State Formation and Identity in the Middle East and North Africa.

• Author: Barin, Hilal
• Position: Book review

State Formation and Identity in the Middle East and North Africa

By Kenneth Christie and Mohammad Masad

US: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 256 pages, $110.00, ISBN: 9781137369598.

Christie and Masad analyze the role of State Formation and Identity in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region by bringing together an impressive compilation of papers presented at the 13 th Mediterranean Research Meeting. This research focuses on the period after the Arab Spring, which has drawn attention to crucial elements in assessing the way states are formed, stay together, and react to the forces of globalization. Focusing on the particular contexts of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, and Bahrain, the authors argue that states in the MENA region have had different implications and consequences, which stem from the politics of identity and the historical and political processes that they have faced in their development.

Christie and Masad highlight that research is still in its infancy and a coherent theoretical framework is required to analyse the role of religious and ethnic identities on state formation in the region. They identify three distinct directions that potentially yield a more comprehensive understanding. First, to theorize the different ways religion and ethnicity interact, compete and complement state formation processes from a historical and political perspective. Second, to theorize the "state as an entity, with a focus on its ideological substance and biases" in order to uncover the different approaches of the states in dealing with questions of religion, ethnicity, and identities linked to them. Thirdly, to theorize "the complex relationship between globalization and states in the MENA," examining for example, whether globalisation has strengthened democratization or caused more fragmentation?

Drawing on dependency theory, Marion Boulby in Chapter Two offers a different perspective on the intricacies of identity and state formation in relation to the development of the world market and the "rise of elites owing allegiance to extra regional powers." Boulby provides a narrative of state development in the Arab world, and traces how, on a general level, the Arab historical trajectories have been shaped by factors, such as Western European colonialism and capitalism, the two World Wars, and now, the Arab Spring, which have tried to impose identities from above.

In chapter three, Nur Koprulu problematizes Jordanian state...