Businessmen in Arms: How the Military and Other Armed Groups Profit in the MENA Region

by Elke Grawert (Editor), Zeinab Abul-Magd (Editor), Robert Springborg professor (ret.) of National Security Affairs, Naval Postgraduate School (Foreword by)

Overview

The Arab Uprisings have brought renewed attention to the role of the military in the MENA region, where they are either the backbone of regime power or a crucial part of patronage networks in political systems. This collection of essays from international experts examines the economic interests of armed actors ranging from military businesses in Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Jordan, Sudan, and Yemen to retired military officers’ economic endeavors and the web of funding of non-state armed groups in Syria and Libya. Due to the combined power of business and arms, the military often manages to incorporate or quell competing groups and thus, to revert achievements of revolutionary movements.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442254565
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/29/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	310
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Elke Grawert is a political scientist and senior researcher at Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC). She teaches at the Institute of Political Science and Sociology, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University, Bonn, Germany.

Zeinab Abul-Magd is an associate professor of Middle Eastern history at Oberlin College and the American University in Cairo.

Contributors:
İsmet Akça, assistant professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Yıldız Technical University, Turkey.

Atta El-Battahani, professor of political science, University of Khartoum, Sudan, and Senior Advisor for International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) in Sudan.

Philippe Droz-Vincent, professor of political science and international relations, Sciences-Po Grenoble, France.

Kevan Harris, sociologist and associate director at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, Princeton University.

Shana Marshall, associate director of the Institute for Middle East Studies, George Washington University.

Adam C. Seitz, senior research associate for Middle East Studies at the Marine Corps University, Quantico, VA.

Ayesha Siddiqa, independent social scientist based in Pakistan. The first Pakistan fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, she also served with the Pakistan Navy as Director of Naval Research.

Sherifa Zuhur, senior analyst at the Middle East Desk for Wikistrat and associate editor of the Review of Middle East Studies for Contemporary Conflicts and Systems.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables
Foreword
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Political Economy of the Military and Non-State Armed Groups in the Middle East and North Africa, by Elke Grawert
Chapter 1: Egypt’s Adaptable Officers: Business, Nationalism, and Discontent, by Zeinab Abul-Magd
Chapter 2: Businessmen in Boots – Pakistan’s Entrepreneurial Military, by Ayesha Siddiqa
Chapter 3: The Conglomerate of the Turkish Military (OYAK) and the Dynamics of Turkish Capitalism, by İsmet Akça
Chapter 4: All the Sepah's Men: Iran's Revolutionary Guards in Theory and Practice, by Kevan Harris
Chapter 5: Jordan’s Military-Industrial Sector: Maintaining Institutional Prestige in the Era of Neoliberalism, by Shana Marshall
Chapter 6: Civil-Military Relations in Sudan: Negotiating Political Transition in a Turbulent Economy, by Atta El-Battahani
Chapter 7: Patronage Politics in Transition: Political and Economic Interests of the Yemeni Armed Forces, by Adam C. Seitz
Chapter 8: Libya’s Tentative State Rebuilding: Militias' “Moral Economy,” Violence, and Financing (In)Security, by Philippe Droz-Vincent
Chapter 9: Syria’s Army, Militias, and Non-State Armed Groups: Ideology, Funding, and Shifting Landscape, by Sherifa Zuhur
Conclusion and Outlook, by Elke Grawert
Appendix
A: Glossary of Arab Words
B: Maps
C: Tables
D: References
List of Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

The first truly comparative analysis of the political economy of armed forces in the MENA, this fine collection reveals militarization’s widespread, profound and devastating consequences for the region’s development.

Robert Springborg

Armed forces in the Middle East and North Africa have become industrial, agricultural and commercial enterprises as much as they are instruments of political coercion and national defense, yet we know very little about the dynamics and mechanics of military-run businesses across the region. This collection of conceptually informed, up-to-date surveys raises the bar for scholarship on the economics of military governance from Libya to Pakistan, Turkey to Yemen. Recognized experts who have undertaken path-breaking fieldwork offer factual information and interpretive insights that can be found nowhere else.

Fred H. Lawson