Raphaël Lefèvre’s book Jihad in the City wins prestigious political science prize

DPIR academic Raphaël Lefèvre has been jointly awarded the 2022  American Political Science Association’s – Middle East and North Africa Section’s Best Book Award for Jihad in the City: Militant Islam and Contentious Politics in Tripoli.

The award recognises exceptional contributions to the field from any scholar’s work who has received their PhD in the past 10 years that integrates the study of the politics of the Middle East and North Africa with the broader discipline of Political Science.

Jihad in the City is a comprehensive account of the militant Islamist group Tawhid, drawing on 200 interviews with Islamist fighters and their mortal enemies.

In the book, Raphaël provides a detailed understanding of the multi-faceted processes through which Tawhid emerged in 1982, implemented its 'Emirate' and suddenly collapsed in 1985.

The prize winners were selected by a committee and announced at the MENA Politics reception at the 2022 APSA Annual Conference.

Raphaël said: “With my book I wanted to shed light on a little-known historical event with large contemporary echo: the creation by a militant Islamist movement of an “Islamic Emirate” on the city of Tripoli, Lebanon in 1982-1985.

“This movement has modern parallels​ with the “Islamic Caliphate” created by ISIS in parts of Iraq and Syria after 2014.

“I ended up spending three full years doing research. At the end of the day, I had way too much research material but it also meant that I could fill the book with the sort of local details which may, at first glance, seem excessively granular yet, taken together, allowed me to yield broader insights and forge new concepts.

“I am delighted to win this award – I hope that its success helps raise the profile of the overlooked history of this city.”