The objective of the following collected volume is to encourage a critical reflection on the relationship between "power" and "non-power" in our contemporary "world" and, proceeding from various philosophical traditions, to investigate the multifaceted aspects of this relationship. The authors' respective investigations proceed from an intercultural perspective and fall predominantly in the domain of political theory and philosophy. This volume takes an intercultural political perspective, which means, on the one hand, involving non-European philosophies in a global debate about power relations and their effects in the world and, on the other hand, confronting local traditions of thought with a global inquiry in order to enter into a philosophical-political dialogue with these traditions. An intercultural approach of this type to political philosophy seeks not only to join others in reflecting upon global problems, but also to decenter of our understanding of the world, drawing attention to new ways of thinking. Insofar as the authors of the planned volume deal with "concrete" philosophical-political problems unfolding in various regions of the world, they seek to shed light on burning issues like migration, human rights violations, dictatorship and language, global poverty, power asymmetries, experiences of injustice with the further goal of offering a particularly intercultural analysis of these problems along with approaches to resolving them. To date, there is no book that collects various essays from different countries and perspectives and poses political-philosophical problems from an intercultural point of view.

The essays are very high quality, written by well-qualified researchers, and address a subject of high interest to those concerned with development/political issues related to the Middle East. They...make a significant contribution to the field of educational reform and development, identity construction and nation building. . Eleanor Doumato, Watson Institute, Brown University

This volume will prove a valuable contribution for scholars and policymakers interested in educational policy, curricular reform, historiography, and Arab World identities. . Nabil Al-Tikriti, University of Mary Washington

Education systems and textbooks in selected countries of the Middle East are increasingly the subject of debate. This volume presents and analyzes the major trends as well as the scope and the limits of education reform initiatives undertaken in recent years. In curricula and teaching materials, representations of the "Self" and the "Other" offer insights into the contemporary dynamics of identity politics. By building on a network of scholars working in various countries in the Middle East itself, this book aims to contribute to the evolution of a field of comparative education studies in this region.

Samira Alayan is Lecturer at the David Yellin College of Education, Jerusalem. Since 2006 she has been a Research Fellow at the Georg-Eckert-Institute for International Textbook Research, Germany. Her research focuses on education in conflict zones, especially in Israel/Palestine, including East Jerusalem, and on education reforms in the Arab Middle East.

Achim Rohde is a research fellow at the Center for the Study of Antisemitism at the Technical University, Berlin. From 2006 to 2010, he was a Research Fellow at the Georg-Eckert-Institute for International Textbook Research, Germany. He is the author of "State-Society Relations in Ba'thist Iraq: Facing Dictatorship" (Routledge, 2010) and co-editor of "Iraq Between Occupations: Perspectives from 1920 to the Present" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

Sarhan Dhouib was a Research Fellow at the Georg-Eckert-Institute for International Textbook Research, Germany in 2008-09, and is currently Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy of Kassel University, Germany. He co-edited "Al-Islah at-Tarbawi fi-sh-Sharq al-Awsat" (with Samira Alayan and Achim Rohde, Dar al-Shurouq, 2010). He was editor of Volume 59 of "Concordia" about current Arabic-Islamic philosophy and laureate of the Goethe-Instituts Newcomer Award for Philosophy in 2011."