Regional Security Complex Theory and the Middle East and North Africa

Erdağ, Ramazan

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-58772-5_2

Ramazan Erdağ²

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Abstract

Chapter 2, the theoretical framework, examines the regional security complex theory. This chapter generally focuses on Barry Buzan’s theoretical logic. The chapter discusses the regional approach to security studies, especially after the end of the Cold War. Then it puts forward the paradigms of regional security complex theory. It details the composition of regional security complex theory and then moves on to analyze the Middle East Security Complex at the macro level and the Maghreb sub-complex at the micro level. By focusing on the composition of the Middle East security complex, this chapter examines social, political and economic patterns of the MESC and its three sub-complexes: The Gulf, Levant and Maghreb. This chapter also draws attention to the relationship among these sub-complexes in the context of state structures, enmity and amity relations, foreign policy approaches to regional conflicts. This chapter also pays a special attention the Maghreb sub-complex as it includes Libya, by analyzing historical background of disputes, state behavior and the power structure.

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Notes

1.
Buzan, “Regional Security as a Policy Objective: The Case of South and Southwest Asia”, chapter 10.
2.
Barry Buzan, People, States and Fear: An Agenda for International Security Studies in the post-Cold War Era, 2nd Edition, Colorado, Lynee Rienner Publishers, 1991, chapter 5, pp.186–229.
3.
Ibid, p.186.
4.
Barry Buzan, Ole Wæver, and Jaap deWilde, Security: A New Framework for Analysis, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998.
5.
Buzan, People, States and Fear, p.188.
6.
Buzan et al., Security: A New Framework for Analysis, p.12; An another definition of regional complex see also Buzan, People, States and Fear, p.190.
7.
Buzan, People, States and Fear, p.209.
8.
Ibid, Buzan and Wæver, Regions and Powers, p.53, Buzan, People, States and Fear, p.211.
9.
Buzan, People, States and Fear, pp.211–212.
10.
Ibid, pp.212–215.
11.
Buzan and Wæver, Regions and Powers, p.53.
12.
Ibid; Buzan, People, States and Fear, p.216; Buzan et al., Security: A New Framework for Analysis, p.13.
13.
Buzan, People, States and Fear, p.216; Buzan et al., Security: A New Framework for Analysis, p.13.
14.
Buzan and Wæver, Regions and Powers, p.53.
15.
Buzan, People, States and Fear, p.217; Buzan et al., Security: A New Framework for Analysis, p.13.
16.
Buzan and Wæver, Regions and Powers, p.53.
17.
Buzan, People, States and Fear, p.217.
18.
Buzan and Wæver, Regions and Powers, p.53; Buzan, People, States and Fear, p.219; Buzan et al., Security: A New Framework for Analysis, pp.13–14.
19.
Buzan, People, States and Fear, p.220.
20.
Buzan and Wæver, Regions and Powers, p.61.
21.
Buzan, People, States and Fear, pp.220–221.
22.
Abdel Monem Said Aly Abdel Alal, “The Super Powers and Regional Security in theMiddle East”, Mohammed Ayoob (ed.), Regional Security in the Third World: Case Studies from Southeast Asia and the Middle East, London, Croom Helm, 1986, pp.196–197.
23.
For diverse territorial boundary definitions of the Middle East, see Bernard Lewis, The Middle East: A Brief History Of The Last 2,000 Years, New York, Scribner, 1995; G. H. Blake, “International Boundaries and Territorial Stability in the Middle East: An Assessment”, GeoJournal, Vol. 28, No. 3, 1992, pp.365–373; Leonard Binder, “The Middle East as a Subordinate International System”, World Politics, Vol. 10, No. 3, 1958, pp.408–429; Michael Brecher, “The Middle East Subordinate System and Its Impact on Israel’s Foreign Policy”, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 2, 1969, pp.117–139.
24.
Kenn Booth and Nicholas J. Wheeler, The Security Dilemma: Fear, Cooperation and Trust in World Politics, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, p.292.
25.
Bezen Balamir Coşkun, “Regionalism and Securitization: The Case of Middle East”,Harders-Legrenzi (Ed.), Beyond Regionalism?, Aldershot, Ashgat, 2008, pp.95–96.
26.
Fred Halliday, “The Middle East and Conceptions of ‘International Society’”, Barry Buzan and Ana Gonzalez-Pelaez (eds.), International Society and the Middle East: English School Theory at the Regional Level, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, p.1.
27.
Benjamin Miller, “Conflict Management in the Middle East: Between the ‘Old’ and the ‘New’”, Paul F. Diehl and Joseph Lepgold (eds.), Regional Conflict Management, Maryland, Rowmna&Littlefiled Publishers, 2003, p.159.
28.
Buzan and Wæver, Regions and Powers, p.187.
29.
Stewart-Ingersoll, Robert and Derrick Frazier (2012), Regional Powers and Security Orders: A Theoretical Framework, London and New York, Routledge. p.58.
30.
Ibid, p.188.
31.
Barnett, “Regional Security after the Gulf War”, p.599.
32.
Joseph Lepgold, “Regionalism in the Post-Cold War Era: Incentives for Conflict Management”, Paul F. Diehl and Joseph Lepgold (eds.), Regional Conflict Management, Maryland, Rowmna&Littlefiled Publishers, p.9.
33.
Benjamin Miller, “The International System and Regional Balance in the Middle East”, T.V. Paul, James, J. Wirtz, and Michel Fortmann (eds.), Balance of Power, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 2004, p.239.
34.
Ayoob, The Third World Security Predicament: State Making, Regional Conflict, and the International System, p.189.
35.
Buzan and Wæver, Regions and Powers, p.188.
36.
Said Aly Abdel Alal, “The Super Powers and Regional Security in the Middle East”, p.208.
37.
Zachary Lockman, Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism, Second Edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2010, p.122.
38.
James L. Gelvin, The Arab Uprisings: What Everyone Needs to Know, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press, 2012, p.8–9.
39.
Pınar Bilgin, “Whose Middle East? Geopolitical Inventions and Practices of Security”, International Relations, Vol. 18, No. 1, 2004, p.28.
40.
Buzan and Wæver, Regions and Powers, p.216.
41.
James A. Russell (ed.), Critical Issues Facing the Middle East Security, Politics, andEconomics, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, p.4.
42.
Buzan and Wæver, Regions and Powers, p.190.
43.
Maoz, “Domestic Politics of Regional Security: Theoretical Perspectives and Middle East Patterns”, p.35.
44.
Ibid, pp.213–215.

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Department of International Relations, Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Eskişehir, Turkey
Ramazan Erdağ

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Erdağ, R. (2017). Regional Security Complex Theory and the Middle East and North Africa. In: Libya in the Arab Spring. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58772-5_2

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58772-5_2
Published: 28 March 2017
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58934-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58772-5
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