Joint MA CMEPS

🏛️ What do CMEPS students learn in class? 📚💻

This month, we are giving you a special peek into one of the core seminars taught by Dr. Mirjam Edel, Comparative Politics of the Middle East and North Africa! 🕵️‍♂️✨

This seminar provides an advanced survey of politics across the MENA region!

Throughout the semester, students explore essential themes including:

🔹 Sources of Legitimacy & Authoritarian Durability
🔹 Electoral and Party Politics
🔹 Civil Society & Contentious Politics
🔹 Repression, Political Economy & Distributive Politics
🔹 Sectarian Politics, Nationalism & Regional Order… and much more! 📑🏛️

Swipe through to see what we deal with each week! 🎓✨

📢 WE ARE HIRING: CMEPS Student Assistant (HiWi)

📝 Dr. Mirjam Edel is seeking a student assistant (20 hours/month) to support her work in CMEPS Master’s program!

📬 How to apply:
Send your application to [email protected].

⏰ Deadline: July 22, 2026

🌟 CMEPS Recommends: ”The World Cup and the Politics of Football in the MENA Region“ by Dr. André Bank, Dr. Idriss Jebari, Hamid Talebian, and Prof. Dr. Eckart Woertz. 📖⚽

Following last Wednesday’s talk by Dr. André Bank (German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) ) on “Syria after Assad: Political transition under the aegis of Salafi rebels,” this month our Program Coordinator Dr. Mirjam Edel recommends the latest GIGA Focus publication 📚 co-authored by Dr. André Bank, Dr. Idriss Jebari, Hamid Talebian, and Prof. Dr. Eckart Woertz. 📖✨

⚽ How’s everyone‘s World Cup going? The group stage just wrapped up and we now know who made it to the round of 32. From the MENA region, Morocco, Egypt, and Algeria are all through!

🌍 This GIGA Focus digs into Politics of Football. The authors look at three things running through MENA football politics: nationalism (governments leaning on the ”national team“ for legitimacy), sportswashing (Gulf states pouring money into stadiums, clubs, and star signings to build soft power abroad), and protest (the backlash when these mega-projects come at a real cost to ordinary people, Morocco’s Gen Z protests over stadium spending, or Tunisia‘s ultras scene).

💭 The best part of this piece is how it connects football directly to politics. Iran’s Team Melli caught up in wartime nationalism, Jordan‘s monarchy riding its first World Cup qualification, Algeria and Morocco’s rivalry turning into actual diplomatic tension.

If you‘re into football or Middle East politics (or both), give this one a read. 📖 ⚽

On 10 June 2026, Dr. André Bank visited the Institut für Politikwissenschaft (IfP) to give an lecture titled ‚Syria after Assad: Political transition under the aegis of Salafi rebels!

🌟 Wednesday, July 1st, 2026, 16:00 c.t. CET 🌟

Please join us for a talk by Dr. Irene Weipert-Fenner from PRIF on “Green Hydrogen Economies in North Africa: Towards a Comprehensive Peace and Conflict Analysis.” 🌿💧

Against the backdrop of the Green Deal and the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine, the EU 🇪🇺has accelerated an ambitious transition toward renewable energy, including the import of green hydrogen from North Africa. While often framed as a win-win situation, civil society actors and scholars criticize these developments as ”green extractivism“ and ”green colonialism.“

Using 🇹🇳 Tunisia as a case study, Dr. Weipert-Fenner will propose a comprehensive, multilevel analysis to examine how green hydrogen economies interact with and reshape pre-existing political-economic conflicts, helping to develop more socially just, inclusive, and peaceful strategies for climate action.

💻 Join us in Room 124, IfP or via Zoom 💻
Meeting ID: 930 8975 0663
Passcode: 142311

Summer Bucket List in Tübingen ☀️

Here is another bucket list from CMEPS HiWis to help you make the most of the sunny season while studying at Universität Tübingen ! 🌿✨

🌿 Enjoy the weather in the Botanical Garden. Take a peaceful stroll through the Botanischer Garten der Universität Tübingen . It’s the perfect spot to clear your mind in exam period, or simply enjoy the beautiful summer blooms!

🏊 Go to the outdoor pool. Beat the summer heat by heading to the Freibad! 🌀Whether you want to swim, slide down the water slides, or just sunbathe on the grass with friends, it’s one of the best summer hangout spot. Stadtwerke Tübingen

🚣 Take a Stocherkahn tour. Grab some snacks, jump on a punting boat, and enjoy the stunning views along the Neckar river.

🎸 Visit the RACT! Festival (until 13 June, today!) Experience the vibrant student culture at one of Tübingen‘s biggest highlights! Enjoy free live music, great food, and amazing festival vibes Ract!festival

🎥 CMEPS Faces 🎥

Meet Joshua Diversi, a CMEPS Graduate from Cohort 9. He completed his internship at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, Netherlands, and currently serves as an International Policy Officer for the Australian 🇦🇺Government.

❓How did you first hear about CMEPS?

🙋‍♂️I wanted to study in Germany but get some experience in the Middle East. I’d always been interested in studying at the AUC and CMEPS let me meet both these aims.

❓What, to your mind, is the best part of CMEPS?

🙋‍♂️CMEPS stands out for international exposure and as a cultural cross-over. The internship and courses took me through Egypt, the Netherlands and Germany. For a Middle East Studies degree, in-country experience is essential, while time spent in Europe keeps you plugged into that ecosystem.

❓ What was your favourite thing about the programme?

🙋‍♂️ Flexibility. CMEPS marries political science and Middle East/Arabic studies, given this it’s flexible on your electives, thesis, internship and courses in Cairo. For me all international relations and security studies. You’ll get out what you put in.

❓How did the programme shape your professional interests, and in what ways did the competencies you gained during your studies help you secure and successfully complete your obligatory internship?

🙋‍♂️ CMEPS gave me enormous opportunity to engage with international relations from a global southern lens including studying under an Egypt diplomat in Cairo. As are the language study, the soft-skills and the broad remit.

❓ What is your advice to anyone interested in enrolling in the CMEPS programme?

🙋‍♂️ Go in knowing what you want to get out, it’s flexible so failure to plan is planning to fail. Make the most out of Cairo, it goes fast. Apply for internships as early as possible. I enjoyed failing to do all these things and learning them the hard way.

🌟 CMEPS recommends: “Persepolis” (2007) by Marjane Satrapi 🎬🧕

This month, our Student Assistant Soyoung is recommending the brilliant animated film 📚 “Persepolis” 📚

“How does a punk-rock girl in a chador grow up?” 🎸

Based on Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel, this masterpiece tells the story of a rebellious girl, Marji, growing up during the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War. Raised in a progressive and rich family in Iran, Marji is later sent to Vienna for her safety, where she navigates life as an outsider, living with nuns, falling in love♥️, and listening to heavy metal music 🌍

What makes this film so special is that it serves as a raw piece delivering an unfiltered look into Iran’s political regime, while being an intimate diary of a young girl who feels like someone in between. 💭

Whether you are interested in Iran politics or simply love a powerful coming-of-age story, or love to enjoy high quality animation that is fulfilling, I highly recommend you give this a watch. 🎥✨

🏛️ What do CMEPS students learn in class? 📚💻

This month, we are giving you a special peek into another key seminar that we offer to first-semester students once a year in CMEPS about the region we are dealing with: Middle East Politics and Societies. 🕵️‍♂️✨

This seminar provides a comprehensive understanding, and also offers a great discussion space about the contemporary Middle East and North Africa, focusing on the Arab world. The curriculum focuses on key political and social structures, as well as very dynamic and contemporary issues… like digital technology and social media, or recent resistance in Arab World. 📑🏛️

While Dr. Cholawit Sirikupt taught this course last semester, Dr. Mirjam Edel will take over this seminar from next semester! 🎓✨

🌟 Wednesday, June 10th, 2026, 16:00 c.t. CET 🌟

Please join us for a talk by Dr. André Bank ( ) on “Syria after Assad: Political transition under the aegis of Salafi rebels.” 🏛️

Dr. Bank will examine the crucial institutional and security dynamics in Syria after the fall of the Assad dictatorship. Drawing on his recent fieldwork, he will analyze the “Idlib model” of HTS rebel rule and discuss whether the interim government is leaning toward pragmatic governance or a new authoritarian regime with a tempered Salafi Jihadi form of governance.

💻 Join us in Room 124, IfP or via Zoom 💻
Meeting ID: 930 8975 0663
Passcode: 142311

❗️ONLY FEW DAYS LEFT ❗️

🚨 The application window for the 2026 CMEPS Cohort is open until May 15th, 2026 (Tübingen) 🚨

🌍 Are you looking for an M.A. program that not only challenges you academically, but also enhances your language skills and fosters intercultural competence?

🏛️ Study ‘Comparative & Middle East Politics and Society’ at the .tuebingen & in Cairo & learn from and with leading experts!

💡 The Joint M.A. program includes mandatory classes on political systems and comparative politics, and offers a wide array of electives allowing you to expand your knowledge on regional dynamics and issues such as security, gender or social movements!