States Without People: Revolt and Defeat in the Middle East Join Dr Billie Jeanne Brownlee (University of Exeter) and Dr Maziyar Ghiabi (University of Exeter) as they discuss their new co-written book 'States Without People: Revolt and Defeat in the Middle East'. Tea, coffee and cakes available from 12:45pm.About the BookThe horizon of emancipatory politics is in ruins, scarred by defeats and ongoing conflicts. Under the auspices of technocapitalist elites and their political allies, a reactionary turn tightens its grip on the world. Civil wars and regional conflicts are surging. The Middle East has become the regional laboratory for a global reconfiguration of power. States Without People explores how revolts that preceded the outbreak of war have fostered a right-wing political culture. In a nuanced discussion of the defeat of popular revolts and the rise of mythological politics, hypermilitarism, and ethnosupremacism, Billie Jeanne Brownlee and Maziyar Ghiabi take readers into the phenomenological depths of citizen politics in Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Egypt, across the Arabian Peninsula, and beyond. The book highlights three pivotal moments: the outbreak and defeat of popular revolts, the ensuing civil wars, and the complex displacement that has forced millions from their homes. States Without People advances a paradigm shift in state–citizen relations from the vantage point of the Middle East. In the state without people, there is no ideological space for a heterogeneous or self-contradictory citizenry – only for partisans, whose interests overlap with the state’s, and for enemies.Dr. Billie Jeanne Brownlee is Senior Lecturer in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter and the Executive Editor for Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) – an organisation that publishes critical reporting and analysis of the Middle East and North Africa. She is the author of New Media and Revolution: Resistance and Dissent in Pre-Uprising Syria (2020) and States without People: Revolt and Defeat in the Middle East (both published by McGill–Queen’s University Press). A political scientist, her research focuses on media, displacement, social movements, and political mobilization in the Middle East. She has carried out extensive fieldwork in Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, and Turkey. Her work examines the intersections of local and global politics, with particular attention to the ways media, displacement, and political dynamics overlap and shape each other. Learn more HERE.Dr Maziyar Ghiabi is Associate Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Exeter and Director of the Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies. He is the author of Drugs Politics: Managing Disorder in the Islamic Republic of Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2019), which won the MESA Nikki Keddie Award, and co-author of States Without People: Revolt and Defeat in the Middle East (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025, with Billie Jeanne Brownlee). He is recipient of the 2023 Philip Leverhulme Prize and the 2020 Wellcome Trust University Award. His work spans social theory, creative history, ethnographic documentaries, graphic novels, and poetry.With a response from Dr Jamie Allinson, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Edinburgh. Learn more HERE. Oct 27 2025 13.00 - 14.30 States Without People: Revolt and Defeat in the Middle East A book launch in Scotland featuring Dr Billie Jeanne Brownlee (University of Exeter) and Dr Maziyar Ghiabi (University of Exeter). Room 1.06 (Project Room) 50 George Square Edinburgh EH8 9LH Find Venue Register Free
States Without People: Revolt and Defeat in the Middle East Join Dr Billie Jeanne Brownlee (University of Exeter) and Dr Maziyar Ghiabi (University of Exeter) as they discuss their new co-written book 'States Without People: Revolt and Defeat in the Middle East'. Tea, coffee and cakes available from 12:45pm.About the BookThe horizon of emancipatory politics is in ruins, scarred by defeats and ongoing conflicts. Under the auspices of technocapitalist elites and their political allies, a reactionary turn tightens its grip on the world. Civil wars and regional conflicts are surging. The Middle East has become the regional laboratory for a global reconfiguration of power. States Without People explores how revolts that preceded the outbreak of war have fostered a right-wing political culture. In a nuanced discussion of the defeat of popular revolts and the rise of mythological politics, hypermilitarism, and ethnosupremacism, Billie Jeanne Brownlee and Maziyar Ghiabi take readers into the phenomenological depths of citizen politics in Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Egypt, across the Arabian Peninsula, and beyond. The book highlights three pivotal moments: the outbreak and defeat of popular revolts, the ensuing civil wars, and the complex displacement that has forced millions from their homes. States Without People advances a paradigm shift in state–citizen relations from the vantage point of the Middle East. In the state without people, there is no ideological space for a heterogeneous or self-contradictory citizenry – only for partisans, whose interests overlap with the state’s, and for enemies.Dr. Billie Jeanne Brownlee is Senior Lecturer in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter and the Executive Editor for Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) – an organisation that publishes critical reporting and analysis of the Middle East and North Africa. She is the author of New Media and Revolution: Resistance and Dissent in Pre-Uprising Syria (2020) and States without People: Revolt and Defeat in the Middle East (both published by McGill–Queen’s University Press). A political scientist, her research focuses on media, displacement, social movements, and political mobilization in the Middle East. She has carried out extensive fieldwork in Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, and Turkey. Her work examines the intersections of local and global politics, with particular attention to the ways media, displacement, and political dynamics overlap and shape each other. Learn more HERE.Dr Maziyar Ghiabi is Associate Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Exeter and Director of the Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies. He is the author of Drugs Politics: Managing Disorder in the Islamic Republic of Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2019), which won the MESA Nikki Keddie Award, and co-author of States Without People: Revolt and Defeat in the Middle East (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025, with Billie Jeanne Brownlee). He is recipient of the 2023 Philip Leverhulme Prize and the 2020 Wellcome Trust University Award. His work spans social theory, creative history, ethnographic documentaries, graphic novels, and poetry.With a response from Dr Jamie Allinson, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Edinburgh. Learn more HERE. Oct 27 2025 13.00 - 14.30 States Without People: Revolt and Defeat in the Middle East A book launch in Scotland featuring Dr Billie Jeanne Brownlee (University of Exeter) and Dr Maziyar Ghiabi (University of Exeter). Room 1.06 (Project Room) 50 George Square Edinburgh EH8 9LH Find Venue Register Free
Oct 27 2025 13.00 - 14.30 States Without People: Revolt and Defeat in the Middle East A book launch in Scotland featuring Dr Billie Jeanne Brownlee (University of Exeter) and Dr Maziyar Ghiabi (University of Exeter).
