Emerging Security Threats in the Middle East

The Impact of Climate Change and Globalization

By (author) Ashok Swain, Anders Jägerskog

Publication date:

21 April 2016

Length of book:

208 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Dimensions:

238x159mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781442247635

Increasingly the Middle East and its growing population face a highly complex and fragile security system. The rich deposits of natural resources, such as oil and gas, suffer from a strained renewable resource base that includes water and arable land. This leads to water scarcity, desertification, and land degradation. Increasing population, industrialization, and urbanization put more and more demand on the food supply. Energy insecurity may not be generally associated with the Middle East, but the countries in the eastern Mediterranean part have been traditionally vulnerable to it as their fossil fuel endowments have been low. Another issue is the large-scale temporary labor migration and the large number of forced migrants, refugees, and internally displaced persons. The book analyzes these emerging security challenges in a comprehensive and systematic manner. It draws national and regional security issues into both the global security and human security perspectives.

Chapter 1: Introduction: Middle East and Its New Sources of Insecurity
Understanding Security in the Middle East
Study of Security in the Middle East
The Middle East Region
International Actors and Regional Security in the Middle East
The Rise and Fall of the ‘Arab Spring’ and the Rise of the ISIS
Future Security Threats: Emerging Scenarios

Chapter 2: Achieving Food Security: A Critical Challenge
Increasing Food demand in the Region
Import and Export of Water from the Region
Land Investments as a Strategy to Address Food Security
Climate Change, Water Availability and Food Production
Concluding Thoughts

Chapter 3: Water Scarcity: Threat to Peace and Stability
Water Scarcity and Water Governance in the Middle East
Supply versus Demand Side Solutions
High Degree of Shared Water Resources
New Trends in the Region – The Use of Water as a Weapon
Connecting to Security Architecture

Chapter 4. Energy Security and its Changing Dynamics in the Middle East
Exporters of Crude Oil and Natural Gas
Importers of Crude Oil and Natural Gas
New Challenges and New Discoveries
Moving out of Oil and Gas Trap
Relying on Renewables
Evaluating Region’s Energy Security Scenario

Chapter 5: Managing Large Population Migration
Importance of Remittances and Challenges of Foreign Workers
The Middle East: The Region of and for Refugees
Migrants in the Middle East: More as Peace Wreckers than Peace Makers

Chapter 6: Conclusion – In Search of Sustainable Regional Security
Four Fault Lines in Regional Security Structure
Identifying Immediate Security Risks
Region to Regain the Initiative

This comprehensive analysis of the issues that destabilize the national and international politics of the Middle East. It is based on long and skilled observation of the problems of accessing secure water, energy and food supplies in the region. The authors bring the analysis right up to date by discussing the violent first and second decades of the twenty-first century. By deploying comprehensive securitization frame they effectively assist the reader to understand the variable intensity of regional conflict. They also link these dynamics with what has become known as the water, energy and food nexus.