Morocco ─ Challenges to Tradition and Modernity

Examining the challenges to tradition and modernity in post-colonial Morocco the second edition has a new, updated emphasis on Morocco after the Arab spring.

The first edition of this book was published in 2010 one year before the major events of the Arab spring rocked the Arab world. The Moroccan state reacted by drafting a new constitution and passing it in a referendum in July 2011; furthermore, it organized new elections which resulted in a government headed by an Islamist prime minister. This reaction has made Morocco quite unique in the Arab world – moving fast to accommodate some of the protesters demands thereby splitting opposition, yet remaining uncompromising on any true reform of the monarchy’s claims to power. The second edition uses recent events to provide a more theoretical explanation of the monarchy’s adaptation.

Easily accessible to non-specialists, practitioners, and upper level undergraduate students, this book is essential reading for those working in the fields of North African Studies, International Relations and Middle East Studies.

James Sater is Associate Professor of International Studies at American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.