New CIRS Book on the Arab Spring’s Political Impact

CIRS launched a new book titled, Beyond the Arab Spring: The Evolving Ruling Bargain in the Middle East. The book is edited by the Director of CIRS, Mehran Kamrava. The Arab Spring occurred within the context of the unraveling of the dominant “ruling bargain” that emerged across the Middle East in the 1950s. This is being replaced by a new and inchoate system that redefines sources of authority and legitimacy through various devices (such as constitutions), experiences, and processes (mass protests, civil wars, and elections), by reassessing the roles, functions, and at times the structures of institutions (political parties and organizations, the armed forces, the executive); and by the initiative of key personalities and actors (agency). Read more from Oxford University Press.