Alexander Wendt Meets the Middle East: The Construction of Difference within Collective Identities

Authors

  • Author

  • May Darwich جامعة برمنغهام، المملكة المتحدة

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31430/IBNZ2669

Keywords:

Alexander Wendt, Collective Identity, Anarchy, Pan-Islamism, Saudi Arabia, Hamas

Abstract

Scholars studying the Middle East often challenge the IR discipline's Eurocentric framings of the world by emphasizing the particularities of the Middle East, which defy and challenge the universality of Western-rooted IR theories. Social constructivism, focusing on agency and processes, has been regarded by many as an approach with the potential of taking into consideration specific historical, ideational, and cultural contexts in the Middle East region. Social constructivism, as developed by Alexander Wendt (1992 , 1994 , 1999), seems to lend itself especially well to adaptations to provide insights for the Middle East. This article revisits some aspects of Wendt's constructivism and explores its applicability in the Middle East. The article examines Wendt's cultures of anarchy to show how cooperative relations transform into conflict through processes of interaction. I examine how the Middle East provides both a potential and challenge to his argument by examining the case of Saudi relations with Hamas, with a particular focus on the episode of the 2009 Gaza war. The article examines the puzzle of how Saudi Arabia changed and evolved over the years from supporting Hamas and the Palestinian resistance to identifying it as an enemy, despite sharing pan-Islamism as a collective identity.

Author Biography

  • May Darwich, جامعة برمنغهام، المملكة المتحدة
    أستاذة مشاركة في العلاقات الدولية للشرق الأوسط، جامعة برمنغهام، المملكة المتحدة.

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Published

2025-03-01

Article dates

Received: May 25, 2024 Revised: September 16, 2024 Accepted: February 16, 2025

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Issue

Vol. 13 No. 073 (2025): Issue 073

Section

Studies

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