The politics of teaching International Relations in the Arab world : reading Walt in Beirut, Wendt in Doha, and Abul-Fadl in Cairo

Can International Relations (IR) as it is taught in the Arab world be said to be an “American social science” or is it taught differently in different places? The forum addresses this question through an exploration of what and how scholars at Arab universities are teaching IR and how institutional, historical, and linguistic, as well as political and individual factors shape classroom dynamics in the Arab world. This forum attempts to bring the classroom into the Global/Post-Western debate by showing how IR can be taught differently in different places with a focus on a region under-represented in IR debates: the Arab world. The essays, exhibiting diversity in pedagogical strategies and theoretical perspectives, provide a window into how the “international” is perceived and taught locally by teachers and students in various Arab contexts. While the influence from the American “core” of the discipline is obvious, the forum documents how the theoretical and conceptual foundations of IR based on Western perspectives and history do not travel intact. The essays collectively provide evidence of different kinds of IRs not just across but also within regions and show that studying pedagogy can become a way to study how disciplinary IR varies contextually.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

US Policy and the Geopolitics of Insecurity in the Arab World

(Product of workshop No. 6 at the 9th MRM 2008

Between global flows and territorial control

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2002."February 2002."Includes bibliographical references (p. 412-441).This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.This dissertation presents a new type of theory about the impact of increased transnational capital flows on state building processes. Most of the political science literature about globalization has been focused on debating the question of deterritorialization where the powers of territorial nation-states are viewed as being eroded by the increased transnational mobility of capital. This dissertation, in contrast, demonstrates how international tourism development-like many other aspects of globalization--can also produce "reterritorialization" characterized by the increased relevance of "place" for global economic activity. With increased globalization firms often seek to locate themselves in specific territories in order to capture what I call locational rents and external economies. In contrast to the dislocating effects of deterritorialization, reterritorialization can increase the political influence of state, societal, and transnational agents able to create localities that generate locational rents and external economies. The dissertation explores how states in the Middle East have promoted reterritorialization through tourism development in an attempt to enhance their control over capital and cultural flows as they promote economic liberalization and the incorporation of their economies into global markets. My fieldwork explored two national case studies with different configurations of territorial control. In Tunisia, I found that centralized state control over the territorially defined resources and institutions driving the reterritorialization process allowed the state to extend its control over transnational capital flows, the local private sector,(cont.) and the location of tourism development within Tunisia. In Jordan, by contrast, control over tourism spaces has been highly fragmented between rival state organizations, private firms and land holders, non-governmental organizations, and transnational actors such as environmentalists and heritage preservation experts. This situation has required the state to contend with societal resistance, organizational obstacles, and unfavorable bargains with societal actors.by Waleed Hazbun.Ph.D

Re-Mapping Transnational Connections in the Middle East: Political Economy,

(Product of workshop No. 6 at the 9th MRM 2008