Azmi Bishara
Doha Institute: The Arab Center For Research and Policy Studies, Research, DI Chair of the Board of Trustees/ ACRPS Director
General Director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI). An Arab researcher and intellectual with numerous books and academic publications on political thought, social theory and philosophy. Was named by Le Nouveau Magazine Littéraire as one of the world’s most influential thinkers. Publications in Arabic include: Civil Society: A Critical Study (1996); From the Jewishness of the State to Sharon (2004); On The Arab Question: An Introduction to an Arab Democratic Manifesto (2007); To Be an Arab in Our Times (2009); On Revolution and Susceptibility to Revolution (2012); Religion and Secularism in Historical Context (in 3 vols., 2013, 2015); The Army and Political Power in the Arab Context: Theoretical Problems (2017); The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Daesh): A General Framework and Critical Contribution to Understanding the Phenomenon (2018); What is Populism? (2019) and Democratic Transition and its Problems: Theoretical Lessons from Arab Experiences (2020). Some of these works have become key references within their respective field. The latest publication titled The Question of the State: Philosophy, Theory, and Context (2023).
English publications include: Palestine: Matters of Truth and Justice (Hurst, 2022); On Salafism: Concepts and Contexts (Stanford University Press, 2022); Sectarianism without Sects (Oxford University Press, 2021), among other writings. His trilogy on the Arab revolutions, published by I.B. Tauris, consists of Understanding Revolutions: Opening Acts in Tunisia (2021); Egypt: Revolution, Failed Transition and Counter-Revolution (2022); and Syria 2011-2013: Revolution and Tyranny before the Mayhem (2023), in which they provide a theoretical analysis in addition to a rich, comprehensive and lucid assessment of the revolutions in three Arab countries: Tunisia, Egypt and Syria.
English publications include: Palestine: Matters of Truth and Justice (Hurst, 2022); On Salafism: Concepts and Contexts (Stanford University Press, 2022); Sectarianism without Sects (Oxford University Press, 2021), among other writings. His trilogy on the Arab revolutions, published by I.B. Tauris, consists of Understanding Revolutions: Opening Acts in Tunisia (2021); Egypt: Revolution, Failed Transition and Counter-Revolution (2022); and Syria 2011-2013: Revolution and Tyranny before the Mayhem (2023), in which they provide a theoretical analysis in addition to a rich, comprehensive and lucid assessment of the revolutions in three Arab countries: Tunisia, Egypt and Syria.
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Papers by Azmi Bishara
quand une sociologue délaisse le raisonnement logique au profit de l'inconscient
الثلاثاء، 28 تشرين الثاني/ نوفمبر 2023
In this series, Bishara provides a theoretical analysis in addition to a rich, comprehensive and lucid assessment of the revolutions in three Arab countries: Tunisia, Egypt and Syria. This Revolutions Trilogy discusses the social, economic and political backdrop to the Arab revolutions that began in 2011.
Bishara’s book on the Syrian Revolution is one of the most comprehensive and profound works on the subject published to date. Originally released in Arabic in 2013, this expanded and revised English edition examines the complex roots of Syria's political and sectarian conflicts. Its publication brings well-known Arabic-language scholarship to the English-speaking world.
The book provides an analysis of the country's socio-economic background, examining the Syrian regime's strategy, its political and media discourse, the ruralization and militarization of Syrian politics, and the subsequent economic 'liberalization', which eventually led to the revolt against the Baath party. Bishara delivers an analytical record of the revolution from day one to its subsequent descent into civil war, chronicled in two stages: the peaceful civil stage and the armed stage. He excavates the very first signs of protests throughout the country with a comprehensive analysis of what drove those early events, explaining the failure of the transition and how it slipped into a civil meltdown that has impacted on the Arab region ever since. Bishara's analysis first centres on the regime's strategy, unveiling despotism, massacres, kidnapping, sectarian tendencies, jihadist violence, the emergence of warlords, and the chaotic spread of arms. He critically discusses the role of the opposition, narrating in detail the events that broke out and how a peaceful protest turned into an armed struggle.
Bishara has supplemented this seminal work with a rigorous account of the developments that Syria and the Syrian people have experienced over the last decade. Written as the revolution unfolded, this book conveys a sense of immediacy and urgency as Bishara makes wide-ranging assessments with many of his forecasts corroborated in the years to come. The book is renowned for its use of primary source material, and high-level interviews, thus preserving the memory of the revolution and remaining one of the most comprehensive reference books on the subject to date.
Bishara offers a sophisticated account of various movements—such as Wahabbism and Hanbalism—frequently collapsed into simplistic understandings of Salafism. He distinguishes reformist from regressive Salafism, and examines patterns of modernization in the development of contemporary Islamic political movements and associations. In deconstructing the assumptions of linear continuity between traditional and contemporary movements, Bishara details various divergences in both doctrine and context of modern Salafisms, plural. On Salafism is a crucial read for those interested in Islamism, jihadism, and Middle East politics and history.
Part One, 'From July Coup to January Revolution', goes back to what is called the '1952 revolution' or the '1952 Coup d'état' and traces events until 2011 when Hosni Mubarak stepped down as the president of Egypt after weeks of protest. It highlights the relationship between the presidency and the army to show that, contrary to popular belief, the presidency grew gradually stronger at the expense of other institutions, especially the army, and reached its apogee under Mubarak. Part Two 'From Revolution to Coup d'Etat', covers the critical stages from when the military junta took over the governing of Egypt as the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), and the election of Morsi, up until the coup to overthrow his presidency. Using a democratic transition theory perspective, Azmi Bishara explains the failure of the democratic transition and how it has impacted on Arab revolutions ever since.
Written while the revolutions were taking place, this book conveys a sense of immediacy and urgency as Bishara makes wide-ranging assessments with many of his forecasts corroborated in later years. The book is renowned for its use of primary source material - including interviews, statistics and public opinion polls – thus preserving the memory of the revolution and remaining one of the most comprehensive reference books on the subject to date.
quand une sociologue délaisse le raisonnement logique au profit de l'inconscient
الثلاثاء، 28 تشرين الثاني/ نوفمبر 2023
In this series, Bishara provides a theoretical analysis in addition to a rich, comprehensive and lucid assessment of the revolutions in three Arab countries: Tunisia, Egypt and Syria. This Revolutions Trilogy discusses the social, economic and political backdrop to the Arab revolutions that began in 2011.
Bishara’s book on the Syrian Revolution is one of the most comprehensive and profound works on the subject published to date. Originally released in Arabic in 2013, this expanded and revised English edition examines the complex roots of Syria's political and sectarian conflicts. Its publication brings well-known Arabic-language scholarship to the English-speaking world.
The book provides an analysis of the country's socio-economic background, examining the Syrian regime's strategy, its political and media discourse, the ruralization and militarization of Syrian politics, and the subsequent economic 'liberalization', which eventually led to the revolt against the Baath party. Bishara delivers an analytical record of the revolution from day one to its subsequent descent into civil war, chronicled in two stages: the peaceful civil stage and the armed stage. He excavates the very first signs of protests throughout the country with a comprehensive analysis of what drove those early events, explaining the failure of the transition and how it slipped into a civil meltdown that has impacted on the Arab region ever since. Bishara's analysis first centres on the regime's strategy, unveiling despotism, massacres, kidnapping, sectarian tendencies, jihadist violence, the emergence of warlords, and the chaotic spread of arms. He critically discusses the role of the opposition, narrating in detail the events that broke out and how a peaceful protest turned into an armed struggle.
Bishara has supplemented this seminal work with a rigorous account of the developments that Syria and the Syrian people have experienced over the last decade. Written as the revolution unfolded, this book conveys a sense of immediacy and urgency as Bishara makes wide-ranging assessments with many of his forecasts corroborated in the years to come. The book is renowned for its use of primary source material, and high-level interviews, thus preserving the memory of the revolution and remaining one of the most comprehensive reference books on the subject to date.
Bishara offers a sophisticated account of various movements—such as Wahabbism and Hanbalism—frequently collapsed into simplistic understandings of Salafism. He distinguishes reformist from regressive Salafism, and examines patterns of modernization in the development of contemporary Islamic political movements and associations. In deconstructing the assumptions of linear continuity between traditional and contemporary movements, Bishara details various divergences in both doctrine and context of modern Salafisms, plural. On Salafism is a crucial read for those interested in Islamism, jihadism, and Middle East politics and history.
Part One, 'From July Coup to January Revolution', goes back to what is called the '1952 revolution' or the '1952 Coup d'état' and traces events until 2011 when Hosni Mubarak stepped down as the president of Egypt after weeks of protest. It highlights the relationship between the presidency and the army to show that, contrary to popular belief, the presidency grew gradually stronger at the expense of other institutions, especially the army, and reached its apogee under Mubarak. Part Two 'From Revolution to Coup d'Etat', covers the critical stages from when the military junta took over the governing of Egypt as the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), and the election of Morsi, up until the coup to overthrow his presidency. Using a democratic transition theory perspective, Azmi Bishara explains the failure of the democratic transition and how it has impacted on Arab revolutions ever since.
Written while the revolutions were taking place, this book conveys a sense of immediacy and urgency as Bishara makes wide-ranging assessments with many of his forecasts corroborated in later years. The book is renowned for its use of primary source material - including interviews, statistics and public opinion polls – thus preserving the memory of the revolution and remaining one of the most comprehensive reference books on the subject to date.