Podcast appearances and mentions of courtney freer

On this week's episode of the podcast, Courtney Freer of Emory University joins Marc Lynch to discuss her new book, The Resilience of Parliamentary Politics in Kuwait: Parliament, Rentierism, and Society. This book provides an unprecedented holistic treatment of grassroots contemporary Kuwaiti politics in English in over two decades, incorporating the country's political dynamics into broader debates about the limits of authoritarianism and the practice of democracy in the Arab world, particularly in oil-wealthy states. Freer includes extensive fieldwork and the use of Arabic and English primary sources to assess and examine the institutional setting that Kuwait presents and traces the dominant ideological strands in the country, considering the comparative mobilizational potential of ascriptive identities like tribe and sect.  Music for this season's podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.

Nazanin Shahrokni of the London School of Economics joins Marc Lynch on this week's podcast to discuss her new book, Women in Place: The Politics of Gender Segregation in Iran. The book offers a gripping inquiry into gender segregation policies and women's rights in contemporary Iran. (Starts at 1:07). Tarek Masoud of Harvard University discusses his chapter in The Political Science of the Middle East: Theory and Research Since the Arab Uprisings, which focuses on Islam and the study of religion and politics in the Middle East (co-authored with Khalil al-Anani, Courtney Freer, and Quinn Mecham). (Starts at 36:46). Michael Robbins of the Arab Barometer discusses the seventh wave that captures the attitudes of citizens across the MENA since the onset of COVID. (Starts at 56:49). Music for this season's podcast was created by Myyuh. You can find more of her work on SoundCloud and Instagram.

Featured speakers: Shaikha Al-Hashem, Dr. Ghanim Alnajjar, Dr. Courtney Freer, Mohammad Khlef Althunayyan, and Dr. Daniel Tavana. Several months after the political crisis in Kuwait, the crown prince Shaikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al Sabah announced an Amiri decree to dissolve the current session of the country's parliament, indicating that it would be resumed after early elections on September 28. The Amiri decree to dissolve parliament and hold new elections springs from enduring tensions between the legislative and executive branches, similar in many ways to previous political clashes that stalled the country's political life and undermined its public functions. The new Amiri decree marks the tenth time that the Kuwaiti leader has dissolved parliament since the country's first elections. In spite of this track record, many Kuwaitis are hopeful that the upcoming elections will bring a serious change to the legislative branch, and will lead to smoother collaboration between the parliament and the government. Several recent government decisions have led to optimism in this regard, including the appointment of a new prime minister, Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf al-Sabah, government efforts to end “tribal primaries” that unfairly allow tribes to coordinate their votes, and efforts to balance the relationship between the executive and legislative branches. Who is likely to win Kuwait's upcoming election? How could the opposition blocs change their agenda and behavior to win more seats? Will factions within Kuwait, such as Islamists, gain or lose seats in the upcoming elections? Will female candidates have a better chance? What changes are likely to occur in the balance of power between the legislative branch and the new prime minister?

This event was the launch of three papers authored by Courtney Freer and Spyros Sofos of the LSE Middle East Centre as part of the Global Transitions Series, a research output from PeaceRep – the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform funded by the UK Aid from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). 1. Qatar and the UAE in Peacemaking and Peacebuilding by Courtney Freer 2. Peacebuilding in Turbulent Times: Turkey in MENA and Africa by Spyros Sofos 3. MENA Regional Organisations in Peacemaking and Peacebuilding: The League of Arab States, Gulf Cooperation Council and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation by Courtney Freer. Courtney Freer is Provost's Postdoctoral Fellow at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. Previously, Courtney was Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. From 2015-2020, Courtney was a Research Officer for the Kuwait Programme at the LSE Middle East Centre. Her work focuses on the domestic politics of the Gulf states, particularly the roles played by Islamism and tribalism. Her book Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies, based on her DPhil thesis at the University of Oxford and published by Oxford University Press in 2018, examines the socio-political role played by Muslim Brotherhood groups in Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. She previously worked at the Brookings Doha Center and the US–Saudi Arabian Business Council. Spyros Sofos is a Research Officer on the LSE Kuwait Programme project 'Ecologies of Belonging and Exclusion: An Intersectional Analysis of Urban Citizenship in Kuwait City.' Spyros's research explores the intersection of societal insecurity, identity and collective action and, to date, it has focused on Turkish politics and society, nationalism and populism in Europe and the Middle East, urban citizenship in the Middle East, European Muslim identities and politics, and the theory of populism. His latest book Turkish Politics and ‘The People': Mass Mobilisation and Populism published by Edinburgh University Press explores the emergence of populism in contemporary Turkey and its genealogy as a tradition of action and discourse. His other publications include Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe published by Routledge, Tormented by History: Nationalism in Greece and Turkey published by Oxford University Press, and Islam in Europe: Public Spaces and Civic Networks published by Palgrave. Greg Shapland is a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre and an independent researcher, writer and consultant on politics, security, resources and environment (including water) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). His entire career has been focussed on the Middle East and North Africa, whether as a commercial representative, university lecturer or government official (in the Ministry of Defence, Cabinet Office and FCO). From 1979 until 2015, he served in the MENA Research Group in the FCO. He was also Head of Research Analysts from July 2010 to July 2013. During his time with the FCO, Greg served in British Embassies in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Tel Aviv and in the Consulate General in Jerusalem. Since leaving the FCO, Greg has worked on post-conflict stabilisation, Israeli-Palestinian relations, inter-state and intra-state water disputes and the impact of climate change in the MENA region. He is currently working on a book on the politics and geography of the MENA region.

This webinar presented the results of two LSE Kuwait Programme research projects: 1. Urban Governance and Spatial Patterns in Kuwait: Exploring the Links Between the Physical and the Socioeconomic - Dhari Alrasheed and Nuno F. da Cruz 2. Can Smart Cities Solve the Housing Crisis? A Study on Korea-Kuwait Partnership for a New Smart City in Kuwait - Hyun Bang Shin and Do Young Oh Nuno F. da Cruz is Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science. His work on urban and metropolitan governance is multidisciplinary in nature and global in reach, engaging with a wide range of public policy issues. Nuno has previously worked in cooperation with various non-government and multilateral organisations such as UCLG, Metropolis, UN Habitat and Transparency International. Dhari Alrasheed is an Assistant Professor of Economics in the College of Business Administration at Kuwait University. His research activity spans two fields. The first is urban economics, studying various issues related to housing, spatial inequality, transportation, and social capital. The second is applied econometrics, with interest in discrete choice modeling, Bayesian econometrics, and spatial econometrics. Dhari holds a PhD and MA in economics from the University of California, Irvine, as well as a MSc and BSc in mechanical engineering from Oregon State University. Hyun Bang Shin is Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre (SEAC), and Professor of Geography and Urban Studies in the Department of Geography and Environment. Prof Shin's research centres on the critical analysis of the political economy of urbanisation with particular attention to cities in Asian countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, South Korea and China. Do Young Oh is Research Assistant Professor at the School of Graduate Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong. He was previously a Research Officer, based jointly at the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre and the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he finished his PhD in Regional and Urban Planning. Courtney Freer is a Visiting Fellow with the LSE Middle East Centre, and Provost's Postdoctoral Fellow at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Previously, Courtney was an Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the Middle East Centre. Her work focuses on the domestic politics of the Gulf states, particularly the roles played by Islamism and tribalism. Her book Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies, based on her DPhil thesis at the University of Oxford and published by Oxford University Press in 2018, examines the socio-political role played by Muslim Brotherhood groups in Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Featured Speakers: Dr. Abdullah Baabood, Dr. Khalid Al-Jaber, Dr. Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Dr. Courtney Freer, and Sina Azodi. This book explores the phenomenon of political Islam in the Gulf region. Existing scholarship on this topic is mostly dedicated to the varied religious groups' position on violence and democracy. This book expands on the topic and investigates the complexities of the relationship of individuals to religion, the state, and societies, and the organization of their lives and spiritual affairs in the Middle East with particular emphasis on the unique environment of the Gulf. Given the importance of the political Islamic context to the politics, regional interventions, economics, and society of the Gulf states, this book will be an essential tool in giving, policy makers, practitioners, and the larger public a detailed view of a complicated but essential topic.

Gerald Feierstein, Afshin Molavi, and Courtney Freer discuss the state of the United Arab Emirates as the country celebrates its 50th anniversary, including its history, economic development, and domestic and regional policy objectives.

Kuwait, a leading emitter of Greenhouse Gasses and exporter of hydrocarbons, in recent years has experienced the severe impact of climate change with record breaking temperatures, deadly floods and increasingly severe dust storms. The Government of Kuwait has recognized that the global transition away from fossil fuels and efforts to limit global warming will have profound implications for the country's economy, environment and social life. The event launched 'The Quiet Emergency: Experiences and Understandings of Climate Change in Kuwait', a new report from the LSE Kuwait Programme project 'Sustaining Kuwait in Unsustainable Times' that provides a grounded account of climate change in Kuwait. It examines how the inhabitants of Kuwait (both citizens and non-citizens) understand and experience climate change, drawing on a series of focus groups, a media review, an analysis of the December 2020 Kuwait parliamentary elections, and over 30 interviews with key stakeholders based in Kuwait. The researchers discussed the key findings from the report, including the extent to which climate change is impacting daily life, how politicians are addressing the question, the generational divide, and the unequal impact of climate change within Kuwait. Deen Sharp is an LSE Fellow in Human Geography in the Department of Geography and Environment at LSE, whose research focuses on the political economy of urbanization in the Middle East. He was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He holds a PhD in Earth Environmental Sciences (Geography Track) at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, a MSc in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and BA in Human Geography from Queen Mary University. Samia Alduaij is a Senior Environmental Specialist with experience working for the World Bank and with United Nations Development Programme. Her work has consisted mostly of operational projects and technical assistance programs related to environmental policy, management, governance, solid waste managment, marine issues, the sustainable development goals and climate change. Prior to the World Bank, she worked for Kuwait Petroleum International in Denmark and the Scientific Center in Kuwait. She is currently working for the Center for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences in the UK and the British Embassy in Kuwait on an environmental sustainability programme, with a focus on climate change awareness and outreach ahead of COP 26 in November 2021. She is a member of the Voluntary Advisory Committee under the Supreme Council for the Environment in Kuwait. She holds a Master's degree in Environment, Politics and Globalization from King's College, London. Abrar Alshammari is a PhD student at Princeton University's Near Eastern Studies department. Her research explores sociopolitical issues relating to citizenship and inequality in the Arabian Peninsula. She graduated with an MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, where she wrote her dissertation on the intersection of cultural production and politics in Kuwait. She is fluent in English and her native language is Arabic. Kanwal Tareq Hameed is a PhD candidate at the University of Exeter, and member of the Gulf Studies department and the European Centre for Palestine Studies. She works on modern histories of the Gulf. Her interests include critical histories, gender studies, the role for academia beyond the university, and social justice. Courtney Freer is a Visiting Fellow with the LSE Middle East Centre. Previously, Courtney was an Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the Middle East Centre.

The PowerPoint presentations from the event can be viewed here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-centre/events/2021/kuwaits-urbanisation This Kuwait Programme event was a discussion about two research projects - 'Public Space in Kuwait: From User Behaviour to Policy-making' led by Alexandra Gomes and Asseel Al-Ragam, and 'Towards an Equitable Transport System in Kuwait' led by Adeel Muhammad. This webinar will explore how Kuwait’s urbanisation trends and car-centric development have shaped planning, urban design, and individual behaviour with consequences for public health and the environment. The webinar included two presentations. The first from Alexandra Gomes and Asseel Al-Ragam on ‘Public space in Kuwait’ looked at some of the challenges and opportunities facing Kuwait’s residential neighbourhoods and everyday use of public space. The second from Reem Alfahad on ‘Social justice, transport and accessibility’ explored transport spatial inequalities at the city scale. Alexandra Gomes is a Research Officer at LSE Cities, where she is responsible for coordinating the Centre’s socio-spatial analysis across a range of projects. Focusing on urban studies, comparative analysis, urban inequalities, public space and urban walkability. She also teaches at UCL’s The Bartlett School of Planning, where she is finishing her PhD. Asseel Al-Ragam is Associate Professor of Architecture, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, Research, and Graduate Studies and Director of the Architecture Graduate Program at Kuwait University’s College of Architecture. She is an award-winning author with published research on Kuwait’s built environment. She was a research fellow and lecturer at École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture, Paris. She works as an architecture and planning consultant and is a member of the Technical Advisory Committee at Kuwait’s Private University Council. Sharifa Alshalfan is an architect, urban researcher and educator. She is part of a team of experts developing housing and urban policy recommendations at the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences. She also works as a consultant on urban development at the World Bank and teaches periodically at Kuwait University at the College of Architecture. Her work has been published by CITY, LSE Kuwait Programme, LSE Cities and the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs. Adeel Muhammad is a visiting post doctoral researcher at the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds. Previously, Adeel worked as a Research Officer at LSE Cities, on projects related to mapping and analysing the spatial and temporal dynamics of urban expansion and transport mobility across Asia and Africa. Reem Alfahad holds an MSc in City Design and Social Science from the London School of Economics, and a BA in Public Policy Studies from Duke University. She is most interested in the cultural and social dynamics of inclusion, particularly as they relate to urban spaces. Most recently, through the LSE Kuwait Programme, she has focused on mobility access in Kuwait and the different sociocultural dimensions that include or exclude different groups from being able to move freely. Previously, she worked with Kantar Public in London, UK, and the Cultural Secretariat of Medellin, Colombia, among others. Outside of academic research, she is working on an audio documentary series focusing on globalized gentrification. Dr Courtney Freer is an Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the Middle East Centre. Her work focuses on the domestic politics of the Gulf states, particularly the roles played by Islamism and tribalism. Her book Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies, based on her DPhil thesis at the University of Oxford and published by Oxford University Press in 2018, examines the socio-political role played by Muslim Brotherhood groups in Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE.

This Kuwait Programme event was a discussion about Dr Zeynep Kaya’s recent research on women's political participation in Kuwait. Dr Lubna Al-Kazi acted as a discussant, and Dr Courtney Freer chaired the event. Since the introduction of women’s suffrage in 2005, the number of women elected to parliament in Kuwait has been very small. Despite this, their presence in high political office has changed the discourse around women’s political and public roles, while also generating a misogynistic backlash against women. The paper Dr Kaya will present at this event provides an overview of the discussions about women’s electoral participation in Kuwait building on 27 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2019 with politicians, public officers, academics and activists and the academic literature on women’s political participation. The paper captures the state of the discussions on women’s electoral participation and provides an account of what issues are emphasised and omitted in these discussions in 2019. The interviews provided important insights on the dynamics that influence women’s electoral participation in Kuwait and the strategies they used to get elected. Dr Zeynep Kaya is a Lecturer in International Development in the Department of Social and Policy Studies, University of Bath, and a Visiting Fellow with the LSE Middle East Centre. Previously she was a Senior Teaching Fellow at the Department of Development Studies at SOAS and an Academic Associate at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge. She is interested in understanding how communities and political groups perceive, interact with and challenge international processes and dominant norms. Her research looks at the relationship between gender, violence and development in conflict and post-conflict contexts. Zeynep has a PhD in International Relations from the LSE, where she conducted research on the transformation of Kurdish nationalism and territorial identity in an international context. Her book Mapping Kurdistan: Territory, Self-Determination and Nationalism was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020. Dr Lubna Ahmed Al-Kazi is Director of the Women’s Research and Studies Center at Kuwait University. Lubna has been a professor in the Sociology Department at Kuwait University since 1984, after graduating from the University of Texas in 1983 with a PhD in Demography and Sociology. She was a consultant with the Population Division at the United Nations for one year from 1986-87, and in 2009 a consultant for the United Nation Development Programme, when she prepared the section on Gender and Development for the Kuwait National five-year plan 2010 – 2015. Lubna is on the editorial board of Arabic Journal Al-Thaqafa Al-Alamiah and the Journal of Arabian Studies. She is a member of the ‘Women’s Cultural and Social Society’ and ‘the Sociologists Association’ in Kuwait. She is also a member of Advisory Board of Vital Voices, an women‘s organization established by Hillary Clinton when she was the First Lady in the United States. Her areas of interest and research are gender, population change and family. Dr Courtney Freer is an Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the Middle East Centre. Her work focuses on the domestic politics of the Gulf states, particularly the roles played by Islamism and tribalism. Her book Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies, based on her DPhil thesis at the University of Oxford and published by Oxford University Press in 2018, examines the socio-political role played by Muslim Brotherhood groups in Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Join the conversation on Twitter using #LSEKuwait

Panelists' remarks during GIF's online panel "GCC 41st Summit: Prospects and Challenges for Stalled Crises" Panel moderator Dr. Dania Thafer was joined by Dr. Mohammed Alrumaihi, Dr. Courtney Freer, Dr. Kistian Coates Ulrichsen, and Dr. Abdulla Baabood. https://gulfif.org/​ Twitter: @GulfIntlForum LinkedIn: @GulfIntlForum

Held on 8 December 2020, this Kuwait Programme, LSE Middle East Centre event was a discussion about the 2020 parliamentary elections in Kuwait. After Kuwaitis go to the polls on 5 December amidst the Covid-19 pandemic and increasing anxieties about the country’s fiscal positions, top experts in Kuwaiti elections come together to discuss the results and what they mean for Kuwait under the new amir, Sheikh Nawaf. With the return of much of the cross-ideological opposition after a four-year boycott (2012-2016), the continued political activism of Kuwait’s tribes, and a variety of secular and Islamist blocs contesting the elections, they are an important bellwether of Kuwaiti politics and the likely direction of policymaking. Further, the appointment of a new cabinet after the election will also signal the priorities of the new executive moving forward. Abdullah al-Khonaini completed his MA in Power, Participation, and Social Change from the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University. He co-founded 'Raqib50', an online parliament watch that holds Kuwaiti parliamentarians accountable by making their voting records accessible to the public. His research interests include a focus on civil society, dynamics of informal civic groups and participation, postcolonial identity and belonging in the Gulf. Alanoud Al-Sharekh is the Director of Ibtkar Strategic Consultancy, leading political, leadership and diversity training programs in Kuwait and the GCC region. She is chairperson of the Chaillot award winning Abolish 153 campaign to end honour killing legislations, and a cofounder of Mudhawis List, a platform to support women running for political office. She is currently an Associate Fellow at the Chatham House MENA Program and Research Fellow at Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. In 2019 she was named one of the 100 most inspiring and influential women in the world by the BBC. Michael Herb is Professor and Chair of Political Science at Georgia State University. His work focuses on Gulf politics, monarchism and the resource curse. He is the author of The Wages of Oil: Parliaments ‎and Economic Development in Kuwait and the UAE (Cornell University Press, 2014) and All in the Family: Absolutism, Revolution, and Democracy in the Middle Eastern Monarchies (SUNY ‎‎1999), in addition to numerous articles. He maintains the Kuwait Politics Database, a comprehensive source of information on Kuwaiti elections. He has twice won Fulbright awards to study in Kuwait. Daniel L. Tavana is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Council on Middle East Studies at the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University. His research interests include a focus on elections, identity, and comparative political behaviour, as well as the dynamics of political opposition in authoritarian regimes. Previously, Daniel was a Research Associate at the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) in Washington, DC. He completed his BA at the University of Pennsylvania, an MPhil in International Relations at the University of Cambridge, and an MPP at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Courtney Freer is an Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the Middle East Centre. Her work focuses on the domestic politics of the Gulf states, particularly the roles played by Islamism and tribalism. Her book Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies, based on her DPhil thesis at the University of Oxford and published by Oxford University Press in 2018, examines the socio-political role played by Muslim Brotherhood groups in Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

This event will be a discussion around the Omani Union (1952-1965), an overlooked political group that represents a seminal stage in the emergence of the leftist current in Oman. While the Dhofar Revolution has received increasing scholarly attention, comparatively little is known of the Jabal Akhdar (or Green Mountain) Uprising of the 1950s and early 60s, which sought independence for inner Oman under the rule of the Imam of the Ibadi sect. Despite the Imamate’s religious and tribal nature, the Omani Union’s educated and cosmopolitan cadres became closely aligned with it, imbuing its discourse with Arab nationalist, leftist, and Third Worldist ideas. They portrayed the “Omani Revolution” as parallel to those of Palestine and Algeria, forming part of the Pan-Arab awakening led by Nasserist Egypt, and a broader Afro-Asian struggle for independence. Moreover, they sought to transform the Imamate movement into a progressive patriotic front uniting all Omanis in armed struggle against the forces of reaction and colonialism. Although ultimately unsuccessful in its aims, the Omani Union pioneered and popularized ideas subsequently espoused by the better-known Omani leftist movements of the late 1960s and 1970s. Prominent among these ideas were Third Worldist socialism, a common Gulf identity and solidarity (with Oman as the region’s revolutionary center), and a “Greater” or “Natural” Omani homeland extending from Dhofar to the Trucial States. Talal Al-Rashoud is a Visiting Fellow at the Middle East Centre, and an Assistant Professor of Modern Arab history at Kuwait University. He obtained his PhD in history from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), and holds master’s degrees in history and government from King’s College London and Georgetown University respectively. Al-Rashoud specialises in the history of modern ideological movements in the Gulf region and their transnational connections. His current research deals with the relationship between Arab nationalism and education in Kuwait (1911-1961), and Arab nationalist activism among Omani exiles in the 1950s and 1960s. Courtney Freer is Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the Middle East Centre. Her work focuses on the domestic politics of the Gulf states, particularly the roles played by Islamism and tribalism. Her book Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies, based on her DPhil thesis at the University of Oxford and published by Oxford University Press in 2018, examines the socio-political role played by Muslim Brotherhood groups in Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Join the conversation on Twitter using #LSEOman

Panelists' remarks during GIF's online panel "Can Academic Freedom Survive Repressive Governance in the Gulf?". Panel moderator Dr. Courtney Freer was joined by Dr. Jessie Moritz, Dr. Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Dr. Abdullah Baabood, and Adam Coogle. https://gulfif.org/ Twitter: @GulfIntlForum LinkedIn: @GulfIntlForum

Panelists remarks during GIF & LSE joint panel, "The Impact of Reform and Austerity on the Social Contract of the GCC States." Panel's moderator Dr. Courtney Freer was joined by Dr. Dania Thafer, Dr. Justin Gengler, and Dr. Steffen Hertog. https://gulfif.org/ Twitter: @GulfIntlForum Facebook: @GulfIntlForum LinkedIn: @GulfIntlForum

Courtney Freer, research fellow at the London School of Economics Middle East Programme, discusses political Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood in the MENA region

This event launches Crony Capitalism in the Middle East: Business and Politics, from Liberalization to the Arab Spring edited by Ishac Diwan, Adeel Malik, and Izak Atiyas. The popular uprisings in 2011 that overthrew Arab dictators were also a rebuke to crony capitalism, diverted against both rulers and their allied businessmen who monopolize all economic opportunities. While the Middle East has witnessed a growing nexus between business and politics in the wake of liberalization, little is discussed about the nature of business cronies, the sectors in which they operate, the mechanisms used to favour them, and the possible impact of such crony relations on the region's development. Combining inputs from leading scholars in the field, Crony Capitalism in the Middle East presents a wealth of empirical evidence on the form and function of this aspect of the region. Crony Capitalism in the Middle East is unique in both its empirical focus and comparative scale. Analysis in individual chapters is empirically grounded and based on fine-grained data on the business activities of politically connected actors furnishing, for the first time, information on the presence, numerical strength, and activities of politically connected entrepreneurs. It also substantially enhances our understanding of the mechanisms used to privilege connected businesses, and their possible impact on undermining the growth of firms in the region. Ishac Diwan is Professor of Economics at Paris Sciences et Lettres (a consortium of Parisian universities) where he holds the chair of the Economy of the Arab World. He has held recent teaching positions at Columbia University, School for International Public Affairs, and at the Harvard Kennedy School. He directs the Political Economy program of the Economic Research Forum, where he runs two projects on the study of crony capitalism, and the analysis of opinion surveys. Diwan is a frequent consultant with governments and international organizations, working recently on policy issues in Sudan, Algeria, Lebanon, and Egypt. Adeel Malik is Globe Fellow in the Economies of Muslim Societies at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and an Associate Professor at the Department of International Development, University of Oxford. Malik is an empirical economist with a strong multi-disciplinary orientation. He is trying to develop a broader research lens to study Middle Eastern political economy. Malik’s research on Middle Eastern political economy has featured in the CNN, Financial Times, the New York Times, Project Syndicate, and Foreign Affairs. Courtney Freer is a Research Fellow at the Kuwait Programme, LSE Middle East Centre. Her work focuses on the domestic politics of the Gulf states, particularly the roles played by Islamism and tribalism. Her book Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies, based on her DPhil thesis at the University of Oxford and published by Oxford University Press in 2018, examines the socio-political role played by Muslim Brotherhood groups in Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. She previously worked at the Brookings Doha Center and the US–Saudi Arabian Business Council. Join the conversation on Twitter using #LSEMiddleEast

On this episode of SEPADPod Simon chats with Courtney Freer, a research fellow at the LSE's Middle East Centre. Courtney is the author of Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies, based on her DPhil thesis at the University of Oxford and published by Oxford University Press in 2018, examines the socio-political role played by Muslim Brotherhood groups in Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. On this episode we explore Islamism in the Gulf, consider how regional politics shapes local Islamism, and reflect on the relationship between Islamists and regimes.

Speakers: Salman Sheikh, The Sheikh Group and Courtney Freer, LSE Middle East Centre Salman Shaikh is a negotiations specialist with eight years of experience in running Track II diplomacy with a wide spectrum of Syrian communities and constituencies. With Syria divided into zones of influence dominated by external players, he will address the question of what options remain for a political process – and what is at stake. At a time when world and regional powers are once again attempting to negotiate a political breakthrough that would serve their interests, he will argue that a path to an inclusive political process must – and can – be found. In this regard, he will also draw on years of engagement with key regional and international capitals, including Washington, Moscow, Ankara, Riyadh and London. Recorded on 13 November 2018. --------------------------------- Salman Shaikh (@Salman_Shaikh1) is the Founder and CEO of The Shaikh Group (TSG). Courtney Freer (@courtneyfreer) joined the Kuwait Programme, LSE Middle East Centre in 2015 as a Research Officer. Image: Salman Shaikh's TED talk 'Navigating the Arab Spring' in 2012. Source: YouTube.

Speakers: Hendrik Kraetzschmar, University of Leeds, Paola Rivetti, Dublin City University, Courtney Freer, LSE Middle East Centre, Craig Larkin, King’s College London. Chair: Katerina Dalacoura, LSE What are the consequences of the Arab uprisings for Islamist actors and organisations across the region? Have regime change, revolution, counter-revolution and reform worked to strengthen the power and influence of Islamists, or have they weakened them? Presenting the recently published volume Islamists and the Politics of the Arab Uprisings: Governance, Pluralisation and Contention (EUP, 2018), panellists will critically discuss the impact of the uprisings looking at how Islamists' political and ideological stances have shifted as a result of a dramatically changing social and political environment. Cross-regional dynamics will be explored and assessed, alongside discussions of the national specificities of Islamist trajectories in those countries of the Middle East and North Africa impacted by the waves of popular mobilisation since 2010". Recorded on 3 October 2018. ------------------------------------ Image: Islamists and the politics of the Arab Uprisings: Governance, Pluralisation and Contention Book Cover. Image Courtesy of Edinburgh University Press.

Speakers: Youssef Cherif, Deputy Director of Columbia Global Centers, Tunis, member in Carnegie's Civic Research Network. Youssef Cherif analyses how the Maghreb region is another theatre of the cold war raging between the Gulf Cooperation Council's (GCC) members. By means of fake news, political pressures and transfer of weapons, the three leading protagonists of the GCC are influencing the political, security and economic situation in North Africa which in turn deepens their crises and risks destabilizing the region. Recorded on 10 October 2018. ---------------------------- Youssef Cherif (@Faiyla) is a political analyst who specializes in North African affairs. He is Deputy Director of Columbia Global Centers, Tunis, member in Carnegie's Civic Research Network and is contributing to a number of think-tanks. Courtney Freer (@courtneyfreer) is Research Officer at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Her work focuses on the domestic politics of the Arab Gulf states, with a particular focus on Islamism and tribalism. Image: Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed speaks with King Mohammed VI at Sea Palace barza. Source: Rashed Al Mansoori / Crown Prince Court - Abu Dhabi

Speakers: Courtney Freer, Toby Doge, LSE Middle East Centre; Stéphane Lacroix, Sciences Po, Paris; John Jenkins, Policy Exchange, London. Scholars of Middle Eastern politics have long overlooked the role played by political Islam in domestic politics of the wealthy monarchical states of the Arabian Gulf, so-called 'rentier states'. While rentier state theory assumes that citizens of such states will form opposition blocs only when their stake in rent income is threatened, this book demonstrates that ideology, rather than rent, has motivated the formation of independent Islamist movements in the wealthiest states of the region, specifically, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The book therefore argues that Brotherhood movements have managed to use the links between the social (i.e. informal personal networks) and political (i.e. government institutions) to gain influence in policymaking in such states. Using contemporary history and original empirical research, Courtney Freer updates traditional rentier state theory and argues that political Islam serves as a prominent voice and tool to promote more strictly political, and often populist or reformist, views supported by many Gulf citizens. Recorded on 16 October. ----------------------------------------- Courtney Freer (@courtneyfreer) is Research Officer at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Her work focuses on the domestic politics of the Arab Gulf states, with a particular focus on Islamism and tribalism. Sir John Jenkins is a British ex-diplomat, Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange in London and a Board Member of the LSE Middle East Centre and also of the American University of Iraq at Suleimaniya. Stéphane Lacroix is associate professor of political science at Sciences Po in Paris and a researcher at the Centre de Recherches Internationales (CERI). Toby Dodge (@ProfTobyDodge) is Kuwait Programme Director, Kuwait Professor and Professor in the International Relations Department. Image: Qatar's Abdulwahab Grand Mosque. Image Courtesy of Omar Chatriwala, Flickr.

Courtney Freer‘s new book Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies (Oxford University Press, 2018) contributes significantly to an understanding of one of the most controversial political groups in Middle East politics. Widely viewed as a player that cannot be excluded from the political process in the region, the Muslim Brotherhood is at the crux of political conflict, particularly in Egypt, where its president, Mohammed Morsi, was toppled in a military coup in 2013, and in the Gulf where it is at the crux of a dispute that has pitted Qatar against an alliance led by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Courtney Freer‘s new book Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies (Oxford University Press, 2018) contributes significantly to an understanding of one of the most controversial political groups in Middle East politics. Widely viewed as a player that cannot be excluded from the political process in the region, the Muslim Brotherhood is at the crux of political conflict, particularly in Egypt, where its president, Mohammed Morsi, was toppled in a military coup in 2013, and in the Gulf where it is at the crux of a dispute that has pitted Qatar against an alliance led by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Courtney Freer’s study of the Brotherhood in the Gulf portrays the development of an opposition group in an autocratic environment. It also is a study of a group that operates in an environment in which one of its key appeals, the provision of social services like healthcare, is of little use because the oil-rich Gulf states introduced welfare states that offered their citizenry cradle-to-grave social security as part of the social contract. Similarly, the Brotherhood’s role as a provider of a religiously couched identity had to compete in societies with strong tribal allegiances and governments that co-opted Islam as part of their legitimization. Nonetheless, the Brotherhood played a key role in state building in the Gulf where highly educated members of the group fleeing persecution in countries like Egypt and Syria found employment, particularly in education and the judiciary. By tracing the different trajectories of the Brotherhood in the Gulf ranging from Kuwait, where an institutionalized parliamentary system allowed it to ease into mainstream politics, to the UAE, where it came go be seen as an existential threat alongside all expressions of political Islam, Freer fills a vital gap in the literature about a region that is in throes of volatile, often brutal transition. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Courtney Freer‘s new book Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies (Oxford University Press, 2018) contributes significantly to an understanding of one of the most controversial political groups in Middle East politics. Widely viewed as a player that cannot be excluded from the political process in the region, the Muslim Brotherhood is at the crux of political conflict, particularly in Egypt, where its president, Mohammed Morsi, was toppled in a military coup in 2013, and in the Gulf where it is at the crux of a dispute that has pitted Qatar against an alliance led by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Courtney Freer’s study of the Brotherhood in the Gulf portrays the development of an opposition group in an autocratic environment. It also is a study of a group that operates in an environment in which one of its key appeals, the provision of social services like healthcare, is of little use because the oil-rich Gulf states introduced welfare states that offered their citizenry cradle-to-grave social security as part of the social contract. Similarly, the Brotherhood’s role as a provider of a religiously couched identity had to compete in societies with strong tribal allegiances and governments that co-opted Islam as part of their legitimization. Nonetheless, the Brotherhood played a key role in state building in the Gulf where highly educated members of the group fleeing persecution in countries like Egypt and Syria found employment, particularly in education and the judiciary. By tracing the different trajectories of the Brotherhood in the Gulf ranging from Kuwait, where an institutionalized parliamentary system allowed it to ease into mainstream politics, to the UAE, where it came go be seen as an existential threat alongside all expressions of political Islam, Freer fills a vital gap in the literature about a region that is in throes of volatile, often brutal transition. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Courtney Freer‘s new book Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies (Oxford University Press, 2018) contributes significantly to an understanding of one of the most controversial political groups in Middle East politics. Widely viewed as a player that cannot be excluded from the political process in the region, the Muslim Brotherhood is at the crux of political conflict, particularly in Egypt, where its president, Mohammed Morsi, was toppled in a military coup in 2013, and in the Gulf where it is at the crux of a dispute that has pitted Qatar against an alliance led by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Courtney Freer’s study of the Brotherhood in the Gulf portrays the development of an opposition group in an autocratic environment. It also is a study of a group that operates in an environment in which one of its key appeals, the provision of social services like healthcare, is of little use because the oil-rich Gulf states introduced welfare states that offered their citizenry cradle-to-grave social security as part of the social contract. Similarly, the Brotherhood’s role as a provider of a religiously couched identity had to compete in societies with strong tribal allegiances and governments that co-opted Islam as part of their legitimization. Nonetheless, the Brotherhood played a key role in state building in the Gulf where highly educated members of the group fleeing persecution in countries like Egypt and Syria found employment, particularly in education and the judiciary. By tracing the different trajectories of the Brotherhood in the Gulf ranging from Kuwait, where an institutionalized parliamentary system allowed it to ease into mainstream politics, to the UAE, where it came go be seen as an existential threat alongside all expressions of political Islam, Freer fills a vital gap in the literature about a region that is in throes of volatile, often brutal transition. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Courtney Freer‘s new book Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies (Oxford University Press, 2018) contributes significantly to an understanding of one of the most controversial political groups in Middle East politics. Widely viewed as a player that cannot be excluded from the political process in the region, the Muslim Brotherhood is at the crux of political conflict, particularly in Egypt, where its president, Mohammed Morsi, was toppled in a military coup in 2013, and in the Gulf where it is at the crux of a dispute that has pitted Qatar against an alliance led by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Courtney Freer’s study of the Brotherhood in the Gulf portrays the development of an opposition group in an autocratic environment. It also is a study of a group that operates in an environment in which one of its key appeals, the provision of social services like healthcare, is of little use because the oil-rich Gulf states introduced welfare states that offered their citizenry cradle-to-grave social security as part of the social contract. Similarly, the Brotherhood’s role as a provider of a religiously couched identity had to compete in societies with strong tribal allegiances and governments that co-opted Islam as part of their legitimization. Nonetheless, the Brotherhood played a key role in state building in the Gulf where highly educated members of the group fleeing persecution in countries like Egypt and Syria found employment, particularly in education and the judiciary. By tracing the different trajectories of the Brotherhood in the Gulf ranging from Kuwait, where an institutionalized parliamentary system allowed it to ease into mainstream politics, to the UAE, where it came go be seen as an existential threat alongside all expressions of political Islam, Freer fills a vital gap in the literature about a region that is in throes of volatile, often brutal transition. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Courtney Freer‘s new book Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies (Oxford University Press, 2018) contributes significantly to an understanding of one of the most controversial political groups in Middle East politics. Widely viewed as a player that cannot be excluded from the political process in the region, the Muslim Brotherhood is at the crux of political conflict, particularly in Egypt, where its president, Mohammed Morsi, was toppled in a military coup in 2013, and in the Gulf where it is at the crux of a dispute that has pitted Qatar against an alliance led by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Courtney Freer’s study of the Brotherhood in the Gulf portrays the development of an opposition group in an autocratic environment. It also is a study of a group that operates in an environment in which one of its key appeals, the provision of social services like healthcare, is of little use because the oil-rich Gulf states introduced welfare states that offered their citizenry cradle-to-grave social security as part of the social contract. Similarly, the Brotherhood’s role as a provider of a religiously couched identity had to compete in societies with strong tribal allegiances and governments that co-opted Islam as part of their legitimization. Nonetheless, the Brotherhood played a key role in state building in the Gulf where highly educated members of the group fleeing persecution in countries like Egypt and Syria found employment, particularly in education and the judiciary. By tracing the different trajectories of the Brotherhood in the Gulf ranging from Kuwait, where an institutionalized parliamentary system allowed it to ease into mainstream politics, to the UAE, where it came go be seen as an existential threat alongside all expressions of political Islam, Freer fills a vital gap in the literature about a region that is in throes of volatile, often brutal transition. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Madawi al-Rasheed (LSE) and Courtney Freer (LSE), give a talk for the Middle East Centre Seminar Series at St Anthony's College Oxford, chaired by Toby Matthiesen (St Anthony's College). Dr Courtney Freer is a Research Officer at the Kuwait Programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Her work focuses on the domestic politics of the Arab Gulf states, with a particular focus on Islamism and tribalism. Her DPhil thesis at the University of Oxford revised rentier state theory by examining the socio-political role played by Muslim Brotherhood groups in Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE; a book version of these findings will be published by Oxford University Press in Spring 2018 under the title Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies. She previously worked as a Research Assistant at the Brookings Doha Center and as a researcher at the US-Saudi Arabian Business Council. Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed is Visiting Professor at the Middle East Centre, London School of Economics. Previously she was Professor of Social Anthropology at King’s College, London and Visiting Research professor at the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore. Her research focuses on history, society, religion and politics in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, Middle Eastern Christian minorities in Britain, Arab migration, Islamist movements, state and gender relations, and Islamic modernism. Her latest book Muted Modernists: the Struggle over Divine Politics in Saudi Arabia was published by Hurst in 2015. Her presentation draws on her forthcoming edited volume: Salman’s Legacy: the dilemmas of a new era published by Hurst and OUP in March 2018.

Speakers: Shereen El-Feki, Chatham House; Joey Ayoub, University of Edinburgh Chair: Courtney Freer, LSE Middle East Centre With shifts in the political and economic landscape across the MENA region, the pillars of patriarchy are under increasing pressure. How do men see their lives and the changing world around them, including the roles and rights of women and girls? In this event, Shereen El Feki, Joey Ayoub and Courtney Freer discuss IMAGES MENA, the first study of its kind to explore the private and public lives of almost 10,000 men and women across the Middle East and North Africa, and what these findings mean for the future of the region. Recorded on 10 January 2018. Image credit: World Bank, Flickr.

Cholera, as it looked to threaten and plunge Yemen into the worst pandemic since Ebola, is on the decline. The drop coincides with the end of the rainy season but could be back for another bout if medical facilities in the Middle East’s poorest country fail to improve. As a result, Doctor’s Without Borders has decided to scale down its cholera treatment centres, and Dr Caroline Seguin, the Yemen cell manager, spoke to us on how cholera, a failure in the medical system, and rampant mental trauma has gripped the country. Meanwhile, its been a century since the Balfour Declaration saw the UK give Palestinian land to Jewish settlers. Ben Lynfield spoke to both sides to see how they viewed the decree, which resulted in the creation of a Zionist state, and is viewed by some as the legacy of the British Empire looking to remedy a shifting power dynamic in the Middle East post-WWI. And in Kuwait, the government has submitted its resignation following a dramatic session in parliament last week. Courtney Freer, researcher at the London School of Economics Kuwait programme, explains why this matters for the country.

Speakers: Nick Alton, FCO; Dania Akkad, Middle East Eye; Courtney Freer, LSE Middle East Centre; Mina Toksoz, University of Manchester and Chatham House; Representative of Oxfam UK Chair: Robert Lowe, LSE Middle East Centre BRISMES and LSE Middle East Centre jointly hosted this careers event for students interested in working in or with the Middle East. This panel discussion involves professionals from five different sectors – government, journalism, academia, business and not-for-profit. Recorded on 18 January 2017.