VOLUME 4, ISSUE 1, Spring 2021 OUR MISSION The Middle East and North Africa Politics Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA) was established in 2018 to support, develop and publish research on the politics of the MENA region. It seeks to fully integrate the rigorous study of the politics of the Middle East with the broader discipline of Political Science. It serves as an institutional home for the community of political scientists dedicated to the Middle East. This Newsletter is a forum for discussion of research and issues of interest to the community, and is produced with the support of POMEPS. Section Officers Marc Lynch (Chair) Matt Buehler (Vice-Chair) Steven Brooke (Treasurer) Marwa Shalaby (At-Large) Jillian Schwedler (At-Large) Newsletter Editor: Marc Lynch Assistant Editors: Prerna BalaEddy, Tessa Talebi Newsletter Editorial Board Nermin Allam, Alexandra Blackman, Gamze Cavdar, May Darwich, Justin Gengler, Diana Greenwald, Kevan Harris, Shimaa Hatab, Lisel Hintz, Noora Lori, Lama Mourad, Daniel Tavana, and Sean Yom Cover Image Courtesy of Alexei Abrahams CONTACT US [email protected] https://www.apsanet.org/section49 https://apsamena.org/ https://twitter.com/APSAMENA https://www.facebook.com/APSAMENA 1 Table of Contents SECTION NEWS ........................................................................................................................... 3 A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR ........................................................................................................... 3 INTRODUCING THE NEW EDITORIAL TEAM ................................................................................ 5 THE MIDDLE EAST SCHOLAR BAROMETER ................................................................................. 6 Marc Lynch ....................................................................................................................................................................... 6 A NOTE FROM APSA ........................................................................................................................... 8 Ahmed Morsy and Andrew Stinson ................................................................................................................................ 9 FEATURE ARTICLE .................................................................................................................... 10 DEMOCRATIC WAVES AND THE ARAB UPRISINGS ................................................................ 10 By Shimaa Hatab ......................................................................................................................................................... 10 RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM: TAKING SPACE SERIOUSLY .................................................. 19 INTRODUCTION: TAKING SPACE SERIOUSLY: THE USE OF GEOGRAPHIC METHODS IN THE STUDY OF MENA ................................................................................................................. 19 By Alexandra Domike Blackman and Lama Mourad ........................................................................................... 19 GEOSPATIAL RESEARCH IN SETTINGS OF CONTESTED SOVEREIGNTY ......................... 22 By Alexei Abrahams and Diana B. Greenwald ..................................................................................................... 22 MAPPING MUNICIPAL CHANGE IN TUNISIA ............................................................................. 28 By Julia Clark ................................................................................................................................................................ 28 USING HISTORICAL MAPS FOR MENA POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH ......................... 37 By Ashrakat Elshehawy .............................................................................................................................................. 37 CONTESTING HARD-LINE BOUNDARIES: TOWARDS A RECONCEPTUALIZATION OF BEIRUT’S NEIGHBORHOODS ........................................................................................................... 44 By Ahmad Gharbieh ................................................................................................................................................... 44 SPATIAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF LOCAL GOVERNANCE AND SERVICE PROVISION IN THE MIDDLE EAST ................................................................................................ 53 By Christiana Parreira ................................................................................................................................................. 53 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ APSA MENA Politics Section: MENA Politics Newsletter | Volume 4, Issue 1, Spring 2021 2 USING GIS TO UNDERSTAND HOW HUMANITARIAN AID MOVES ................................... 59 By Emily K. M. Scott ................................................................................................................................................... 59 RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM: COVID-19 AND MENA POLITICAL SCIENCE ................... 65 INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 AND MENA POLITICAL SCIENCE: IMPACTS ON RESEARCH AND REGION ................................................................................................................. 65 By Nermin Allam, Justin Gengler, Lisel Hintz, and Noora Lori ......................................................................... 65 DEPLOYING AUTHORITY: SAUDI ARABIA AND EGYPT STRIVE TO RESPOND TO COVID-19 ............................................................................................................................................... 68 By Sultan Alamer, Rana Mamdouh, and Nathan J. Brown ................................................................................ 68 UNDERSTANDING RESPONSES TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN TURKEY: POLITICS OF THE LOCAL ..................................................................................................................................... 74 By Başak Yavçan .......................................................................................................................................................... 74 THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON FORCIBLY DISPLACED AND MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES WITH A FOCUS ON CHILD MARRIAGES IN JORDAN ............................... 79 By Aida Essaid .............................................................................................................................................................. 79 PANDEMIC-SAFE RESEARCH WITH ONLINE SURVEYS .......................................................... 87 By Robert Kubinec ...................................................................................................................................................... 87 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ APSA MENA Politics Section: MENA Politics Newsletter | Volume 4, Issue 1, Spring 2021 3 SECTION NEWS A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR 2021 marks the final year of my tenure as Section Chair and Newsletter Chief Editor. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has contributed to the Section’s activities over the last two years. The Section continues to grow, welcoming new members from around the world and expanding its activities in support of their scholarly aspirations. We have supported two major initiatives to support junior scholars: the Section sponsors the MENA Junior Scholars Research Development Group, held in conjunction with the APSA Annual Meeting, which will be held virtually for its third annual session; and the Section supports the POMEPS Virtual Research Workshop, which has met almost twenty times since its launch last year and workshopped more than 60 papers. The Section has also expanded its annual awards, adding “Best Article in MENA Political Science” to the existing awards “Best Dissertation”, “Best Book”, and “Best Paper Presented to the APSA Annual Meeting”; the award winners will be profiled in the fall issue of the Newsletter. This Newsletter is a critical part of the Section’s activities. We take great pride in its rapid development into a widely read publication featuring a wide range of short essays and organized symposia of interest across our field. The Newsletter benefits from a very actively engaged, diverse and enthusiastic Editorial Board; new members are elected to join the Board every year, and we welcome self-nominations for consideration. In that context, we are delighted to announce the successful conclusion of a competitive search for a new editorial team to take the reins as of the Spring 2022 issue: Nermin Allam (Rutgers University), Gamze Çavdar (Colorado State University) and Sean Yom (Temple University). (See below for more on the new editorial team). The Newsletter will be in good hands! This issue of the Newsletter begins with a short profile of the MENA Scholars Barometer, a new biannual survey of scholars of the region launched earlier this year by Shibley Telhami (University of Maryland) and myself, with the cooperation of the Section, the Middle East Studies Association and the Project on Middle East Political Science. My introduction of the project explains the methodology, presents some of the key findings of the first wave, and points out some intriguing differences in the responses from political scientists and other disciplines. The Newsletter then presents a feature research