POMEPS has had a busy September. If you’ve also been swept up with the start of a new semester here is a quick recap of what we have been up to.
POMEPS director Marc Lynch introduced the new POMEPS Studies 16 International Relations Theory and a Changing Middle East. A result of collaboration with Aarhus University, these memos by fifteen key IR scholars critically engage with existing literature and challenge the ways in which we conceptualize the Middle East. The complete collection is now available for free download here.
In the Monkey Cage:
Caitlin Talmadge of George Washington University and Austin Long of Columbia University examine why the U.S. (still) can’t train the Iraqi military;
Nora Stel of Utrecht University and Rola el-Husseini of the City University of New York explore what a previous garbage crisis in Lebanon can teach us about Beirut‘s current situation, engaging with Bassel F. Salloukh of the Lebanese American University in Beirut who describes how protestors there are united against sectarianism as well as garbage;
Mohamed Daadaoui of Oklahoma City University shows how Morocco’s PJD party has succeeded where other Islamist organizations have failed;
Melissa Wall of California State, Northridge counters that cellphones are not a luxury for Syrian refugees but rather a key tool for communication and empowerment; and
Curtis R. Ryan of Appalachian State University questions how “new” proposed Jordanian election reforms really are.
POMEPS is now accepting proposals for our 7th Annual Conference on the contemporary politics of the Middle East. We look forward to receiving all proposals by December 11, 2015.