Gilbert Achcar

In this collection of essays, Gilbert Achcar examines the controversial relationship of Marxism to religion, to Orientalism and its critique by Edward Said, and to the concept of cosmopolitanism. A compelling range of issues is discussed within these pages, including a comparative assessment of Christian liberation theology and Islamic fundamentalism; "Orientalism in reverse", which can take the form of an apology for Islamic fundamentalism; the evolution of Marxs appraisal of non-Western societies; and the vagaries of "cosmopolitanism" up to our present era of globalisation. Erudite and incisive, these essays provide a major contribution to the critical discussion of Marxism, Orientalism and cosmopolitanism, and illuminate the relationships between all three.

Este libro, traducido ya a once idiomas, contrapone a la tesis del choque de civilizaciones acuñada por Samuel P. Huntington la del choque de barbaries: la terrorista y la de la guerra, que se alimentan y refuerzan mutuamente. Una tesis que se argumenta indagando en las caracteristicas historicamente ineditas de la hegemonia politica mundial de Estados Unidos tras la Guerra Fria y analizando atentamente los origenes del fenomeno Bin Laden, sus relaciones con el establishment estadounidense y su composicion social, y el peso y la finalidad del integrismo islamico y de sus grupos terroristas. Esta edicion ha sido actualizada con un nuevo capitulo sobre la escalada terrorista posterior a los atentados del 11 de septiembre y sobre la guerra y la ocupacion de Irak.

The ArabIsraeli conflict goes far beyond the wars waged on Middle Eastern battlefields. There is also a war of narratives revolving around the two defining traumas of the conflict: the Holocaust and the Nakba. One side is charged with Holocaust denial, the other with exploiting a tragedy while denying the tragedies of others.In this path-breaking book, eminent political scientist Gilbert Achcar explores these conflicting narratives and considers their role in todays Middle East dispute. He analyses the various Arab responses to the Holocaust, from the earliest intimations of the genocide, through the creation of Israel and the occupation of Palestine, and up to our own time, critically assessing the political and historical context for these responses.Achcar offers a unique ideological mapping of the Arab world, in the process defusing and international propaganda war that has become a major stumbling block in the path of ArabWestern understanding.

From a foremost expert on the Middle East, a searing indictment of the forces that led to the genocidal war on Gaza and its reverberations across the globe.The destruction rained on Gaza has been seen by many as a vengeful overreaction to the reckless Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023. However, the new catastrophe befalling the Palestinian people is the continuation of a decades-long course in which Israeli politics, policies and military strategies have inexorably shifted to the right. Gaza was the final nail in the coffin of the Atlanticist "international liberal order" before Donald Trumps return to the White House.The Gaza Catastrophe reckons with the lethal consequences and the significance of a war waged by an advanced military-industrial state with full US participation and support from the West. Renowned political scientist Gilbert Achcar explores the dynamics of a complex historical process that culminated in the war on Gaza and wider conflict in the Middle East. He offers critical insights on the genocides regional and international ramifications, as well as radical critiques of Zionism, Hamas and other state and non-state actors.This vital volume is essential to understanding the root causes of the violence destabilising the entire region and the wider world, as well as the conditions required to bring it to an end.

Hay libros que cuentan historias y otros nos las explican. Este nos ayuda justo a entender las causas de las rebeliones populares de 2011 y las razones que llevaron a la mayoría a evolucionar de formas turbulentas. Gilbert Achcar empieza por analizar la modalidad del capitalismo en el Medio Oriente y como se ha bloqueado el desarrollo economico y social, ocasionando desempleo, desigualdad, pobreza y frustracion. Su exploracion no se limita a la racionalidad economica, ya que profundiza en lo politico. Considera el papel de los regimenes despoticos y sus rasgos sociales, desmenuza las caracteristicas del fundamentalismo islamico y su protagonismo, para lo que ofrece valiosas claves historicas y politicas dificiles de encontrar en otros libros. Aborda tambien el papel de las grandes potencias, en especial el de Estados Unidos. Un argumento importante del libro es que la Primavera Arabe fue no unicamente un momento importante en la historia de la region, sino el inicio de un proceso revolucionario de largo aliento. Esta obra es imprescindible para entender no solo la Primavera Arabe sino mucho de lo que ocurre en el conjunto del Medio Oriente contemporaneo.

The people want - thus began the slogans chanted by millions of protesters in 2011 in what was dubbed the Arab Spring. ?While the protests revealed a long-suppressed craving for democracy, they also laid bare a deep structural crisis. In this landmark work, Middle East analyst Gilbert Achcar examines the socio-economic roots and political dynamics of the regional upheaval. He assesses the peculiarities of the regions states and regimes, and sheds light on the movements that use Islam as a political banner. Achcar argues that the Arab Spring was but the beginning of a long-term revolutionary process - a perspective confirmed by a second wave of uprisings in 2019 - and outlines the requirements for a solution to the crisis. This new edition features a preface drawing a balance sheet of the upheavals first decade.

Oriente medio es una zona inestable, poseedora de inmensos recursos y escenario de frecuentes crisis, lo que la convierten en una de las principales fuentes de tensiones internacionales. Dos de los mas agudos analistas de esta parte del mundo son Noam Chomsky, implacable critico de la politica exterior estadounidense, y Gilbert Achcar, uno de los principales conocedores de Oriente Medio, donde ha residido varios años.En su primera obra conjunta, Chomsky y Achcar aportan su profundo conocimiento de la dinamica interna de Oriente Medio y del papel de Estados Unidos en la zona. Abordan cuestiones clave tales como el terrorismo, el fundamentalismo, el petroleo, la democracia; sin olvidar la guerra de Afganistan, la invasion de Irak, el conflicto armado entre Israel, Hamas y Hezbola.

Since the first wave of uprisings in 2011, the euphoria of the "Arab Spring" has given way to the gloom of backlash and a descent into mayhem and war. The revolution has been overwhelmed by clashes between rival counter-revolutionary forces: resilient old regimes on the one hand and Islamic fundamentalist contenders on the other.In this eagerly awaited book, foremost Middle East and international affairs specialist Gilbert Achcar analyzes the factors of the regional relapse. Focusing on Syria and Egypt, Achcar assesses the present stage of the uprising and the main obstacles, both regional and international, that prevent any resolution. In Syria, the regimes brutality has fostered the rise of jihadist forces, among which the so-called Islamic State emerged as the most ruthless and powerful. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhoods year in power was ultimately terminated by the contradictory conjunction of a second revolutionary wave and a bloody reactionary coup. Events in Syria and Egypt offer salient examples of a pattern of events happening across the Middle East.Morbid Symptoms offers a timely analysis of the ongoing Arab uprising that will engage experts and general readers alike.Drawing on a unique combination of scholarly and political knowledge of the Arab region, Achcar argues that, short of radical social change, the region will not reach stability any time soon.

Achcar y Warschawski, originarios de estos dos países enfrentados, el Líbanos e Israel, y unidos desde hace más de treinta años por una amistad más fuerte que cualquier conflicto, analizan esta última guerra y sus consecuencias a traves de una observacion minuciosa del contexto politico y estrategico y de su perspectiva historica. Esta guerra, lejos de obligar a Hezbola a deponer las armas, ha colocado a la organizacion islamista chiita como el enemigo mas prestigioso de Israel y a su lider Hassan Nasrallah en el heroe mas popular despues de Nasser. Esta es la crisis mas grave que Israel ha tenido que afrontar desde la guerra de 1973.

Las diferentes cuestiones de las que trata esta obra giran en torno a una central, el orientalismo, ese conjunto de saberes sobre esa entidad genérica que se denomina «Oriente» que tanto han contribu