MENA in the Polycrisis Era

Prospects for the bottom billions are today mediated by the workings of global financial and monetary systems. Access to credit and ability to direct it toward socially, developmentally, and environmentally desirable ends are in large part determined by national currency strength and levels of financial subordination. The capacity to mobilize capital for investment, in turn, dictates where infrastructure is built, businesses thrive, and jobs are created.

With a primary though not exclusive focus on the Middle East and North Africa, this project shines a light on finance and the domestic and international variables setting its course. With a heavy focus on research, we work to foreground the state-finance nexus in particular: Studying how configurations of monetary, fiscal, and financial institutions come together within national contexts, we generate novel insights into what Gabor and Braun have called macrofinancial regimes, and the ways in which they are shaping presents and futures.