Middle East Studies

The Sacred Republic

Power and Institutions in Iran

This book presents a comprehensive, detailed analysis of the establishment, evolution and current significance of different institutions in today’s Islamic Republic of Iran. The volume draws on the insights of a number of Iran experts to examine their establishment, functions and evolution, as a means of understanding Iranian politics and society.

The Sacred Republic’s specific focus is on the key formal institutions of the state through which the Islamic Republic exercises power, namely the velayat-e faqih: the judiciary, the presidency, the parliament, elections, the Revolutionary Guards, and the foreign policy establishment. Despite significant work on Iranian politics in recent decades, few studies have focused on state institutions, their resilience, or the reasons for and manner of institutional change. Through historical institutionalism and comparative historical analysis, the contributors to this book together fill a glaring gap in the study of Iran’s political institutions, offering significant insights for the theoretical literature on comparative politics, Middle Eastern politics, and Iranian Studies.

May 2023 9781787389519 216mm x 138mm 400pp £45.00 Hardback Politics World rights

Vol. 3 in the series IRAN FROM THE PAHLAVIS TO THE PRESENT Edited by Professor Mehran Kamrava, Georgetown University in Qatar

Mehran Kamrava is Professor of Government at Georgetown University in Qatar, and Director of the Iranian Studies Unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. His books on Iranian and Middle Eastern affairs include Inside the Arab State and Triumph and Despair, both published by Hurst.

Assesses the atomised nature of power in Iran and how, within its political system, competition for influence continues unabated.

April 2023 9781787389502 216mm x 138mm 224pp £45.00 Hardback Political Economy World rights

An original and compelling analysis of opportunities for Gulf states to reap their ‘demographic dividend’ and nurture economic growth—if only they can reform their institutions.

Creative Insecurity

Institutional Inertia and Youth Potential in the GCC

The Middle East is experiencing the world’s most prominent youth bulge. Yet many MENA economies’ institutional designs, both formal and informal, favour the power of business elites, systematically discriminating against young people joining the workforce or opening businesses, and thus limiting their ability to contribute to innovation.

Large youth populations can be a boon or a curse: nurtured and integrated, they can jumpstart stratospheric growth; but if alienated and confined, they can drain a society politically and economically. The Gulf Cooperation Council countries are no exception to this perilous dilemma. This book explores the problem through a new concept, ‘creative insecurity’: a state’s subjection to an institutional ecosystem that is suppressing opportunities for innovation—to the extent that it is causing economic and political vulnerabilities, which in turn threaten national security.

Creative insecurity threatens the longevity of many states today. In this original, incisive study, Dania Thafer argues that GCC member-states should make it a national security imperative to cash in their demographic dividend, by averting the deleterious effects of ill-disposed elite politics. Investing in an innovation ecosystem that harnesses the talent of the youth majority will be crucial for the GCC’s successful transition to the post-oil era.

Dania Thafer is Executive Director of the Gulf International Forum and a professorial lecturer at Georgetown University. A political scientist by training, her research focuses on political economy and international relations. She has particular expertise in Gulf regional geopolitics, US–Gulf relations, and the political economy of the GCC states.