NEIL PARTRICK
STATE FAILURE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen
STATE FAILURE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen
Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen
Routledge (Europa Country Perspectives) published State Failure in the Middle East in August 2025. Click here or on the book cover above for the publisher's information about the book, including the electronic and hard copy order option, and a range of endorsements from academics and senior ex-officials.
Dr Mohammed al-Rumaihi (Kuwaiti sociologist, writer and government adviser) reviewed the book in Al-Sharq Al-Awsat . He commented that "The value of the book lies in the author's interviews with a number of current and former officials, advisors, analysts, and experts, both Arab and non-Arab, to present a more realistic picture than mere theoretical analysis. It is a valuable addition to the region's affairs......This book contributes to understanding state failure in the Middle East, providing an accurate and realistic map of how these four states function when sovereignty is fragmented, making recovery difficult. This book is an important reference for understanding how these countries are governed, and what can or cannot be changed in the near term." His original Arabic review, entitled Al-Duwal Al-Fashalat ('Failed States'), was published September 6 in Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.
State Failure in the Middle East examines how power and sovereignty is exercised in four Arab majority states - Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen - and how each of these states function in the context of complex and unstable political dynamics. All four countries struggle to function according to the conventional norms of sovereign statehood. Armed force is often diffuse and not accountable to, let alone controlled by the designated state leader. National allegiance is compromised by sub-state and para-state identities and fealties, state resources are appropriated by sub or para-state interests, and external actors (foreign state and often related militia) impose their interests on the ‘host’ state. The book does not assume that state functionality is somehow the prerogative of western democracies. It does though assume that without the centralised, accepted and even modestly accountable operation of sovereign state power, then the state is struggling.
This notion of a functioning state is expressed, including in comparative form, in the book's free to view Introduction, in contrast for example to much of state practise in Syria. (Part of the Syria chapter is also available free to view). The book did not begin, nor did it conclude, with one prescriptive notion of how a state should function; rather it assessed and allowed for different degrees of functionality in all four cases. The book's much-quoted interviewees all shared similar notions of state 'success' however, even as they differed over the extent to which their country was functioning accordingly. It is the interviewees' differing interpretation of state practise and sovereignty in their own country that drives the analysis contained in this book.
Mouin Rabbani, co-editor of the ezine Jadaliyya, has commented: "Neil Partrick examines four case studies to investigate the very meaning of statehood in the Arab world, and assesses the dynamics and features of both state dysfunctionality and state resilience. This book is an essential addition to the literature on the contemporary Arab state by a scholar deeply immersed in both the subject and the region. The extensive reliance on Arabic sources, and numerous, incisive interviews in particular, is a particular strength."
The last phase of field research for the book was conducted during a four week trip to Lebanon, and a week in Saudi Arabia interviewing northern Yemenis, over May to June 2024, following a three week trip to southern Yemen in November-December 2023. A brief article related to recent Houthi activity in the Red Sea and related to some of my observations on the trip can be seen here: Houthi rivals in Yemen want to exploit Red Sea rift.
In November 2023 I gave a paper on Syria to an online meeting of the Middle East Studies Centre (MESC) at the University of Hull. Syria: Failed State or Reborn Regional Player? reflected my initial research for the Syria chapter.
In November 2022 I wrote an analysis for the AGSIW of the limited significance of the then newly-formed Iraqi government in the context of limited state functionality.
On March 18 2022 I spoke on The Future of State Functionality in the Middle East in a panel of the same name, which formed part of the Policy Studies Organization's 'Middle East Dialogue 2022' conference. The PSO organised the four day conference in partnership with the American Public University (APU) and the American Military University (AMU).