studies, this book maps the dynamics of sectarianization, exploring not only how but also why it has taken hold. The contributors examine the constellation of forces — from those within societies to external factors such as the Saudi–Iranian rivalry — that drive the sectarianization process and explore how the region’s politics can be de-sectarianized.

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  • The Syria Dilemma

    The Syria Dilemma (2013)

    Edited By: Nader Hashemi, Danny Postel

    This book focuses on the ethical and political dilemmas at the heart of the debate about Syria and the possibility of humanitarian intervention in today's world. The contributors—Syria experts, international relations theorists, human rights activists, and scholars of humanitarian intervention—don't always agree, but together they represent the best political thinking on the issue. The Syria Dilemma includes original pieces from Michael Ignatieff, Mary Kaldor, Radwan Ziadeh, Thomas Pierret, Afra Jalabi, and others.

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  • The People Reloaded

    The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran's Future (2011)

    Edited By: Nader Hashemi, Danny Postel

    This indispensable volume is the first to bring together the leading voices and key players in Iran’s Green Movement, providing an intellectual and political road map to this turning point in Iran’s history and a vital resource for the study of Iran, social movements and the future of the Middle East.

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  • Islam, Secularism and Liberal Democracy book cover

    Islam, Secularism and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies (2009)

    Author: Nader Hashemi

    This book analyzes the relationship between religion, secularism and liberal democracy—historically, theoretically and in the context of the contemporary Muslim world. 

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Journal and News Articles

Palgrave Macmillan Series

Middle East Today

Palgrave Macmillan Series

Edited by Nader Hashemi and Fawas A. Gerges

This series puts forward a critical body of first-rate scholarship that reflects the current political and social realities of the region, focusing on original research about contentious politics and social movements; political institutions; the role played by non-governmental organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Muslim Brotherhood; and the Israeli-Palestine conflict. 

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Occasional Paper Series

The Other Regional Counter-Revolution: Iran’s Role in the Shifting Political Landscape of the Middle East

Danny Postel, the Assistant Director of the Center for International and Area Studies at Northwestern University, challenges the conventional wisdom about Iran and its foreign policy orientation.

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Contesting Hate: A Critical Response to Christchurch

On May 30, 2019, thirteen scholars met at the University of Denver’s Anderson Academic Commons to hold a frank scholarly conversation aimed at confronting the raw horror of the Christchurch mosque shootings.

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The Chimera of Peace Between Israel and the Arab World

CMES Director Nader Hashemi takes a dissenting view of the Abraham Accords, the agreement in the summer of 2020 between Israel and two Arab states (Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates).

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Israeli Policy Toward Syria: 2011-2019

Elizabeth Tsurkov, a doctoral candidate at Princeton University, offers a close analysis of internal Israeli debates as it relates to the war in Syria and documents the specifics of Israeli intervention in Syria from 2011 to 2019.

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Why the Arab World Needs Democracy Now

In April 2018, Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi delivered the keynote speech at the annual conference of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) in Washington, DC, where he received the Muslim Democrat of the Year Award. Following his murder in the fall of 2018, CMES published an edited transcript of his speech in honor of his courage and willingness to speak truth to power.

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Seeking the Muslim Martin Luther: Against Calls for an ‘Islamic Reformation’

Todd Green, Associate Professor of Religion at Luther College, critiques the common trope that Islam as a religion is in need of a reformation primarily through the writings of the controversial author and polemicist Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

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Donald Trump’s Dangerous Love Affair With Saudi Arabia & Its Impacts on Mideast Security

William Hartung explores the early relationship between the Trump administration and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and what it means for the region more broadly.

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Marriage in the Gulf States after the Arab Uprisings: The Effects of Counterrevolutionary Subsidies

Randall Kuhn, former Associate Professor at the Korbel School and Director of its Global Health Affairs Program, addresses the important issue of why the Arab uprisings of 2011-2012 erupted when they did by focusing on the “retreat from marriage” in the Gulf states and how it complicates the simplistic notions advanced to explain the uprisings.

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From the Ashes of Rabaa: History and the Future of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood

Abdullah Al-Arian, Associate Professor of History at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar, writes about the state of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt following the 2013 military coup d’état that ended Mohamed Morsi's presidency.

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The Holocaust & the Arab-Israeli War of Narratives: Critical Dialogues with Gilbert Achcar

Edited transcripts of a panel discussion and interview with Gilbert Achcar, Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), on the issue of Holocaust denial in the Arab-Islamic world.

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Religion and the State in Islam: From Medieval Caliphate to the Muslim Brotherhood

Richard Bulliet, Professor of History at Columbia University, examines the relationship between religion and the state in the “Muslim South”—that half of the Muslim world located south of Medina, whose peoples came to Islam centuries after those of the “Muslim North”—and how understanding the different means of legitimating governance in the Muslim South sheds light on the crisis of legitimacy in Muslim-majority states like Egypt today.

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Between Idealism & Political Pragmatism: What Does the Ascendency of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Mean for the Future?

John Calvert, Professor of History at Creighton University, examines the evolution, agenda and trajectory of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood within the framework of a changing Egypt.

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