Region and Region Building in the Middle East Problems and Prospects

The paradox of the Middle East has been captured by its description as ‘a region without regionalism’ (Aarts, 1999). Despite the intensification of regionalism across the globe over the past two decades, the Middle East has been largely absent from that trend. From a comparative perspective, it has the lowest relative degree of regional integration in the contemporary world (Kuhnhardt 2004:4). Apart from the ongoing conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours, which makes any all-embracing regional project meaningless, the Arab countries have not created any long-term regional unity among themselves. The Arab League is one of the oldest regional organisations in the world, yet the Middle East has remained a region of conflict and instability and it has failed to create viable regional structures.