In this lecture, Jamie Allinson, the recipient of the first Fred Halliday Award in 2022, will talk about revolutions and counter-revolutions in the Middle East, as part of the inaugural event of the Barcelona Summer School of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, a joint initiative of IBEI, Blanquerna, DIPLOCAT and IEMED.

Taking his cue from earlier work on revolutionary movements in the region, Allinson argues that the Arab revolutions of 2011 re-opened the question of the historicity of revolution. These revolutions did not take place in countries that were going through an earlier phase of capitalist development; in this sense, Allison suggests considering them revolutions of late capitalist development, that emerged in a determined context in the Middle East affected by the growing inequality, the collapse of the public spheres and the progress of an authoritarian neoliberalism. Jamie Allinson received the Fred Halliday Award 2022 due to his research in these matters.

This event includes also the presentation of the 2023 edition of The Fred Halliday Award, which commemorates Fred Halliday’s tremendous contributions to the field of International Relations.