The Middle East

Extract

For political scientists studying the Middle East, the invitation to discuss the possible relevance of their work to comparative politics in general is a welcome and rare opportunity. There is, one senses, a gap between the Middle East political science community and the mainstream disciplinary generalists. To the extent that they even care about being part of the field, some Middle East political scientists feel ghettoized—their region and their work are ignored. Some feel as well that mainstream comparative politics theorizing has not offered much toward better understanding to Middle East politics. Such concerns motivated the establishment of the Conference Group on the Middle East, which organizes sessions in conjunction with, yet separate from, the main program at the APSA Annual Meeting. It is noteworthy that some of the most imaginative recent work on Middle East politics draws from anthropology, political economy, social history, and critical cultural and literary theory. “The Middle East political science community” is not populated exclusively by political scientists.