TMPress SPECIAL INFObase Report ... Adam Hanieh: Gulf States, Neoliberalism and Liberation in the Middle East via TMPress International Newswire and Sherri Ingrey ... (New York) ... October 6, 2014 -- rs21 -- Adam Hanieh is a senior lecturer at and School of Oriental and African Studies in London and author of Lineages of Revolt: Issues of Contemporary Capitalism in the Middle East. He spoke to Bill Crane about his book and on the trajectories of the Arab revolutions since 2011. You talk in your book about how the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank see bureaucracy hindering economic growth as the central problem of the Middle East – and hence tried to recast the Arab uprisings as pro-market. Can you explain what’s wrong with this perspective? The twinning of “democracy promotion” and neoliberal economic prescriptions in the Middle East is not new. It was a perspective articulated by the Bush administration and continued throughout the Obama presidency. It essentially aims at harnessing rhetorical support for “democracy” as a means of deepening economic liberalisation. This is quite clear if you look at the post-2011 record, particularly the way that international financial institutions (IFIs) have reentered the region, promoting notions such as “democracy”, “good governance”, “voice, transparency and consultation” – but linking these tropes to policies such as privatisation, the opening up of markets, deregulation and the expansion of foreign direct investment. A very clear example of this approach is offered by the Deauville Partnership, an initiative launched by Western governments and IFIs at the May 2011 G8 summit in France. The partnership pledged up to $40 billion in loans and other assistance towards what they termed the “Arab countries in transition”. nblo.gs/10vUPL
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 00:11:59 +0000
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