Event description
Launch Webinar for the book Political Narratives in the Middle East and North Africa
Date: Friday, 24 April, 10.00–11.30
Political Narratives in the Middle East and North Africa: Conceptions of Order and Perceptions of Instability (Springer) discusses the role of political narratives in shaping perceptions of instability and conceptions of order in the MENA region. The authors illustrate how, in times of socio-political turmoil and outbursts of discontent such as the Arab Spring, political entrepreneurs explain and justify their political agendas by complementing hard power solutions with attractive ideas and discursive constructions that appeal to domestic constituencies and geopolitical allies.
In this webinar, contributors to the book will provide insights into the performative role of political narratives in the MENA region. They have chosen political narratives as a conceptual lens to improve the understanding of how political entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa operate on the rhetorical level. After presentations covering the non-state actor Hezbollah, the regional dispute around the Persian Gulf, and the role of the assertive, re-merging global player Russia, we’ll hear short comments from other contributors to the edited volume and have time for questions and discussion.
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Programme:
Chair: Hannu Juusola, Prof. for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Helsinki
Introduction
Wolfgang Mühlberger, Senior Research Fellow, Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Wartime Narratives of Hezbollah Militants in the Syrian Conflict
Chiara Erminia Calabrese, Researcher at the EHESS/CéSoR (Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales/Centre d’études en sciences sociales du religieux)
Russia in the Middle East: In Search of Its Place
Leonid Isaev, Associate Professor, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Saint Petersburg and Alisa Shishkina, Senior Research Fellow, Laboratory for Sociopolitical Destabilisation Risk Monitoring, National Research University Higher School of Economics and Research Fellow, Institute for African Studies (Russian Academy of Sciences)
Evolving Narratives of Political Contestation and Geopolitical Rivalry in the Persian Gulf
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Fellow, Baker Institute for the Middle East at Rice University in Texas
Comments
Toni Alaranta, Senior Research Fellow, Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Riikka Kuusisto, Prof. for Political Science, University of Helsinki (TBC)
Olli Ruohomäki, Senior Adviser, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
Ville Sinkkonen, Research Fellow, Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Questions and Answers
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Please register by the 23rd of April by sending an-email to institute(at)fime.fi and a Zoom-link to the webinar will be send to you before the event.
The webinar is organised in collaboration of the Foundation of the Finnish Institute in the Middle East, the Finnish Institute of International Affairs and Middle Eastern Studies/University of Helsinki.
More information:
Inka Nokso-Koivisto, inka.nokso-koivisto(at)fime.fi, 040-732 0776