STUDENTS FACULTY BUSINESSES ALUMNI & DONORS RESOURCES FRANAIS

Search OK

Research
HOME ABOUT US FACULTY RESEARCH UNITS ONGOING RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS RESEARCH SUPPORT CONTACTS

Home > From Deep State to Islamic State

From Deep State to Islamic State Faculty Finder

By name

The Arab Counter-Revolution and its Jihadi Legacy By research topics

by Jean-Pierre Filiu or
Browse research's websites
Find a publication

open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com
 Find a publication

From Deep State to Islamic State.The Arab Counter-Revolution and its Jihadi Lega

In his disturbing and timely political history of the Deep State in the Middle East, Jean-Pierre Filiu reveals how the
autocracies of Syria, Egypt, and Yemen crushed the democratic uprisings of the Arab Revolution. They did so by
turning to the shadowy intelligence agencies and internal security arms of the so-called Deep State emulating
strategies pioneered in Kemalist Turkey who had decades of experience in dealing with internal dissent, as well
as to street gangs (the Baltaguiyya in Egypt) or death squads (the Shabbiha in Syria) to enforce their will.

Alongside intimidation, imprisonment and murder, the Arab counter-revolutionaries released from prison and secretly
armed and funded many hardline Islamists, thereby boosting SalafiJihadi groups such as Islamic State, in the hope
of convincing the Western powers to back their dictatorships. They also succeeded in dividing the opposition forces
ranged against them, going so far as to ruthlessly discard politicians and generals from among their own elite in the
pursuit of absolute, unfettered, power.

The impact of the Arab counter-revolution surprised most observers, who thought they had seen it all from the
despots and security mafias of the Middle East: their perversity, their brutality, their voracity. But the wider world
underestimated their ferocious readiness to literally burn down their countries in order to cling to absolute power.
Bashar al-Assad clambered to the top of this murderous class of tyrants, driving nearly half of the Syrian population
into exile and executing tens of thousands of his opponents. He has set a grisly precedent, one that other Arab
autocrats may yet resort to.

Some reviews

An authoritative and revealing tour of the role of Arab security mafias in shaping the politics of the Middle East.
open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com
 An authoritative and revealing tour of the role of Arab security mafias in shaping the politics of the Middle East.
Filius account of the failure of the Arab uprisings places the blame for the regions chaos where it belongs: with the
reconstituted deep states, security agencies and autocratic leaders determined to hold on to power at any cost.
Marc Lynch, Director of the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University

Far and away the best and most up-to-date survey of the Arab Security State and its ability to master the various
waves of popular uprisings it faced during the Arab Spring. Based on a set of challenging hypotheses as well as an
unrivalled feel for Arab political behaviour it must become required reading. Roger Owen, Emeritus Professor of
Middle East History, Harvard University

About Jean-Pierre Filiu

More on Hurst Publishers website

Tags : History Political Science Publication Home

Back to top

CONTACTS LEGAL NOTICE MAPS Social Network

ACCESSIBILITY OF THE Office of the Vice Provost
RESEARCH WEBSITE for Research
Sciences Po
SEE ALL

open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com