Rate My Professor Benjamin MacQueen

Benjamin MacQueen is Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University. His research focuses on the conditions of political transition in the Middle East and North Africa, with particular emphasis on the impacts of external parties, constitutional formation, and electoral law reform on local political participation. He is the Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council funded Discovery Project (DP130100933) titled ‘Elections and Enhancing Political Participation in Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq,’ which ran from 2013 to 2016. Associate Professor MacQueen is currently working on a project examining the impacts of mass refugee influxes related to the Syrian conflict, focusing on the political, social, economic, legal, and environmental ramifications in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq. His research area keywords include conflict and dispute resolution, democratisation, electoral systems, Middle East politics, and US foreign and defence policy. This work aligns with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals such as Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, Gender Equality, and Decent Work and Economic Growth.

Previously, Associate Professor MacQueen served as an Australian Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Melbourne, where he examined US democracy promotion policy in the Middle East and North Africa as part of an Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP0770266). His major publications include the book An Introduction to Middle East Politics (second edition, SAGE Publications, 2018), Political Culture and Conflict Resolution in the Arab World: Lebanon and Algeria (2009), and Islam and Human Rights in Practice: Perspectives Across the Ummah (co-edited with Shahram Akbarzadeh, 2008). Key articles encompass 'Democratization, elections and the ‘de facto state dilemma’: Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government' (2015), 'Lebanon’s Electoral System: Is Reform Possible?' (Middle East Policy, 2016), 'The Saudi State as an Identity Racketeer' (Middle East Critique, 2017), 'Lebanon’s Parliament System as a Form of Institutionalized Hybridity' (Middle East Law and Governance, 2021), and 'Hezbollah: between nationalism and Islamism' (Routledge Handbook of Political Islam, 2021). He has also co-authored works on refugees and political stability in Lebanon (2014) and organized events such as the Australian Political Science Association Conference in 2017.