In this book scholars specializing in the Middle East and Central Asia provide fresh analysis and cutting-edge critique of phenomena and events across the region. Authors draw on multiple disciplinary traditions and cover a broad geography, in order to challenge understandings and propose new forms of scholarly engagement.

• Cover
• Emerging Scholarship on the Middle East and Central Asia
• Emerging Scholarship on the Middle East and Central Asia: Moving from the Periphery
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Alternative Frameworks Accounting for the Overlooked
• Chapter 1
• Emerging Trends and Debates in Gulf Studies
  • A “Gulf Moment” in Middle Eastern Studies?
  • The State of the Gulf Literature
  • What Is Changing (and Not Changing) in the Gulf?
  • Gaps in Gulf Studies
  • In Lieu of a Conclusion: Some Likely Trends in Gulf Studies
  • Notes
  • Works Cited
• Chapter 2
• Impending Decline?
  • Power as Resources
  • Power as Influence
  • Power as National Performance
  • Countermeasures by Saudi Arabia
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Works Cited
• Chapter 3
• Iranian Nationalism from its (Afghan) Margins
  • Finding the Margins
  • Narratives of Nationhood
  • Crossing Borders
  • An Open Door
  • An Afghan-free Zone?
  • Iran’s Afghan Margins
  • A Marginal Approach
  • Notes
  • Works Cited
• Chapter 4
• Between (Ethno-)Nationalism and Political Islam
  • Nation-building, Kemalism, and the Place of Ethnicity
  • Examining the Compatibility of Islam and Modernity
  • Inclusion—or Exclusion—and its Impacts
  • Inclusion and Exclusion in post-1990 Turkey
  • Kurdish Political Parties: Beyond Nationalism and Islam
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Works Cited
• Chapter 5
• State Formation and Social Conflict in Syria
  • Explanatory Narratives of Social Conflict in Syria
  • State Formation Theory
  • State Atrophy and the Place of Locality
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Works Cited
• Chapter 6
• Seen from a Distance
  • What was “Islamic Art”?
  • Indigenous Australian Analogies
  • The Influence of Individuals and Institutions
  • Case Studies in Contemporary Art
  • Contemporary Art and Conflict
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Works Cited
• Chapter 7
• The Afghan Threat to the Security of the Central Asian Nations
  • The Official Central Asian Discourse on Afghanistan: Tajikistan and Uzbekistan
  • The Official Western Discourse
  • Western Scholarly Discourse on Central Asia–Afghanistan
  • From “Locus of Dangers” to “Locus of Charlatans”
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Works Cited
• Chapter 8
• When East Looks West to the Middle East
  • Shall the Twain Meet?
  • Scholarly Reflections and Representations
  • A Shared History of Colonization
  • China and the West in the Middle Eastern Theater
  • An American Offer Beijing Could Hardly Refuse
  • Beijing’s Foreign Policy–Domestic Agenda Conundrum
  • Notes
  • Works Cited
• Index
• About the Contributors