Bassel Salloukh

The Anatomy of Lebanon’s Postwar Integral State: The Political Economy of Cartels and Consent This essay stretches Antonio Gramsci’s core concept of the integral state to explain an enigma in contemporary Lebanon: why the massive collapse after the October 2019 protests failed to generate c...

Why did the "massive collapse after the October 2019 protests [fail] to generate commensurate political, ideological, and organizational responses?"

Check out this wonderful new piece by @bassel26.bsky.social

#Polisky

The Anatomy of Lebanon’s Postwar Integral State: The Political Economy of Cartels and Consent This essay stretches Antonio Gramsci’s core concept of the integral state to explain an enigma in contemporary Lebanon: why the massive collapse after the October 2019 protests failed to generate c...

My new paper just out: “The Anatomy of Lebanon’s Postwar Integral State: The Political Economy of Cartels and Consent” 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

www.tandfonline.com/eprint/FJEAG...

Episode 23 – Militarization in Jordan with Dr. Pete Moore and Dr. Sean Yom In this episode, Ezra Karmel speaks with Sean Yom and Pete Moore about their recent special issue in MELG,

Just out: Pete Moore and @seanyom.bsky.social in conversation with Ezra Karmel about their MELG Roundtable “Reconceptualizing Security and Political Economy in the Modern Middle East," which includes articles on Jordan, Syria and Yemen

on.soundcloud.com/CgXZYhR8rgxs...

MELG’s new issue is out! It’s a SI on “Populism in the Arab World” coedited with MELG Editorial Board member @ammars.bsky.social

❤️ to see Winning Lebanon getting good press years later. Thanks @bassel26.bsky.social for reviewing 👏

Chech out Tamirace Fakhoury’s blog about our new MELG SI on “Concomitant crises and Sectarian Power-Sharing: What’s next for Lebanon?”
blog.brill.com/display/post...

A Microcosm of the World | C.L.R. James, Stuart Hall, Phoebe Braithwaite In May 1976, the Jamaican-born cultural theorist Stuart Hall sat down in the BBC’s studios in West London to interview the Trinidadian-born intellectual

C.L.R. James, interviewed by Stuart Hall, introduction by Phoebe Braithwaite - complete unaired BBC interview from 1976, in The New York Review
www.nybooks.com/online/2024/...
requires subscription or free registration to read just this piece

Civilians in Beirut are heading to seek shelter at the American University of Beirut Hospital amid Israeli evacuation orders in central Beirut. 🇱🇧

(Photo sent by local residents to L'Orient Today)

An intellecrual giant' ECONOMIST BENEDICT ANDERSON IMAGINED COMMUNITIES Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism

This classic work in the history of nationalism argues that the rise of widely available print (esp. newspapers) made it possible for geographically dispersed groups of people to imagine themselves as a roughly coherent entity called "a nation" in which there was an ongoing conversation.

Many protest movements of the past decade have backfired. What would it take for one to succeed under Trump? Some features of mass protests in the 2010s also held them back – but years of study have made journalist Vincent Bevins believe solidarity and structure can effect change

“Join a labor union, a social movement, a political party, a tenant union, a community organization, a book club. Literally anything is better than sitting at home and scrolling on your phone and getting mad at the news.”

Building Walls, Constructing Identities | Stanford University Press States are erecting walls at their borders at a pace unmatched in history, and the wall between the United States and Mexico stands as an icon among these dividing structures.

Marie-Eve Loiselle, Building Walls, Constructing Identities: Legal Discourse and the Creation of National Borders - @stanfordpress.bsky.social, November 2024
www.sup.org/books/law/bu...

‘Israel is trying to terrorise people’: Lebanon’s civil defence reels after deadly strike After 20 people including 15 first responders killed in Douris, rescuers ask why state service was targeted

The strike killed the regional head of the public civil defense agency. One of his final requests was for a "bio radar" to detect life under rubble.

So many ppl in the region have told me they joined civil protection b/c they didn't want to do politics or join a party; they just wanted to help ppl.

The case of al-Shifa: Investigating the assault on Gaza’s largest hospital The evidence presented by the Israeli government falls short of showing that Hamas had been using the hospital as a command and control center, a Post analysis shows.

A year on from the IDF's assault on Gaza's largest hospital, it has yet to provide any compelling evidence to suggest facility was a Hamas HQ, as alleged by Isreal and US. Attack set the tone for a campaign that has since decimated Gaza's medical system. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/1...

New World Bank Report Assesses Impact of Conflict on Lebanon’s Economy and Key Sectors The cost of physical damages and economic losses due to the conflict in Lebanon is estimated at US$8.5 billion, according to a new World Bank report that provides an initial assessment of the impact o...

World Bank estimates cost of Israel’s war on Lebanon at $8.5 billion so far.

www.worldbank.org/en/news/pres...

My contribution to the new issue of the newsletter of the Democracy and Autocracy section of APSA about my chapter It features the recent book “Making Sense of the Arab State”

Steven Heydemann and Marc Lynch, eds., Making Sense of the Arab State (New Texts Out Now) jadaliyya.com/Details/46324 via @jadaliyya.bsky.social

“Making Sense of the Arab State” featured in APSA’s Democracy & Autocracy newsletter 👇🏼👇🏼

My review of Azmi Bishara’s Understanding revolutions: opening acts in Tunisia at www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

MELG 16.3 closes with a Case Comment by Mais Qandeel on “Understanding Constitutional Principles for the Advancement of Digital Rights in Palestine” that examines the constitutional and legal status of digital rights in Palestine, as well as its political and legal challenges

Nataliia Stepaniuk & Golrokh Niazi’s Fieldnote “Reflections on Researcher’s Positionality and the Evolving Role of Research Participants” presents insights into the role of research participants + importance of interpersonal relationships in navigating the field and generating ethnographic findings.

While in “The Fortress State: Extreme Militarization in Jordan” Pete Moore and Sean Yom argue that Jordanian militarization persists not from exogenous structural forces, but the deliberate choices of its political architects.

Abeer Al-Eryan’s “The Political Economy of Energy Security in Wartime Yemen” studies the relationship between energy provision and conflict within the context of the ongoing war in Yemen.

Omar Dahi’s contribution on “Syrian War Economies” contends that political economy and comparative approaches can help explain the connections between global-regional processes and domestic institutional transformations brought by war.

We then have a Roundtable on “Reconceptualizing Security and Political Economy in the Modern Middle East” where contributors seek to reorient prevailing concepts of security within the contemporary Middle East and North Africa through a critical political economy framework.

Next is Sabri Ciftci’s “Crafting Cross-Border Connections: Religion and Perceptions of Erdoğan in the Middle East and North Africa” which examines how religion influences public opinion about foreign leaders, focusing on attitudes toward Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

In “Constraints on Female Labor Force Participation in Qatar: Understanding the Effects of Marriage, Family, and Traditional Values” Lisa Blaydes, Justin Gengler & Noora Lari examine constraints to female labor force participation in Qatar

MELG 16.3 (2024) is out and our readers are in for a comprehensive issue, composed of 2 articles, a Roundatble, a Fieldnote and a Case Comment!

Check out MELG 16.2’s ToC 👇🏼👇🏼

MELG volume 16 issue 2 is out, check it out: 👇🏼👇🏼

brill.com/view/journal...

Co-authored with @halawi.bsky.social & Janine Clark in & Trying to answer the most difficult question of all: how do radical movement parties birth political change in political economic contexts they reject completely! 🇱🇧🇱🇧🇱🇧