Miscellaneous
A public lecture delivered by Dr Adeel Malik (University of Oxford) at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, King's College London. This lecture seeks to develop a broader political economy narrative on violence in the Middle East. Using the recent ISIS-related violence in the Levant as a hook, I probe the deep political and economic factors underpinning violence in the region. Recent violence does not easily lend itself to empirical evidence. Beyond popular representations in the media, the social scientist has little knowledge of real actors on the ground, their control over means of violence and access to the supply chain of war. In light of this, I make four key propositions and situate them in the political economy analysis of violence. First, violence is not just a random or spontaneous generation: it is linked with the rational logic of power and formal state structures. Second, violence directly emerges from a power vacuum generated by ill-advised foreign interventions. Third, violence is often only a temporary instrument that seeks to postpone emerging challenges to the prevailing power structure. Fourth, the ISIS-related conflict also constitutes a trade shock and a fundamental re-drawing of the economic boundaries of the Middle East. The paper concludes by developing futuristic perspectives on imagining a peaceful and prosperous social order in the Middle East. ADEEL MALIK is Globe Fellow in the Economies of Muslim Societies at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and a University Research Lecturer in Development Economics at the University of Oxford. He is also a Research Fellow of St. Peter’s College, Oxford, and a Research Associate of the Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource-Rich Economies. Having completed his doctorate in economics from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 2004, his previous research affiliations have included: the Department of Economics, Oxford University (2004-05); Merton College (2002-03 and 2005-06); Center for International Development, Harvard University (2001), and Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre, Islamabad (1997-1999). Malik is an empirical macroeconomist with a strong multi-disciplinary orientation. He is trying to develop a broader research lens on the political economy of the Middle East. His most recent contribution to the field was an article on “The Economics of the Arab Spring”, which was published in World Development and formed the basis for a dedicated story in the Economist magazine. Malik’s research on Middle Eastern political economy has featured in the CNN, Fortune Magazine, The Times London, Financial Times, Guardian and Gulf News. He has also engaged with a wider audience on this subject by contributing op-ed pieces to The New York Times, Project Syndicate, Al-Jazeera, Huffington Post, Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs Magazines.