ABSTRACT
The dynamics unleashed by the Arab uprisings in 2011 form the political backdrop to developments in the field of energy in the Middle East and North Africa. While rulers in the Middle East and North Africa struggled to control their populations, some states' increasing inability to provide order and services in combination with severe repression ultimately strengthened numerous sub-state actors. This chapter argues that the weakening of states and state failure is the key dynamic around which the main social and political trends and patterns of cooperation – and potentially more lasting orders in the region – crystallize. The players that have profited most in fragile and failed states like Tunisia, Egypt, and Iraq are militant groups, including Sunni jihadists connected to al-Qaeda and Islamic State, Shiite militias linked to Iran, and other militant groups fighting in the region's proliferating conflicts.
