Pundits, policymakers, and even academics often treat the Middle East as “exceptional”—a region of primordial violence and war, stuck in premodern social dynamics. But such conflict is not unique to the region—the United States and Europe have, of course, fought in multiple wars, though often not on their own soil. It is because of these assumptions that news coverage of the war in Ukraine is viewed with justifiable shock, but the media often treats violence in Iraq or Syria as relatively unremarkable—the Middle East is supposed to be used to war.
In this episode of Order from Ashes, the scholars Karma R. Chávez and Maya Mikdashi talk about moving beyond the common exceptionalizing frameworks that surround region, gender, and sexuality. They argue that, if straight and queer sexualities are analyzed together—rather than treated as if the condition of LGBTQ minorities is solely its own separate issue—observers can better understand how state and social power operate. Queer or marginalized genders and sexualities are policed or controlled, but so too are straight sexualities and all genders, in ways that are fundamental to how state power operates. The broader implication of their analysis: when we stop seeing the Middle East as exceptionally authoritarian, backward, and violent—and stop seeing the United States and Europe as particularly democratic and civilized—the transnational contours of war and power become clearer.
This podcast is part of “Transnational Trends in Citizenship: Authoritarianism and the Emerging Global Culture of Resistance,” a TCF project supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Open Society Foundations.
Participants:
Promoting America’s Devalued Democracy
What’s Next for the Muslim Brotherhood?
Can the U.S. Help Syria Without Helping Assad?
Saudi Arabia’s Disruptor King
COVID-19 Gathers Force in Middle East
Lebanon, Neoliberalism's Proving Ground
Lessons from the European Union in Crisis
A New World Order after the Pandemic?
Virus and Oil Price Shocks Buffet the Gulf
What’s the Price of Giving Up on Human Rights and International Law?
Rupture in the Iraq–America partnership
Dubai Ports World and a New Form of Imperialism
A Better Explanation for Powerful Armed Groups: Hybridity
How Is Iraq Managing Its Oil?
Popular Protest Redux in Iraq and Egypt
Reviving the United Nations
Rethinking Israel–Palestine’s Stifling Status Quo
Downgrading America’s Commitments in the Middle East
A Smarter Iran Policy
Defining a Progressive Middle East Policy
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