Dossier - Octobre 2021

Ten years after large scale protests in numerous Arab countries drove home the importance of collective action, contestation, social movements, and other forms of politics from below, political actors and observers alike have once again shifted their attention toward the state—or what they consider as such. Even though it emphasises the state’s deficiencies or even absence, the—contested—concept of the “failing state” and its avatars refer to an entity called the state. The reaffirmation of authoritarian rule in such countries as Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and more recently even Tunisia, ambitious “development” plans like Vision 2030 in Saudi Arabia and their attendant public policies, and the nuclear programme in Iran all illustrate the importance and impact of states, however conceived, defined, delineated, and composed. Continued military action or threats, as well as action to combat—or deny—the coronavirus pandemic, only confirm this observation.

The attraction that the state continues to exert on political actors and indeed movements appeared patently in the short-lived Islamic State, which, like other states, began as an “irregular” armed group ramifying first into a social movement, then into fledgling institutions. No doubt, in political and academic debates, the fortunes of the state have repeatedly changed throughout the past, not only with regard to the MENA area but also with regard to developments worldwide. Without claiming to open another round of attempts at Bringing the State Back In (Evans et al. 1985) , the present issue of the Dossier du CERI seeks to re-examine this—moving—object that already more than three decades ago was described as “Alien and Besieged Yet Here to Stay” (Korany 1987). As a matter of course, analysing the transformations of the state cannot be separated from examining its relations with society, which has frequently, but not always convincingly, been conceived of as its opposite…