Middle East and North Africa Regional Architecture:
Mapping Geopolitical Shifts, Regional Order and Domestic Transformations
A New MENARA Future notes By Robert Springborg. The US presidential elections of 8 November 2016 will see two different visions of America’s future confronting one another. While most of the presidential debates have focussed on domestic issues, including the economy, trade issues and societal polarisation, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has typically [...]
Ifrane, Morocco, Tuesday, October 25, 2016 On the occasion of the restricted MENARA project workshop (WP2: Norms, identities and values and their role in shaping the regional order in the MENA), the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of Al Akhawayn University, partner in the MENARA project, organised a conference under the title of “Impacting [...]
MENARA London workshop on the 20th of October 2016 Key-note by Prof Tony Allan, KCL followed by a panel discussion moderated by Dr Mark Mulligan, KCL Dr Amiera Sawas, Imperial College Dr Eckart Woertz, Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) Dr Emanuela Menichetti, Observatoire Méditerranéen de l'Energie (OME) Dr Marin Keulertz, American University of Beirut [...]
Eduard Soler i Lecha: "We want to grasp whether the countries and societies are likely to move towards a more conflict driven situation or will be able to be more cohesive. If we will witness an always more fragmented region or if some move towards a more are we facing a more fragmented region, [...]
To look at the Middle East region through narrow lenses, such as failure and success, change and continuity, security and chaos prevents us to have a better understanding of other wider and important issues. We need to deconstruct the terminologies that we have been using for a long time, to get a better grasp of what the [...]
"When the revolutions started the focus was on removing the president. The revolutionaries hoped that by removing Mubarak, for instance, change will automatically come. This assumption was not borne out by reality...."
"Looking at the region through sectarianism offers a limited perspective. Sectarianism has of course a place among people but it has now started to be used by regional powers as an instrument in their quest of regional influence and power".
One Region, Many Definitions
“On the surface it looks like alliances we have in the region are very much structured along sectarian lines, especially recently because Saudi Arabia managed to rally many of the Sunni states behind him in its rivalry with Iran”.
"Since 1998 is the most militarised region in the world. This militarisation took off in 2011, with the Arab uprisings and worringly continues to develop..."
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