Elements in Middle East Politics – serie

Narratives of Sino-Middle Eastern Futures attempts to discern the future trajectory and endpoint of Sino-Middle Eastern relations - are we on the precipice of a post-American Chinese hegemony in the region? Or are we reaching the outer limits of what is feasible within what are essentially transactional ties? Drawing on a wide range of multilingual sources from 2010 to 2023, and based on a framework of thin constructivism, the Element delves into the Saudi, Syrian and Chinese elite narratives regarding the Middle Eastern regional order and China's envisaged place within it. By centering local perspectives, it offers insights into how these actors -with diverse positionalities in the region (vis-...-vis the United States) and different national capabilities- are debating the future of China in the Middle East, and what the juxtaposition of their multiple narratives mean for where things are headed. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Narratives of Sino-Middle Eastern Futures attempts to discern the future trajectory and endpoint of Sino-Middle Eastern relations - are we on the precipice of a post-American Chinese hegemony in the region? Or are we reaching the outer limits of what is feasible within what are essentially transactional ties? Drawing on a wide range of multilingual sources from 2010 to 2023, and based on a framework of thin constructivism, the Element delves into the Saudi, Syrian and Chinese elite narratives regarding the Middle Eastern regional order and China's envisaged place within it. By centering local perspectives, it offers insights into how these actors -with diverse positionalities in the region (vis-...-vis the United States) and different national capabilities- are debating the future of China in the Middle East, and what the juxtaposition of their multiple narratives mean for where things are headed. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

The Middle East has traditionally been understood as a world region by policy, political science, and the public. Its borders are highly ambiguous, however, and rarely explicitly justified or theorized. This Element examines how the current conception of the Middle East emerged from colonialism and the Cold War, placing it within both global politics and trends within American higher education. It demonstrates the strategic stakes of different possible definitions of the Middle East, as well as the internal political struggles to define and shape the identity of the region. It shows how unexamined assumptions about the region as a coherent and unified entity have distorted political science research by arbitrarily limiting the comparative universe of cases and foreclosing underlying politics. It argues for expanding our concept of the Middle East to better incorporate transregional connections within a broader appeal for comparative area studies.