Threats and alliances in the post-2011 Middle East

13 April 2023. From 18:30 | Conference | English | IEMed

Alliances in the Middle East, characterized by ephemeral patterns, puzzling shifts, and opaque decision making, have constantly baffled scholars, policy analysts, and observers of regional politics. During the past decade, the proliferation of non-state actors has brought further complexity in making sense of alliance patterns at local, regional, and international levels. While previous debates focused on whether alliance politics were driven by either material exigencies or identity politics, unravelling alliance patterns now requires a closer look at how both layers matter in shaping alliance patterns in the Middle East. An eclectic approach will not only bring sense to seemingly messy alliance politics in the region, but it puts forward a nuanced understanding of regional dynamics in the post-2011 Middle East.

May Darwich is Associate Professor in International Relations of the Middle East at the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom). She is PI of the project PIIPE ‘Port Infrastructure, International Politics, and Everyday life: From the Arabian Gulf to the Horn of Africa’, funded by Carnegie Corporation NY. Her research interests include threat perception and alliance politics, identity and foreign policy, and sectarian politics in the international relations of the Middle East. He current research also focuses on cross-regional interlinks between the Middle East and Africa through the lens of port infrastructures. She is the author of Threats and Alliances in the Middle East: Saudi and Syrian Policies in a Turbulent Region (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Some of her recent publications include “Foreign Policy Analysis and Armed Non-State Actors in World Politics: Lessons from the Middle East” (Foreign Policy Analysis, 2021); Alliance Politics in the post-2011: Advancing Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives (Mediterranean Politics, 2021). She serves on the Steering Committee of APSA MENA Workshops, the Steering Committee on the Project on Middle East Political Science, and the Committee on Status of Engagement with the Global South of the International Studies Association. She is co-editor of the series ‘Identities and Geopolitics in the Middle East’ at Manchester University Press.

Conference moderated by Lurdes Vidal, Affiliated Faculty Member, IBEI . Co-organised by the IEMed as part of the Aula Mediterrània 2022-23 programme in collaboration with the Master’s in International Relations, IBEI.

This conference takes place at the IEMed conference room, Girona, 20 – Barcelona and it can also be followed on IEMed Youtube Channel.