Email: t.aboujaoude@qub.ac.uk

Research Portal

Dr Tarek Abou Jaoude is a Lecturer at the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queen’s. He was previously a Teaching Fellow at the University of Portsmouth and Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the University of Suffolk.

Tarek is interested in the theory and application of political legitimacy, and its implications on state-building, particularly within vertically divided societies. His work has centred around the relationship between institutional and societal legitimacy on the one hand and political stability on the other. He was awarded his PhD from Durham University in 2020, where he examined the history and development of state formation in Lebanon. Based in political theory, Tarek’s research on Lebanon has also been historical and sociological in nature. He is currently working on a manuscript that explores political ambitions and wishes across the Levant in the immediate aftermath of World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Tarek’s aim is to expand his work both within and beyond its Middle Eastern context, with plans for a comparative study that allows for further theory-testing. Separately, Tarek has a strong interest in international law, specifically with regard to the implications of the texts on belligerent occupation, which he also continues to research. Aside from his teaching and research experience, Tarek has also spent some time in the diplomatic sector in the UK, providing political and communicative advice to officials, dignitaries and stakeholders.

Tarek has recently had his project ‘Against All Odds? Elite Contribution to State Resilience in Lebanon’ accepted for a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships. The project looks at how Lebanon’s political system has endured successive threats and shocks over the last two decades, hypothesising that elite competition in Lebanon not only reproduces sectarian elite-society dynamics but produces​ resilience in the face of extreme political and social crises. Through complementary rhetorical strategies, aggregative control of media narratives, and targeted forms of service provision, competing elites contribute to a conflict-prevention process that reduces inter-communal tension whilst preserving power-sharing institutions in high-tension situations. The project shifts attention away from institutional design alone, arguing instead that Lebanese state resilience depends heavily on elite agency and adaptation in times of crises.

Publications

Article: Tarek Abou Jaoude (2024) The desires of the people: post-war nationalism in 1919 Lebanon, The Journal of the Middle East and Africe, 1–30.

Article: Tarek Abou Jaoude (2022) The grey areas of political illegitimacy, Third World Quarterly, 43:10, 2413-2429.

Article: Tarek Abou Jaoude (2021) Chehabism revisited: the consequences of reform in Lebanon, Middle Eastern Studies, 57:5, 810-832.

Book: Abou Jaoude, T. (2022). Stability and the Lebanese State in the 20th Century: Building Political Legitimacy. Bloomsbury Publishing.