17 May 2011

In his new book, SOAS academic Dr Arshin Adib-Moghaddam seeks to dispel the myth that we have ever been involved in a ‘clash of civilisations’.

The Lecturer from the Politics and International Studies Department takes the reader on a journey from the wars between ancient Persia and Greece, the Crusades, Colonialism and the Enlightenment to the contemporary ‘wars on terror’. In asking where ideas such as the ‘clash of civilisations’ come from, and by whom they are perpetuated, Adib-Moghaddam uses both western and Islamic representations of the ‘other’, charting a hybrid cultural territory in which east and west, north and south merge.

The publication of the book comes after a busy period of invited lectures and conferences, taking him from Illinois to New Delhi, via Germany and Amman. In mid-April Dr Adib-Moghaddam was honoured with a Professorial Fellowship at the Centre for Middle East Studies of the Metropolitan University in Prague, delivering another key note lecture as a part of an international conference on Iran. He has given numerous interviews on the political situation in the Middle East and written a number of articles, notably for CNN and OpenDemocracy.

Other books by Dr Adib Moghaddam include Iran in World Politics: The Question of the Islamic Republic and The International Politics of the Persian Gulf: A Cultural Genealogy. A metahistory of the clash of civilisations: Us and them beyond Orientalism is published by Columbia University Press and Hurst & Co.

"Eloquent, powerful, incisive and impressive in its range, A Metahistory of the Clash of Civilisations is a masterly work of critical deconstruction in the finest tradition of Michel Foucault and Edward Said. For anyone wishing to better understand the current state of international politics, this book is absolutely essential." — Prof. Richard Jackson, Secretary of the British International Studies Association (BISA).

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For media enquiries contact Poul Christiansen by emailing pc42@soas.ac.uk or call 0207 898 4127.