Rebel Governance in the Middle East
Edited by Ibrahim Fraihat and Abdalhadi Alijla
Palgrave Macmillan Singapore, 2023

Unlike some other overlapping fields, such as social movement studies, which are characterised by historical western-centricity, the field of rebel governance was originally pioneered in non-western cases (Arjona, Kasfir, and Mampilly 2015; Mampilly 2011). However, with some notable exceptions, including some contributors to this volume (Schwab 2018; Furlan 2022), the Middle East has been somewhat underrepresented in the field. Accordingly, Fraihat and Alijla’s edited volume is a most welcome and original effort to address this geographical gap in the field, particularly in light of the significant presence of multiple armed groups of varying ideological orientation across the region.

The volume begins with a well put together introduction by the two co-editors, although the first page argument that rebel governance is an understudied topic seems difficult to justify. Recent years have seen multiple monographs in the most high-profile university presses and special issues and individual articles in highly prestigious journals. While one could query the theoretical ambition and creativity of this broader output, rebel governance has undoubtedly taken root in the mainstream study of conflict (see Teiner 2022). Commendably, the volume includes multiple authors from the region and, even more importantly, contributions from research institutions in the region, adding locally informed expertise to the field often absent in external western analysis of conflict in the Middle East.

Geographically, the book includes three cases from Syria, two addressing the governance efforts of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and one looking at service provision and legitimacy in predominantly Kurdish areas of Northern Syria. One looks at the relationship between Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon and a further chapter looks at the evolution of Iranian backed militias in Iraq and how their presence undermines state institutions. The only chapter which attempts a comparative assessment across state boundaries looks at the........

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