Prospects for New Regional Powers in the Middle East

Abstract

The Middle East is often perceived as being an exceptional region. This exceptionality is not least due to its extraordinary global strategic importance. No other region in the world harbors as much of the single-most important natural resource of modern times—liquid hydrocarbons—as the Middle East does, no other region is situated on the borderlines of three different continents (Africa, Asia, and Europe), and no other region is the cradle of all Abrahamic religions. Therefore, during most of the twentieth century and in particular during the Cold War era, no international great power—and least of all superpower—was able to afford a genuine competitor arising in this exceptional region. What they did instead was to install and/or to support regional partner countries, who were furthermore regularly played off against each other.