States Without People

Why right-wing politics is on the rise amidst revolts, war, and displacement across the Middle East.

States Without People argues that the major consequence of the failed revolts and civil wars in the Middle East has been the emergence of a culture of the right.

The horizon of emancipatory politics is in ruins, scarred by defeats and ongoing conflicts. Under the auspices of technocapitalist elites and their political allies, a reactionary turn tightens its grip on the world. Civil wars and regional conflicts are surging. The Middle East has become the regional laboratory for a global reconfiguration of power.

States Without People explores how revolts that preceded the outbreak of war have fostered a right-wing political culture. In a nuanced discussion of the defeat of popular revolts and the rise of mythological politics, hypermilitarism, and ethnosupremacism, Billie Jeanne Brownlee and Maziyar Ghiabi take readers into the phenomenological depths of citizen politics in Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Egypt, across the Arabian Peninsula, and beyond. The book highlights three pivotal moments: the outbreak and defeat of popular revolts, the ensuing civil wars, and the complex displacement that has forced millions from their homes.

States Without People advances a paradigm shift in state–citizen relations from the vantage point of the Middle East. In the state without people, there is no ideological space for a heterogeneous or self-contradictory citizenry – only for partisans, whose interests overlap with the state’s, and for enemies.