ABSTRACT
Because of its geographical location, huge oil reserves, and strategic importance to the main players in international politics, the Middle East has been regarded as pivotal and unstable for the last 50 years. At the heart of the region’s poignancy is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has dominated domestic, regional, and world politics for more than five decades. The region has also hosted three wars not involving Israel (Iraq-Iran 1980-1988, Iraq-Kuwait 1991, and Iraq 2003). The region is, moreover, surrounded by other long-term conflict zones of our cotemporary world such as Sudan, Afghanistan and the Caucasus. In this chapter we will provide empirical analysis for the economic causes of conflicts for ten Middle Eastern countries and three regional countries: the Arab countries are Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia. The three non-Arab countries are Iran, Israel and Turkey. The choice of countries is predicated upon the availability of relevant data.
