Weak States in the Greater Middle East

The Weak States in the Greater Middle East project offers a critical analysis ‎of current definitions and terminology of weak and fragile states, scrutinizing the political ‎implications of the prevailing discourse within the setting of the broader Middle East. This project examines the causes and consequences of the “fragility” of states from Afghanistan and Pakistan in the east to Sudan and Libya in the west.

Background and Scope of the Project

A growing body of literature within the social science disciplines has developed over the last few ‎decades around the concept of “state failure”. Initially, the scholarship focused on the poor…

Working Group Meetings

Click here to view the “Weak States in the Greater Middle East” Working Group Meeting I Click here to view the “Weak States in the Greater Middle East” Working Group Meeting II As an…

Publications

Book Mehran Kamrava, ed., Fragile Politics: Weak States in the Greater Middle East (Oxford University Press/Hurst, 2016). The 2011 Arab uprisings precipitated the relatively quick collapse of a number of Middle Eastern states…