The Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies Unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies organized a symposium titled “Khaldoun al-Naqeeb: Critical Social Sciences in the Arab and Gulf Context” on Thursday, 13 February 2025. The symposium discussed the intellectual and academic contributions of the late Kuwaiti sociologist Khaldoun al-Naqeeb (d. 2011) and his critical approaches to major social phenomena that are fundamentally linked to the political sphere, such as political tribalism, the authoritarian state, among others. Across three sessions as outlined in the symposium agenda, six participants addressed al-Naqeeb’s contributions on the state, civil society, and international relations, as well as his prints in sociology, anthropology, and history.

The symposium was opened by Alanoud Al-Khalifa, Researcher at the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies Unit, who highlighted the mission undertaken by the unit to conduct periodic reviews of prominent Gulf academics and their contributions – not merely as a form of tribute, but as a means of understanding the intellectual, research, and academic landscape of the region. Thus, the focus on al-Naqeeb is not solely due to his origins in the region; but because of his foundational role in transforming Gulf studies, through which he liberated the field from the dominance of historical narratives that accompanied the emergence of the modern state in the region and positioned it within the framework of social sciences.

The first session titled “al-Naqeeb: State and Civil society”, moderated by Marwan Kabalan, Director of the Political Studies Unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy studies, included two presentations. Ghanim Al-Najjar, Professor of Political Science at Kuwait University, presented a paper titled “The State and Civil Society in Khaldoun al-Naqeeb’s Thought”, examining al-Naqeeb’s focus on establishing the concept of the “state”. Al-Najjar argued that the solution al-Naqeeb envisioned for achieving societal justice was the strengthening of civil society through the promotion of public and political freedoms and entrenchment political participation. The second paper, presented by Harith Hassan, Associate Researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, was titled “Khaldoun al-Naqeeb’s Approach to the Authoritarian State within Arab Authoritarian Studies”, and discussed al-Naqeeb’s contribution to authoritarianism studies in the Arab world, arguing that al-Naqeeb made a fundamental contribution to understanding the interplay between formal and informal mechanisms of control, as well as the role and nature of corporatism in the Arab state during the post-independence period.

The second session, titled “al-Naqeeb: Anthropology and History”, was moderated by Ismail Nashef, Associate Professor of Anthropology on the Sociology and Anthropology program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. Yagoub Al-Kandari presented a paper titled “Khaldoun al-Naqeeb: An Anthropological Reading”, detailing the anthropological educational background that profoundly influenced al-Naqeeb’s diverse writings, which leaned on a deep understanding of local and Arab cultures. This enabled him to offer a socio-cultural perspective while discussing topics such as the tribe, tribal solidarity, and sociocultural history, as well as interpretations of social stratification, education and culture, the culture of authoritarian regimes, and attitudes toward the West. Abdulrahman Alebrahim, Researcher for the Gulf and Arabian Studies Unit, presented a paper titled “Khaldoun al-Naqeeb as a Historian”, asserting that al-Naqeeb rewrote the history of the region more objectively than many Gulf historians of his time, presenting critical readings of the role of tribe, religion, and economy in shaping Gulf societies. al-Naqeeb employed history methodically, while also relying on historical sources to bridge different disciplines within the field of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula studies.

The third session, titled “On al-Naqeeb’s Methodology”, and moderated by Amal Ghazal, Professor of History and Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, included two interventions. Kristin Diwan, Senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute, began with a paper titled “Tribes and Citizenship: A Critical Reflection Based on Khaldoun al-Naqeeb’s Writing”, which was inspired by al-Naqeeb’s methodology of excavating history to gain insights to apply to contemporary issues. al-Naqeeb was particularly concerned with the tribe as a foundational social and economic actor, and with tribal forces as a determinative of the political struggle between the ruling elite and the urban opposition forces. Azzeddine Alfaraa, high school philosophy teacher in Morocco, presented a paper titled “Constructivism as a Theory and a Methodology: Khaldoun al-Naqeeb and the Palestine Question”, arguing that al-Naqeeb helped establish constructivism in his critical interpretations of the dialectics of society and the state in the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula. al-Naqeeb employed constructivism as a rebuttal to positivism, whose proponents overlook hidden power dynamics and authoritarian policies under the pretext of "commitment" to neutrality and objectivity, as the tragedy of Gaza starkly illustrates.

The symposium was concluded with closing remarks by the Head of the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies Unit, Haider Saeed, who noted that papers presented in the symposium will be compiled in a book, along with additional papers that cover topics the symposium has not addressed, positioning al-Naqeeb’s legacy within the broader Arab sociological heritage, Gulf studies and its development, and related discussions.