Constructing Security and Community in the Middle East: A Security Community Approach to the Structure and Agents of the Arab Spring

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to problematize whether a Middle Eastern Security Community has ever gone further than a utopian mirage. Accordingly, it is inferred that a regional security community builds upon, at least, two antecedent conditions. The needed, but not sufficient pre- condition arrives when the peoples of a region re-imagine their security geography beyond its territorialisation among the scattered islands of nation states. Sufficient condition is then the presence of strong regional states with ideological appeal and material resources so as to build the first momentum towards a communal sense of security.

Keywords

Security Community, Arab Spring, Middle East, Israel, Iran.

Citation

Dilek, Oğuz, “Constructing Security and Community in the Middle East: A Security Community Approach to the Structure and Agents of the Arab Spring”, Uluslararası İlişkiler, Volume 11, No. 42 (Summer 2014), p. 51-74.

Affiliations

• Oğuz DİLEK, Assist. Prof. Dr., Department of Political Science, Zirve University