ABSTRACT:  Rather than asking why the Arab Spring has not spread to Algeria, a question that necessitates a comparative approach, this paper will argue that the localised protests that have become a familiar feature of Algerian life for over half a decade respond to Algerian dynamics and have continued to do so in the wake of the Arab Spring. As part of an on-going research project, this paper will use social memory to explore the contradictory nature of Algeria’s past-present relationship, by looking at experiences which at once define what Algerians expect from the state and demobilise energies for collective change. The paper will argue that the fragmented nature of narratives about the past, as well as related generational divides, are factors that have inhibited the growth of cohesive movements demanding political change. In addition, the paper will look critically at assumptions that fears of a return to the violent 1990s are defining reticence toward revolution in Algeria, and will suggest that the riots of October 1988 provide a more useful reference point for understanding the clear lack of enthusiasm for a home-grown Arab Spring.

Please CLICK HERE for the full article (pdf)

As if Silent and Absent: Bonds of Enslavement in the Islamic Middle East
Ehud Toledano
New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2007, xi + 273 pp., £35.00, Hardback
ISBN: 9780300114614

Please CLICK HERE to read the review (pdf)

Women and Slavery in the Late Ottoman Empire: The Design of Difference
Madeline C. Zilfi
New York, Cambridge University Press, 2010, 281 pp., $95 / £60, Hardback
ISBN: 978-0521515832

Please CLICK HERE to read the review (pdf)

Esclavages et abolitions en terres d’islam. Tunisie, Arabie Saoudite, Maroc, Mauritanie, Soudan
Roger Botte
Brussels, André Versaille Éditeur, 2010, 389 pp., €29,90, Paperback
ISBN: 978-2-87495-018-6

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Holy War and Human Bondage: Tales of Christian-Muslim Slavery in the Early-Modern Mediterranean
Robert C. Davis
Santa Barbara, ABC-CLIO, 2009, xi + 316 pp., £44, Hardback
ISBN: 978-0-275-98950-7

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Ransom Slavery along the Ottoman Borders (Early Fifteenth – Early Eighteenth Centuries
Géza Dávid and Pál Fodor
Leiden, Brill, 2007, xx + 253 pp., €93 / $129, Hardback
ISBN: 9789004157040

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Race and Slavery in the Middle East: Trans-Saharan Africans in Nineteenth-Century Egypt, Sudan and the Ottoman Mediterranean
Edited by Terence Walz and Kenneth M. Cuno
Cairo, American University in Cairo Press, 2010, xii + 264 pp., LE 150, Hardback
ISBN: 978 977 416 398 2

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The Middle East in Modern World History
Ernest Tucker
Boston, Pearson, 2012, xxix + 396 pp., $48.20 / £29.99, Paperback
ISBN: 9780136151524

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A new way to view a Quick Study presentation at NMES

Demerdash’s analysis of the ethics and art of the Arab Spring deals with both graffiti art on the streets of Cairo and fine art exhibitions in the Gulf.

For the online presentation of Demerdash’s quick study CLICK HERE or on the image above.

You may also CLICK HERE for the article in pdf format.

This quick study analyses Iran’s electric power industry and the role of nuclear power therein. Until 2010, the author worked in this industry and was based in Tehran. In this quick study, he answers the question: “does Iran really need nuclear power?”

Please CLICK HERE for the full article (pdf)