The Arab Uprisings Explained: New Contentious Politics in the Middle East, edited by Marc Lynch and published this fall 2014 by Columbia University Press, included the contributions of more than a dozen regular POMEPS members and was developed in part through a series of POMEPS-sponsored workshops in Cairo and Washington, DC. On October 2-3, 2014, POMEPS hosted most of the authors for a workshop and a half-day of public panels to reflect on the many significant developments in the region since the book’s chapters were conceived and written. The workshop asked the authors to write short essays that rethink or update their arguments, pose new research questions, and reflect on the state of the field of Middle East political science as we approach the fourth anniversary of the uprisings. The essays are published here, and will be published in November as a free, downloadable PDF collection in the POMEPS Studies series.

“Advice for youngsters: Do as I say, not as I did,” Nathan J. Brown, George Washington University

“Reconsidering ‘theories of transition’,” Daniel Brumberg, Georgetown University

“More about states and bankers: Prospects for Islamic finance,” Clement M. Henry, American University in Cairo

“The evolution of Islamism since the Arab uprisings,” Quinn Mecham, Brigham Young University

“Political system preferences after the Arab spring,” Mark Tessler, University of Michigan & Michael Robbins, Princeton University

“Inter-Arab politics and international relations in the Middle East ,” Curtis R. Ryan, Appalachian State University

“Arab youth activism for gender equality,” Vickie Langohr, College of the Holy Cross

“Comparing explanations of the Arab uprisings,” David Siddhartha Patel, Brandeis University