ABSTRACT
While the euphoric predictions of a ‘new world order’ and the ‘end of history’ have been buried in the alleys of Sarajevo and the killing fields of Rwanda, the end of the Cold War still constitutes the primary prism through which world affairs in general, and Middle Eastern events in particular, are observed. Stemming from the premise that ‘international rather than regional powers wielded most of the power and did most of the manipulation most of the time’,2 thissystemdominant approach has reduced the indigenous actors to meaningless entities who, at best, exercise a limited control over their own fate and, at worst, are malleable objects in the hands of omnipotent superpowers.
