This special double issue of Arab Studies Quarterly includes four articles by members of the Editorial Team.
Liana M. Petranek’s “Dancing on the Edge of Oblivion,” discusses global capitalist crisis and the escalating conflict among “hegemons.” It shows the relationship between the crisis of capital accumulation and US machinations to deal successive blows to rivals on a world scale, including West Asia and Africa. The US has not come to grips with the reality that its global dominance is slipping by. Instead, the US still clings to old formulas that can only lead humanity to the precipice and perhaps oblivion.
Ibrahim G. Aoudé’s “The Axis of Resistance and Imperialism in West Asia,” locates RESISTANCE in the regional and global context to demonstrate the way in which US imperialism and the settler—colonial Zionist entity in Palestine work to maintain their slipping domination in the region. The centrality of the Palestinian struggle for liberation is at the core of the commitments of the Axis of Resistance.
Rami Siklawi’s “Syria Since 1990: Dimensions of Conflict,” discusses Syria’s political economic development. The US strategy to destroy Syria has to do with Syria’s independent development, its resistance to Zionist domination of the region, and its geo-strategic location, making it the backbone for resistance movements in the region.
Tahrir Hamdi begins her article “Decolonizing English Literature Departments at Arab Universities” by stating “Education in the Arab world is in need of a revolution …” She wonders why there are no attempts or intention at decolonizing a purely English … literary curricula while some attempts at decolonizing the curricula occurred even at “Ivy League institutions.” Despite colonized minds overseeing destructive curricula at Arab universities, Hamdi calls for raising awareness in order to de-colonize the oppressive, repressive Western curricula.