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May 2023 Vol. 60 No. 9

Though the field of Middle Eastern studies is replete with analysis of the Arab Spring, this book is a welcome collaboration, providing a platform for a remarkable 47 contributors to introduce their professional concerns to their readership. Though ascertaining the individual contributions to each of the 12 chapters is difficult (several had as many as six coauthors), as individual chapters they offer important clarifications on how scholars develop new perspectives on studies of authoritarianism, international relations, military violence, protests, political economy, identity, migration, public opinion, and Islamism. As such, this concise volume is an ideal introductory tool for the classroom. Moreover, the generally unexplored ethical questions that come with conducting research in a region that remains a primary target for economic exploitation and foreign intervention receive much appreciated attention throughout. Unfortunately, despite the range of contributors, the Egyptian and Syrian cases receive the lion's share of attention. Key arenas of political contestation during the post-2010 era—especially Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen—receive practically no attention. Despite this lacuna of individual country cases, the volume is a fresh and essential read for political science students of the region.

--I. Blumi, Stockholm University

Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.