The international politics of the Middle East

Provides a comprehensive analysis of Middle East international politics in the light of IR theory. It assesses the international penetration of the region, including the historic formation of the states system; the region's distinctive dialectic between sovereign statehood and trans-state identities, Arabism and Islam; the consequences of state formation for states foreign policy behaviour; the foreign policy forces in MENA states; the regional struggle for power, including recurring wars; the impact of US hegemony and intervention and of the Arab Uprising. The final chapters discusses the contribution of rival IR theories to understanding the Middle East and the implications of the Middle East region for IR theory.