ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on contemporary security-related issues. It also focuses on the understanding that the traditional security studies approach, which is geared more towards hard security factors, is too limited to grasp the current security challenges and even more importantly the future ones. The book discusses how the changing and evolving shifts affect regional security as well as playing into contemporary conflicts in the region. It provides an overview of the armed conflict situation in the Middle East. The chapter addresses the challenges of ineffective relationships between Middle Eastern governments and their respective populations. It shows how the Syrian globalized civil war has expanded from an unarmed mass mobilized activity to a globalized armed conflict, which causes the greatest security concerns of contemporary times.
