ABSTRACT
The spread of information technology (IT) in the Middle East region1 has been too slow in evolving, and so has theory. Much of what has been written in recent years has focused on case studies and has been overly descriptive, highly prescriptive, and with little or no emphasis on theory. Specifically, most scholarly preoccupations have examined Internet infiltration across the region while measuring the degree of its impact on state-society relations and assessing the merits of government policies as they pertain to democratic change, security and the survival of regimes in the Middle East. This has resulted in an almost total neglect of theory building as well as the absence of well-integrated middle range theories.
