This interdisciplinary resource brings together important works from the fields of international relations theory and Middle East studies - it promotes a stronger dialogue and cross-fertilisation between the two areas of study. The work's esteemed editorial team has structured the volumes thematically, to allow for ease of navigation and clear understanding of the different key aspects:
- Volume One addresses the more fundamental and (meta)theoretical issues relating to the debate about the study of Middle East international relations
- Volume Two looks at the history of the field, addressing the debate about the emergence and evolution of the modern Middle East state system.
- Volume Three examines more recent debates, and primarily the issue about the role of identity politics in international relations.
- Volume Four engages with more classic and well-known issues from the general IR debate and explores to what extent assumptions and approaches from these debates are also useful in the study of Middle East international relations.
The articles are framed by an introductory essay written by the editors, which helps to guide the reader through the volumes by providing further context and explaining the rationale behind the selection of literature.
In addition to meta-theoretical issues concerning (inter)disciplinarity in IR, the role of cultural diversity in the study of international relations, the Area Studies Controversy and the study of politics in an (un)exceptional Middle East, Morten Valbjørn's work has focused on the transformation of Arabism, the 'New Arab Cold War', (post)democratization and Arab political rule, trends within Islamism and continuity and changes in regional politics following the Arab Uprisings. He is the author of one monograph entitled 'A ′Baedeker′ to IR′s Cultural Journey before, during and after the Cultural Turn: Explorations into the (ir)relevance of cultural diversity, the IR/Area Studies Nexus and politics in an (un)exceptional Middle East (2008, Aarhus: Politica), has edited 6 books/journal special issues and published 45 academic articles in journals and as book chapters. His work has appeared in, among others, Review of International Studies, Cooperation & Conflict, International Journal of Sociology, Journal of Mediterranean Studies, Middle East Critique, Mediterranean Politics, Middle East Report, Foreign Policy: The Middle East Channel, KRITIK, Politica, and POLITIK.
Fred H. Lawson focuses his scholarship on the political economy and foreign policy of the Arab states, as well as on dynamics of regionalism in the contemporary Middle East. He is author of Global Security Watch Syria (Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger Security International, 2013); Constructing International Relations in the Arab World (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2006); Why Syria Goes to War: Thirty Years of Confrontation (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1996); The Social Origins of Egyptian Expansionism during the Muhammad ′Ali Period (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992); and Bahrain: The Modernization of Autocracy (Boulder: Westview Press, 1989); he also edited Comparative Regionalism (Library of Essays in International Relations) (Aldershot: Ashgate 2009). His essays have appeared in International Organization, Review of International Studies, Journal of Peace Research, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Middle East Journal, Middle East Policy, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Arab Studies Quarterly, Middle East Report, International History Review, International Spectator, and Orient.
