Building on Timothy Mitchell's seminal 1991 exploration of the "Limits of the State," this book brings together contributions on the state in the Arab world from the past and present in an edited volume. Altered States views the state less as a matter of people and institutions and more as sets of practices, regimes of truth, and capabilities of power, and the effects they have on those under their control. Through analysing case studies - including Tunisia, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, UAE, Rojova, and the Islamic State - the concept of the state is applied and questioned. This book examines the roots of policies that led to the uprisings, focusing on how the "authoritarian bargain", which helped define Arab politics, broke down with the rise of neoliberalism. It also assesses how boundaries between state and society have been redrawn, as various dynamics have brought state forces into more open conflict with citizens and each other. The rapid pace of change in the Arab world has necessitated constant modification of themes and theoretical lens of analysis. This book will, therefore, be of interest to practitioners, graduate students and academics of the Arab world, statehood, and political science.

The pivotal years that laid the foundations for our times – in the Middle East and the world In the latter half of the twentieth century, a revolutionary idea promised to upend the global order. Anti-imperialist militancy, bolstered by international solidarity, would lead to not only the national liberation of oppressed peoples but universal emancipation, shattering the division between the prosperous nations of the capitalist West and the poorer countries of the Global South. The idea was Third Worldism, and among others it inspired struggles in Iran and Palestine. By the early 1980s, however, progressive visions of independence and freedom had fallen to the reality of an oppressive Islamic theocracy in Iran, while the Palestinian Revolution had been eclipsed by civil war in Lebanon, Israeli aggression and intra-Arab conflict. This thought-provoking volume explores the dramatic decline of Third Worldism in the Middle East. It reveals the lived realities of the time by focusing on the key protagonists – from student activists to guerrilla fighters, and from volunteer nurses to militant intellectuals – and juxtaposes the Iranian and Palestinian cases to offer a riveting re-examination of this defining era. Ultimately, it challenges us to reassess how we view the end of the long 1960s, prompting us to reconsider perennial questions concerning self-determination, emancipation, change and solidarity.   Contents Introduction: The Transformation of Third Worldism in the Middle East Sune Haugbolle and Rasmus Elling 1 Demystifying Third World Solidarity: Cuba and the Palestinian Revolution in the Seventies Sorcha Thomson 2 Nursing the Revolution: Norwegian Medical Support in Lebanon as Solidarity, 1976–1983 Pelle Valentin Olsen 3 Searching for Friends Across the Global South: Classified Documents, Iran, and the Export of the Revolution in 1983 Simon Wolfgang Fuchs 4 The Gendered Politics of Dead Bodies: Obituaries, Revolutionaries, and Martyrs between the Iranian, Palestinian, and Dhufar Revolutions Marral Shamshiri-Fard 5 Brothers, Comrades, and the Quest for the Islamist International: The First Gathering of Liberation Movements in Revolutionary Iran Mohammad Ataie 6 Jabal ʿAmil Between the Palestinian and Iranian Revolutions Nate George 7 The Islamic Republic Party and the Palestinian Cause, 1979–80: A Discursive Transformation of the Third Worldist Agenda Maryam Alemzadeh 8 Translation, Revolutionary Praxis, and the Enigma of Manuchehr Hezarkhani Nasser Mohajer and Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi 9 The Front of our Friends: Shu’un Falastiniyya as an Archive of Palestinian Third Worldism Klaudia Wieser 10 Fragile Solidarity: The Iranian Left and the Kurdish National Question in the 1979 Revolution Rasmus C. Elling and Jahangir Mahmoudi 11 The ‘Ends’ of the Palestinian Revolution in the Fakhani Republic Sune Haugbolle Afterword: Towards a Praxis-Centred Historiography of Middle East Third Worldism Toufoul Abou-Hodeib and Naghmeh Sohrabi

In the last five to ten years, pressure for political liberalisation, and the growth of civil society and independent media, inside Arab countries have prompted the debate about violent events in the postcolonial period. This book features studies of six Arab countries in which legacies of political violence have been challenged through various initiatives to promote "truth-telling" and transitional justice.

The analysis departs from a liberal, teleological understanding of truth and reconciliation as a linear process from trauma through memory to national healing. Instead, the articles highlight how the interplay between state-orchestrated initiatives (such as Truth and Reconciliation committees and ministerial committees); civil society actors (including former political prisoners, investigative journalists and NGOs); and external actors (such as transnational NGOs, state sponsored dialogue initiatives, the UN and the EU) is creating a new political field.

The book examines the extent to which this field challenges the Arab nation-state's monopoly on history and violence, and asks whether public narratives of violence, memory and justice consolidate or challenge political legitimacy of current regimes.

This book was published as a special issue of Mediterranean Politics.

In the last five to ten years, pressure for political liberalisation, and the growth of civil society and independent media, inside Arab countries have prompted the debate about violent events in the postcolonial period. This book features studies of six Arab countries in which legacies of political violence have been challenged through various initiatives to promote "truth-telling" and transitional justice. The analysis departs from a liberal, teleological understanding of truth and reconciliation as a linear process from trauma through memory to national healing. Instead, the articles highlight how the interplay between state-orchestrated initiatives (such as Truth and Reconciliation committees and ministerial committees); civil society actors (including former political prisoners, investigative journalists and NGOs); and external actors (such as transnational NGOs, state sponsored dialogue initiatives, the UN and the EU) is creating a new political field. The book examines the extent to which this field challenges the Arab nation-state's monopoly on history and violence, and asks whether public narratives of violence, memory and justice consolidate or challenge political legitimacy of current regimes. This book was published as a special issue of Mediterranean Politics.

From 1975 to 1990, Lebanon endured one of the most protracted and bloody civil wars of the twentieth century. Sune Haugbolle's book chronicles the battle over ideas that emerged from the wreckage of that war. While the Lebanese state encouraged forgetfulness and political parties created sectarian interpretations of the war through cults of dead leaders, intellectuals and activists - inspired by the example of truth and reconciliation movements in different parts of the world - advanced the idea that confronting and remembering the war was necessary for political and cultural renewal. Through an analysis of different cultural productions - media, art, literature, film, posters, and architecture - the author shows how the recollection and reconstruction of political and sectarian violence that took place during the war have helped in Lebanon's healing process. He also shows how a willingness to confront the past influenced the popular uprising in Lebanon after the assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

From 1975 to 1990, Lebanon endured one of the most protracted and bloody civil wars of the twentieth century. Sune Haugbolle s timely and often poignant book chronicles the battle over ideas that emerged from the wreckage of that war. While the Lebanese state encouraged forgetfulness and political parties created sectarian interpretations of the war through cults of dead leaders, intellectuals and activists inspired by the example of truth and reconciliation movements in different parts of the world advanced the idea that confronting and remembering the war was necessary for political and cultural renewal. Through an analysis of different cultural productions media, art, literature, film, posters, and architecture the author shows how the recollection and reconstruction of political and sectarian violence that took place during the war have helped in Lebanon s healing process. He also shows how a willingness to confront the past influenced the popular uprising in Lebanon after the assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.