Sectarianism from the Top Down or Bottom Up? Explaining the Middle East’s Unlikely De-sectarianization after the Arab Spring
Sectarian politics has retreated across the Middle East in the years after the Arab Spring, even as conflict between the region’s two main sectarian actors—Iran and Saudi Arabia—has intensified. This essay explores this incongruence as a way of better understanding the nature and drivers of sectarianism and de-sectarianization in MENA states, supported by public opinion and other data that substantiate the post-2011 decline in Arabs’ concern over sectarianism. It contends that the close correspondence between the rise and demise of the Arab Spring on the one hand, and that of sectarianism on the other, supports an instrumentalist interpretation of sectarian politics in the region.
Other Information
Published in: The Review of Faith & International Affairs
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
See article on publisher's website: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2020.1729526
Funding
Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library.
Qatar National Research Fund (NPRP 6-642-5-065), Mass Political Attitudes in the Arab States of the Gulf: Administering the Arab Democracy Barometer in Qatar and the UAE.
Qatar National Research Fund (NPRP9-261-5-029), Developing the Arab Barometer in the Arab Gulf States.
History
Language
- English
Publisher
RoutledgePublication Year
- 2020
License statement
This Item is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.Institution affiliated with
- Qatar University
- Social and Economic Survey Research Institute - QU
