Scholars Online
Melani Cammett
Brown University
Filmed in December 2011
Why should high school students learn about the contemporary Middle East? [1:51]
What is the Arab Spring? [2:04]
What caused the Arab Spring? [3:06]
How did government rule lead to the Arab Spring protests in Tunisia, Bahrain and Egypt? [3:14]
What have been some of the outcomes of the Arab Spring uprisings? [4:01]
What are the United States’ interests in the Middle East? [2:04]
How has the Arab Spring affected U.S. policy in the Middle East? [2:50]
What is political Islam? [1:39]
What are the origins of U.S. concerns about political Islam? [2:04]
What has been the impact of the 2003 Iraq War in terms of regional politics? [2:50]
Filmed in February 2011.
Why is it important for high school students to learn about Egypt and Tunisia? [1:37]
Are events in Egypt related to similar events in the region, specifically in Tunisia? [3:07]
What is the historical relationship between the United States and Egypt? [1:56]
How is the U.S. government responding to recent events in Egypt? [1:42]
How much influence does the United States have in Egypt? [1:30]
What are the potential effects if Mubarak leaves? [2:19]
What role have social media played in the protests in Egypt and Tunisia? [1:16]
Melani Cammett is an associate professor of political science and director of the Middle East Studies program at Brown University. She specializes in the political economy of development and the Middle East and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on comparative politics, development, and Middle East politics. She is the author of Globalization and Business Politics in North Africa: A Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2007), and co-editor of The Politics of Non-State Social Welfare in the Global South. Her second book project, Compassionate Communalism: Welfare and Sectarianism in Weak States, explores the dynamics of sectarianism, focusing on how people gain access to social services in multi-ethnic societies with extensive non-state provision of social welfare. She has published articles in World Politics, Studies in Comparative International Development, Comparative Politics, World Development, Competition and Change, Global Governance, and Arab Studies Journal. Cammett received her PhD from the University of California at Berkeley.
