SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) consists of the predominately Islamic cultures of the Gulf Arab countries, the Levant, the countries of North Africa, plus Iran and the more industrialized country of Israel.1 MENA assumes both political and economic significance. Politically, it is arguably the epicentre of world crisis, chronically war-prone and the site of the world’s most protracted conflicts (Hinnebusch, 2003, p. 1); economically, it owns the bulk of the world’s oil reserves and as such serves as the petrol tank of the world economy, driving in particular the US economic engine. The region benefited immensely from the sharp increase in oil prices in the 1970s. The resulting wealth financed an explosion of investment and growth in the oil-exporting countries. This investment, in turn, spilled over into other non-oil countries in the region via worker remittances, trade and capital flows (IMF, 2003), such that Yemen is now the only remaining low-income country. However, the wealth derived from the boom in oil export revenues failed to bring peace, political stability and sustained economic growth to the region.