Negotiation and Construction of National Indentities

Scholars of the Countries of the Middle East have tried for quite a while to provide an explanation to the identity crisis that ravaged, in the eighties and nineties many countries of the area. Building on a cogent analysis of elite interactions and negotiation theory this book offers a clear and more nuanced explanation, one rooted in the politics of identity. The findings of this study show that those countries, such as Morocco, where an identity formula was developed through a process of negotiations among all the elites of the country, enjoy greater stability and are free of basic identity crises throughout their socio-political development unlike countries such as Algeria and Tunisia where identities are imposed.