The Political Economy of Regional Integration in the Middle East

Abstract

Regional integration is very much a political issue as well as an economic one, and the case of the Middle East is no exception. An integration ‘equilibrium’ is the outcome of the ‘demand for integration’, i.e., the decision of single countries to apply for membership in integration agreements and to undergo the necessary adjustments for that request to be fulfilled, and the result of the ‘supply of integration’, i.e., the willingness of integration agreements to accept new members. Demand and supply of integration influence each other and this is no exception in the case of the Middle East. Here the incentives to increase the demand for integration are very much the consequence of the policies implemented by industrial countries and international institutions to support the process of opening up and integration after peace in the Middle East.