15.11.2023

Departmental Seminar: "Middle East regional politics before and during the current Israel/Gaza crisis: A New Arab Cold War 2.0?“

André Bank (GIGA - German Institute of Global Area Studies, Hamburg), 15.11.2023, 16:00 c.t. in the seminar room 124, at the institute of political science or via Zoom

Dr. André Bank, is a Senior Research Fellow at GIGA German Institute for Global and Area Studies, Institute for Middle East Studies in Hamburg. His research on authoritarianism, conflict dynamics and regional politics in the Middle East has been published in disciplinary journals (Democratization, Journal of Peace Research, Review of International Studies) as well as area studies outlets (Mediterranean Politics, Digest of Middle East Studies, Middle East Policy). Dr. Bank is a member of the executive council of the Merian Center for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM, funded by BMBF) in Tunis and of the steering committee of the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS).

The terrorist attacks of Hamas in Israel on 7 October 2023 and the ensuing, massive violence escalation in the Gaza strip, in the Westbank and also in Israel have brought the Palestine question back into the limelight of Middle Eastern and even global politics. This presentation has a modest objective, given the short time frame of the recent violence escalation and the still unfolding dynamics on the ground: It attempts to make sense of what the recent and ongoing Israel/Gaza crisis might mean for the changes but also the continuities of regional politics in the Middle East.

To do so, the presentation starts out from an analysis of Middle East regional order before the so-called Arab uprisings of 2011/12. Regional politics of the 2000s are described as a New Arab Cold War (Valbjørn/Bank 2012), with “Palestine” as the central reference point for all regional actors and essentially two prominent alliance blocs competing for regional influence. From the early 2010s to the early 2020s, i.e. the decade since the Arab uprisings, regional politics witnessed the emergence of a multipolar, multi-actor Middle East with more than two alliance blocs as well as the decline of the regional salience of the Palestine question. The recent and ongoing Israel/Gaza crisis seems to have brought back “Palestine” to the center of Middle East regional politics, with the alliance constellations remaining more fragile. Does this signify a qualified return to the pre-2011 regional dynamics in the Middle East, a kind of New Arab Cold War 2.0?

As usual the Colloquium starts at 16:00 c.t. in the seminar room 124, at the institute of political science. You can also join in online under:

Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/93089750663 
Meeting ID: 930 8975 0663 Passcode: 142311