List of Contributors
Acknowledgments

Introduction to the Handbook
Overview
Introduction
Published edited volumes and collections
What this Handbook offers
Addressing identified trends and introducing new themes
Conclusions
Bibliography

Section 1: Strategies, Practices, and Institutions

Rule and Networks in the Middle East and North Africa
Introduction
Networks in MENA political science
Regimes as institutional networks
Institutional ruling networks in the MENA region
Institutional ruling networks and political stability: Leadership transition in Syria
Conclusion
Bibliography

Authoritarian Entanglements with Settler Colonialism: Exploring Dynamics of Moroccan-Israeli Normalization and the Palestine–Western Sahara Connection
Introduction
Historical Summary
Theoretical Framework
Regional Implications
Global Implications
Conclusion
Bibliography

The Dynamics of Kuwait's Hybrid Political System
Introduction
Theories of authoritarian institutions
Kuwait's National Assembly: Re-examining the assumptions of functionalist theories
The origins of the system and why it was a compromise
Kuwait's political system and tools for managing conflict
Period one: extra-institutional governance and limited commitment to the Constitution (1963–1990)
Period two: a new social contract (1991-2006)
Period three: executive–legislative breakdown and the fraying of the post-1991 political order (2006–2020)
The final phase: the suspension of the KNA (2020–2024)
Conclusion: rethinking semi-democratic institutions in authoritarian regimes
Bibliography

Post-2003 Iraq: Between Authoritarian Practices and Democratizing Tendencies
Introduction
Measuring authoritarianism
Iraq today
Electoral politics
Accountability, impunity, and fractured power
Maintaining the status quo
Conclusion
Bibliography

Youth and the Reinvention of State-Managed Politics in Sisi's Egypt
Introduction
The origins of the New Youth Project
Deciphering the functions of the NYP
Conclusion
Bibliography

Egypt's Repressive Apparatus in the Age of Counterrevolution
Introduction
What is coup-proofing?
1952 to 2011: A fragmented apparatus
2013: The evolution of the new regime
A unitary apparatus
State violence
Conclusion
Bibliography

Section 2: International, Transnational, and Transregional Trends

The International Dimension of “Arab Authoritarianism"
Introduction
Climate crisis, neoliberalism, and the debt financing of RE megaprojects
Migration containment: How authoritarian border practices are produced from the outside
The authoritarian effects of efforts at Arab-Israeli normalization
Promoting democracy, reinforcing authoritarianism
Conclusion
Bibliography

Two-tiered Digital Authoritarianism: Archiving the Gaza Genocide on Instagram
Introduction
The two tiers of Middle Eastern digital authoritarianism
Documenting the Gaza genocide: social media content creators
The platforms as dubious archivists of genocide
Technological circumventions: web scraping via browser automation
Conclusion
Bibliography

The Regional Politics of Authoritarian Resilience in the Arab World
Introduction
From international to regional actors
Regional actors as “black knights”
Regional competition and the Arab Spring
Conclusion
Bibliography

The U.S. Security Approach to Gulf Monarchies
Introduction
Historical trends in US-MENA security partnerships
Motivating factors
The Obama administration
The first Trump administration
The Biden administration
Conclusion
Bibliography

China's Role in the Middle East: Authoritarian Practices and Their Transregional Diffusion
Introduction
Setting the scene: China's role in the Middle East
Studying Chinese authoritarian practices and their transregional diffusion
Conclusion
Bibliography

Actually Existing Multipolarity
Introduction
Multipolarity, the false alternative
Multipolarity from the peripheries
Conclusion
Bibliography

Section 3: Political Economy of Authoritarianism

National Transformation Schemes: Saudi Arabia and Vision 2030
Introduction
Power Personalization
State Rebuilding
Economic Diversification
Social Change
National Transformation and Authoritarian Statecraft
Bibliography

The Facade of Sustainability: Neoliberal Authoritarianism in Renewable Energy Development Projects in the SWANA Region
Introduction
Setting the Stage: The Separation of Politics and Economics in the Making of Capitalist Sustainability Governance
Situating sustainable futures under authoritative monarchies
Conclusion
Bibliography

Taxation in Arab States
Introduction
Taxation in Arab countries today
Taxation and state formation in the Arab World
What value-added for a regional lens?
Taxation and authoritarianism
Conclusion
Bibliography

Informal Authoritarian Bargains
Introduction
Informal livelihoods in the Arab world
Informal authoritarian bargains
Two bargains, crumbling
Bibliography

Arab Youth: Education, Employment, and Political Participation
Introduction
Arab youth in the shadow of authoritarianism
Education and building capabilities
Towards creating capability-friendly labor markets
Conclusion
Bibliography

Global Actors, Local Autocrats: Unveiling the Resilience of Arab Authoritarianism
Introduction
Accumulation by dispossession: Neoliberal cooptation and authoritarian resilience in the MENA
Neoliberal model of development: Enhancing authoritarian state control in the MENA
Conditions today: The post–Arab uprisings landscape
Bibliography

Section 4: Identity

Gendered Disinformation and Authoritarianism in the Middle East and North Africa
Introduction
Digital authoritarianism in the MENA
Gender and religion
Gendered disinformation in the MENA
Conclusion
Bibliography

Authoritarian Co-optation of Religious Minorities: The Case of Christians in Egypt and Syria
Introduction
Christians and religious freedom in contemporary Egypt and Syria
Authoritarian co-optation of Christian minorities
Conclusion: The predicament of Christians between authoritarianism and Islamism
Bibliography

Race, Xenophobia, and Populist Authoritarianism: The Case of Violence Against Sub-Saharan Migrants in Kais Saied's Tunisia
Introduction
Entanglements of populist authoritarianism, xenophobia, and race
The 2023 anti-sub-Saharan violence in Tunisia
Economic and political factors motivating the 2023 statement
Greater Mediterranean politics fueling anti-sub-Saharan violence
Conclusion
Bibliography

Section 5: Ideology

Authoritarian Populism in the Arab World: From Nasser to Saied
Introduction
What is authoritarian populism?
Nasser's authoritarian populism: Arab nationalism and social progress
Saied's authoritarian populism: When democracy fails to deliver on its promises
Old and new forms of Arab authoritarian populism: What makes them different?
Bibliography

Utilization of Tolerance, Coexistence, and Moderate Islam in Emirati National Identity and UAE Foreign Policy
Introduction
The importance of national identity in maintaining regime security and authoritarianism
The discourses of tolerance, moderate Islam, and fighting extremism
Militarized national identity and authoritarianism
Abraham Accords and Normalization with Israel
Conclusion
Bibliography

State of "Assad's Syria": The Uniqueness of the Model Between Past and Present
Editor's note:
Introduction
What do we have in Syria today?
Syria as a non-state, non-nation, non-homeland
The Syrian case as anomaly
Hafez Al-Assad and denationalizing the Syrian state
Bashar Al-Assad and revolt
Syria's lessons
Bibliography

Section 6: Resistance

Protest Dynamics and Authoritarian Repression in the Arab World: What Do We Know a Decade After the Arab Spring?
Introduction
Civil unrest in the Arab world: État de la question
Two decades of protest event time series: An empirical investigation
Conclusion
Bibliography

Feeling Revolution: Affect and the Afterlives of the Arab Uprisings
Introduction
Mobilization
Affective and aesthetic variation: middle-class respectability vs. Ultras' irreverence
Demobilization, ideology, & affective legacies
Conclusion
Bibliography

Political Mobilization in Arab Countries: Grievances, Efficacy, and Identity
Introduction
Who protests and why? A theoretical framework
Protesters and protest motives in Arab countries
Analysis
Discussion
Bibliography

Gender, Oppression, and Women's Resistance in Occupied Western Sahara
Introduction
The emergence of pro-Independence movements in Spanish Sahara and the Moroccan and Mauritanian invasion
Gendered resistance within the prison walls
Gendered street protests and gendering carceral punishment
The post-2011 era
Conclusion
Bibliography