Armies and State-building in the Modern Middle East: Politics, Nationalism and Military Reform

(Paperback)

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The uprisings of 2011, which erupted so unexpectedly and spread across the Middle East, once again propelled the armies of the region to the centre of the political stage. Throughout the region, the experience of the first decade of the twenty-first century provides ample reason to re-examine Middle Eastern armies and the historical context which produced them. By adding an historical understanding to a contemporary political analysis, Stephanie Cronin examines the structures and activities of Middle Eastern armies and their role in state- and empire-building. Focusing on Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, Armies, Tribes and States in the Middle East presents a clear and concise analysis of the nature of armies and the differing guises military reform has taken throughout the region. Covering the region from the birth of modern armies there in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, to the military revolutions of the 1950s and 60s and on to the twenty-first century army-building exercises seen in Iraq and Afghanistan, Cronin provides a unique and vital presentation of the role of the military in the modern Middle East.

Reviews

'Stephanie Cronin is to be congratulated on the inclusion of subaltern history and the fine analysis she provides here...This is a very important book and clearly the historical understanding is essential in current-day discourse on the behaviour of Middle Eastern armies.' Dr. Claudia Prestel, University of Leicester This is a timely and important book, contributing to our understanding of the building and rebuilding of armies in the Middle East. Cronin powerfully demonstrates how the specific behaviour of the military in each national context must take account of a complex web of factors. This book will have a wide range of readers from academics to activists and ordinary readers. Dr Elaheh Rostami-Povey, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Author Bio

Stephanie Cronin is Lecturer in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford. She is the author of Shahs, Soldiers and Subalterns: Opposition, Protest and Rebellion in Modern Iran, 1921-1941 and The Army and the Creation of the Pahlavi State in Iran, 1910-1926 (I.B.Tauris).