Dr Christopher Phillips, BA (Cambridge), MSc (LSE), PhD (LSE)
Lecturer

Research interests:

My research interests lie primarily in the role of identity in the politics and international relations of the Arab Middle East. My work to date has used nationalism and international relations theory to explore the interaction of Arab, state and religious identities in the identity discourses of modern Arab states.

For the past few years I have investigated in detail the official identity discourses of two modern Arab states, Syria and Jordan, considering how Arab identity in particular has been constructed, sustained and reproduced in an everyday manner. Out of this has come a wider consideration of the position of Arab identity in today’s Middle East, both its domestic and international politics, with the role of transnational satellite television, particularly al-Jazeera, scrutinised. These projects have involved fieldwork in both Syria and Jordan, combining ethnographic interviewing with broader content and discourse analyses of several key disseminators of national identity: the personality cults of the ruling regimes and the state television broadcasts they control. 

My other research interests focus on specific case studies within the study of politics and the international relations of the Middle East: Syrian foreign policy; British and US foreign policy towards the Arab World; the nature of authoritarian rule in Jordan and Syria; the role of Arab identity in intra-Arab relations; and the challenge presented to older identity discourses by the 2011 Arab Spring.

Current research projects:

• Arab identity in the contemporary Middle East
• Syria-Turkey relations since 1998
• Syrian national identity and the 2011 uprising
• The role of Arab identity in intra-Arab relations

Publications:

Books:

Phillips, C. (Forthcoming 2012), Everyday Arab Identity: The daily reproduction of the Arab World (London: Routledge)

Journal Articles: 

Phillips, C. (2012), ‘Team Arab: al-Jazeera and the flagging of everyday Arabism during the 2008 Beijing Olympics’ Nations and Nationalism 18: 3

Phillips, C. and Wallace, W. (2009), ‘Reassessing the Special Relationship’, International Affairs 85: 2, 263-284.

Other:

• ‘The International Relations of the Middle East after the Arab Spring’, The Economist Intelligence Unit: Middle East Regional Overview, January 2012.
• ’10 myths about the Arab Spring: Coup d’etat or revolution?’ The Majalla, 14 September 2011
• ‘Syria regime blunders towards self-destruction’, CNN, 12 August 2011.
• ‘Turkey and Syria,’ in Turkey’s Global Strategy, LSE Ideas Special Report, May 2011.
• ‘Hesitant They Stand’ The Majalla, 17 January 2011.
• ‘Christianity’s place in the Middle East’ The Guardian, 11 November 2010.
• ‘Lebanon: Tony Blair’s other Middle East mistake’ The Guardian,9 September 2010.
• ‘Syria and the west: another wasted decade’ The Guardian, 25 July 2010.
• ‘US hegemony in Middle East is ending’ The Guardian, 31 May 2010.
• ‘Playing the Identity Card’ The Majalla, 6 April 2010.
• ‘Miliband’s grand Middle East delusion’ The Guardian, 12 March 2010.
• ‘Syria’s Assad: Pariah to Power-Broker,‘ The Guardian, 17 February 2010.
• ‘Autocracy-Lite in Jordan’ The Guardian, 29 January 2010.
• ‘Obama’s Middle East Policy: Time to Decide’, in Obama Nation: US Foreign Policy One Year on, LSE Ideas Special Report, January 2010 (Co-authored with Gregorio Bettiza).
• ‘Tough Love: The Paradox of Syrian-Iraqi Interdependence‘ The Majalla, 21 December 2009.
• ‘Silent Majority: Jordan’s Palestinians and the search for Identity,’ in IDEAS Today, December 2009.
• ‘Netanyahu’s Syrian Distraction’ The Guardian, 24 November 2009.
• ‘Brussels buckles, Damascus deliberates’ The Guardian, 25 October 2009.
• ‘Who will come next? The future of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria’ The Majalla, 17 October 2009.
• ‘Turkey, Syria’s new best friend’ The Guardian, 1 October 2009.

Selected Conference papers:

• ‘Which flag? The 2011 uprising and Syrian national identity’, BRISMES Conference, London School of Economics (Forthcoming – March 2012)
• ‘Unnoticed Authoritarianism: The Everyday Cult of King Abdullah II of Jordan’, British Academy-sponsored Special Seminar, Exeter University (September, 2010)
• ‘Banal Arabism? Al-Jazeera and the flagging of Arab identity during the 2008 Beijing Olympics’, World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies, Conference, Barcelona (July, 2010)
• ‘Daddies’ Boys: Father, son and the nation in the leadership cults of contemporary Syria and Jordan’ ASEN Conference, London School of Economics (April 2010)
• ‘Re-inventing Lebanon: the Search for Lebanese Nationalism During Syrian Occupation 1991-2005.’Hawaii International Conference on Social Sciences, University of Hawaii, (May 2007)

Undergraduate teaching:

• POL310 Research Project (Level 6)
• POL365 The Politics of the Post-Colonial Middle East (Level 6)

Professional activities and outreach:

For further information, including recent media appearances, see www.cjophillips.com