Pomeps Conversations

On this week's episode of the podcast, Steven Monroe of the National University of Singapore joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, Mirages of Reform: The Politics of Elite Protectionism in the Arab World.  Monroe uses the case of Jordan to discuss the broader failures of economic reform across the Middle East. He develops a theoretical framework focused on the ability of connected elites to shield themselves from the effects of reforms enacted on paper. The liner notes for this episode focus on the political economy side of the ledger. We already highlighted a wide range of books about Jordan in our recent episode on Sean Yom's Jordan: Politics in an Accidental Crucible.  Anyone interested in Monroe's topic should also read Yom's book, as well as Curtis Ryan's Jordan and the Arab Uprisings, Jillian Schwedler's Protesting Jordan, and Scott Williamson's The King Can Do No Wrong. On Jordanian/Palestinian identity politics, my book State Interests and Public Sphere: The International Politics of Jordan's Ide