Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising by Gilbert Achcar

Price: 80.00 AED

Publisher: Saqi Books 

Year of Publication: 2016

ISBN: 978-0863561832

About the Book

In Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising, Gilbert Achcar examines how the revolutionary wave of the 2011 Arab Spring gave way to a turbulent “Arab Winter” of counter-revolution, civil war, and authoritarian resurgence. Drawing on a Gramscian framework, he argues that when the old political order is dying but a new democratic one cannot yet be born, societies experience “morbid symptoms” — violent instability, sectarianism, and social fragmentation. Focusing on Egypt and Syria, Achcar analyzes the interplay of domestic power struggles, economic crises, and foreign intervention, showing why the uprisings failed to produce lasting change and why the region remains in turmoil.

About the Author

Gilbert Achcar is Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has written extensively on politics and development economics, as well as social change and social theory. His publications include The Clash of Barbarisms: September 11 and the Making of the New World Disorder, published in fifteen languages; Perilous Power: The Middle East and US Foreign Policy, with Noam Chomsky; The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising; and Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprisings; and The New Cold War: The United States, Russia and China, from Kosovo to Ukraine.