INTLPOL239

The emergence of the Covid-19 crisis has brought to light the long-term governance challenges confronting states in the Arab region. The ongoing efforts on the part of Arab governments to contain the outbreak and contend with its social and economic repercussions highlight a host of fundamental structural and institutional flaws in the dominant governance frameworks in the Arab region. At the same time, they highlight new patterns of political contestation between governments and various social forces, as well as among important bureaucratic and state actors. In some Arab countries, governments have lacked transparency and attempted to control public debates about the pandemic by silencing independent media outlets whenever their coverage contradicted official narratives. Elsewhere, pubic pressures have compelled some governments to abandon their initially secretive approaches in favor of a more transparent handling of the pandemic. This course seeks to analyze state responses to the pandemic in the Arab world, highlighting differences between countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia.