Bashar Malkawi, Middle East Law and Governance Call for Papers

Call for Papers: Governing and Living Amid COVID-19 in the MENAGovernments throughout the entire world are grappling with the unchartered waters of COVID-19. As elsewhere, responses to the challenge have varied greatly across the MENA with some national leaders taking action early and decisively and others all but denying its existence. COVID-19 is undoubtedly having an impact on politics and on the very nature of authority in the region. The question is what type of impact and where and how will it differ, and why. COVID-19 has furthermore brought important structural inequalities into the spotlight as economic suffering and death tolls reflect class, gender and race differences. How are peoples experiencing COVID-19 and what will be the long-term impact politically, economically, socially, and culturally? COVID-19 has moreover impacted, if not exacerbated, existing crises in the region. How has COVID-19 impacted the revolution in Lebanon or the on-going war in Yemen, for example? How has it affected migration and refugees and what is the long-term impact in terms of policy and refugees themselves? These are just some of the questions this special issue seeks to address. This special issue will take a broad look at how the MENA – the state, governments, and societies of the region -- are governing and/or living amid COVID-19. It encourages papers from a wide range of disciplines and methodological approaches in the social sciences and humanities.